MarketingInsideOut.com

The only thing worse than not marketing your goods and services is marketing them and then not following up with interested customers.

Case in point: the house we bought three years ago is wonderful — except for the front yard landscaping. The former owners paved the borders of the yard with river stones that are now are infested with an ugly assortment of noxious weeks. I am not a gardener. In fact, my neighbors have suggested that I’m actually an “apartment dweller” trapped in the body of a homeowner. Weary of their withering glances as they pass my house, I decided to find a competent, affordable landscaping service.  A few days later, I  found a bright blue leaflet in a plastic bag on my driveway. It was from Steve – “Landscape artist. 8 Years Experience. Affordable. No job too small or too big.” My prayers had been answered.  I called Steve that very night. He asked if I could call back and leave a message on his voice mail, since he was on another project. I did, urging him to come by and give me an estimate. A day passed, then two and three. I called Steve again. He apologized, asked where I lived and said he’d be by that Wednesday. No problem, I would be traveling until Friday. I returned, but there was no estimate from Steve. No phone message. And lots more weeds in the front yard. This week, I’ll look for another landscape “artist”.  Steve spent some hard-earned money on the flyers, the bags, and—ironically—the river stone he inserted in the bags to keep them from blowing away on his marketing effort.  Still, the message he ultimately sent me was that he really doesn’t need my business.

How many of us cast our marketing “stones” into potential customers’ paths only to ignore the call that could lead to a sale?

New York Post Headline:  D.C.’S STUPID SCROOGES SLASH NYC TERROR AID AND SPLURGE ON THE STICKS

There we are, minding our own business and preparing for this year’s Men’s College World Series to hit town, when this barrage of Omaha bashing comes out of nowhere.  All of a sudden, Omaha was to blame for the 40 percent cut in anti-terror aid to the Big Apple.  In its coverage of the story, New York Post described Omaha as:“The yawner city of 390,000 – home of the Florence Mill Historic Center, the birthplaces of Gerald Ford and Malcolm X and little else – got a staggering 62 percent increase in federal urban-security grants this year, from $5.1 million to $8.3 million. The increase in counter-terror funds in an area where cows outnumber people by a 4- 1 ratio, while grants for New York are being slashed by a drastic 40 percent, has raised eyebrows among counter-terrorism experts.”

While the tabloids label Omaha as the “sticks” and “cow town,” New Yorkers are going “postal” filling Homeland Security boss Michael Chertoff’s mail box with post cards of their city’s landmarks including the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and other national monuments.  The cards tout the 73 million fans attracted to Shea Stadium and the 133,000 vehicles crossing Brooklyn Bridge every day like crowded ballparks and traffic jams are quality of life indicators.

As a PR tactic, the potential for postcard propaganda has serious limitations based on the geography of the sender.  In Omaha, for example, the postcard rack at the corner Walgreens is filled with images of pigs, giant corncobs, cornfields, cattle and city skylines.  The closest thing to a national monument shows Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium – home of the Omaha Royals and the NCAA Men’s College World Series.  One postcard labeled “Nebraska After Dark” is completely black.  Conclusion:  If Omahans are to successfully defend the city’s credentials as a Potential Terrorist Target, they’ll need a more persuasive strategy than postcards from Nebraska “With Hogs & Kisses.”

In the Chinese Year of the Dog, it’s only fitting that man’s best friend is recognized for enriching the lives of humans over the past 12,000 years by being cute, clever, faithful, loyal, easy-going, self-confident, alert, happy, cheerful, sweet, sensitive, joyous, humorous and intelligent.  These are just a few of the endearing traits assigned to canis familiaris, accounting for their long running popularity in Disney classics like “Old Yeller,” as the action heroes of TV shows like “Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,” and as underachievers in sitcom roles like Buck in “Married With Children.”  Their contributions as pitch pooches in print and broadcast advertising is equally impressive for every conceivable product from fabric deodorizer and baked beans, to Vise-Grip locking pliers (starring Rex the Wonder Dog). 

The appeal of dogs to advertisers is understandable given that more than 43 million American households have at least one dog, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.  According to that group, consumer demand for pet products and services is expanding into almost every corner typically reserved for human consumption including canine prescription drugs, ultrasounds, MRI’s, CAT scans and licensed pet products such as Barbie pet clothing and products.  Overall spending on pet products is expected to exceed $35 billion this year, which is certain to make agencies sit up and beg for a piece of the action. 

Innovative campaigns recognize the value of a strong PR component, such as the one created for Milk-Bone that provides support for canine assistants and to purchase canine officers for police departments across the country.  It even includes a grass roots contest that could land your dog’s photo on the Milk-Bone box.   One of the most successful series of public service announcements ever produced by Bozell featured Actors and Others for Animals on behalf of state veterinary associations in support of spaying and neutering programs.  The Hollywood celebs donated both their time and personal pets to make that campaign a howling success.  And human interest stories such as the “Leash on Life” program for Bozell client YouthConnect (CBRYouthConnect.org) are just the sort of warm and fuzzy features that appeal to local and national news programs and networks like Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and A&E.  As part of an integrated marketing campaign, high profile “puplicity” can have advertisers wagging their tails and help keep agencies out of the doghouse.
 

Can good PR advice avert the demise of a corporation and the filing of federal fraud and conspiracy charges against the company’s top executives?  During his recent testimony, former Enron Corp. Chairman Ken Lay bemoaned his decision back in September 2001 to stick his head in the sand when the Wall Street Journal requested an interview for a series of articles focusing on the company’s bookkeeping practices.  “My policy has always been that it is better to talk to the press than not to,” Lay testified.  Ignoring his own advice, Lay listened to subordinates who felt the damage from not doing the interview would be minimal.  Lay now credits the articles that appeared a few weeks later with destroying confidence in the company, ultimately leading to its bankruptcy filing in December 2001.

While it’s impossible to speculate on the outcome had Ken come clean with WSJ, he would have been well advised to follow the example of Chrysler Corporation Chairman Lee Iacocca in the wake of criminal charges involving odometer tampering in the mid-1980s. The situation led to the indictment of two Chrysler executives for driving cars with their odometers disconnected and then selling them as new.  In some cases, the vehicles had been in minor accidents and repaired, then sold as new.  In a dramatic press conference held in Detroit, Iacocca called the practice of test-driving cars without telling people “dumb.”  And selling damaged vehicles “goes beyond dumb and all the way to stupid,” Iacocca lamented.  “Did we screw up,” Iacocca questioned.  “You bet we did…Simply stated, that’s unforgivable, and we have nobody but ourselves to blame.” 

Iacocca’s mea culpa was textbook crisis communications of “Tell it all.  Tell it fast.  Tell what you’re going to do about it.  Tell when it’s over.”  In addition to giving owners of affected cars new vehicles and extending warranty protection for other vehicle owners, Iacocca emphasized, “Our big concern is for our customers, the people who had enough faith in Chrysler to buy a vehicle from us. These charges and the press reports about them are causing some of those customers to question that faith, and we simply cannot tolerate that.”  Following Chrysler’s public apology, a survey found 67 percent of those contacted believed the company had adequately dealt with the issue.  As a result, neither vehicle sales nor stock prices suffered. 
Given that outcome, there was nothing “dumb” about Chrysler’s response to bad news.  If only the same could be said in the case of Enron and its indicted chairman.

Although Marilyn Monroe’s “candle burned out long ago,” her image lives on through multi-million dollar licensing agreements for everything from posters to my favorite tie featuring one of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn prints.  These agreements exist under state laws that recognize or grant the “right of publicity” to celebrities who are deceased.  The “right of publicity” is used by celebrities and their heirs to prevent their identities from being used for commercial purposes without first obtaining permission and paying a licensee fee for such use. California’s right of publicity statute extends this protection for a period of 50 years after the person’s death, while in New York, publicity rights of dead celebrities are not protected.  And therein lies the basis for a current courtroom drama worthy of the silver screen.  On one side, the wife of Marilyn Monroe’s former acting coach and her business partner CMG Worldwide Inc. argue the actress was a Californian entitling them to her licensing rights.  The other side, representing photographers who hold copyrighted photos of the film star, claims she was a New Yorker which does not recognize publicity rights of deceased celebs.

For decades, living celebrities have relied on right of publicity laws to collect monetary damages, injunctive relief, legal fees and punitive damages from unauthorized use of their “identities.”  Depending on the state, one’s “identity” may include an individual’s name, signature, likeness (including look-alikes), voice (including sound-alikes), and other distinctive indicia of a person’s identity.  Consider the late Johnny Carson who sued and won when a portable toilet manufacturer used “Here’s Johnny” and “The World’s Foremost Commodian” to describe its product. 

Professional singer and songwriter Tom Waits was awarded $2.6 million in damages for a radio commercial that used a “sound-alike” singer who deliberately imitated his voice while performing one of Waits’ songs.  A jury awarded Vanna White $400,000 when a commercial featured the image of a robot with a blonde wig, wearing a red glittered dress and turning letters in what appeared to be a futuristic set of “Wheel of Fortune”.  And last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger claimed an unauthorized “bobblehead” doll showing him in a suit with an assault weapon and bandolier of bullets violated his right of publicity under California law.

Advertisers and agencies are well aware of right to publicity issues and requirements for proper licensing agreements that need to be signed prior to production, regardless if a celebrity is living or deceased.  But should we need reminding, there will always be lots of “publicity” surrounding high profile cases like the ones involving Vanna, The Arnold or long deceased legends such as Marilyn Monroe.

People have been personalizing stamps, credit cards, and gift cards online for some time, so why not design-it-yourself (DIY) commercials?  Whether the viral marketing phenomenon becomes a pandemic is debatable, although you can argue that some of these homemade commercials are infectious in the way they’re attracting attention – both intended and unintended.  Consider the recent online contest for the Chevy Tahoe which generated a reported 2.4 million page views on http://www.chevyapprentice.com/ and led to more than 21,000 submissions, including thousands of faux ads by critics of the SUV. 

While GM screened the ads for offensive content like last year’s tasteless suicide bomber spot that plagued Volkswagon, the company did not play censor, which was well advised from a PR perspective.  Imagine the outbreak of public opinion had the company stonewalled its critics.

Meanwhile, the viral marketing bandwagon continues to roll along as popular brands like AllStar Converse, Microsoft, Toyota, L’oreal Paris and Sony jump on board.  Mastercard offers a Web site where people can create their own versions of the “Priceless” ad campaign.  Mutations of viral marketing are also appearing like the “Subservient Chicken”  who closely resembles Bozell’s former agency mascot “Flippy” (laid to rest after falling victim to bird flu). 

As a participant sport, viral marketing represents a pick up game that’s fun to play without risking the “agony of defeat” experienced by major league teams.  And the buzz created for the brands involved is not something to sneeze at, even though it may cause advertisers an occasional headache.  

Under the slogan “Because there’s always more to the story,” WTWP AM-FM, a joint venture of The Washington Post and Bonneville International Corp went on air Thursday launching not only a radio station, but also a continuous promotional vehicle for The Post. 

According to this story in The Post:

The station’s premise is that print journalists can be lively radio broadcasters.

That premise struck me as a tall order. But they got lucky on Day 1 when just over an hour after they went on air, they were able to immediately report on American journalist Jill Carroll’s release after three long months of capitivity in Iraq. 

But the big question that even The Post itself broached is: 

Can it sustain such immediacy and intimacy daily and evolve into what one of its managers has optimistically described as “NPR on caffeine”?

Newspapers are under enormous pressure because by the time they go to print, most of the news is old news.  We’ve already heard it on the tube or read it online.  So this venture is one way The Post is trying and stem the erosion of its audience/circulation.   

While applauding NASA’s new policy allowing its scientists to talk freely to the news media without a public affairs officer present, part of me wonders “What God hath wrought!”  With NASA scientists free to talk to reporters about their work and express personal interpretations of their research, will the world finally learn the truth about the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, or Area 51 in Nevada?  Will we finally discover that Jimmy Hoffa was abducted by aliens?  And will the X Files be reopened?

Will all this newfound freedom actually result in better communication?  Scientists and engineers are notorious for speaking technical “jargonese” that has little or no semblance to normal speech.  Ask most scientists what time is it and they’ll tell you how to build a watch, after first explaining the concept of quantum theory.  Without a media professional on hand to make sense of all the techno-babble and keep the interview focused, the average reporter may feel like they’ve entered the Twilight Zone?

Media trainers understand the importance of keeping answers simple, which means no technical jargon or “insider” terminology.  Media trainers drill their clients on proper technique when answering questions:  Conclusion first, context second, facts and data third, and background last, if at all.  This technique is especially challenging to scientists and engineers who tend to answer questions chronologically, beginning with the Big Bang and ending with yesterday’s lunch menu.

In its new communications policy, NASA urges its employees to include public affairs officers at media interviews “to attest to the content of the interview, support the interview, and provide post-interview follow-up with the media as necessary”. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin seemed to sum it up best when he advised, “If you’re not a media professional, then going into an interview without a media professional is courting trouble.”

Technically speaking, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.

“That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet,” unless the rose is part of a wrist corsage made from “duct tape.”  It’s almost that time of year again when couples across the country will head to their high school proms “ducted” out in formal wear bearing the Duck Tape label.  Since 2001, nearly 2,000 couples have “promenaded” in attire made from duct tape.

In the world of guerilla PR, duct tape is “the stuff dreams are made of.”  The annual “Stuck at Prom” scholarship contest is just one of many headline grabbing ideas involving novel uses of duct tape.  Every Father’s Day weekend, a lucky dad is crowned “Duct Tape Dad of the Year” during the “Duct Tape Festival” hosted in the “Duct Tape Capital” of the world (Avon, Ohio).  You may want to visit the virtual “Duck Tape Hall of Fame,” or accessorize your wardrobe with items such as wallets, purses, hats, ties and sneakers – all constructed from duct tape.

News accounts have credited duct tape with everything from curing warts to helping save the astronauts in Apollo 13.  The sticky stuff made front page news in 2003 when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged Americans to prepare for a chemical or biological attack by stocking up on duct tape (a feat indeed worthy of The Professional Flack Hall of Fame). And when the product was snubbed by Forbes.com in its list of the  “20 Most Important Tools of All Times,” the public outcry resulted in a follow-up article headlined: “The Other Greatest Tool Ever.” 

Even Bozell got into the act when it featured duct tape in a popular poster touting public libraries as the place to find “Everything You Wanted To Know. And More.” 

But then there are those who would simply argue, “If duct tape isn’t the answer, then you must be asking the wrong question!”

From:  Agent Will Cerf, U.S. Department of Internet Monitoring (USDIM)

To:  Hugh Duntz, Director

Subject: Activity Analysis

As the congressional conference committee prepares to finalize pension reform legislation, we anticipate a flurry of Internet activity from retiree cyberadvocacy groups via the Capwiz system that enables users to e-mail or fax members of Congress and Executive branch officials.  Capwiz  (http://capitoladvantage.com/capwiz/why_capwiz.html) has become an increasingly popular communications tool for associations and non-profits seeking to impact legislation and regulations affecting them.  The technology is designed to seamlessly integrate its communication forms with Web forms used by 85 percent of Congress and an increasing number of state legislators.

Especially active during recent weeks has been the National Retiree Legislative Network (http://www.nrln.org/) with its well organized grass roots group of volunteers representing every Congressional District in the country.  The Capwiz system provides the capability for the NRLN to instantaneously distribute a call to action via e-mail to thousands of its volunteers who are on the Internet and willing to respond to a legislative alert.  The association’s newsletter explains the process:  “NRLN will e-mail an alert to you explaining the importance of a piece of pending legislation and explaining what we want you to do.  You can then access an e-mail letter, personalize it and send it your representatives in Washington.”

The NRLN Grass Roots Network reflects the reality that most lawmakers only read and respond to messages from their own constituents.  “When hundreds or thousands of messages arrive in the Web form to a member of Congress from his/her constituents, they are bound to take notice,” reports the NRLN.  It appears that these associations are finding their voice after years of congressional policy decisions that have favored corporate and special interests.  So we should expect the current level of cyberadvocacy to increase substantially in the months ahead as the congressional elections heat up.

By the way, Mr. Duntz, we continue to monitor the tampering of Wikipedia entries for congressional members by their own staff members, as well as by sources unknown in the case of Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Jim Marshall (D-Ga.).  I refer you to a recent article in The Hill that described how the Wikipedia entry for Rep. Marshall was altered by an op-ed writer now serving as the spokesman for the Republican candidate who is challenging the incumbent.  The changes were less than flattering, as were alterations to Rep. Terry’s entry that falsely accused him of domestic violence.  This activity will merit further monitoring as the election approaches.