We hear about ReBranding a lot. That’s a concept that is exciting, especially when people have been either going through a process of Strategic Planning and are enthusiastic about the plan for the next year, or a new leader who thinks that if they change the brand, they can establish their own path.

The problem is, new branding or rebranding hardly ever works. People already know the brand. You can polish it up a little, maybe look at it from a slightly different perspective. The thing you can’t do is just make up a brand. People see right through that. The most famous example is the New Coke disaster, where the leaders of Coca Cola thought that if you have enough money you can convince people that the new brand is reality. I think that what we learned from that is– you don’t EVER have enough money to pull that off.

I’m thinking about this today because I just read a blog post by Mitch Gooze where he talks about what a failure Kentucky Fried Chicken’s ReBranding has been.  Here’s how he sets us up at his blog Value Acceleration…

• “As you may have noticed, a while back KFC corporate decided to reposition KFC into the grilled chicken market. (I guess they figured if you turned the word Fried into “F” then you could also change the menu and its focus.)
• “To put it bluntly, grilled chicken has been a disaster … as far as the franchisees are concerned. Same store sales are off 7% and grilled chicken is only about 16% of chicken “on the bone” sales.”

To read the rest of his post click here!

Our PR client, Robin Azevedo of McRoskey Mattress, was the subject of a great article on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Business section last Sunday.

The great thing about PR is what happens after the story comes out. We all get excited when a newspaper or magazine does a story about us or our company. And you kind of just enjoy the moment. But, that should just be the start.

• Send the story to all of your clients and prospects. You can’t just think that, because the story came out, everyone will read it. Lot’s of people will, but you want EVERYBODY you are trying to influence to read it. So, get permission and send it to your entire list. Don’t feel that you are being a pest. Think that they’ll be glad to read it!

• Make sure your keywords are in your answers to the reporter, it helps Search Engine Optimization for people to find your website. Robin and her crew did an excellent job of that. When we tracked the results of the story to the McRoskey website for just Sunday, we were delighted to find that there was an 8X spike for that day, just from Google, with 11,000 page views above the normal day. This is just from people searching for McRoskey because of the story!

So, don’t rest when you get a story written about you. The work is just beginning!

And click here to read the McRoskey story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Last month, Irv Hamilton, our Senior Vice President of Public Relations, was a session leader at the California Preservation Foundation’s annual conference.   The meeting this year was held in Grass Valley/Nevada City, two of the famous Gold Rush towns in the Sierra foothills.

Our session dealt with heritage tourism.  Several subjects that were covered in our meetings provide  a useful framework for communities seeking to strengthen local economies.  By definition, heritage tourism uses historic and cultural resources to attract visitors.  Heritage programs can be developed just about anywhere.  Every community has a history.

Following are some important elements for an effective heritage tourism program.

Conduct an unbiased tourism-asset census.  Realistically, what assets will attract visitors.  How can they be packaged to be an appealing attraction.

Preserve the authenticity of historic assets. Let people experience the real thing.

Encourage interaction.  Determine how can visitors participate in historic events, rather than just observe them?

Look for ways that local residents can take part in heritage tourism programs.   Make it a community event.

Over the past several years, heritage tourism has grown rapidly as people have become increasingly interested in local history, traditions and culture.  There is even a new word that has been added to the vocabulary of tourism.  It’s “staycations,” which describes-close in travel.  Instead of deciding whether to travel to Mexico or Hawaii, travelers are asking “Should we go to Carmel or Yosemite”.  That new thinking benefits close-in destinations which can offer easily accessible, inexpensive, and historically significant places to visit. Think about the possibilities for your town or city.

On many occasions I’ve reminded you that you have to know who you’re talking to with publicity and marketing. If you have a message that resonates to your audience, you have a good chance to achieve your goals. Here’s a post from a delightful new blog by Jerry Seltzer. His father and then he ran Roller Derby. Later on he started BASS Tickets, one of the first computer based ticketing agencies.

He has been giving great stories about his time with Roller Derby. Here’s part of a post about PR.

Here’s what Jerry wrote… Our publicist was a great guy named Herb Michelson.  Herb was moonlighting with us, as he was a columnist for the Oakland Tribune and covered the Giants for AP.  Both he and I would try to figure how we could present things in a different light, and I think the sportswriters appreciated it because the other sports took themselves so seriously. (more…)

Are you wondering what is the process for contacting reporters to try and get a story placed? Jan Burch, Placemaking Group’s VP of PR in our Sacramento office, gave this answer when asked recently on LinkedIn…

There are a lot of facets to public relations. It starts with goals that are backed up with a plan followed by strategies and then implementation. Web site, media campaign, social marketing and events are typical components of a program. As strategies — like blogs and e-mail blasts — become more sophisticated there are certain things we do that never change. Like calling reporters. (more…)