emergencemarketing.com

I was lucky enough to host PR guru Larry Weber and interactive marketing pioneer Lois Kelly for a great conversation on the future of marketing. You can listen to the conversation by downloading the MP3 of the session here.

Some random snippets from the discussion include:

“…the first thing marketers should do is stop spending so much money on traditional media – it’s like throwing water into the boat, and not out of the boat…”

“…many marketing departments embrace the new marketing platforms but it’s amazing to see how they organize themselves like they did 25 years ago…”

“…I would organize marketing from the bottom up….innovation still never comes from the top down….I would look at things less in categories like PR, advertising, direct marketing….and start looking more in campaign orientation….”

“…the weaker the dialog the weaker the brand…the stronger the dialog the stronger the brand…”

“…Madison ave hijacked the browser in the last 10 years…we need to reclaim it…”

“…marketing should be at the center of everything…because the center of dialog will be at the center of a company’s success…”

“…the “idiot of the month” award goes to the Disney Corporation…” talking about their TIVO proof technology.

I will publish a more thoughtfully digested version soon, but wanted to give you some snippets to entice you to listen to this great conversation asap. And don’t forget that Lois and Larry will be having a live conversation at our marketing innovation conference next week - so make sure to join us there!

[Tags: skypecast larry weber lois kelly marketing corante cmarketing future new marketing]]

The Sunday New York Times had a great story on how Lenovo has gotten under fire by a bunch of xenophobes including Lou Dobbs, a couple of people from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an advisory body to Congress, and other politicians.

The gist of the story is that Lou Dobbs and a few others, including some members of congress, are “suggesting” – based on mostly unfounded insinuations and allegations – that Lenovo computers currently being sold to the State Department as part of a competitive contract won by Lenovo “could provide shadowy spooks in the Chinese government with an ideal means of conducting espionage.”

Being framed in the context of “buy American” and also in the context of “national security,” the story inevitably took on a life of its own. It does not matter that it is virtually impossible to “buy American” when it comes to PCs, as most PCs are manufactured and assembled, at least in part, overseas. Nor does it matter that it is extremely unlikely that the Chinese could put “spook” software in the Lenovo PCs as they are assembled in North Carolina and as the PCs have to pass the State Department’s two computer security groups, which oversee the administration of their own test suites and install firewalls and other security software. It also does not matter that the company has historically been a meritocracy – now run by Americans. The fact that the story is framed in the context of cultural anxieties will ensure its rapid spread.

Regardless of whether you believe that xenophobia like this is bad or really bad for the economy as a whole (there are some good lessons to be learned from some European economies on that front), it goes without question that it is damaging the Lenovo brand. And while articles like the one in the New York Times, exposing the fact that there is no substance to the points being raised, and undermining the legitimacy of the claims being made, are necessary – from a brand perspective they only add fuel to the fire. In the long run they could potentially cause more harm than good to the Lenovo brand.

So what is a company to do when faced with rumors that either appeal to fundamental cultural anxieties or that are framed in popular worldviews? Rebutting while staying on the same playing field is a losing proposition – a fact proven over and over in the world of politics. Could there be an opportunity to reframe the debate or start a new one on a playing field that is more advantageous to the company? Or should they just paint themselves in green and lay on the grass ’till it all blows over?

Other blog post on the subject:
Brad Feld at Feld Thoughts – “Maybe Penn and Teller should do an episode on Bullshit! on Dobbs and the current “security issues” ”

[Technorati Tags: Lenovo xenophobia crisis management lou dobbs public relations PR]

I have always been against “people announcements” in companies – not because I think that people are not interested in some “star announcements” but because I believe that “personality cult/promotion” is not reflective of how a company really works and it can negatively impact morale – especially when less known individuals or teams are having a disproportionate impact on the company’s success.

All that being said, I also believe that most people could care less…

Well I maybe wrong on that last point. According to a little test done by McClenehanBRUeR Communications and as reported on their blog (via Amy Gahran at Contentious), they sent out an email newsletter on behalf of one of their customers that contained all kinds of seemingly interesting content – including white papers and the like – as well as a few links to press releases at the bottom of the newsletter. The item with the highest number of click-throughs was a little news item about a couple of new people joining that company’s advisory board.

While there is too little information to draw any serious conclusions (make sure you check the comment exchange between Amy and Jeff – the author of the post), it triggered a couple of interesting thoughts (at least I think so).

First off, promoting external advisers or board members is not the same as “personnel announcements”. They are an indication that you are trying to open up another channel of market feedback into your strategy – be it your go-to market strategy, your product strategy or any other strategic issues that you are dealing with. And the most valuable proxies for good feedback/advise (=advisers) will also likely enjoy somewhat of a good reputation in your markets.

The second thought that I had when reading this is that most companies that do hire advisory boards do so for news-generation purposes only instead of for getting the great advise that such boards can deliver if managed properly.

[Technorati Tags: pr public relations advisory board personnel announcement]

There are two good posts on how PR folks and marketers are still clueless when it comes to using the blogosphere in spreading their message.

First is Jeremy Zawodny over at Yahoo – who writes about the PR agency, who also happens to represent Six Apart (so you would expect them to know better), spamming the Yahoo! Search Blog email contact for some new AOL video format.

Next is Bruce Fryer – who writes about how he lost a consulting gig after he would not guarantee a startup that bloggers would indeed pick up their story.

Are people truly clueless? Or is it just all too new and we’re doing something wrong in communicating what this new social media is all about?

…personally, I vote for clueless…

[Technorati Tags: pr public relations blogs]

I have been saying for awhile that for us marketers, there is much to be learned from the world of politics. Thanks to Elizabeth Albrycht I found this great article in the Herald Tribune on how Wal-Mart is doing exactly that – hiring politicos from both the Kerry and Bush presidential campaigns to help them improve their image.

They set up a rapid-response PR team that operates out of a “war room” in Arkansas – much like a campaign war room. Their target is the “swing voter” – that consumer who has not soured on Wal-Mart yet.

[Technorati Tags: marketing public relations marketing politics]

This morning I found the newly released guide to executive blogging by Ogilvy PR (here – via PR Opinions) – which makes for a pretty good read. I was surprised to find that Ogilvy PR did not launch a blog or announce some other services at the same time – especially after the Ketchum mishap – but then again, maybe I missed it.

As part of one of my consulting gigs – I have been advising a mid-size PR agency on how to enter the new media space. The agency is PAN Communications and while they have been working on this for a few months they aren’t planning on rolling out their initiatives to their clients and prospects until the fall.

The process we went through was quite interesting. We knew that in order to make the new media part of the fabric of the company we had to get the company blogging. First we identified a few people in the agency that were long term bloggers and willing to get involved with the initiative. We then offered all employees the opportunity to have a personal blog on employeename.prspeak.com, the domain for the new corporate blog. We got about 9 volunteers who formed a blog team that meets regularly to share experiences, best and worst practices, and to develop corporate blogging guidelines. We also formed a client advisory board – consisting of clients and others who know the space well, along with those who are not that familiar with the space. The idea was to get guidance from the experts as well as better understand the needs of those that are not “in the know.”

PAN started blogging on their corporate blog prSPEAK a little over a month ago and are really starting to get the hang of it. We also developed a new media training program, as well as some new media-specific offerings – which will be “beta” tested with a few of the advisory clients in the next few weeks. The plan is then to start talking about it as part of their daily business sometime in the fall – after a solid six months of hands-on learning.

What do you think? Are there any other best practices that we are missing out there?

[Technorati Tags: pr blog blogging PAN]

Shel Holtz blogs about a speech given by Mary Matalin and James Carville on communications at the IABC conference (here). It sounds like an interesting talk.

They distinguished the message from the tools to distribute the message – and find the message to be the most important part of communications. They took a shot at blogs – questioning what the hot tool would be in 5 years. And they also talked about the importance of soundbites, clarity of the message, and the power of storytelling.

While it is true that the audiences control the message these days, Shel believes that it should not stop organizations from putting messages out there.

I buy all of that. Of course blogs are important, but they are only one channel. And of course it’s important for organisations to put out messages – it’s way easier for people to re-tell a story than it is for them to create one.

[Technorati Tags: blog pr]

Corporate blogging today relates the results of a Scandinavian survey (surveyed 12,000 people in 24 companies) about internal communications (here). The results are pretty poor – and I am sure that if we were to run a similar survey in the US or broader Europe, the results would be pretty similar.

Check this out:

• Top management is neither visible nor credible. Just 4 out of 10 think the top execs do what they say.
• Strategic communication doesn’t succeed. Only 50 % of the employees say they know the goals and strategies of their company.
• 50 % feel that they are not enough informed about changes in the company.

Of course, blogs would help – but the key here is not to just roll out a blog. Companies have to change their cultures and turn everybody inside the corporate walls into actors and particpants in the story that they are telling their customers.

[Technorati Tags: employee communications internal communications]

Today Ketchum announced their new global ‘personalized media’ service (here). They will basically provide consulting services to their clients on how to use blogs, wikis, SEO, mobile text messaging and the like as part of their overall communications strategies.

B.L. Ochman rightfully asks herself (see comment below) the question whether they can credibly do so without having blogs or RSS feeds of their own (here). Steve Rubel over at Micropersuasion wonders why this should be delivered by a separate group (here – with good discussion thread).

The reason for my interest in this topic is because I am in the process of helping a PR agency incorporate new media into their messaging and service offerings.

[Technorati Tags: pr blogging]

A study published by The Forum for People Performance Management & Measurement at Northwestern University (here – via Nevon) found that:

“There is a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, and between customer satisfaction and improved financial performance.”

The study looked at the impact of organizational culture, organizational climate, human resource systems, and market characteristics on on employee satisfaction and employee engagement (which they define as the degree of employee motivation and sense of inspiration, personal involvement, and supportiveness). They then gauged the downstream effects of these employee attitudes on companies’ market performance.

Other interesting conclusion include:

• The key organizational characteristic for explaining employee satisfaction is organizational communication (a measure of the downward and upward communication in an organization)
• Organizational culture was another significant driver of employee engagement, where employees must be expected to cooperate and work together, but also to take charge and provide a voice for the customer within the organization
• Organizations with engaged employees have customers who use their products more, and increased customer usage leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction
• It is an organization’s employees who influence the behavior and attitudes of customers, and it is customers who drive an organization’s profitability through the purchase and use of its products
• In the end, customers who are more satisfied with an organization’s products are less expensive to serve, use the product more, and, hence, are more profitable customers

Bottom line – you have to give your customers a strong voice within your organization by enabling ALL employees (not just the customer-facing ones) to have a voice representing them within your organization.

While not discussed in the report, developing an open corporate blogging culture probably helps achieve that goal as well.

[Technorati Tags: customer satisfaction corporate culture blogging]