Communications
and PR

Find out how JMC helps your organization thrive in the new era...
start

Archive for March, 2008

Differentiate? Or What?

Sunday, March 30th, 2008 by admin

Differentiation has become a holy grail in PR and branding. It’s evangelized most fervently in Differentiate or Die: Survival in our Era of Killer Competition, by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin, published in 2000 and now reissued in its second edition.

I like Jack Trout’s work and like many in the communications business, I love touting how my client’s offering stands apart from everyone else! To what degree is it different? Does that even matter? Does the difference have that much to do with the value proposition? Not all the time.

For a fresh view of differentiation, take a look at Matt Kurchaski’s blog Define or Differentiate? A Marketer’s Dilemma. “Too many companies ask the question “how can we be different” when they should be asking ‘what does the customer want and how can we deliver better than the other guys?’. ” Matt offers a crisp summary of a thoughtful article by Eric M. Morgenstern, APR, Fellow PRSA just published by The Counselors Academy, which is part of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). The full text is available for purchase through the PRSA.

There’s a lot to think about here. It’s, well, different.

Posted in Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Public Relations, differentiation | No Comments »

New Voices for Marketing: Blogs & Social Media

Thursday, March 6th, 2008 by admin

The purpose of this blog is to share insights on the power of communications to drive results — success for commercial enterprise and results when we speak of the public good. Danah Boyd, who writes Apophenia, one of the most insightful blogs in the communications zone, yesterday submitted her resignation from mainstream media (MSM) because of how they are covering the presidential primaries. Her main complaint is the media’s penchant fodana-boyd.jpgr stories with conflict and drama to “sell papers.”

Having been both a reporter for and, as a public relations guy, a supplier to the MSM, I would counter that it’s less an institutional bias than it is the DNA of reporters, editors, news producers and the like to scoop the competition with a dramatic story that gains attention. Sure, if you work there selling papers is of acknowledged importance, but for the individual journalists it’s not the main driver. Having the best story of the day is.

That being said, media remains important to the candidates marketing themselves as well as to companies selling products. But media are no longer the only brokers of opinion.

My take: a media outlet and its news and analysis are less the principal sources of information than they are as platforms for discussions. Bloggers are critical to the formation of opinion and (I submit) to the catalysis of behavior. Bloggers like Dana Boyd are being referred about and quoted in conversations among people (not just in the media).

They provide the insight and perspective that we are paying attention to.

What does the above mean for anyone in business marketing? Blogs and other social media will speak with individuals comprising communities of interest. Therefore any plan for communications must now address the bloggers and other Web 2.0 technologies as means of relating with these communities.

Posted in Marketing Communications, New Communications, Social Media, blogging, media | 1 Comment »

Exec 'Revolutionaries' Say Social Media is Increasing its Significance

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 by admin

When it comes to corporate reputation and brand marketing, social media must be like television was in the 1950s as its penetration became geometric. It seems everyone is talking about it. Meanwhile, there are a group of early adopters who believe in social media and who are putting it to work.

Communications itself is incredibly powerful, a function and capability that can energize success. Social media, is a vehicle, or really series of vehicles, that not only give voice to buyer and seller but make it possible for them to dialogue. I personally believe this is of enormous importance.

The importance of social media to business leaders is well covered by New Communications Review in a report on a study by TNS media intelligence/Cymfony. According to New Communications, the research shows that “senior marketing executives in several countries agree that the use of social media for corporate, brand and product marketing is not a passing fad.”

The companies called revolutionaries are implementing social media and eight in 10 of them say it will grow in significance. The “wait and see” group of executives are paying attention and learning the ropes.

Social media. It’s changing how we communicate personally and commercially.

Posted in Communications, Corporate communications, Marketing Communications, New Communications, Social Media | No Comments »

Universal Communications Truth: Dr's, Editors and Critics are Needed

Saturday, March 1st, 2008 by admin

U.S. Capitol Building It was yesterday in Washington that reinforced for me the principle, “You cannot be your own doctor.”

In communications, self-diagnosis and self medication is easy to fall into. Most of yesterday was spent with a small team of board members meeting with the CEO of a national not-for-profit organization. Indeed, it’s an organization about to take a giant step in growth, a step that will entail major fund raising activities.

As we board members pressed for a crisp definition of the organization and clear statements of the benefits it generates, the CEO and staff resisted. “We have done that! It’s all here. We have everything we need to kick off the fund raising.”

Messages were not clear, the differentiation was not expressed, and other messages lacked precision. How could that be? After all, the paid staff is highly competent.

The answer lies in the “real-world” conditions we all face. Day-to-day hard work pulls us many ways. Just getting things done is the immediate goal. The messaging roles flawlessly in the minds internal people, who move with agility from conversation to conversation, but the messaging doesn’t stand on its own.

I know. A similar situation happend to me. Two weeks ago that my partner was at a workshop, where it was pointed out our firm did not have a positioning statement — an expression of how we want the business to be perceived. I could not believe it. After all, much of what we do is preparing positioning statements for clients. I pulled out the Messaging Platform that I’d personally drafted. Sure enough, the positioning statement isn’t there.

In sum, we truly cannot be our own doctors. We need critics who can tell us what’s missing in our communications and editors to make sure our messages are clear and understood.

Posted in Communications, Marketing, Marketing Communications, PR, Public Relations | 1 Comment »