Specialized Thinking

Achieving Technological Literacy

2011-01-16T09:57:00.000-08:00

Kevin Kelly — the co-founder of Wired magazine and author of the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy and What Technology Wants — decided to home-school his 13-year-old son … and wrote about the experience in The New York Times Magazine.

“One of the chief habits a student needs to acquire is technological literacy,” Kelly wrote. “Technology will change faster than we can teach it. My son studied the popular programming language C++ in his home-school year; that knowledge could be economically useless soon.

“The accelerating pace of technology means his eventual adult career does not exist yet,” he added. “Of course it won’t be taught in school. But technological smartness can be.”

The nine principles of technological literacy that Kelly taught his son are relevant for all of us — especially those of us who graduated from eighth grade more than twenty years ago. Here’s a sampling. (I urge you to read them all.)

• Technologies improve so fast you should postpone getting anything you need until the last second. Get comfortable with the fact that anything you buy is already obsolete.
• The proper response to a stupid technology is to make a better one, just as the proper response to a stupid idea is not to outlaw it but to replace it with a better idea.
• Nobody has any idea of what a new invention will really be good for. The crucial question is, what happens when everyone has one?
• The older the technology, the more likely it will continue to be useful.

Public Relations: A Growth Industry

2011-01-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

Good news for PR professionals, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics: between 2008 and 2018, employment of public relations specialists is expected to grow 24 percent … much faster than the average for all occupations.

The increasingly competitive and global business environment will spur demand for PR pros, particularly those with specialized knowledge, international experience or fluency in additional languages. The rise of social media is also expected to foster employment growth for PR practitioners.

The competition for entry-level public relations jobs will likely remain fierce, as the number of qualified applicants is expected to exceed the number of job openings.

Bad News for Bank of America; Worse News for the Consumer

2011-01-11T10:50:00.000-08:00

Jason Grodensky paid cash for his house in South Florida last December. With no mortgage and sole ownership, the last thing he worried about was the possibility of foreclosure. Nevertheless, Bank of America foreclosed on the house seven months later. It wasn’t until Grodensky brought his problem to the attention of the Sun Sentinel, that it began to be resolved. Bank of America has said it will straighten out the mess at its own cost.

According to The New York Times, this may be just the tip of the iceberg. In order to feed the investment community’s insatiable hunger for mortgage-backed securities, many banks — including JP Morgan Chase and GMAC Mortgage — took short-cuts and made errors in the recording of deeds. As a result, they’re putting a temporary halt to foreclosures. It’s a step in the right direction, but clearly not the total solution to a complex public relations problem that could continue to haunt lenders, their customers and investors for a long time to come.

Antibiotics from the Brains of Creepy-Crawlies

2011-01-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

Think about this the next time your healthcare provider writes a prescription for an antibiotic — your medication may have been derived from the brain of a cockroach!

Researchers from the University of Nottingham (U.K.) have discovered as many as nine different molecules with powerful antibiotic properties in the brains of cockroaches and locusts which could lead to novel treatments for multi-drug-resistant bacterial infections.

The team of infectious disease scientists has found that the tissues of the brain and nervous system of the insects were able to kill more than 90 per cent of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli — as well as a variety of emerging superbugs, such as Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Burkholderia — without harming human cells.

“We Are Happy to Serve You”:

2010-10-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

Leslie Buck was a successful businessman and an inspired graphic designer. You may never have heard of him, but I can almost guarantee that you are intimately familiar with one of his classic designs … especially if you live in New York City.

Dubbed the “Anthora” the blue and white paper cup featured Greek vases, steaming coffee cups and the legend “WE ARE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU,” emblazoned in gold.

A Holocaust survivor, Buck was an executive at Sherri Cup in the mid-1960s. According to The New York Times,”Since many of the city’s diners were owned by Greeks, Mr. Buck hit on the idea of a Classical cup in the colors of the Greek flag. Though he had no formal training in art, he executed the design himself. It was an instant success.”

It’s an impressive example of the timelessness of great graphic design.

PT Barnum, PR Pioneer

2010-10-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

One of the most useful attributes of a public relations practitioner is an ability to think outside the box. The 19th century showman, PT Barnum, was practicing PR even before public relations was acknowledged as a profession.

The story goes that Barnum's American Museum was so popular that visitors would spend the whole day there … which cut into Barnum’s profits. So he put up signs that said: “This Way to the Egress.” Not knowing that “egress” was a highfalutin term for “exit,” the customers followed the signs to what they thought was an exotic new attraction — and walked right out the door. If they wanted to get back in, they had to pay again … and Barnum’s profits rose.

Environmental Crises Are Nothing New

2010-09-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

“Disaster” is certainly the word for it. BP’s catastrophic oil spill in the in the Gulf of Mexico has harmed a fragile ecosystem, contaminated miles of coastline and threatened the livelihood of tens of thousands of workers. One of the most distressing aspects of this corporate crisis is that it could have been prevented. A cascade of errors in judgment made the disaster possible. And it’s not the first time.

Among the worst manmade environmental disasters, in addition to the BP oil spill: the Dust Bowl (1930s and 40s), the use of Agent Orange as a defoliant in Vietnam (1960s and 70s), the Gulf War Oil Spill (1991), the Exxon Valdez (1989) and Love Canal (1978).

Most, if not all, of these crises could have been prevented. Apparently, we have yet to learn the lessons taught by history.

Tesla Predicts iPhone, Blackberry and Droid Technology … in 1909

2010-08-20T08:04:00.001-07:00

One hundred and one years ago, in a conversation with a New York Times reporter, the brash and brilliant Nikola Tesla, a predicted the current mobile revolution. Popular Mechanics reprinted the Times interview, “Wireless of the Future,” in its October 1909 issue. Here’s an example of what the high-tech visionary was forecasting more than a century ago:

“It will soon be possible, for instance, for a business man in New York to dictate instructions and have them appear instantly in type in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up from his desk and talk with any telephone subscriber in the world. It will only be necessary to carry an inexpensive instrument not bigger than a watch, which will enable its bearer to hear anywhere on sea or land for distances of thousands of miles. One may listen or transmit speech or song to the uttermost parts of the world.”

(Via Boing Boing)

An Eye for an Eye … Except in Certain Cases

2010-08-03T07:35:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting specialties in public relations is litigation PR: the management of the communication process during the course of a legal dispute so as to positively affect the outcome of both the process itself and its impact on the client’s reputation.

Litigation — disputes over the interpretation of the law — is almost as old as human history. Among the oldest and best organized of the legal codes is Hammurabi’s Code, which may be nearly 3,800 years old!

Hammurabi’s Code consists of 282 laws regulating people’s relationships. The punishment was meant to fit the crime, so “if a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out”; however, a crime against an upper class person was typically punished much more severely than one against, for instance, a slave. Here are a few examples:

• If anyone strikes the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.
• If during an unsuccessful operation a patient dies, the arm of the surgeon must be cut off.
• If anyone commits a robbery and is caught, he shall be put to death.
• If a man strikes a pregnant woman, thereby causing her to miscarry and die, the assailant's daughter shall be put to death.
• If a judge tries a case, reaches a decision, and presents his judgment in writing; and later it is discovered that his decision was in error, and it was his own fault, he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case and be removed from the judge's bench.

Minimizing Wi-Fi Risks

2010-07-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

Public relations people tend to spend a lot of time in the field, making presentations, meeting with clients and their stakeholders and setting up special events. Like all road warriors, PR professionals depend upon a wide range of high-tech tools. What I hadn’t been aware of until recently is the fact that your Wi-Fi can put your laptop — and your important data — at risk.

Consumerist recently featured an article recommending that you disable your Wi-Fi before you close the lid on your laptop … otherwise thieves using inexpensive Wi-Fi scanners can locate — and snatch — your computer. (Some laptops can take 30 minutes or more before going into “sleep” mode.)

One more word of warning — this time from Domenico Bettinelli’s Bettnet blog (via Neatorama). In airports that offer free Wi-Fi, before you connect, check out the options carefully.

“I was recently at New York’s JFK airport in the JetBlue terminal, where they have prominent signs offering free Wi-Fi, courtesy of the airline,” Bettinelli reports. “But when I went to connect, I noticed that several options were available including one labeled ‘default’ and another labeled ‘JetBlue free hotspot.’”

It turns out that the former was the real, free Wi-Fi and the latter was a trap designed to fool unsuspecting travelers into exposing their computers and data to hackers.

It’s good advice for PR pros — and indeed for anyone who travels for a living and relies on high-tech devices: Check before you connect. And be sure to disconnect when you’re done!

The Global Impact of Great Graphic Design

2010-07-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

Look at the sign on the left. If you’re an American, its meaning is instantly clear: EXIT means GET OUT HERE. It’s obvious, right? The glowing red color conveys urgency and is easily spotted in any commercial space.

But according to Julia Turner, in a fascinating article in Slate, people from other countries are confounded by our familiar icon, and much prefer the green running man on the right.

If you think about it, the graphic design on the right makes a lot more sense. The running man, which was designed by about 40 years ago Yukio Ota, can be understood even by people who can’t read English, including those who interpret the color red as signifying DANGER or STOP (not “go this way to be safe”).

Turner writes, “International designers tend to think our system is illogical and consider our rejection of the running man to be as dumb as our refusal to adopt that other sensible international norm, the metric system.”

But change is inevitable — and good graphic design inevitably triumphs, especial in a word class city like New York, which altered the fire code four years ago to mandate that high-rises include the running man on fire doors on every floor.

Burnishing a Corporate Reputation: Smart Move by Microsoft

2010-06-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Being one of the biggest companies all too often also makes you an easy target so. So, inevitably, Microsoft catches a certain amount of flak. However, the software giant recently undertook a corporate social responsibility initiative — “Elevate America's Veterans” — that not only enhances its reputation, but makes also good sense in terms of Microsoft’s business.

Microsoft is providing $2 million in cash and $6 million in software to help U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan — who are coming home to a depressed job market and double-digit unemployment — to find new jobs. Over the next two years, the contributions will be divvied out to veterans’ service organizations, workforce agencies and community colleges through a competitive application process. Returning vets will also receive training and help with job placement, child care and housing.

Like all the best corporate marketing and communications programs, Microsoft’s initiative:

• Answers a real need,
• Touches the heartstrings,
• Enhance the company’s image and
• Demonstrates the value of its products/and services.

The initiative is part of Microsoft’s “Elevate America,” a corporate social responsibility program that provides a million vouchers for e-learning courses and select certification exams free-of-charge, with the goal of helping to train two million people over the next three years.

Environmental Alert: New Garbage Island Found in Atlantic

2010-06-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, a huge island of garbage (twice the size of Texas!) was found in the Pacific between California and Hawaii, poisoning the ecosystem and posing a major health risk to fish, seabirds and other marine animals.

Then, another environmental disaster made the news: two months ago, National Geographic announced that a second floating vortex of trash had been found in the Atlantic Ocean

Like vast icebergs of garbage, as much as 70% of these “islands” lie beneath the surface of the sea.

As much as 10 percent of the 260 million tons of plastic produced annually wind up in the world’s oceans. Green technologies that convert plastic to fuel or clothing or more sustainable packaging could give consumers a good reason to pick up all that plastic and make a profit from it … while preventing other environmental nightmares.

Tallying Customer Complaints: Bad News for Banks

2010-06-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

Americans sought help from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) 10% more often in 2009 than they did in 2008. And where did they focus their ire? On cell phone companies, cable and satellite TV providers and banks, according to Stephen Cox, President and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureau (via The Consumerist).

• The cell phone industry received the largest number of complaints in 2009 with 37,477, a 2.1% increase over last year.

• The cable & satellite TV industry ranked second with 32,616 complaints, up 8.7% over the previous year.

• Banks received 29,920 complaints, an astonishing 42.3% increase over the previous year.

“For the second year in a row, banks experienced a significant increase in complaints coinciding with 140 bank failures in 2009,” said Cox. “Trust in the financial sector is already extremely low and the dramatic increase in BBB complaints against banks reflects the growing discord between consumers and the industry.”

Hey! Spelling Counts!

2010-05-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

The great global conversation on the internet has many virtues for communicators … and not a few vices. One of the biggest sins — and one which has proliferated, at least in part, because the teeny-weeny keys on mobile devices encourage freeform abbreviations — is the devil-may-care way in which many people treat the matter of spelling and grammar today.

Maybe it’s because I am a marketing communications specialist for whom a basic understanding of language is a fundamental requirement, but it makes me crazy when some otherwise smart, articulate people can’t tell the difference between “it’s” and “its” or “than” or “then” … especially when they’re professional communicators.

So I was especially delighted to discover that Matthew Inman shares my sentiments. A 27-year-old web designer and online marketer, Matthew writes and illustrates The Oatmeal.

Check out his “Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling”. It’s a must-read for anyone who knows that there’s a difference between “affect” and “effect” … but can’t always remember “which” is “witch

Garlic: Effective against Vampires … and Cancer?

2010-04-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

A small pilot study in Analytical Biochemistry — and reported on recently by Science Daily — suggests a possible link between the amount of garlic that a person consumes and a lowered potential risk for cancer.

The researchers (led by Dr. Earl Harrison), Professor of Human Nutrition at Ohio State University) were exploring how some substances found in foods or contaminated water are converted into carcinogens. By testing the presence of in urine of two separate compounds (one related to cancer risk, the other to garlic consumption), they discovered that the more they found the marker for garlic consumption in their subjects, the less there was of the marker for the risk of cancer. Vitamin C had a similar effect.

Ultimately, the scientists hope to find that a nutritional intervention could be a way to stop the process that encourages the development of these carcinogens.

Why This Internet Thing Is Never Gonna Last

2010-04-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

It was first published in Newsweek via BoingBoing in 1995, but it’s all over the interweb today: “The Internet? Bah!” — author Clifford Stoll’s funny, grumpy essay on “this most trendy and oversold community.”

Here are some excerpts:

• “We're told that multimedia will make schoolwork easy and fun. … Bah. These expensive toys are difficult to use in classrooms and require extensive teacher training.”

• “How about electronic publishing? … Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure.”

• “Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping — just point and click for great deals. … Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet — which there isn't — the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.”

• “What's missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another.”

Social media are all about forging connections. In fact, for many of us, it’s human contact that keeps drawing us back to the internet today. Yet back in 1995, few of us recognized the potential of social media and social networking.

How Humans Think and Behave in a Crisis

2010-03-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

While I’m not one of those 2012 apocalypse loonies, it certainly does seem that our world is beset with more than its fair share of crises: economic meltdowns, natural disasters and random acts of violence.

TIME magazine recently published a fascinating article about how the will to survive can trump social norms in the event of a serious crisis or disaster. Author Jeffrey Kluger cites a new paper by an international team of social behaviorists that compares the two of the greatest maritime crises in history: the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania.

While most shipwrecks are relatively slow-moving disasters, the Lusitania sank just 18 minutes after it was hit by a German torpedo. The Titanic stayed afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes — and human behavior differed accordingly. According to the authors of the paper, "The short-run flight impulse [on the Lusitania] dominated behavior. On the slowly sinking Titanic, there was time for socially determined behavioral patterns to reemerge."

One of the key takeaways is that leaders need to move quickly in a crisis situation to 1) restore some semblance of order and 2) disseminate information about what has just happened and what needs to be done next.

M&As Expected to Increase in 2010

2010-02-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

As the credit markets begin to ease, mergers and acquisitions will likely accelerate this year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a leading global auditing firm.

M&A activity in 2010 will be driven by strategic buyers who have both the funding and the vision necessary to capitalize on acquisition targets that offer opportunities for revenue growth and enhanced productivity. The most attractive sectors for these “mergers of productivity” include:

• Consumer products
• Technology
• Energy
• Financial services
• Automotive
• Healthcare
• Entertainment and media

PwC sees financing as the key stumbling block impeding M&A activity next year, increasing the pressure on middle market deals.

What Every PR Person Should Know

2010-02-05T06:52:00.000-08:00

As a public relations consultant who does a lot of PR programming, I was intrigued by a recent piece in Fast Company , based on data from the Global Information Industry Center , that described Americans’ “greed” for information. A few interesting factoids:

• Americans consume some 3.6 zettabytes (a billion trillion bytes of information) — the equivalent of 5.1 trillion hard drives — every day.

• Of the almost 19 hours daily we spend ingesting data, the biggest chunk of time — seven hours — is spent on a computer, console or handheld device.

• Just over one hour is spent reading and only slightly more (1.13 hours), on the phone.

• More time is spent on radio (5 hours) than on TV (4.5 hours).

Knowing and prioritizing our stakeholders and learning where they get their information are critical components of every effective public relations plan. Increasingly important for PR professionals will be the ability to craft strategies that cut through “info inundation.”

Mona Lisa’s Mysterious Smile: A Symptom of High Cholesterol?

2010-02-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

For more than five centuries, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa(also known as La Gioconda) has provoked speculation and controversy. Who was she, really? What accounted for her mysterious smile? Is she even smiling at all?

Now, Vito Franco , a professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Palermo, has come up with an entirely new explanation ( for the unique appearance of this famous lady: she’s suffering from xanthelasma, a condition in which cholesterol accumulates just under the skin; it’s often associated with hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol).

Franco said that he saw clear signs of the hypercholesterolemia-related condition around Mona Lisa's left eye, according to a recent article in TIME. He also found evidence of a lipoma, a fatty-tissue tumor, on her right hand

“Illness is part of the body, not a metaphysic or supernatural dimension,” Franco told reporter Laura Anello of La Stampa. “And so, in revealing their physicality, the people depicted expose their human vulnerability independently from our awareness of the authors of the work.”

Public Relations: Among the Best Jobs in 2010

2010-01-26T07:03:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal recently published a list of the best and worst jobs in 2010, based on a CareerCast.com study that encompassed five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress.

The five best jobs (in order) are:
1. Actuary
2. Software engineer
3. Computer systems analyst
4. Biologist
5. Historian

The five worst jobs (in order) are:
1.Roustabout
2.Lumberjack
3.Ironworker
4.Dairy farmer
5.Welder

The job of “public relations executive” is ranked #79 among the best jobs…ahead of attorney (#80), architect (#86), veterinarian (#90), newscaster (#95), psychiatrist (#98), physician/general practice (#128), newspaper reporter (#184) and photojournalist (#189).

Oddly, the job of philosopher is ranked #11…well ahead of public relations. Wow. Well, there are definitely more opportunities in PR than philosophy. A recent search of the Jobs section of The New York Times yielded no “help wanted” ads for a philosopher and over 100 for public relations professionals.

Green Update: Minnesota Taxes Carbon Emissions…from North Dakota

2010-01-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

It can cost more to be an environmentally-responsible manufacturer (at least initially), so how does government level the economic playing field for a manufacturer who uses renewable energy? By levying carbon tariffs against a competitor who pollutes, reports Boing Boing.

Minnesota recently passed a measure to stop CO2 at its border with North Dakota. To encourage the switch to clean, renewable energy, Minnesota plans to add a fee (ranging from $4 to $34 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions) to the cost of coal-fired electricity produced in North Dakota, beginning in 2012. Besides being the greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions, coal has been implicated in asthma, diabetes, heart disease and neurological damage.

State officials in North Dakota—who are arguing that the carbon tariff would unfairly discourage coal-powered electricity sales in favor of renewable energy—are suing the state of Minnesota, the Bismarck Tribune reports. Anticipating this, Minnesota has set aside a half million dollars to fund its fight.

Technorati Tags: sustainability,
renewable energy,carbon emissions, carbon dioxide,
minnesota, environment,communications, public relations, Makovsky

A Brief History of Logo Design

2010-01-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

Bored Panda (via The Presurfer ) has an interesting visual tribute to the evolution of logo design that’s definitely worth a look.

The 21 powerful brands with iconic logos include IBM , Microsoft , Coca-Cola , Apple , Nike , FedEx and Google , among others.

One of the oldest logo designs still currently in use is the distinctive red triangle of Bass Brewery. Click here to see Bass’s distinctive red triangle logo prominently featured on the bottle on the far right corner of a bar at the Folies-Bergère, as painted by Edouard Manet in 1882.

The BIG News in 2009

2010-01-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

Media relations — knowing how to craft a news hook and shape a client’s messages to create a strong editorial story — is one of the most important skill sets for public relations firms and individual PR practitioners.

But tunnel vision can sometimes be a challenge for public relations pros when it comes to crafting a strong pitch. That’s why I think that the infographic produced by GOOD magazine is worth a look.

Based on data provided by Journalism.org, the interactive chart offers media relations experts an enlightening look at the broad range of news stories that grabbed our attention last year. In 2009, the two biggest stories were the economic crisis and healthcare reform — no surprise there! — but the mammogram policy change appears to have gotten just as much coverage as the Tiger Woods scandal.

Journalism.org reviews the news from 55 outlets every week, calculating what percent of the week’s print, television, radio, and internet reporting is devoted to each story.

Biotech Breakthrough: Going “Back to Nature” for Drug Delivery

2009-12-28T08:38:00.000-08:00

A team of researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara has announced a major breakthrough in healthcare — the development of artificial red blood cells (RBCs) that look and act like natural ones — that offers new product development opportunities for the pharma industry and the healthcare consumer, according to Scientific American (via Neatorama).

Also known as erythrocytes, red blood cells — the tiny, concave disks that deliver oxygen to the body’s tissues — account for approximately a quarter of the cells in the human body. To make RBCs in the lab, Dr. Samir Mitragotri and his colleagues started with spheres of biodegradable polymer, collapsed them into disk shapes, layered them with proteins and then dissolved away the polymer, to leave soft, strong, flexible shells — the same diameter as authentic red blood cells — which can squeeze through capillaries smaller than their own diameter, just like the real thing.

What’s more, they can carry substances (e.g., an anticoagulant or some other pharmaceutical) just like real RBCs do, making this advance in biotechnology a promising new frontier in drug delivery systems, as well.

We Learn to Communicate before We’re Born

2009-12-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

Apparently, I’ve been preparing for my career in communications since before I was born.

A new study (via Neatorama) reveals that humans begin to learn their native language in the womb. Comparisons between babies a few days old in France and Germany reveal that newborns cry — the earliest form of human communications — in their native language.

Led by Kathleen Wermke of the University of Würzburg’s Center for Prespeech Development and Developmental Disorders, a team of scientists found that fetuses are not only become familiar with the sound of their mother’s voice in the womb, they’re also learning some important communications patterns inherent in their native tongue.

French newborns, for example, tend to cry with a rising melody, whereas German newborns prefer a falling melody. Those patterns are consistent with characteristic differences between the two languages, according to Wermke. (While French children call for “Papá,” German kids want their “Pápa.”)

A PR War Triggered by a Graphic Design Choice

2009-12-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

As my colleague, Tim Kane has said, “People don’t buy brands. They join them.”

This was amply demonstrated this summer when Ikea unleashed a major global brouhaha by swapping its signature typeface — a customized version of Futura — for Verdana, a simpler, cheaper and more widely available font, originally created by Microsoft specifically to be used on the Web. (On his blog, Mattias Åkerberg compares and contrasts the two fonts.)

The reaction was swift and passionate. An article by Lisa Abend in TIME magazine quotes some typical responses: “‘Ikea, stop the Verdana madness!’ pleaded Tokyo's Oliver Reichenstein on Twitter. ‘Words can't describe my disgust,’ spat Ben Cristensen of Melbourne. ‘Horrific,’ lamented Christian Hughes in Dublin.”

In my opinion, the real problem is that Ikea is widely known for the unpretentious and simple — but beautiful — design of its furniture. Its original typeface fit the company’s style and, thus, supported the company’s brand. With the switch to Verdana, Ikea seems, to its some of its most hardcore fans, to be surrendering its originality and credibility for expediency … and violating its brand promise.

The Placebo Effect Plagues the Pharma Industry

2009-11-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Wired magazine (via Neatorama) recently ran an interesting article with a surprising title: “Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.”

“Despite historic levels of industry investment in R&D, the US Food and Drug Administration approved only 19 first-of-their-kind remedies in 2007 — the fewest since 1983 — and just 24 in 2008,” writes Steve Silberman. “Half of all drugs that fail in late-stage trials drop out of the pipeline due to their inability to beat sugar pills.”

If a drug cannot beat a sugar pill when it comes to providing relief, it won’t go on the market.

From 2001 to 2006, the percentage of new products cut from development after Phase II clinical trials, when the pharmaceuticals are first tested against placebo, rose by 20 percent. The failure rate in more extensive Phase III trials increased by 11 percent, mainly due to surprisingly poor showings against placebo.

Teasing out the true effects of a pharmaceutical from the brain’s own healing mechanisms, triggered by a belief in the efficacy of an ersatz medication, is a real challenge. In the meantime there are fewer new pharmaceuticals available to ailing patients and more financial woes for the beleaguered pharma industry.

Making a Natural Connection with the Social Media

2009-11-12T11:20:00.001-08:00

Last month, Estée Lauder launched a clever promotion in New York City and other key markets. The beauty leader offered visitors to its retail counters free “social media makeovers,” including product samples and a professionally shot and retouched photo that they could use on their blogs.

The program has a two-fold strategy, according to spokesperson Tara Eisenberg: helping to contemporize the 63-year-old brand for younger women, while acknowledging the fact that the older women who are have traditionally been Estée Lauder’s target consumer are rapidly embracing the social media.

“The gift that the brand hopes will keep on giving is that the [bloggers’] profile photos include the Estee Lauder logo in the background, which, assuming they aren't Photoshopped into oblivion, could give the brand lasting presence on Facebook beyond its own 27,000-member plus fan page,” reports Jack Neff in Ad Age. Public relations, of course, is also being used to spread the word about the campaign in the mainstream media.

2009-10-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

Public relations people tend to be inveterate data hounds, because the intelligence provided to us by research can help us communicate with our clients’ stakeholders at the times, and in the places, that they are most likely to be receptive to PR messages.

So I was very intrigued recently by a nifty interactive chart in The New York Times. Based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s American Time Use Survey, it shows how Americans spend their days. While it’s not comprehensive, I found it very interesting.

Click on the image above. Then, scroll back and forth to see who’s doing what, when. Click on the chart in any activity area to minimize it and get an interesting factoid. Change the demographics to compare and contrast.

Did you know that the majority (53%) of people with advanced degrees wake up between 6:50 and 7:00 am? Not this PR person, alas. I am however one of the very elite two percent of Americans who are already hard at work on the computer at 8:20am.

High-Tech Device Makes You Part of the Matrix

2009-10-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

Where body modification intersects with technology, you find the intriguing new product concept developed by Jim Mielke: a Bluetooth tattoo.

Made of silicon and silicone, it’s a thin, flexible high-tech device implanted between the skin and muscle. The top surface can be accessed through the skin. Instead of ink, the display uses minute “smart” spheres that are tattooed over the device. Tiny tubes attach it to an artery and a vein. Blood flows to a small fuel cell (which converts glucose and oxygen to electricity) and flows out again through the vein.

The new high-tech tattoo can communicate wirelessly with other Bluetooth devices, both in the outside world and — perhaps even more importantly — inside the body! Can a healthcare application be far behind? Could this high-tech tattoo be useful, for instance, in diabetes management?

Web Disclosure: The Ongoing IR Dilemma

2009-10-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

Neil Hershberg, SVP of Global Media for Business Wire wrote an interesting op-ed in Bulldog Reporter’s IR Alert contending that web-based disclosure “still isn't ready for prime time.”

He cites a number of reasons why — one year after the SEC’s Interpretive Guidance Release — investor relations professionals are no further along when it comes to using Web 2.0 as a channel for the release of important information to investors.

Certainly, one key reason for the inertia was the horrendous financial meltdown, which began in 2007 and accelerated in 3008. In the face of chaos, Hershberg asserts, investors (and IR professionals) clung closely to what they believed to be “the global gold standard” of disclosure.

While I would agree that blogs, bulletin boards, Tweets and RSS feeds are no substitute for the traditional broad, simultaneous release of official information, they can undoubtedly be an extremely useful adjunct. As the aggregate number of analysts declines — and the number of investors using the social media rises — it’s good for the investor relations community to be prepared for an inevitable sea change in material disclosure.

Cartographers of the Paleolithic

2009-09-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

It’s easy to forget, when you found your mind wandering during a particularly long and boring meeting, that human have been communicating nonverbally for as long as 40,000 years, through the graphic and visual arts.

Most of us are familiar with the Chauvet Cave paintings and the Venus of Willendorf. But were there other ways in which prehistoric people communicated with visuals and graphics? The answer appears to be “yes.”

According to the Telegraph (via TYWKIWDBI), a 14,000-year-old stone tablet found in a cave in northern Spain in 1993 is believed to be the oldest known map. “The landscape depicted corresponds exactly to the surrounding geography,” says Pilar Utrilla, who led the research team, “complete with herds of ibex marked on one of the mountains visible from the cave itself.”

It’s a useful reminder that communications need not — indeed, should not — be confined to words. Visuals and graphics can be powerful communicators of important information.

Insurance, Trust + the Free Market System

2009-08-27T06:21:00.000-07:00

According to the IBM Institute for Business Value, “The insurance industry suffers from a general lack of trust — the ‘animosity issue.’” In fact, only 41% of U.S. customers agree with the statement that “insurance companies can be completely trusted.”

So, I was very interested when I saw a piece on Boing Boing on the “anti-universal-health-care” movement which ultimately led me to Bill Moyers’ interview of Wendell Potter on PBS. A former VP of public relations at Cigna, Potter was talking about the “dirty tricks” used by the insurance industry to fight universal healthcare.

“The [insurance] industry has always tried to make Americans think that government-run systems are the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, that if you even consider that, you're heading down on the slippery slope towards socialism,” Potter said. “We shouldn't fear government involvement in our health care system. There is an appropriate role for government.”

I say, let the free market compete — and if government comes in, they will compete, too.

Bird Hammers Humans When It Comes to Investing

2009-08-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

Oh, dear. More bad news for the investment community, from the Telegraph (via Arbroath).

With a 13.7% return, a five-year-old parrot named Ddalgi won a third place finish in a South Korean stock investment contest sponsored by Paxnet, an online stock market information provider. The parrot trounced seven human investors, who averaged a 4.6% loss. The only two humans to outperform Ddalgi realized investment returns of 64.4% and 21.4%, respectively.

The human investors chose whichever stocks they wanted; Ddalgi, using its beak, made random choices from balls representing 30 blue chip companies. Each investor started with 60 million South-Korean won ($48,438) and traded 10 million won ($8,073) worth of stocks in each transaction.

The Moral Is: Don’t Be a Technology Snob

2009-08-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

It’s sometimes easy to forget in today’s high-tech world that there is still an important place for “low-tech” media. A tip of the hat to JWT Tokyo, which recently won an award for a breakthrough campaign — designed to market the Nestlé Kit Kat candy bar — that centered on a 4,000-year-old technology: snail mail.

The ad agency was struck by the Japanese translation of Kit Kat (“Kitto Katso” means “surely win”) and the tradition of sending good luck wishes to students before important exams. So they collaborated with Japan Post to create Kit Kat Mail, a new postcard-like, good luck charm that could be purchased only at the post office … the equivalent of 20,000 entirely new, competitor-free retail outlets for Nestle’s.

According to Advertising Age, the campaign generated the $11 million in ad equivalency and Kit Kat Mail has become a permanent part of Japanese pop culture. Even in one of the world’s most technology-driven countries, it’s clear that there are plenty of opportunities to be had, if you just slow down and look around.

Diabetes? Hypertension? There’s an App for That!

2009-08-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

The iPhone represents an important — “potentially huge” — new marketing opportunity for pharma marketers, as outside developers begin to morph the phone into a diagnostic device for both consumers and healthcare professionals.

According to reporter Rich Thomaselli of Advertising Age, when Apple unveiled its 3.0 software-development kit this spring, the company demonstrated how pharmaceutical manufacturers could exploit the iPhone's external-accessories application to hook up a blood-pressure cuff to the iPhone.

“For Big Pharma, the opportunity is clear, writes Thomaselli. “A consumer who tests positive for high blood pressure or diabetes via the iPhone will clearly be a marketing target for prescription medications or ancillary medical services.”

Recently, LifeScan, a Johnson & Johnson company that makes diabetes products, introduced a prototype for an application that would allow diabetics to interface their glucometers with the iPhone, thereby enabling them to better adjust their medications and diet.

There are already more than 500 medical apps among the iPhone’s more than 35,000 existing apps. An issue that’s certain to arise in the not-so-distant future: the question of when an iPhone becomes a medical device — and thus subject to FDA scrutiny.

Back to the [High-Tech] Future

2009-07-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

BT claims — with good reason, it appears — to be the world’s oldest telecommunications company. Even before it became British Telecom, as the General Post Office (GPO), it was envisioning a future that included an array of sophisticated technologies, foreshadowing VoIP phones, Google maps, videoconferences and telecommuting.

Very cool and surprisingly prescient, this video appears to have been produced in the late 1960s/early 1970s, imagining leading-edge technology in the 1990s.

“Multitasking: Destroyer of Human Happiness?”

2009-07-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

The ability to juggle dozens of balls simultaneously has always been a fundamental requirement in the public relations profession — especially in New York. That may be why I’ve always been fascinated (and repelled) by the apocalyptic tone of many social critics when they describe the dire effects of multitasking.

“Certain studies find that multitasking boosts the level of stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and wears down our systems through biochemical friction, prematurely aging us,” novelist and critic Walter Kirn wrote in the Atlantic. “In the short term, the confusion, fatigue, and chaos merely hamper our ability to focus and analyze, but in the long term, they may cause it to atrophy,” he warned.

Um, that can’t be good.

So I was delighted to read Sam Anderson’s “Defense of Distraction” recently in New York magazine. “This doomsaying strikes me as silly for two reasons,” he writes. “First, conservative social critics have been blowing the apocalyptic bugle at every large-scale tech-driven social change since Socrates’ famous complaint about the memory-destroying properties of that newfangled technology called “writing.” (A complaint we remember, not incidentally, because it was written down.) And, more practically, the virtual horse has already left the digital barn. It’s too late to just retreat to a quieter time. Our jobs depend on connectivity.”

PR professionals have long recognized the benefits of being a world class multitasker: the ability to sift through information quickly, see associations that others may miss and increased passion, energy and creativity.

I’d rather be challenged than bored, anytime.

On John Dillinger, Banks & the Crisis in Consumer Confidence

2009-07-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

In a recent interview, Johnny Depp — who plays notorious Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger in the new film Public Enemies — said that it was because the banks were so unpopular in the 1930s, that the criminal became “a hero of the people.”

The producers must be rubbing their hands with glee at the propitious timing of the movie’s release. According to a recent Gallup Poll, Americans’ confidence in U.S. banks reached a new low in May. Only 20% report that they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in banks, while 35% have “very little” confidence.

Gallup first began asking Americans about their confidence in banking in April 1979. Prior to this year, the combined "great deal" and "quite a lot of confidence" numbers had not fallen below the 30% of the recession of the early 1990s … so the early April 2009 reading of 18% who have a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in U.S. banks represents a new low.

However, even as confidence in U.S. banks in general has plunged, many Americans continue to express confidence in the main or primary bank where they do most of their banking business. Over the last four weeks, 60% have said they have a great deal (27%) or quite a lot (33%) of confidence in their main bank. Only 12% expressed very little confidence in that bank.

PR salutes “Web 2.0”: The Millionth Word in the English Language

2009-06-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

As a public relations professional at a leading New York City-based PR firm, words are important to me. (For the record, words are also important to my boss, Ken Makovsky, who once devoted an entire entry in his “My Three Cents” blog to his distress over the challenge to the English language posed by texting shorthand.)

So I paid attention when The Global Language Monitor(GLM), announced that — on June 10 at 6:22 am EST — the English language had acquired its one millionth word: “Web 2.0” — defined as “the next generation of web products and services, coming soon to a browser near you.”

Among the finalists for the 1,000,000th word: “Jai Ho,” “N00b,” “slumdog,” cloud computing” and “carbon neutral.”

For the record, at its current rate, English generates about 14.7 words a day, or one every 98 minutes. Based in Austin, TX, GLM documents, analyzes and tracks language trends worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon Global English.

Technology Is Changing Patients’ Healthcare Experience

2009-06-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

Patients who use the internet to find health-related information say it’s having a significant impact on the way they care for themselves and others, according to Navigating the New Health Care Delivery System, a study conducted by the Pew Internet Project in partnership with the California HealthCare Foundation.

While the final report is not out yet, Pew’s Susannah Fox has previewed some of the findings, including the following interesting tidbits:

• 8 out of 10 internet users — or 61% of U.S. adults — have looked online for health information.

• While the vast majority of people with a health question want to consult a health professional, the second most popular choice is friends and family. Third choice: the internet and books.

• 41% of “e-patients” have read someone else's commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online news group, website or blog.

• One-quarter of e-patients have consulted rankings or reviews of doctors or other providers online.

• One-quarter of e-patients have consulted rankings or reviews online of hospitals or other medical facilities.

• While online health research does not replace traditional sources of health information, the Pew Internet Project finds that e-patients are using the internet to reinforce and supplement traditional sources of care.

It’s not surprising then, that “the majority of consumers want to share decision-making with their doctor. In fact, only 20% are content to let their doctor control those decisions, according to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions in its 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers.

Geek Chic

2009-06-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Okay. I confess it. I’m a technophiliac. I’m a sucker for high-tech-gadgets gadgets … no matter how expensive or unnecessary they may be. Even defunct technology exerts a strange power over me. So I was delighted to find a great little gallery on Boing Boing: “Ten Beautiful Computers.” Featuring examples of some of the most whiz-bang technologies of all times, the list (compiled by Rob Beschizza) includes the:

• ZX Spectrum
• Cray 2
• PDP-10
• Antikythera Mechanism
• Sinclair ZX80
• Macintosh G4 Cube
• Ingraham
• CPC-464
• Difference Engine
• D-Wave Quantum Computer

My personal favorite: the Antikythera mechanism (seen in the image above, before reconstruction). Dating to about 150 BC, this gem of the collection is the oldest known complex mechanical computer.

Mending a Broken Heart

2009-05-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

Contrary to popular belief, the human heart has the capacity to regenerate itself.

A team of researchers, led by Dr. Jonas Frisén at the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has discovered that about half of the heart’s muscle cells are replaced over the course of a normal lifetime. (About 1% of the cells are replaced every year at age 25, with the rate gradually falling to less than 0.5% per year by age 75.)

“I think this will be one of the most important papers in cardiovascular medicine in years,” says Dr. Charles Murray, a heart researcher at the University of Washington, The New York Times reports.

In 1987, Dr. Piero Anversa, now director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Harvard Medical School, suggested that that heart muscle cells are renewed so fast that at 80, a person has replaced his heart four times over.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. If scientists are able to discover how the regeneration of heart muscle cells is regulated, it may be possible for the pharma industry to develop a whole new range of cardiovascular drugs to help fix wounded hearts.

“State of Play”

2009-05-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

I just saw an interesting, suspenseful movie for grown-ups. (It doesn’t involve comics, superpowers, or computer-generated special effects.)

“State of Play” is a thoughtful thriller that pairs a scruffy reporter from the mainstream media (Russell Crowe) and a hip young blogger (Rachel McAdams) working for the same newspaper, the “Washington Globe.” Together, they ferret out the nefarious secrets behind the apparent suicide of a young congressman’s researcher/girlfriend. The congressman (Ben Affleck) is heading a committee investigating the doings of an enormous, sinister private military contractor.

What’s great about the movie: its affectionate and detailed depiction of the great tradition of investigative journalism and its acknowledgment that, in many case, the same impulses drive serious bloggers. What disturbed me? The hilarious — and awful — character of Dominic Foy (Jason Bateman), the epitome of a sleazy public relations consultant. (I seem to recall that, at one point in the movie, Foy bellows something along the lines of, “I don’t know anything. I’m in PR!”)

Notwithstanding the oily PR guy, if you’re looking for an intelligent, adult movie, you might want to consider "State of Play." I like its position that the social media aren’t intrinsically better or worse than the mainstream media. As Salon.com critic Stephanie Zacharek writes, “While ‘State of Play’ is, in some ways, an elegy for the printed newspaper, it's really more of a rallying cry for newspapers to rethink and retool everything, fast. The new house has to be built and ready before the old one crashes to the ground.”

Productivity Linked to WILB

2009-05-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

Technology has blessed us with many benefits. It has made a world of information available to us, enhanced collaboration, made research easier and replaced voicemail with the infinitely less odious email. In fact, I like my high-tech distractions so much, that I’ve started to feel a bit guilty. Should I be “wasting” this much time idly tooling around the internet?

Good news. According to a recent University of Melbourne study, individuals who WILB — in other words, people who surf the Internet for fun at work — are about 9% more productive than those who don’t. It appears that taking short breaks in your routine, including a quick bit of WILB, enables the mind to rest itself, restoring your ability to concentrate.

It’s important that no more than 20% of the workday be spent in WILB, says Dr. Brent Coker of the University of Melbourne’s Department of Management and Marketing, because internet addiction can have the reverse effect, causing workers who are online to become irritable if they are interrupted.

So, WILB — in moderation — it’s good for you and your business.

Did Bacteria Invent Communications?

2009-04-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

Communications may be a fundamental principle of life. At least, that’s one of the big ideas I took away from Bonnie Bassler’s TED talk a few months ago.

A brilliant molecular biologist at Princeton University,
Dr. Bassler studies how bacteria use chemical signals to communicate with each another, enabling them to act in concert to mount attacks and coordinate defense.

This behavior — called “quorum sensing,” or bacterial communication — used to be considered a rare phenomenon. Dr. Bassler contends that nearly all bacteria do it and most do it all the time. These tiny single-celled organisms can distinguish between their own and other species, “speaking” one language within their own species and communicating with other bacteria in an interspecies language, like a form of “bacterial Esperanto.”

The pharmaceutical industry is paying careful attention to her work, since Dr. Bassler’s discoveries suggest the possibility of a new generation of antibiotics that work by interfering with the communication among pathogenic (bad) bacteria … especially resistant strains.

I have to confess, however, that as a public relations consultant, what moved me most was the notion that communicating is as natural — and fundamental — as eating, breathing or reproducing. In fact, the impulse to communicate may be hardwired in virtually every living thing.

Believe Me, It Was High-Tech in Its Time

2009-04-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

One of my guilty pleasures is Smithsonian.com’s “Today in History” feature; and I was pleased to see, at the end of last month, an acknowledgement of the important advance in technology pioneered by Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia. On March 30, 1858, Lipman was issued a patent for his breakthrough concept: attaching a piece of rubber inside one end of a pencil to serve as an eraser.

(Regrettably, 17 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court would revoke the patent, ruling that “a pencil with an eraser is just a pencil with an eraser and not a new invention.” Churlish of them, in my opinion.)

According to the Chicago Tribune, the U.S. is the single largest market for wood-encased pencils today … in part, because it is the instrument-of-choice when it comes to solving Sudoku and crossword puzzles. It’s also immensely useful in all of the communications professions … but especially public relations and journalism. Unlike a pen, a pencil never leaks, surprises you by running out of ink or freezes in cold weather. Despite its many virtues, however, I know people who haven’t written anything with pencil — let alone erased it — for years now.

At the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney, I have to say that I have nothing but pity for my colleagues who were born into a high-tech universe in which the delete button is sufficient to their needs.

When You’re Dealing with a “Toxic” Brand

2009-04-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Gawker recently published a memo from AIG Corporate Security outlining “certain protective measures all employees can take in order to increase their overall safety and security.” The #1 measure? Don’t showcase the AIG logo.

A few days later, the insurance giant removed its corporate logo from one of its New York buildings, replacing AIG with AIU. In Nashville, an AIG subsidiary was renamed American General Life and Accident (AGLA).

"Moving to a brand that the company built its reputation on and that doesn't immediately bring to mind AIG certainly helps with new business sales," said Shayna Schulz, an AIG spokesperson.

Ouch.

A strong brand — including the corporate name and logo — is an essential element of a company’s public face. Lots of brands weighed down with negative attributes reinvented themselves, including Enron (renamed CrossCountry), Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), WorldCom (MCI) and Philip Morris (Altria). The time has come for AIG to begin to distance its insurance businesses from the financial products unit that helped tank the company and the economy. It’s time for AIG to shape its new corporate identity.

A Green Lining in a Big Grey Cloud?

2009-04-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

I just read a story designed to gladden the hearts of everyone with an interest in environmentalism, sustainability or living green. In 2008 — at least in part as a result of the economic meltdown and volatile fuel prices — U.S. public transit ridership reached its highest levels ever in 52 years: nearly 11 billion trips. What’s more, for 2008 as a whole, the total number of miles driven dropped nearly 4% — almost 108 billion fewer miles than in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Despite falling gas prices, many people are sticking with public transportation to save money, according to Rosemary Sheridan, vice president at the American Public Transportation Association. However, the "doomsday budget” recently passed by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) probably didn’t figure in Ms. Sheridan’s prediction. MTA will be raising fares significantly, while scaling way back on services … a move that’s making millions of New York commuters unhappy and threatening our dainty carbon footprint.

Bummer! To paraphrase the lyrics of one of the greatest songs by one of the greatest rock bands ever: It looks like “every silver lining’s got a touch of grey.” We’ve got to get ourselves back to the green.

How Are the Mighty Fallen!

2009-03-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

There have been massive changes in the practice of public relations since I first joined the PR firm of Makovsky + Company more than ten years ago. Back then, most major cities had two or three local newspapers. Today, many are down to just one, as Ken Makovsky has described in his recent “My Three Cents” blog… and it’s at risk of folding.

On March 16, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last print edition, leaving the biggest city in the state of Washington, with just one daily newspaper, The Seattle Times. The 146-year-old Seattle P-I will live on in a digital version as a “news and information portal.”

The struggling U.S. newspaper industry must be waiting with bated breath. Who’s next?

Just a week, content provider 24/7 Wall St. released a list of the 10 most endangered major daily newspapers. Based on an analysis of the financial strength of their parent companies, the amount of direct competition they face in their markets and their financial losses, these are the newspapers likeliest to fold or begin publishing an online edition only … many within the next 18 months!

1. Philadelphia Daily News
2. Star Tribune
3. The Miami Herald
4. The Detroit News
5. The Boston Globe
6. San Francisco Chronicle
7. Chicago Sun-Times
8. New York Daily News
9. Fort Worth Star-Telegram
10. The Plain Dealer

I’m a big believer in consumer-generated media and the importance of citizen journalists as investigators and whistleblowers — but as a public relations consultant and a citizen, I certainly would hate to lose the professionals of the Fourth Estate.

Technorati Tags: media crisis, newspapers, journalism, 24/7 Wall St., Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times, Philadelphia Daily News, Star Tribune, Miami Herald, Detroit News, Boston Globe,San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Daily News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Makovsky + Company, PR firm, Ken Makovsky, My Three Cents

A Question to Bankers: What’s Up with Your PR?

2009-03-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

I recently read an interesting article in Advertising Age about the marketing challenges facing financial services industry in the post-TARP world and how banks are responding.

Some customers are asking whether Citibank is a safe place for their savings,” writes reporter Beth Snyder Bulik. “So what is Citibank doing? Running ads in the Wall Street Journal about its microfinance capabilities in Texas and India.”

It’s just one example of the tone-deaf marketing messages coming from some banks that don’t answer worried customers’ real concerns … Is my money safe? Can I trust you? Will you be here tomorrow?

According to Ad Age, the top 10 banks and credit-card companies cut their ad budgets by a more than 25% in the fourth quarter of 2008 and nearly 40% December compared with those same periods in 2007. This represents a tremendous opportunity for banks and other financial services institutions to step into the void and claim it for their brand.

As our CEO, Ken Makovsky, wrote recently, public relations “is significantly less expensive than advertising and much more credible. We’re talking about a modest investment in time and money that delivers a major return on investment.”

Multiplying the Power of Pharma Research

2009-03-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

There’s been an interesting new development in the space where pharmaceutical research and technology intersect. It’s called Sage, and it’s designed to “revolutionize how researchers approach the complexity of human biological information and the treatment of disease” by giving them access to a rich research database and the high-tech tools to collaborate on “evolving, integrated networks of biological data.”

John Wilbanks, a founding director of Sage, writes in his Common Knowledge blog that Merck, the global research-driven pharmaceutical company, has pledge to donate a vast amount of data about the biology of disease to the nonprofit.

Wilbanks writes, “Sage means that we are now on the path to a world in which scientists working on HIV in Brazilian non-profit research institutes (like my mother-in-law) will be able to use the same powerful computational disease biology tools as those inside Merck. I'm very much looking forward to living in that world,” he adds.

So am I. While it will take an estimated three to five years to see the first fruits of this project, it’s exciting to think of the intellectual power that will unleashed by using technology to tap the great global brain.

Don’t Mess with My Brand!

2009-03-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

Want more proof that the company doesn’t own your brand … its customers do?

This month, Pepsico will be scrapping some expensive changes to the packaging of one of its flagship products, Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice. The longtime Tropicana brand symbol, an orange impaled by a straw, had been replaced by the image of a glass of fresh orange juice.

Tropicana’s customers were furious about the brand makeover, describing it in letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls as “ugly” and “stupid,” and saying that it resembled “a generic bargain brand,” according to The New York Times.

Bowing to popular pressure, the original version of the packaging will be brought back next month. According to Tropicana president Neil Campbell, it wasn’t the sheer volume of the outcries that led to the corporate change of heart, it was the fact that the criticism came from some of the Tropicana’s most loyal consumers.

As my colleague Tim Kane has written, “People don’t buy brands. They join them.” You interfere with that relationship at your own risk!

DST: A Sinister Plot to Toy with Our Biorhythms?

2009-03-04T07:03:00.000-08:00

It’s almost here. The time of the year I hate most. The day on which I am robbed of a precious, precious hour of sleep … Daylight Saving Time. This year in the U.S., DST begins on Sunday, March 8, at 2:00 am, when clocks are adjusted forward one hour. Time doesn’t revert to normal again until November, when clocks are set back (and I get my hour of lost sleep back again.)

I’m a public relations consultant. I work for a leading business-to-business (B2B) PR firm based in New York City. Our unique positioning is the “power of specialized thinking” — so I have to be able to think. How can I think when, every spring, my bio-clock is being messed with by some Time Lord with a nonsensical agenda?

Here are the three top reasons I think we should do away with DST. (I’ve got more if you want them.)

1. It makes for less efficient workers. Studies estimate that that sleep deprivation costs U.S. businesses an estimated $150 billion a year in absenteeism and reduced productivity.
2. It’s not green. A 2008 study that examined billing data in Indiana before and after it adopted DST three years ago found that DST increased residential electricity consumption by 1% to 4%.

3. It takes time to change clocks. And as more high-tech devices contain clocks, more time is spent changing them. (I avoid this problem by leaving my watch on standard time all year-round. For the six months of DST, I simply add an hour in my head.)

In his My Three Cents blog, Ken Makovsky has written that “outstanding productivity in business depends on executives who are awake.” He suggests power napping as a solution. I say, put an end to Daylight Saving Time.

The Decentralization of Brand Building

2009-02-26T09:22:00.000-08:00

Powerful, complex and volatile, a brand is often a company, product, service or individual’s most important competitive differentiator. While marketing, public relations and advertising can help to preserve, protect and enhance the brand, it’s important to recognize that, ultimately, the brand is a collection of perceptions in the minds of your stakeholders. That was never truer than today, at a time when the Internet has empowered its 1.6 billion users to tell the world—loudly, instantly and continuously—when a brand is failing to live up to its promise.

The reverse is equally true, as I was reminded today when I happened on a video called “If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe’s” on YouTube, which its creator, San Francisco-based Carl Willat, says he “shot on my Palm Treo before I accidentally ran over it with my car.” It’s hard to imagine a paid commercial that would have the power of this three-minute-long, unofficial, fan-made riff on the unique quirks and pleasures of Trader Joe’s.

The video was posted on YouTube on January 27. By February 12, it had been downloaded nearly 124,000 times and it had swept the blogosphere, with hundreds of thousands of references and links. The vast majority of comments were made by people who talked about why they loved Trader Joe’s … reinforcing the retailer’s brand promise of being a place where “value, adventure and tasty treasures are discovered, every day.”

Senate Bill Would Bring Hedge Funds under SEC Scrutiny

2009-02-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

The Hedge Fund Transparency Act of 2009, a Senate bill introduced on January 29, may mark the beginning of the end of the “shadow banking system” which has been blamed for aggravating the subprime mortgage crisis and ultimately contributing to the global recession.

“A major cause of the current crisis is a lack of transparency,” said Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) who co-sponsored the new bill with Senator Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.). “The wizards on Wall Street figured out a million clever ways to avoid the transparency sought by the securities regulations adopted during the 1930s,” he added.

The Hedge Fund Transparency Act would require hedge funds to file an annual disclosure form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC), comply with the agency’s record-keeping requirements and cooperate with its investigations … a requirement Grassley and Levin said is necessary to protect investors and the U.S. financial system. (The $100,000 question—whether the SEC is capable of taking on this additional regulatory responsibility—has yet to be answered.)

Bloomberg reports that hedge funds lost $600 billion in 2008 — more than any year previously — and may shed as much as $450 billion in assets this year.

Last November, four hedge-fund managers—George Soros of Soros Fund Management; John Paulson of Paulson & Co.; Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital Partners; and James Simons of Renaissance Technologies—testified before Congress that some form of federal oversight was appropriate.

Bank of America Tweets Its Customers Well

2009-02-09T17:20:00.000-08:00

Our New York City-based public relations firm is a strong advocate for using the new consumer-generated, or social, media to build connections, rapport and trust. In fact, our specialized Online Fluency practice, headed by EVP + Partner Robbin Goodman, is devoted entirely to the art and science of social networking with stakeholders. So I was intrigued to read an interesting piece on one of my favorite blogs, The Consumerist, about how Bank of America is using Twitter to resolve customers’ problems.

The bank has appointed an official BofA Twitter rep, David Knapp (screen name BofA_help) to “help, listen and learn from our customers.” Knapp handles inbound requests and scans Twitter for people talking about their problems with the financial services giant and reaches out to them.

One customer reported trying to contact Bank of America “a dozen different times and three different ways,” but one tweet to BofA_help put him in directly touch with executive customer service.

Another shared his story about how Bank of America helped fix his problem: “I got the fee I was disputing canceled, and they promised to send me a gift certificate. We'll see,” he said. “… if they keep up this level of customer service I might not switch banks when I move this spring.”

It’s early days yet, but the initial response to this social media experiment is very positive. The Consumerist reports: “If you're listening to the elevator music on the phone with Bank of America, why not shoot a tweet over to twitter.com/BofA_help? Maybe he'll solve your problem before you get off hold. It'll only cost you a few seconds and 140, or less, characters.”

Fie on Your Green Buzzwords

2009-02-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

Last month, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) published its 34th annual list of “Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness”. At the top of the list for 2009 was “green” and all of its variations (e.g., “going green,” “green technology” and “green solutions”).

Other words condemned by the word mavens at LSSU include two more environmental terms — “carbon footprint” and “carbon offsetting” — plus “maverick,” “first dude,” “bailout” and “Wall Street/Main Street,” among others.

The List of “Words to Be Banished” was originally conceived in 1975 by former LSSU public relations director Bill Rabe and his colleagues. The LSSU PR office receives thousands of nominations every year from people targeting pet peeves from common parlance, current events, politics, technology, advertising, sports and entertainment. A committee makes the final selection of “Words to Be Banished” in late December.

Technorati Tags: Lake Superior State University", LSSU, Words to Be Banished, green technology, green solutions, environmental terms, maverick, bailout, Bill Rabe, , business, communications, public relations

Tough Times Ahead for the Healthcare Sector?

2009-01-27T12:24:00.000-08:00

According to a report published recently in Health Affairs, national health care spending grew at 6.1% in 2007 — its lowest rate of growth since 1998 — mainly as a consequence of slower spending on prescription drugs.

What’s more, IMS Health, a leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, reports that it has cut its estimate for growth of U.S. pharma sales to two percent or less this year … a significant decline from earlier forecasts of four to five percent.

The main causes of this deceleration in growth: fewer blockbusters, more competition from generics and consumers on a tighter budget.

But there’s no reason to throw a pity party for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies just yet. According to an article by Robert Pear in The New York Times, “In recessions, when the economy contracts, health spending usually continues to increase. “ Therefore, it’s likely that healthcare expenditures will increase their share of the nation’s GED during the tough economic times that lie ahead.

A Global Crisis of Confidence in US Financial Markets

2009-01-22T11:39:00.000-08:00

There’s a comprehensive and fascinating article in the January 3 issue of The New York Times that should be must-reading for all public relations (PR) and investor relations (IR) consultants who serve financial services companies, including private equity firms and commercial and investment banks. “The End of the Financial World as We Know It,” by Michael Lewis and David Einhorn, begins with a provocative statement: “Americans enter the New Year in a strange new role: financial lunatics. “

As proof of their thesis, authors cite “the strange story of Harry Markopolos,” a former investment officer who tried, for nine long years, starting in 1999, to explain to the SEC that Bernie Madoff, the man who engineered the biggest global Ponzi scheme ever, couldn’t be anything other than a fraud. In response, the SEC undertook a slapdash investigation of Madoff and pronounced him free of fraud.

The Madoff scandal is just one example of a systemic problem … and it’s not just a matter of insufficient oversight of the financial services industry.

According to Clusterstock, many of Madoff’s investors were well aware that his returns were impossibly good, so he had to be cheating. However, they never considered the possibility of a Ponzi scheme. They thought that the scam involved insider trading … and that’s precisely why they chose to invest with Madoff!

In many cases, the Wall Street swindler’s investors willfully chose to become complicit in their own defrauding by ignoring the old adage that “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. “

10 of the “21 Dumbest Moments in Business”

2009-01-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

I don’t know anyone who wasn’t happy to see the back end of 2008. It was a tough, tough year. There was, however, at least one bright light in the dismal landscape: The “21 Dumbest Moments in Business – 2008”, Fortune magazine’s annual list of the year’s “most laughable corporate moves.” As Fortune reports, it “proves that, even in moments of crisis, stupidity lives on.”

What I found particularly interesting is the number of these crises and scandals that could have been averted if the parties involved had taken a moment to conference with their chief communications officer, public relations firm or PR consultant about what our CEO, Ken Makovsky, calls a “PR bailout.”

Here’s an abbreviated version of the top 10 business gaffes of 2008. Check out the complete list for a look at all 21 of last year’s monumentally dumb moments.

1) Detroit execs flying to D.C.
2) Detroit execs driving to D.C.
3) Henry Paulson's initial $700 bailout proposal:
4) The final bailout
5) The Mozilo e-mail
6) The iPhone 'I am rich' app
7) Paulson's 'bazooka'
8) Tough talk from Fannie Mae
9) Scandal at the Department of Interior
10) GM's Lutz on global warming

Is Nothing Private in Today’s High-Tech Environment? Apparently Not.

2009-01-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

Crisis management, public relations, investor relations, financial communications and technology consultants, like those in our New York City PR firm, often talk about the ways in which the Internet has opened a window on private lives. There was a perfect example of this phenomenon this week on the Apple website, where Steve Jobs addressed a new flurry of rumors about his health.

In his open letter, Jobs wrote: “… my doctors think they have found the cause — a hormone imbalance that has been ‘robbing’ me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. … The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. … I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.”

In 2004, the media breathlessly followed Jobs’ successful battle against pancreatic cancer. In June 2008, his gaunt appearance gave rise to new speculation about his health. More questions were raised when Apple announced a few weeks ago that, for the first time ever, Jobs wasn’t planning to deliver the keynote address at Macworld.

While there are clear standards for disclosure of material financial information, disclosure concerning matters of health has typically been left to the discretion of the company’s board of directors. Not any more, apparently. According to Henry Blodget, co-founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of the Silicon Alley Insider, “Steve's health is NOT just a ‘private matter.’” He adds, “Steve Jobs is arguably Apple's single most valuable asset. If he's seriously ill, shareholders have every right to know this.”

Technorati Tags: makovsky, Crisis management, public relations, investor relations, technology, Internet, Steve Jobs, Apple, health focus, Silicon Alley Insider, financial communications, business, communications, public relations

The Sorry State of the Nation’s Health Care

2009-01-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

Did you know that 67 percent of Americans are overweight? That 40 percent get no exercise? Or that a whopping 96 percent of Americans don’t eat enough vegetables? Even more frightening is the fact that the current generation of American children may be the first ever to have a shorter life span than their parents.

Americans paid out a record 16 percent of our GDP (or $2 trillion) for health care in 2008 … making us the world’s biggest healthcare spender, on a per capita basis, according to a recent article by TIME reporter Alice Park. Notwithstanding the huge sums we throw at the problem of health care, the U.S. is ranked 19th — last! — among industrialized nations when it comes to preventable deaths.

The biggest problem with the U.S. health-care system, Park reports, is that it has been designed to respond to illness rather than prevent it: fully half of U.S. adults in 2005 did not receive recommended preventive care. “When we do get our cardiac health checked, too often it's because we've been rushed to the emergency room suffering from chest pains. When we do get a cancer evaluation, too often it's a diagnosis of advanced disease that has spread beyond the initial tumor site,” she writes.

If our ailing healthcare system is to recover, more attention needs to be paid to education, prevention and early treatment. It’s a strategy which has been shown to deliver promising results — for example, half of adults ages 50+ and older received a colon scan, meeting the colon cancer screening targets established by the Department of Health and Human Services in its Healthy People 2010 report.

President-elect Obama is said to rank health-care reform third on his list of top priorities, just behind addressing the financial crisis and passing an energy bill. From his mouth to our legislators’ ears.

Does the USA Need a Branding Firm?

2009-01-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

The issue of America’s image abroad was a campaign platform for Barack Obama, who said in a foreign policy speech in April, “We all know that these are not the best of times for America’s reputation in the world.”

That’s not to say that the last administration was unaware of the nation’s image problems.

According to New York Times writer Jim Arango, shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a number of very senior media executives, including the heads of every major studio, met several times with White House officials to discuss how the entertainment industry could help improve the image of the United States overseas. One of the best ideas to emerge, the participants agreed, was to distribute American TV shows and movies to foreign audiences — especially in the Muslim world.

It worked … sort of … but not the way they expected. “In the last eight years, American pop culture, already popular, has boomed around the globe while opinions of America itself have soured,” Arango writes. The latest (2006) data from the Pew Global Attitudes Project shows that the image of the United States remained negative in the 24 countries in which Pew conducted its surveys.

Bryce Zabel, a TV producer and participant in the 2001 meetings with the White House, argued then that the United States needed to regard itself like a consumer brand.
“Products like Coca-Cola are far more effectively branded around the globe than the United States itself,” he wrote in a memo that was circulated around Hollywood.

Maybe the next administration should consider a pro bono partnership with an experienced branding firm or a public relations/marketing firm with expertise in corporate identity campaigns to do for the USA what has been done for other long-term quality brands that care about their image and reputation.

Inventors: Leverage the Power of Specialized Thinking

2008-12-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

Apparently, there’s never been a better time to be an inventor. According to Doug Hall, in his recent BWSmallBiz column, “Inventors, Pick Your Industry,” big companies are desperate for new ideas. Procter & Gamble, for instance, now gets more than half its ideas for new products from outside inventors. Five years ago, that number was closer to 20 percent.

Like our founder, Ken Makovsky, Hall believes that a specialized, sector-specific approach is the best. Here is his list of the top 10 industries that provide the “most fertile ground” for inventors:

1. Finance, credit, commercial banking and other financial services head the list, with gross margins topping 50%. (“Of course,” says Hall, “recent events show this may not be a good time to enter the financial-services industry.)
2. Landlords (47%)
3. Recording/movie industry (more than 40%)
4. Computer software publishing (40%)
5. Specialized manufacturing equipment (40%)
6. Bakeries and tortilla makers (31%)
7. The “sin” industries, such as breweries and gambling (30%)
8. Soft drinks (27%)
9. Publishing, both the online and old-line (27%)
10. Pharmaceutical and healthcare industries (25%)

Hall’s list was based on research undertaken by mathematician Greg Lemmon, who evaluated the profit margins in more than 200 industries. Those sectors with the highest margins, he reasoned, should offer the best opportunities for people who are interested in licensing an idea, innovation or invention in return for a royalty payment, which can be 25 percent of the gross profits.

Technorati Tags: inventor, businessweek, Doug Hall, Procter & Gamble, Ken Makovsky, Finance, Greg Lemmon,credit, financial services, Landlords, Computer software publishing, Soft drinks, Pharmaceutical, healthcare, business, communications, public relations

High Tech: Reporting on the Crisis in Mumbai

2008-12-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

First, speaking for everyone at Makovsky + Company, let me say that our hearts break for India and the people of Mumbai, both residents and visitors. Like New York, Mumbai is the financial capital of the nation. Like Mumbai, we in New York are unfortunately all-too-familiar with the consequences of terrorism.

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time channel surfing the news networks on cable TV, trying to get a coherent perspective on the deadly terror attacks, with little luck. Coverage was brief, often contradictory and peppered with commercials. Finally, I turned to the social media, which were rich with raw, up-to-the-minute information and images.

For example, as the mainstream media struggled to catch up with fast-breaking news, the technology-empowered social media, including users of Twitter, were posting real-time accounts of the crisis to their friends and family worldwide. (Twitter is a free micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ brief text-based updates — or “tweets.”)

While it’s true that there were lots of rumors and false reports on Twitter, bloggers like Amy Gahran, a self-employed media consultant, worked hard to separate the facts from the hokum by checking out rumors.

We’re all citizen journalists today. I just wish we didn’t have to be combat journalists.

Finally … Some Good PR in the Banking Sector

2008-11-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

Talk about bad public relations! Only 21% of affluent consumers are confident in U.S. banks, according to a recent Gallup survey — the lowest level of consumer confidence in banks in three decades.

The growing financial crisis is taking its toll on everyone. According to a recent Wall Street Journal piece by Robin Sidel, 7.3 million American homeowners will default on their mortgages between 2008 and 2010, about triple the usual rate. Some 4.3 million of those will lose their homes.

The essence of good crisis management is doing the right thing and doing it quickly. Chase did precisely that when it announced its aggressive plan to modify the terms of $70 billion in mortgages for as many as 400,000 borrowers who are — or may soon be — behind on their payments, by moving them into loans with lower interest rates, smaller principal amounts or other more-affordable terms.

Said Charlie Scharf, CEO of Retail Financial Services at Chase: “It doesn't make sense for us to wait [to address the problem]. … We've heard loud and clear and are listening to what some of the thought leaders around the country are saying.”

John Taylor, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, called Chase’s announcement “a gutsy move.” We couldn’t agree more. Not only is Chase doing the right thing, it’s demonstrating and increasing the pressure on other lenders to help take some part of the burden off distressed borrowers. It’s a terrific example of proactive public relations and crisis management.

High-Tech Temptation: Leaving the Laptop Behind

2008-11-04T10:28:00.000-08:00

For most public relations professionals, technology is not just a helpful tool; it’s a driver of our business. So, as a PR person, I was initially surprised when I read the headline of a recent Wall Street Journal blog by Nick Wingfield: “Time to Leave the Laptop Behind”.

Wingfield explains: “For years, mobile workers have been ditching their desktop computers for laptops that they can take wherever they go. Now road warriors are starting to realize that they can get even more portability — and lots of computing punch — from smart phones.”

Wingfield cites a recent survey by market research firm In-Stat which revealed that more than half (52%) of technology users said they could envision using a high-tech smart phone in the future as their sole computing device … provided that manufacturers could improve keyboards, screens and applications so that they work like those that come with a PC.

We’re not there yet —Chiclet keyboards and teeny-weeny screens can be mighty frustrating for PR consultants like me who are copious note-takers — but we can see the High-Tech Promised Land that lies just ahead.

Whether smart phones get bigger or laptops get smaller makes no nevermind to me. I just want the technology in place that will let me have my office with me wherever I go!

Making the Most of Search Engine Marketing

2008-11-04T10:18:00.000-08:00

New York-based Advertising Age recently released the 2008 edition of its Search Engine Marketing Fact Pack, an overview of the top search engines, keyword use and “everything else marketers need to know to connect with consumers.”

It’s filled with interesting data. For example, a recent survey of advertisers revealed that they were robbing Peter to pay Paul. When asking which budgets they were diverting to fund search marketing programs, “magazine advertising” was the number one answer, accounting for 32 percent of replies, followed by “website development” (22%) and “direct mail” (17%).

Also worth checking out in the Fact Pack are the industry-specific rankings of the top websites and search terms. Among the sectors addressed: business information, banking, stocks and shares, telecommunications and healthcare. … all valuable business intelligence for branding and marketing firms and public relations consultants.

The Role of Blogging in Financial Communications

2008-11-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

For PR and IR professionals interested in the role of blogging and the social media in financial services, private equity, and investment banking communications, check out the article by Davis D. Janowski in InvestmentNews that addresses the conflicting views of blogging held by financial advisors, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FIRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Financial advisors see their blogs as “a harmless, inexpensive technology” that facilitates communication with their clients. FIRA views blogs as ads that require supervisory review. And the SEC contends that blogs should be treated as a company statement.

The bottom line? To avoid compliance problems, be aware of what you are saying in your blog. Keep your communications general and avoid mentioning specific transactions, products or equities by name. For more information, check out these links:

• Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards’ recently updated Standards of Professional Conduct
• “FINRA Provides Guidance Regarding the Review and Supervision of Electronic Communications”

• The SEC’s “Commission Guidance on the Use of Company Web Sites”

Kindle’s Powerful Branding Strategy: Word-of-Mouth

2008-10-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

Abbey Klaassen wrote an interesting article last month about a public relations/branding strategy that enables Kindle devotees to become ambassadors for Amazon’s wireless reading device.
This brilliant branding strategy takes social networking and consumer product reviews to a whole new level … to the real world!
None of the Kindle enthusiasts work for Amazon, nor do they receive any remuneration for their efforts.
Klaassen describes one such ambassador, Cindy Longo, who has shown off her Kindle to about 15 people in the Chicago area. She has even set up a special email address to handle requests for demos. Longo reports that she not just motivated by the urge to be of service. “I love my Kindle,’ she had said, “and if demand remains strong, authors/publishers will be motivated to make their books available in Kindle format.”
According to Drew Herdener, senior PR manager at Amazon, some Kindle owners reported that they couldn’t use their Kindles in public because strangers were asking to see it. Meanwhile, prospective Kindle buyers were asking where they could see the product. Amazon message board put the two together.

Even those of us at sophisticated, successful New York branding firms can learn a thing or two from this savvy Seattle-based online retailer.

Election Resource for Pharma + Healthcare PR Pros

2008-10-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

Blogger John Mack, who also publishes Pharma Marketing News, has been keeping track of information about the views of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama with respect to healthcare and other issues of importance to the pharmaceutical industry. He’s been posting this information on a special discussion forum devoted to the presidential campaign.

If you have a vested interest in pharmaceutical public relations, healthcare PR or health crisis management, check it out. You can subscribe to the forum and receive daily or weekly email updates.

Mack invites you to post your own stories, sources of information and opinions to the forum. “Just keep it relevant to the political issues of importance to the pharmaceutical industry,” he says.

You don’t have to register in order to post your opinions, thus preserving your anonymity.

Thought Leadership in Action

2008-10-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

Thought leadership is an important strategy in the tool box of virtually all PR practitioners, whether they work within a corporation, or as a consultant in a public relations firm. At Makovsky + Company, we define “thought leadership” as “building and promoting the expertise and/or image of an individual regarding the issues, trends or personal qualities that key constituents are most concerned about.”

At this point in time, the issues, trends and personal qualities that most concern the American public are 1) the current financial crisis and 2) the personal qualities of the candidates for president and vice president of the United States.

If you’re a senior corporate executive, you probably want to steer away from commenting on the presidential race. (Whatever you have to say automatically runs the risk of alienating half your constituency.) But you can certainly address the upheaval in the credit markets.

Procter & Gamble Co. Chairman-CEO A.G. Lafley did precisely that, when he urged congressional passage of a financial rescue plan in his op-ed — “How [the] Financial Crisis Affects You, and Why You Should Sound Off” — which ran in the October 1 issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Lafley notes that “consumers are feeling the credit crunch very directly” and some P&G suppliers are “hampered by the inability to get the capital they need to run their businesses.” He calls on Washington to come up with a proposal that Americans can support and urges folks on Main Street “to let our legislators know that it’s impacting them.”

This is thought leadership at its best. It serves to underscore the fact that consumer understanding is one of Lafley’s — and, by extension, Procter & Gamble’s — core strengths.

“Bailout”: A Failure to Communicate … Accurately

2008-10-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

Words matter. That’s especially true for public relations professionals in industries subject to regulatory oversight, such as investment banking, financial services and insurance.

The legislation that was originally introduced under the title “Troubled Asset Relief Program” and evolved into the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” was more popularly referred to by the average citizen — and quite a few legislators — as the “Wall Street Bailout.”

According to Wikipedia, “bailout” is a term used to describe a situation in which “a bankrupt or nearly bankrupt entity, such as a corporation or a bank, is given a fresh injection of liquidity, in order to meet its short term obligations.” Please note: a “bailout” would not be available to a consumer swamped by debt. And that may be at the crux of the overwhelmingly adverse reaction of American citizens to the initial proposals for averting the financial crisis.

In an article entitled “Main Street's Rage at the Financial Crisis,” BusinessWeek quotes Carol Madura, a waitress in her 50s, on the topic: “I brought up my kids to work hard and save money. Now what? The rich are getting bailouts. … The government just keeps taking our money and giving it to people who don't deserve it. We should be worried about those who are really struggling.”

If you’re involved in financial services public relations, insurance PR or investment banking PR, I’m sure you’ll agree that “bailout” is an altogether inadequate way to describe a proposed solution to a complex economic problem that threatens the financial well-being of all Americans.

Investment Banking: PR Hits the Skids at Lehman Brothers

2008-09-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Talk about bad investment banking public relations: Lehman Brothers was caught red-handed, having plagiarized parts of a Sanford Bernstein report on virtualization technology, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Susanne Craig. Known for its research excellence, Bernstein is headquartered in New York.

A research report produced earlier this year by a Lehman analyst — who has since moved on to greener pastures — contained passages that were surprisingly similar to several notes written earlier by Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi.

In a letter sent last week to its clients, Lehman acknowledged the plagiarism. “The material was not sourced to Bernstein and was used without the firm's permission,” Lehman wrote. “We sincerely apologize to Bernstein, the authors of the reports, and our clients for this incident.”

The apology was accepted, but this was a crisis that should never have happened.

Because Mr. Sacconaghi is an extremely well-regarded analyst, whose work is closely followed and widely quoted, it was almost inevitable that this misappropriation of intellectual property would be uncovered. What makes this an especially unfortunate PR issue for the investment banking sector is the fact that this scandal comes at a time when Wall Street firms are trying to rebuild the public confidence in the credibility of their research departments.

High Tech PR Is Facing a Sea Change

2008-09-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

The IFA fair in Berlin— one of the world's oldest consumer electronics shows — moved into new territory last month by making room for washers, dryers, stoves and other household appliances, alongside the more customary flat-screen TVs, digital video cameras and state-of-the-art mobile phones.

There are a number of good, sensible reasons for this change in the short-term, but the longer-term implications for high tech public relations practitioners are profound.

Today, many retailers (the IFA’s target audience) sell both types of products and many major electronic manufacturers (which underwrite the IFA) make both kinds of devices. What’s more intriguing — and this is what may make a difference ultimately in the practice of high tech PR — hybrids of the two kinds of devices are already in the works (e.g., refrigerators, with built-in LCD televisions, that send you your shopping list by email).

In high tech PR, we’re just beginning to wrap our minds around the concept of mobile marketing to cell phones. What about a future that promises DTF (direct to fridge) marketing?

Poor Jobs is Dead … Not!

2008-09-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

I hope Apple has a crisis management firm on retainer. It seems that an electronic misstep last week at the Bloomberg news outlet accidentally released a partial obituary for Steve Jobs. And the Apple CEO was still very much alive. Oops.

I would characterize this gaffe as rising to the level which requires intervention by a crisis management firm because, not so long ago, when Jobs was battling pancreatic cancer, he had kept it secret for months while he researched alternative treatments — a material issue for a publicly traded company, according to some. Then, according to CNET, “When Jobs appeared onstage at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, his thin appearance led some bloggers and company critics to speculate that he was ill again. … So given a CEO whose health has been discussed so speculatively in the echo chamber of the blogosphere, and whose company's stock has been shown to be far from immune to the influence of the rumor mill, the appearance — however brief — of a Jobs obituary online must certainly have been disquieting for those who stumbled upon it.”

There was no animus in this crisis … no partisan battling … just an electronic glitch. But a crisis management firm can help anticipate and ameliorate the negative effects of even the most innocent of accidents.

Brilliant Banking PR: Not Just Found in NY

2008-09-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

The New York banking industry has not cornered the market when it comes to creative marketing and public relations initiatives.

GOOD magazine ran an interesting story recently about Committed Action to Reduce and End Smoking (CARES), a savings program offered by the Green Bank of Caraga in Mindanao, Philippines. Consumers who want to quit smoking open a deposit account with a minimum of one dollar. For the next six months, they make deposits equivalent to the amount of money they would otherwise spend on cigarettes. At the end of the six months, depositors take a urine test to confirm that they haven’t smoked recently. If they pass the test, they get their money back. If they fail, the account is closed and the money is donated to a charity. Research has shown that opening an account increases a would-be non-smoker’s likelihood of success by 53 percent. Not even a nicotine patch has such a high success rate!

This is banking public relations that does well by doing good. It’s the kind of tactic that should be considered from New York to Los Angeles.

There Is Nothing like a Nap

2008-08-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ken Makovsky, the CEO of our public relations firm, has written about the benefits of “power napping” on his blog, My Three Cents. He passionately believes that naps enhance information processing and learning, reverse information overload and increase productivity. He’s definitely not alone in his views.

If you too want to deploy a napping strategy to become “smarter, healthier and safer,” it’s worth checking out the Boston Globe feature, “How to Nap.” It’s not just a great in-depth look at the myriad health benefits of naps and how to attain them, it’s also a great example of how to use a well-designed visual to effectively communicate complex information quickly and easily.

Just How Respected Is Your Company?

2008-08-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

Careful reputation management is an absolutely essential component of any corporate identity campaign. After all, we’re all more likely to work for, buy products and services from and recommend companies we respect and trust.

In June, the Research Institute (RI) released the results of their third annual “Global Pulse” survey, which is designed to measure the overall respect, trust, esteem, admiration and good feelings consumers have towards the largest 600 companies in the world, including the 150 largest U.S. corporations. The top-line results of this study are published annually in Forbes as a ranking of “The World’s Most Respected Companies.”

Google ranks #1 as the most highly respected company in the U.S. in 2008.

Consumers are most influenced by a company’s delivery of high quality products and services, accounting for more than 18% of a company’s reputation, according to RI; but governance and citizenship together account for more than 30% of a company’s reputation.

Here’s a complete list of the top ten most respected American companies:

1. Google
2. Johnson & Johnson
3. Kraft Foods Inc.
4. General Mills
5. Walt Disney
6. United Parcel Service
7. 3M
8. Xerox
9. Colgate-Palmolive
10. Texas Instruments

Very High Tech: Sky-High Tech, to Be Exact

2008-08-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

In his Personal Technology column in the Wall Street Journal, Walter Mossberg reports that inflight WiFi is on the way. A new system called Gogo will make it possible for any passenger with a WiFi-enabled laptop, PDA or cell phone to surf the Web, use email or IM texting and download files, including streaming audio and video, once the aircraft has reached 10,000 feet. A data-only system, Gogo will not enable phone calls and will block all services involving voice communications.

The new service — priced at $12.95 for flights of three hours or longer and $9.95 for shorter trips — is already available on a trial basis on select American Airlines flights between New York and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami. It will shortly be available also on Virgin America.

It’s a mixed blessing, this new technology. We’re either going to be more connected and productive public relations professionals, or we’ll lose one of the last opportunities left to sit quietly for a few hours and just … think.

Good News for PR Pros: Coffee May Prevent Heart Disease

2008-08-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

If you are, like me, a public relations consultant, you’ll be surprised and pleased to learn that at least one inevitable corollary of our challenging job — heavy coffee consumption — appears to have a positive pay-off.

According to a recent article in NewScientist, an NIH-sponsored study undertaken by epidemiologists from the U.S. and Spain found that people who drink several cups of coffee daily were less likely to die of heart disease than those who avoided the tasty, reviving brew. The researchers found that women who drank four to five cups per day were 34% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease; while men who had more than five cups a day were 44% less likely to die of heart disease.

One of the researchers suggested that anti-inflammatory compounds found in coffee may be responsible for its apparent health benefits.

For the record, the jury’s still out about the long-term effects of high levels of caffeine, which may increase the chances of suffering a heart attack by raising blood pressure. For now, my colleagues and I at public relations firms in New York and elsewhere will continue to indulge in our coffee habit … with slightly less guilt.

Private Equity: A Failure to Communicate?

2008-06-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

It appears that private equity firms — in both Europe and the U.S. — are suffering from an insufficiency of public relations.

“Private equity has reached a ‘critical point’ in Europe and needs to act fast before Brussels imposes legislation on the industry,” says Jonathan Russell, managing partner and global head of buyouts at 3i Group PLC and the new head of the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA), in a recent interview in the Financial Times.

Private equity firms are facing sharp criticism in Europe, where at least one leading politician has branded them “locusts.” In the U.S., they are loath to publicize returns and fiercely guard the specifics of the companies they own, despite demands from media and political groups for more transparency.

Russell admits that private equity’s own failure to communicate is partly to blame for the political backlash. “We have a fundamental gap here,” he says. “There is an impression of private equity born out of partial knowledge and some prejudice around that, some of which has roots in reality, but a lot doesn’t.”

Several of my clients in New York City are private equity firms. Through strategic PR, we have found a way to bridge the gap between secrecy and transparency to find a happy medium that works for all parties.

Are You a TimesPeople Person?

2008-06-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

Formerly dubbed the “Gray Lady” for its staid appearance and style, The New York Times has just announced the beta version of TimesPeople, a new social network for readers of the newspaper. If you’re a marketing consultant, financial communications professional, PR practitioner or just a news junkie, you may want to check it out.

Unlike MySpace, it’s not a place to find a potential soulmate. TimesPeople is much more like Digg, in that it lets you share interesting things you find on the NYT website with others in the network. Users of TimesPeople can build up friends lists and can see a “news feed” of the stories their friends are recommending, sharing and discussing.

Currently available only as a Firefox browser add-on, when TimesPeople is formally launched, it will work with all web browsers.

Drug Companies Agree to New Rules on DTC Advertising

2008-06-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

Pharma marketing consultants and health PR firms should be aware of a recently announced moratorium on new drug ads.

According to Ed Silverman, author of the Pharmalot blog, a number of leading drug manufacturers — including Merck, Schering-Plough, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer — have agreed to a six-month moratorium on advertising new drugs.

The pharma companies said that the six-month moratorium formalized industry practice, which is to educate doctors before moving to consumer communications. The change came in response to a request from Michigan Democrats Bart Stupak and John Dingell, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who had originally requested a two-year voluntary waiting period on DTC.

The pharmaceutical leaders will also begin adhering to American Medical Association guidelines about using actors to portray physicians. At least one marketer, J&J, says it won’t use doctors in ads to discuss the benefits of a drug.

How to Sabotage a Meeting

2008-06-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

A Simple Sabotage Field Manual — produced in 1944 by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA — was recently featured on the popular blogspot Boing Boing.

Among the tactics recommended to saboteurs in the WWII-era manual are techniques for “general interference with organizations and conferences.” Sadly, many are standard operating procedure in some New York City PR and IR firms … though, happily, not at Makovsky + Company!

1. Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
2. Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
3. When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.
4. Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
5. Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
6. Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
7. Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
8. Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.

It’s a cautionary tale for PR, IR, branding, financial communications and B2B marketing communications firms — and, indeed, for all consultants in the professional services space!

Medicaid Insurance Crisis: Who’s in Charge of PR Here?

2008-05-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

According to an article in the AARP Bulletin, a new rule designed to keep illegal immigrants off the Medicaid insurance rolls has had the net effect of denying healthcare coverage to tens of thousands of Native Americans … because they can’t prove that they’re U.S. citizens!

No one knows precisely how many have been affected, but in Oklahoma alone, more than 20,000 of its 700,000 Medicaid recipients — of whom almost 13% are Native Americans — have been dropped from the program, “not because they aren’t citizens, but because they’re having a tough time coming up with the right pieces of paper at the right time,” according to Mike Fogarty, CEO of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.

Native Americans and other minorities, including African Americans and Latinos, experience higher rates of infant mortality, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and cancer, according to the Office of Minority Health of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The causes are complex, but two major factors are 1) inadequate access to care and
2) substandard quality of care.

In today’s troubled economy, the issue of healthcare insurance for all Americans has the potential to become a serious public relations crisis for the entire insurance industry.

The [Divorce] Court of Public Opinion

2008-05-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

Tricia Walsh-Smith, an angry New Yorker engaged in a bitter divorce with her husband, a wealthy Broadway executive, is continuing to air her grievances on YouTube in the second of two videos about her impending divorce. The original video — which was downloaded more than 2.5 million times and was picked up by 383 mainstream media outlets in the first week — can be seen here.

Whether Walsh-Smith has helped or hurt her cause is immaterial … although I would imagine her shenanigans are unlikely to impress the judge who hears her divorce case. As MSNBC’s senior legal analyst Susan Filan said, “In the end, a divorce, as upsetting and emotional as it is, is just a financial transaction.”

As a PR practitioner in New York, who has worked for law firms and handled crisis management assignments, what concerns me is the increased potential for sudden, swift blogstorms — like this one — when parties to a lawsuit or crisis decide to take the communications into their own hands. My concern is intensified when the ultimate decision is the responsibility of lay people (members of a community or jury), who may be swayed by what they see and hear on the internet.

A New High-Tech Tool for Cell Phone Junkies

2008-05-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

I’ve been working in a technology public relations firm here in New York for more than 12 years now. It’s a great job … never boring. The only major downside is that all my non-tech-savvy, friends and relatives call me for advice whenever they’re faced with any major technology purchase. So I was thrilled to discover BillShrink, a new free service on the web that compares your current cell-phone plan to those offered by other wireless carriers and shows you the plans with the best call quality, at the lowest cost, based on your own personal usage needs. It’s still a little buggy, but BillShrink could be an invaluable tech tool that works for everyone who hates the complications that come with choosing a mobile plan.

(For the record, I currently use Verizon Wireless, but BillShrink says I could save $426 annually with T-Mobile. I’m definitely going to have to check that out!)

Early Ends to Positive Oncology Trials? Not Always Good News.

2008-05-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

According to a study published recently in the Annals of Oncology, there is a growing tendency for pharmaceutical manufacturers and clinical investigators to call a premature halt to cancer drug trials the moment a benefit appears, in order to beat their competitors to market.

The Italian group analyzed 25 randomized controlled trials of oncology drugs between 1997 and 2007 — all of which were stopped early after showing some patient benefits. More than half of the trials were stopped in the past three years. Five had enrolled less than 40% of the target number of patients. The researchers warn that “the risk of overestimating treatment effects increases markedly when the sample is small.”

Paul S. Mueller, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic— who wasn’t involved with the Annals of Oncology study — concurs, saying, “Decisions are being made on some fairly shaky evidence.”

We agree with Dr. Mueller’s conclusion: “Trials should be carried out long enough in order to obtain data about outcomes important to doctors and patients.” It’s not just good public relations; it’s good public health.

A Word to the Wise

2008-04-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

“Mind the gap,” warns a recent article in the Financial Times earlier this month. FT columnist John Plender offers substantial evidence that “income inequality in the U.S. is at its highest since that most doom-laden of years: 1929.” And, I would add, it doesn’t bode well for the image and reputation of retail and investment banks and hedge fund and private equity firms.

Here are just two of the gasp-inducing indicators Plender cites, which were the result of an analysis of Congressional Budget Office figures by Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute:

• Between 1979 and 2005, the pre-tax income for the poorest households grew by 1.3% annually and middle incomes grew by less than 1%, while the income of households in the top one percent grew by 200% pre-tax and — even more shockingly — by 228% post-tax.

• The result of this lopsided distribution of income growth was that, by 2005, the average after-tax income for the bottom fifth of households was $15,300; for the middle fifth $50,200; and for the top 1%, just over $1 million.

The subprime mortgage crisis and the collapse of the American housing market has left negative equity in its wake … also anger about a system that gives banking executives huge bonuses when the economy is booming, while taxpayers pick up the bill when banks fail.

This is certainly a public relations challenge, but it’s not just a PR challenge. It’s a fundamental operational issue that also needs to be addressed by the entire financial services industry — including banks, investment banking, hedge fund management and private equity firms and their professional associations — to avoid regulatory backlash … or worse.

Top Ten Most Useful Health Websites for Consumers

2008-04-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

I’ve just run across a news bite that I want to share with everyone interested in obtaining accurate and reliable healthcare information for themselves and their families. It’s also a great resource for those of us who work in healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing.

The Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Medical Library Association has published its list of the most useful websites for healthcare consumers. Listed in alphabetical (not ranked) order, the “top ten” are:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• FamilyDoctor.org
• HealthFinder.gov
• HIV InSite
• KidsHealth
• MayoClinic.com
• Medem Medical Library
• Medline Plus
• National Cancer Institute
• New York Online Access to Health (NOAH)
All of the healthcare websites were evaluated on the following criteria: credibility, sponsorship/authorship, content, audience, currency, disclosure, purpose, links, design, interactivity and disclaimers.

The Demise of Truth?

2008-04-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, in his My Three Cents blog, PR guru Ken Makovsky wrote about the concept of “truthiness,” a word coined by the Stephen Colbert, host of the Comedy Channel’s Colbert Report. Truthiness is believing what you feel or wish were true, without reference to logic, evidence or facts.

There’s new book out called True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, by Salon.com staff writer Farhad Manjoo. In it, he explores the idea — well supported by cognitive scientists— that when the facts don't fit a person’s frame of reference, the frame stays and the facts are ignored.

Manjoo cites a study by Stanford professor Shanto Iyengar and Washington Post columnist Richard Morin who tested Republicans and Democrats’ reactions to a list of headlines covering topics ranging from politics and race to travel and sports. The headlines were randomly paired with one of four logos: BBC, CNN, Fox and NPR. Not only did the Fox logo triple Republicans’ interest in stories about politics and Iraq, it even increased Republicans' interest (and decreased Democrats' interest!) in headlines about travel and sports.

The rise of the internet and the disintermediation of the mainstream media were supposed to help us get to the truth faster than ever before. But when people choose to read only the news that supports their ingrained prejudices, those of us who are responsible for public relations and brand management must recognize that we are facing a bigger challenge than ever before.

Environmental Claims Meet with Consumer Doubts

2008-04-24T06:20:00.000-07:00

It seems that everybody these days is leaping on the “green” (or clean technology) bandwagon. I’ve seen press releases and ads taking the moral — i.e., green — high ground from companies in virtually every industry, from financial services and professional services to pharmaceutical and technology.

It’s no surprise to find that the blogosphere is exploding with talk about environmental issues. According to Nielsen Online, sustainability buzz more than doubled between September 2006, when blogger messages on the topic totaled 83,000, and December 2007, when they had skyrocketed to 172,000.

Unfortunately, one of the most popular blog topics is corporate hypocrisy — also known as “greenwashing” — where companies misrepresent their commitment to sustainability with aggressive PR campaigns. Greenwashing was the topic in 25% of all sustainability discussions on the web in 2007, according to Nielsen.

Confirming consumer skepticism, a recent web survey by Burst Media, an online media and technology company, found that while 70% of respondents recalled seeing green ads at least occasionally, more than 20% said they never believe the claims. Two-thirds say they only believe the claims sometimes.

Before you risk overstating your company’s use of clean technology, check out the Federal Trade Commission’s Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims. Issued by the FTC in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they can help ensure that your company’s green claims don't run afoul of the law.

Good News Ahead for PR Firms

2008-04-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, the Council of Public Relations Firms announced its members’ fourth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth.

“It demonstrates that public relations as a discipline is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ but rather a ‘must-have’ for clients of all kinds,” according to Kathy Cripps, president of the Council. “This is particularly evident in consumer products/services, healthcare and technology [PR].”

Looking ahead to 2008, 84% of public relations firms are projecting top line growth, at an average overall rate of 10%. These numbers track closely with projections of 10.3% compound growth through 2011, made last fall by Veronis Suhler Stevenson. What’s more, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of public relations specialists is expected to grow by 18% from 2006 to 2016 … faster than average for all occupations.

However you cut the numbers, our future is a promising one.

The Power of a Well-Managed Brand

2008-04-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

My politics are my own business, but I have to give “props” to the team behind the Barack Obama branding initiative.

Not only is the campaign’s red, white and blue logo — an “O” which evokes a rising sun — simple, effective and easily identifiable, but it sometimes seems as if the campaign’s volunteers have been issued copies of a style manual … and they’re actually paying careful attention to it! Campaign communiqués are all set in Gotham, an elegantly simple font that gives a very American look to all the campaign’s communications, including its website.

In the interest of bipartisanship — and because this blog entry should in no way be construed as an endorsement of any political candidate — you should also check out the websites of candidates John McCain and Hillary Clinton for comparison.

Do Ethics Matter? Yes!

2008-04-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

Our job as PR practitioners is to build connections and trust, so ethics ought to be top-of-mind for us at all times, whether we work for corporations or public relations/investor relations firms.

We’ve already experienced the consequences of ethical lapses on the corporate side. And once the U.S. Presidential Election really gets underway, I have every confidence that we will be subjected to the inevitable array of charges and countercharges that range from dubious to patently untrue.

Even small sins can lead to big evils, according to Stanford Professor of Psychology Philip Zimbardo, the author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. (Zimbardo is famous for creating the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which normal college students randomly selected to serve as “guards” in a simulated prison, became so brutal so quickly that the experiment had to be shut down after only six days.)

A speaker at this year’s TED conference in Monterey, CA, Zimbardo presented the “Seven Social Processes that Grease the Slippery Slope of Evil”. They include “blind obedience to authority,” “uncritical conformity to group norms” and “passive tolerance of evil through inaction or indifference.” Zimbardo concludes that we need to foster a culture of heroism as the antidote to evil.

In its list of professional values for our profession, PRSA lists “honesty” as the #2 value, after “advocacy.” I think “honesty” warrants a promotion to the #1 spot.

Branding the Professional Services Firm

2008-04-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Uh-oh. Real GDP is not expected to “grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly,” Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke recently told Congress's Joint Economic Committee.

You can’t afford to let short-term economic conditions compromise long-term goals … especially if you operate in the professional services space — e.g., as an accountancy, law, wealth management and personal finance advisory firm. Look at tough economic pressures as a growth opportunity and consider the following seven brand-building strategies for your organization.

1. Concentrate on core values. Understand who you are and what you offer and communicate simply and directly.
2. Make a commitment to investment. Establish an adequate budget. Consider retaining an outside specialist firm to execute.
3. Prioritize your constituencies. You can’t reach everybody. Hone in on your most important constituencies.
4. Focus on your clients’ needs. Forget features; promote benefits.
5. Take a holistic approach. Integrate your marketing, advertising, customer service and product development teams.
6. Think inside out. Your employees are the vanguard of your branding efforts. Enlist their support.
7. Follow through. Don’t falter. You can’t afford to lose ground!

The bottom line? Using PR to preserve and protect your brand can mean growth for your bottom line … even in the most challenging of economic times.