Archive for the ‘Issues Management’ Category
Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
Why aren’t people buying GM cars? And a more important question… why does GM lose $4,141 on every car it sold last year?
One of my heroes, Al Ries, wrote a long detailed analysis of GM’s marketing problem for Advertising Age. Their problem is that for years now, GM’s idea of marketing is advertising. GM spent $36 billion on U.S. advertising in the past ten years. But, as Al points out, you can spend an enormous amount of money on advertising, but if you don’t have a clear understanding of your brand and brand message, then the largest advertising budget in the world won’t help. (more…)
Posted in Advertising, Issues Management, Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Is there a swine flu epidemic? Or not?
The fact that more than 150 people are reported to have died in Mexico is tragic for those who are suffering with what has been labeled swine flu. The question on our minds is, how does it affect us? Should we panic?
This is definitely a classic example of crisis communication and management. Crisis communication requires very careful handling. The spokesperson should appear to be confident and in charge of the press conference. There should be an expert there to give background information or explanation of the specifics. No one should say “no comment” and no one should act like they don’t have a real clear understanding of the situation as is stands at this moment. (more…)
Posted in Issues Management, Marketing, Publicity | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 30th, 2009
What did you find the hardest about the transition (from journalist to PR professional?)
Kay Paumier of Communications Plus, a Bay Area PR company, asked that question recently. She wanted to hear from journalists turned PR pros. What did you find the hardest about the transition?
For a few decades I ran a magazine publishing company. So as journalists, our job was to get the story done and done right. That was the most important thing. Journalists usually have deadlines– we sure did—and we had to get the story out. The thing I had to learn when I switched to PR is that my job was to make the journalist’s job easier. That was quite a switch. As a journalist, you’re all about production. Get the story done and get on to the next one. (more…)
Posted in Issues Management, Marketing, Publicity | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
OK, you may ask, what is cause marketing?
Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting down with Bruce Burtch, the cause marketing catalyst. Bruce has developed many of the most successful cause marketing campaigns in the Bay Area. Cause Marketing is the development of a marketing partnership between a nonprofit and for-profit organization– each party receives benefit toward their individual marketing objectives, while striving to create a greater good through their combined resources. In most cases, the nonprofit organization seeks funding and public awareness; while the for-profit organization seeks increased brand recognition, enhanced public relations and greater sales generation. Very good for both sides! (more…)
Posted in Issues Management, Marketing, Publicity | 4 Comments »
Friday, January 30th, 2009
“Why do some people succeed far more than others?” That’s the opening line on the book cover of Malcolm Gladwell’s new best seller “Outliers.” In it he writes about how a person needs a lot of things going his or her way to reach success. One of those things is having worked at something for 10,000 hours. In Gladwell’s opinion, this experience makes a person an expert. My associate at Placemaking Group, Irv Hamilton, is clearly an expert in Public Relations.
Halfway through this fascinating book about success, Gladwell then turns to the subject of how certain kinds of disaster can be cultural. And the example he uses is a situation in which Irv was completely involved! (more…)
Tags: Crisis Communication
Posted in Issues Management, Marketing, Publicity | No Comments »
Monday, October 20th, 2008
I got a great question from John Moyer of the Chicago Rush Arena Football team. You can see him interviewed on YouTube. He asked his question through LinkedIn…
“How to brand a person? What steps does a person take to create their presence?
My answer starts with the most important piece of the puzzle: what are your goals?
The first thing you have to know is why are you creating the brand? What do you have in mind? This is the same process whether you’re creating a brand for a business, a city or a person. And you have to remember—you aren’t really creating a brand, you’re uncovering it. It’s already there, you’re just polishing it a little. (more…)
Tags: get famous, personal brand
Posted in Advertising, Issues Management, Marketing, Publicity, Web sites | 1 Comment »
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
Here at Placemaking Group we realized a long time ago that all PR and Buzz leads to your website. When people hear about an interesting company, the first thing they do is find the website. So, with our clients, that is one of the most important things on our to-do list… Make sure you have an excellent website that tells your potential customers everything they need to know about you and your company. And, equally important, make sure they can find you when they search for you.
I’m not really sure what got into Barbara Irias, our resident web expert, but as she was compiling a list of important things to be aware of when planning SEO (Search Engine Optimization), she noticed they were coming out in alphabetical order. So here are the ABCs (more…)
Tags: search engine optimization, search engine rankings, SEO
Posted in Issues Management, Marketing, Publicity, SEO, Web sites | 1 Comment »
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
How easily can a company dilute its brand? For the opportunity to bring in some more cash, can a CEO decide that it’s worth the risk? Our colleague at Placemaking Group, John Nunes, thinks through the situation at Fender Guitars with their Squier line. (BTW, John is an accomplished professional guitarist so this is a subject close to his heart.) (more…)
Tags: brand in jeopardy, Branding
Posted in Issues Management, Marketing | No Comments »
