Posts Tagged ‘branding’

Getting a Grip on the Ghost Blogger

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Channeling the CEO

Posted by Tom Gable

Your favorite CEO wants to get social and start blogging, but: a) doesn’t want to commit much time; b) isn’t sure why but his peers are doing it; c) isn’t clear on what he wants to say; and, d) wants you or your firm to be ghost blogger.

How to approach this challenge strategically and diplomatically? Here are six steps to get started.

Six Steps to Ghost Blogging Glory

  1. Brainstorm with the CEO on what he or she hopes to accomplish (boost image, gain guru status, position the organization versus the competition, promote an industry cause, support company marketing, connect with investors, counter negative blogs, etc.)
  2. What is the CEO’s voice, the personality? How much to show or not show?
  3. Can the blog be differentiated to support organizational image and reputation
  4. What about frequency? Will there be a steady flow of facts, insights and other content to support a daily, weekly or biweekly blog? Or will it be tied to events, breaking news, industry trends and commentary? Or all of the above?
  5. How to measure success?
  6. And the final tough question (or maybe the first): so what and who cares?

Venture forth if it appears anyone beyond family and friends might care, if the work will add value to the conversations and if the collective impressions will contribute to building the image of the organization. If not, cease and desist and recommend other approaches (authoring white papers, speaking at conferences, etc.).

For process, ghost blogging can work if you have a plan and adopt protocols and procedures.

For example, to speed development of copy and ensure you keep to your desired frequency, have the busy CEO provide his idea on the perfect headline, directions on copy, bullet points, links or other guidance on what he or she wants to talk about, the target audiences, the important points to be made and impressions to leave. This brain dump can be done via email, voice mail, and one-on-one or group brainstorming sessions with others involved in reaching out to your different audiences.

With directions in hand on topics, the ghost blogger can then draft copy for CEO approval and post only after approved. Should the post generate comments, the ghost blogger shouldn’t assume the persona of the CEO and reply directly. The ghost blogger needs to get the CEO involved in responding as fast as possible within the guidelines established earlier for tone, personality, theme and overall positioning. Then, even ghost blogging can fit neatly into your overall investment in image and reputation as a part of corporate strategy, with consistency across all channels.

(??? Tom, did you approve this? Let me know as soon as possible. Thanks! – KR)

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Hype Free PR, Social Media | No Comments »

Three Questions to Determine if You are Taking the Right Road in Crisis PR

Monday, August 9th, 2010

The Right Turn?

Posted by Tom Gable

When unexpected events or outside forces suddenly impact your operation, rapid, reasoned response is essential to protecting the brand and organizational image for the long term. You gather facts, analyze the impacts on all constituents and then determine your strategic management and crisis communications plans going forward. But options exist. You have reached a critical fork in the road to the path toward continued trust and credibility or possibly something less. How do you decide which road to take?

At Gable PR, we’ve used a quick litmus test over the years in handling a variety of crises (hostile take overs, threats to public safety, food-borne illnesses, religious scandals, etc.) – three questions to focus on the essentials:

1. Is the strategic plan true to the brand or organizational values and what you stand for?

2. Will it solidify your reputation for the long term, despite short-term issues?

If the answer is no, maybe not, or hedged in any way, ask:

3. How will this be played in the media and by your competitors?

The recent Apple “antennagate” and BP oil spill crisis provide good case histories where the organizations may have let ego, arrogance and perceived invincibility get in the way of critical thinking about strategy. An NBC San Diego reporter got to the point when he asked me in an interview about crisis as a metaphor for company values.

“How you operate in a crisis is probably a better indicator of the quality of a corporation than (how you operate) during good times,” I replied.

A wide range of business, technical and PR media noted that Steve Jobs puts a crack in the rarely sullied brand image of Apple when he admitted that in the smart phone world, “phones aren’t perfect.” And that consumers were guilty of the lost signals because, well, we held the phone to make a call.

Jobs said the issue was all so “blown so out of proportion,” then proceeded to add his own momentum to the blow out.

He dragged Motorola, Samsung and Droid into the fray by showing they too could have problems. Using the famous Kindergarten Defense, Jobs basically said that since everyone else is doing it, what’s the big deal?

Motorola had a great time with it, running ads that promoted a phone with “no jacket required.” As quoted from a recent Fortune brainstorming panel, Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha was asked how he felt about Apple posting video showing its own “death grip” testing of Motorola’s new Droid X Smartphone, and if he thought it was a fair business practice. Jha answered: “You know, I heard (probably apocryphal) that the most popular voice message on iPhone4 was, ‘Sorry I can’t answer your call, because I am holding my phone!’ I don’t think this is an issue with Droid X,” reported Fortune writer Seth Weintraub.

The Motorola ad noted: “At Motorola, we believe a customer shouldn’t have to dress up their phone for it to work properly.”

The press conference videos disappeared from Apple’s site shortly after the Hitler meme and other parodies blanketed the Internet. A College Humor video (NSFW) offered one of the cruder send ups of the Apple iPhone press conference and Steve Jobs attitude.

The Register (UK) nailed it:

“…Apple thrives by saying that its products are simply better than everyone else’s, and anyone who can’t see that is clearly not cool enough. Running down the competition is very uncool, and it’s not the Apple way of doing things.”

Lesson learned: which fork did he take? Did ego override sound crisis PR strategy? A review of comments by assorted experts found general agreement that Apple should have simply owned up to the problem and offered the bumper fix immediately via a press release rather than an odd video press conference, with follow up interviews. The approach would have protected the integrity of the brand and reduced risk to the CEO, with no follow up parodies and “antennagate ads.”

In contract, the concept of owning up and moving on was demonstrated clearly by Google when it announced it was discontinuing Wave. It offered a straightforward assessment and showed the integrity of a company and a culture dedicated to taking changes and not being afraid to fail. For an attitude toward failure, my favorite quote is from Thomas Edison, who said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Next: similar and obvious lessons from BP.

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Crisis PR, Horizon Management, Hype Free PR | No Comments »

Nine Easy Ways to Fail in Building Brands, Reputations

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Non-Digital Branding

Posted by Tom Gable

You and your internal teams and outside consultants have worked for months to develop a plan to incorporate image as a part of corporate strategy for the long-term benefit of reputation and organizational success (something BP is probably working on as we speak so they are ready to launch the “new BP” once the old BP solves the oil crisis).

As covered before, you start with basic questions as the creative foundation for building your PR and reputation management plan:

  • How do you want to be known in two to three years?
  • What do you stand for – the core values?
  • Does the organization have a culture, a personality?
  • Can you establish a solid foundation from your values and then demonstrate proof of principle over time (walk the talk)?
  • Can you be disciplined enough to carry out a strategic program of reputation management for reaching multiple constituencies?
  • Is your strategic plan, financing, mindset, commitment and other resources up to the task?
  • Can you clearly differentiate against the competition for the company, the people, the technology, the culture and the vision for the future?

Once you’ve brainstormed, strategized, debated, drafted and then fine-tuned the plan, you are ready to start the evolution of the image to rise above the competition, to the benefit of faster growth, better margins, improved morale, overall community reputation and goodwill on the downside should something negative occur (we also kid during seminars and talks that this also leads to whiter teeth, better posture and improved digestion).

The digestive processes, however, can suffer if the organization doesn’t deal well with nine gnawing issues that can derail the best plan. These elements of failure are compiled from case histories we’ve experienced at Gable PR, research into bad branding experiences by others and references from the classic literature in the field: Reputation and Fame and Fortune by Charles Fombrun; Competitive Advantage and other books by Michael Porter; CEO Capital, by Leslie Gaines-Ross; Good to Great, by Jim Collins; and Leading Change, by John Kotter; among others. The list can undoubtedly be expanded, but these transgressions can serve as a good starting point:

  1. Lack of total CEO commitment, vision
  2. Lack of an organization-wide commitment; turf wars; individual agendas
  3. Ambiguous or unclear core values and theories
  4. Weak positioning, lack of differentiation
  5. Insufficient or contradictory proof of principle over time; unsubstantiated hype
  6. Talking to yourself instead of the market (jargon, argot; your features inside of benefits to the outside audiences)
  7. Making reactionary changes to short-term market or other conditions and sending confusing signals
  8. Being research averse; failure to measure progress or lack of same against your goals, make course corrections, adjust tactics and strategies
  9. In total, not delivering on the promise of the brand, positioning

Each of the branding questions up front and the nine ways to fail are big ideas and what we call thought-starters – leaping off points for spirited debate, more research, creativity, strategic adjustments and challenges to ever idea, assumption and result. Can you overcome hurdles, change the flow of the game and move toward brand-building victory?

The ongoing process can not only be intellectually stimulating to all involved but cause for future and continuing celebration in a team sport where everyone wins.

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Horizon Management, Hype Free PR, In the Beginning, Team Play | No Comments »

The New PR: Building Images and Reputations in 3D

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Your Move!

Posted by Tom Gable

In researching new approaches to reputation management and brand building for the upcoming fifth edition of The PR Client Service Manual, it has become more clear that PR is taking on an increasingly important leadership role in strategic planning and intelligent execution of the most complex communications programs. We are evolving to what I’ll call the three-dimensional chess model, or image-building in 3D.

The PR profession continues to master new tactics and tools that go beyond the flat two-dimensional approaches used in most programs. The concept is to go high, wide and deep in creating images with the substance to break out of the competitive clutter for maximum impact.

Only PR has the capability to strategically and intelligently integrate the many disparate channels of communication and move image in the right direction over the long term. The 3D approach can create extraordinary image momentum and ROI as the game pieces move in an intricate orchestration toward ultimate victory: building reputation as desired.

The importance of adopting a 3D approach has been reinforced by experts at many recent conferences, including the recent Counselors Academy spring meeting. A key message: don’t fall in love with your tools; figure out how to work them strategically for maximum impact.

Envision all your target audiences and their sources of information. What channels do you need to use to ensure they get the right information in timely, strategic fashion to support your program goals? Where do you build your positions of strength and support? As the plans unfold, can you envision five moves ahead, ten and twenty or more?

Analyze the key milestones in your program – the known deliverables, activities, encounters, events, presentations, financial news releases, analyst meetings, government conferences, etc. What exists? Then, look for the holes, the gaps. What exists? More importantly, what doesn’t?

The approach is essential in building new brands, launching new products or technology or positioning and repositioning organizations.

Why does PR lead and not other marketing, management or communications disciplines? Given a fact-based, no-hype approach, it’s where strategy, core values and communications intersect to build a depth of awareness and credibility that paid media can’t deliver.

For a brief case history, Gable PR used the old 2D model several years ago to introduce disruptive technology into a crowded field where all competitors sounded alike: issuing a launch release and holding a press conference at the major trade show of the year. The results weren’t spectacular.

Using the 3D model for a more recent similar challenge, Gable PR established an 18-month plan to manage the flow of information, build relationships and connect to multiple audiences and through different channels. The client had a brilliant scientific advisory board. To begin laying the foundation and also getting critical feedback, SAB members began vetting the technology with some of their respected peers in business, technology and academia.

With the initial relationships built understanding in place, the agency began educating the media – without asking for coverage – six months before launch, preparing for when the client would blast out of the stealth mode with power and momentum for long-term branding. Select media were pointed to academics for background. Analysts were pointed to academics and media for validation. The agency pitched exclusives to media in different categories (dailies, financial media, trades, blogs, etc.). The bottom line: the client exploded onto the scene with major coverage online and in dailies, trades and financial media the first day of the biggest industry conference of the year. The instant buzz at multiple levels and through highly credible channels drove interest from potential investors and strategic partners.

The momentum built from there with a series of academic papers, presentations, speeches and presentations at financial conferences. The client was acquired within two years – ahead of its exit strategy.

NEXT – Nine ways to botch positioning and branding with PR

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The Future of PR and Social Media – Strategic, Integrated, Coordinated, Human

Monday, May 24th, 2010

No Magic Beans

Posted by Tom Gable

In listening to several gurus of social media at the Counselors Academy Spring Conference May 21 through 23 in Ashville, NC, a key theme emerged: there are no magic beans from social media to plant and instantly grow attention, engagement and business success for any organization. New technologies and applications will continue to emerge almost daily. The challenge still becomes to be smart in setting standards, goals and objectives, then integrating all the tools for precise execution over the long term.

The stage was set with the May 21 keynote by Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorks. A few key points lifted from his talk included:

  • Adopt the new KISS – keep it simple and share.
  • The is new measurement on the way: resonance. How long a message stays alive – the long tail.
  • Social media is the slot machine for attention. Become like a journalist. Be relevant.
  • What you share is important. There are no official audiences anymore.
  • Be creative. It increases your influence.
  • Social media is all about sociology and psychology. Social media is an emotional experience.
  • Measure. Work backward from what you are trying to make happen.
  • Integrate the tools into your strategic plan. There is no single tool or tactic.
  • Bottom line: engage.

A breakfast panel the next day delved into “Listening and Brand Monitoring in the Social Space.” Moderator was Carrie Kandes, vice president Marcus Thomas. The panelists: Eric Israel, Attensity; Ken Miner, Spiral 16; and Amber Naslund, director of community, Radian6 Technologies

Each stressed the importance of listening before doing. This included monitoring the depth and breadth of the conversations. Amber proposed that social media is the new phone. She said technology will continue to change so told counselors to avoid having obsessions with the “tool thing.” How do the tools fit?

Business is becoming more like politics. Every consumer has a voice to be considered. Companies need to position themselves to be able to react internally and externally to conflicting voices and outside complaints.

Ken said that like any other business tool, social media monitoring needs to be part of a process. Set standards. Define goals and objectives before you begin, he urged.

Once you start monitoring, how to use the data? Being strategic is not just an automated process with algorithms. Smart analysis and interpretation requires human brain power. Look at things in context and connect the dots in your process of brand monitoring, tracking trends and looking for blue water opportunities.

But attention not enough. What is needed to compel people to do something?

The panelists warned that brand monitoring can be a time sink. Decide what you want to achieve and how much time to invest before you launch a full scale listening program. Be strategic – consistent advice from the days Edward Bernays first launched integrated plans to change reputations and drive new behaviors.

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Posted in Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Horizon Management, In the Beginning, Leverage, Social Media | 4 Comments »

New Research Shows Positive Reputations Enhance Corporate Results

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Head of the Class

Posted by Tom Gable

The Reputation Institute just released its annual Reputation Pulse, which measures the corporate reputations of the largest U.S. companies based on consumers’ trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling about a company while also gauging perceptions across seven rational dimensions of reputation.

The survey named Johnson & Johnson as the most reputable U.S. company first for the second consecutive year, followed by Kraft Foods, Kellogg, The Walt Disney Company, PepsiCo, Sara Lee, Google, Microsoft, UPS and Dean Foods. AIG finished 150th out of the 150 companies included in the survey. (more…)

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Facebook Follies: Making Sure Social Media Fits Within Your PR Strategy

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Rolling out new tools

Posted by Laura Woods

The public relations profession is at a wonderful and challenging crossroads in its evolution. No longer can the traditional approach of solely using press releases be effective in building a client’s reputation and media presence. Now PR professionals have to be comfortable integrating all aspects of social media — blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other tools – into their strategic arsenal. Beyond proactive approaches, PR pros need to be diligent in setting high standards for all communications and monitoring for questionable or negative impacts. (more…)

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Hype Free PR, Social Media | 2 Comments »

The PR Hurt Locker: Ten Land Mines to Negotiate in a Crisis (six through ten)

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Bye Bye Reputation

Posted by Tom Gable

The previous post covered the first five of ten land mines to avoid in a crisis: guilt, no plan, lack of culture and core values, big hat (no cattle) and CEO ego. The following delve more into hazards to negotiate during implementation.

6. Attorneyitis – This land mine occurs when otherwise good messages and communications that the CEO and crisis team have approved get handed off for legal review and come back bruised, bloated and infected with the deadly disclaimer virus. Short, compelling copy turns fuzzy around the edges. Statements of fact become weighted down with convoluted clauses and abundancies of redundancies (In one set of Frequently Asked Questions that Gable PR crafted to explain a law suit our client filed against a magazine for libel and slander, a sharp 19-word sentence nailing the editor for deceit was turned into 100 words of circumlocution without a verb). The test: read a sentence out loud and if everyone’s eyes glaze over like you were reading from C-Span transcripts or they laugh so hard they herniated, start over. (more…)

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Ten Land Mines to Avoid in Your Next Crisis (one through five)

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Tred Lightly!

Posted by Tom Gable

Crises come in all forms and sizes, from global product recalls to local political scandal, the nuisance law suit about spilled hot coffee at a fast food restaurant, corporate malfeasance, alleged embezzlement in a not-for-profit, sexual harassment issues, hazardous waste spills, to manufacturing, transportation or other accidents that take human lives.

Skilled public relations professionals have been dealing with these issues and more for decades. They have honed best practices and tempered them under fire, increasing the odds of success in any crisis program. Good advice and case histories abound. But advances in how the world communicates instantly and in living color (photos Tweeted from cell phones, drive-by videos of transgressions, amateur news casts, rumors in the blogosphere, a consumer issue going viral via Twitter, etc.) have added new complexities to the art and science of crisis communications. The race is increasingly to the swift and, as detailed later, the trustworthy. (more…)

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Crisis PR: Three Core Principles and Planning Checklist to Guide Your Actions

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Reputation Skewered

Posted by Tom Gable

Most major organizations create crisis plans in advance of need, update them regularly, have a strategic array of tools and tactics ready to go (hidden Web sites, video, audio, fact sheets, media kits) and even rehearse their responses. The better job an organization does before a crisis strikes – or at the beginning to quickly manage a crisis based on sound principles should a plan not be in place – the better the result. These fundamentals came to mind in tracking the Toyota recall, the changing communications strategies and lack of responsiveness early in the game.

In creating a crisis plan and carrying it out in any crisis communications situation, three basic principles should guide your actions:

One – Be honest and stick to the facts. Do not speculate, hypothecate or exaggerate. Those impacted by the crisis deserve nothing less – and your reputation may be damaged irreparably if you aren’t truthful and authentic. (more…)

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