By Richard Laermer
A consultation with me was recently was auctioned for charity --
don't ask. My winner, Pauline from Tampa, runs a strangely exciting
business of duplicating X-rays for court cases, and she is
considered a veteran in her field. As I compiled data about her, I
started to realize that she had a great back story: how her
competition went after her; the difficulty of being a category
leader in the Florida swamps; and what a middle-aged woman with
children was doing creatively to make her business thrive in tough
times.
When I started to work with Pauline, I also realized that PR of
late really has become about fame, but in a non-superficial way.
These days, corporate leaders want to be promoted more as
individuals than as part of the group. It's a powerful positioning,
and I started to wonder who really deserves it.
No matter the career, hobby or interest, if someone wants to
move up in this world, that someone needs to prove that he or she
is successful, the best -- period. I tell RLM's hard-driving
clients that diligent work and dedication can get you water-cooler
recognition, but that's hardly enough. To become a player, you have
to achieve recognition, respect and even notoriety. That's a fame I
hear clients talking about with increasing regularity.
But let's be clear: This is not the cult of personality over
which we grimaced during the last decade - it's what I call "the
good fame." If your client is a consultant or a service provider,
that client needs everyone in the audience to know he or she is
among the top practitioners in a particular field and the one
anyone in media-distance considers first. If this mucky-muck merely
is navigating the currents of life, creating a satisfying career,
this mucky-muck, too, will need fame and recognition to bring
bigger opportunities.
Can you do this for everyone? Uh, no, but when someone asks RLM
for a personal business campaign (no dramatic celebrities, thank
you), we ask a series of tough questions:
- Do you already have some kind of aura in your field?
- If we craft an image with public appeal, will this serve your
objectives? - Can you identify the right influencers to whom we can go in
order for them to tell the world how great you are? - Have you attempted to present yourself to the media, and has it
failed? - Can we work our backsides off to get you on Page 1 or will you
suddenly be unavailable? - Do you network or are you -- as Fred "Father of Donald" Trump
once said - one of those executives who does everything from the
office? - Do you deserve more than 14-and-a-half minutes?
- And how will you convert your fame into personal, career and
money results?
If a prospective fame-seeker answers each of these questions
affirmatively, then it's off to the races we go.
By "good fame," I am not talking Hiltonesque notoriety; I mean
reaching a place where people are aware of someone because the PR
made sure of it.
For instance, a client who mutters how terrific it is that
Pamela Anderson is making a comeback doesn't get it. Stars like her
achieve big notoriety easily but they have absolutely no control
over the nature of public image.
The added value of PR for solid folks is that we can create,
maintain and manage the public image of something substantial -
especially in hard-to-reach places like blogs that do little to no
fact-checking. Because most C-level execs are asking us to get
their reputations "set straight" while they seek the next rung, we
as PR practitioners had better choose subjects for the job of image
reassessment carefully.
No matter what's said aloud, you know you do your best work for
those people you find most interesting. PR's non-clichéd
sweet spot is the moment when a person toiling in news knows a
client's name and proclivities; an interview is natural.
And because everyone wants to be known for what they do, pros in
the fame game - Lizzie notwithstanding - really ought to use our
"powers" to help the good (read: deserving) ones get there.
So here's hoping the positioning of PR as a conduit for fame
works for you. If not, give me a call and I'll work on your
reinvention campaign.
Contact: Richard Laermer is the author of best-selling
"Full Frontal PR" and CEO of RLM PR (New York City and Los
Angeles). He can be reached at 310.207.9200, X 225; [email protected].