Everyday PR

Welcome to guest blogger Buddy Vick, a longtime colleague, architect/designer, world traveler, wine connoisseur and occassional performer.

During a recent wine excursion, my eye caught a relatively austere label with a pink coat hanger, a pair of pink stiletto sling back shoes, and the simple words “Little Black Dress.”  Pink wording stated “Notes of strawberry, raspberry and lavender”.  Lavender?  With that kind of name and description, this was definitely a wine for girlie girls. 

Little Black Dress Wine - Branding of a Classic

Fast forward to me taking the last sip of the Syrah Rose (which was quite enjoyable), when I noticed Little Black Dress had a web site on the bottle.  With no pressing plans for the evening, I went straight to the computer.  The site lists a few perfunctory things about the wine, but the focus really is dedicated to the real-life little black dress also known as the LBD.  You can take a quiz to see what style of LBD is right for you and then send in your picture.  For an inexpensive wine, some of these girls were wearing awfully expensive couture, including a vintage Balenciaga. The site references the event that really put the LBD on the map: Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. 

While I’m no marketing expert, Little Black Dress Wines clearly illustrates clever branding.  The product is the classic example of selling the sizzle, not the steak. The company well knows its female target audience who can find something about a wine that appeals to them based on something they can relate to: an approach that reveres the versatility of the LBD and its timeless sense of style.  What a fun and creative concept for a wine company – I just wish I had thought of it.

The differences between earned media and paid media are fairly obvious.  In many cases, however, the distinctions between the two disciplines call for both.  Read more.

Leave it to a resourceful student to test the validity of today’s real-time news.  Following the recent death of renowned French composer Maurice Jarre, Dublin University student Shane Fitzgerald posted a lovely, but phony quote on Jarre’s Wikipedia page. And the rest, as they say, is embarrassing.

Fitzgerald wanted to test how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.  Even though Wikipedia administrators quickly removed the quote’s lack of attribution, some already had used the quotes in Jarre obitutuaries around the world.

So is fact checking a lost art? In a 2005 journalism panel, Rebecca Blood, author of The Weblog Handbook, stated that bloggers are writing subjective pieces while journalists are trained professionals with a differentiator being that real journalists do fact checking.  But it’s hard to fact check when timing is everything.  Because of the very digital media world in which Fitzgerald was testing, competition among news outlets is outrageous.  A recent memo to Wall Street Journal staffers stated the top priority is to be the first to report on something. Success will be measured in seconds. 

It took a college student less than 15 minutes to strategically post a fake quote about someone.  An entire month passed before he fessed up to The Guardian of Britain, the only publication to admit its editorial failing . “If I hadn’t come forward, I’m convinced that quote would have gone down in history as something Maurice Jarre said. It would have become another example where, once anything is printed enough times in the media without challenge, it becomes fact,” said Fitzgerald. 

For the media, Fitzgerald’s test definitely was a pop quiz.  He gets an A for audacity.  The media get an E for egg on their face.

The newspaper industry hasn’t bottomed out yet, but it will.  Experts have pointed to various causes of the demise – the Internet, printing presses, cable news, editorial leanings and the list goes on.  But most newspapers are like everybody else – they’re in business to make money. So why isn’t anyone talking about the probability that some unsound fiscal decisions have been made?  

Newspapers - will they become as vintage as manual typewriters?

The largest newspaper chains – Gannett, Scripps Howard  and McClatchy – are publicly traded.  That means it’s all about the shareholders.  It’s about generating enough revenue (mostly through ads) to pay for the people and the presses.  It’s about incurring more debt and slashing payrolls to meet shareholder expectations, even though newspaper stocks have plummeted in recent years from dollars to pennies per share.  

Candidly, the quality of content also has declined, another reason lacking in discussion (of course, why would editors report on that?).  The over-recycling of news, along with dependence on wire services, weakens a daily venue that’s supposed to represent its community.  Reporters are being asked to do more with less, so much of the content is like day-old bread.

Having begun my career as a reporter, the situation saddens me.  I started out writing (using carbon copy paper) city council stories on a black manual Underwood Typewriter that was already vintage when I used it.  Even though my boss drank vodka and orange juice from a thermos and chain smoked all day, I wouldn’t trade my journalism days for anything.    

Having also worked for a NYSE-traded company, I know you can’t please your customers, your employees and your shareholders at the same time all the time.  So, in regard to cause of death, what came first?  A movement toward a decreasingly credible and traditional resource reflective of the community, or mismanagement at the highest level to please shareholders at any cost?  Regardless, there are no winners here.

From our desks overlooking the parking lot, here they are:

10)      Swine – It’s not about pigs (everybody knows the scientific reference to a “quadruple reassortant” virus); it’s about people (although some people are pigs) hygiene and cooties

Swine Flu Song – The best video clips are right here

9)        VP Joe Biden – He’s not a doctor or medical expert; he just plays one on morning talk shows.

8)        Food – Eating Mexican food is not the same as going to Mexico.  There’s no such thing as a fajita fatality.

7)         Pandemic – Not synonymous with or the same word as “epidemic” or “panic”.  Details, details.

6)        Helpful Link – To cut through the ambiguous medical jargon and political hyperbole, just visit Do I Have Swine Flu?

5)        H1N1 – Just rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?  Also makes you look uber smart when used in conversation.

4)        The CDC – The key word is CONTROL.  They should try to get some over public information. 

3)        The WHO – Popular rock band begun in the late 60s best known for such hits as “My Generation” and “I Can See for Miles”.

2)        To Close or Not to Close? – Do we close schools or not? Just how much havoc/panic/hysteria/disruption can be created in the lives of millions? Like breastfeeding or Brett Favre , the decision depends on the day.

And the top real fact about swine flu:

1)         Sweeps – We’re in the middle of TV ratings for goodness sakes.  On the upside, both the flu and sweeps end soon.

The $3 trillion TARP bailout funds for the banking, auto and mortgage industries come with this neat little twist – no accountability.  Apparently the Treasury believes that would be “impractical, impossible or a waste of time.” How cool is that?

Riding the wave isn't recommended as a crisis strategy.

It reminds me of Sept. 11, 2001.  Within days of the terrorist attack on this country, I met with the head of the local American Red Cross to discuss how the tragedy was affecting the charity (in the interest of disclosure, I worked as the agency’s Public Information Officer in the early 1990s).  Due to the generosity of countless individuals, groups and celebrities, the nation’s largest disaster relief agency was being inundated with phone calls, food, clothes and monetary donations. 

Because of my background, I thought I could professionally advise to what, in my mind, was an issue yet to raise its ugly little head.  At some point, somebody (code for the media) was going to ask for details regarding where all those Red Cross contributions were going.  I suggested the chapter begin coordinating with National Headquarters to issue a regular update and personal testimonies of where donations were being dispersed and to whom.  Also talk about disaster relief is allocated through clean-up supplies and food stations for workers at ground zero to provide the giving public an accounting of the millions being contributed.

Professing no need for any public relations assistance (voluntary or otherwise), the executive director explained his strategy by saying, “We’re just going to ride the wave for as long as we can.”  Within two weeks, I saw the same guy, with visible sweat bullets and a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face, trying to defend serious public and Congressional questions regarding contributions to a television reporter. Needless to say, a member of the media had asked for accountability. 

Why do senior managers continually believe they are immune to crises, brand damage and assaults on their organization’s reputation?  Do these same leaders not take their children in for wellness check-ups? How do they feel about mammograms?  Do they wear seatbelts at all?  

Seriously, help me understand why preventive measures regarding safety and protection (personal and professional) aren’t a good thing.

Fewer newspapers, more online information sources – who’s gonna make it and why. Read more.

For Your Listening Pleasure – Led Zeppelin

Fingernails on a chalkboard.  The pump of a shotgun. The slashing soundtrack of Hitchcock’s Psycho.  All of these things conjure up distinctive images in our mind.  You can almost hear these one-of-a-kind sounds just by picturing them.

Branding isn’t just about an attractive logo or convenient location. Branding is the total experience of your customer, so don’t underestimate the value of each component of that experience.  When something as seemingly trivial as background music doesn’t appropriately reflect your branding, the customers’ experience is sublimely, if not openly, affected.  And as consumers are more selective about where their dollars go in a difficult economy, businesses need to be attentive to the totality of branding and its correlation to repeat business.