Here I Am
Big hair? It’s a New Jersey birthright.
Archive for October, 2006
PR in a Political Cycle
Australia heads into an election year, with federal elections required in 2007. If you’re involved in a contentious issue, and election year is a great time to take a holiday! Why? Politics simply adds fuel to the fire. Needing to conduct a product recall? Considering downsizing staff? Thinking of starting a service centre overseas?
My Mom once worked for a home town paper. It sold copies because they regularly featured “home town heroes.” Yes - all news is local. Same with politics. If it concerns voters - politicians will mention it. And if one camp’s policy made it easier for a company to take the dreaded action, then it’ll only get bigger.
Be aware - 2007 is an election year in Australia. Look busy.
Finding My Voice
I had no idea the challenge of starting a blog. It’s taking me awhile to find my comfort level, the language, the candour, the use of humour. Perhaps it’s an added challenge when there are so many issues to write about. Everywhere I turn I see examples of outstanding communications and really poor outreach.
In Port Melbourne there’s a small restaurant with an ultra-modern logo. It’s called “Tokyo Train.” But right below the sleek looking modern train in the centre of the logo are the words, “Traditional Japanese Cuisine.” The owners don’t understand the high-tech, modern use of the logo conflicts with their food offering. If you wanted traditional cuisine, you’d no doubt select a bamboo and paper window establishment where you had to duck to gain entry and your shoes came off right away.
This is a tiny example of the bigger mistakes corporations and their leaders make when communicating. The language and the way you deliver messages reinforce or distract from the content. An automotron stating they are sorry for the impact on the environment. A gushing junior talking about the company’s long history of accomplishments. Every day you can read the paper and see the mistakes.
Sounds like a plan - a long lunch with the newspaper, dining on traditional cuisine in a stark, modern restaurant.
Managing Your New PR Career
Tonight I join a panel discussion at UTS (University of Technology Sydney) on managing your public relations career. The audience is primarily undergraduates completing their final year of studies. As a handout, I prepared the following tips.
It
Bill is Innocent
This graffiti was scrawled above a siding with the warning, “Bill Posters Will Be Prosecuted.”
So there are two interpretations: People who post bills, or a poor man named William Posters (”My friends call me Bill”).
A tiny little division…
Last week AC Nielsen released research on consumers’ attitudes towards corporations. No great surprises - we distrust large corporations and warm to small companies. Seems the same old villains get trod out - Enron, MCI, HealthSouth. There all part of the new language of corporate ne’er-do-wells.
But big companies who use this excuse run a great risk. Alienation of audiences happens every day - not just at he heights of corporate scandal. Ever get stuck on a “your business matters” tele-robotic voice queue? Find product quality slipped with your old favourites?
What turns consumers off is not the major event - it’s the end of a series of small disappointments. How many marriages fail after the spectacular revelation of adultery? Sadly that’s more soap opera than reality. Most slip away after years of growing apart - someone stops trying, then the other stops caring.
Add to that the dispassionate, corporate tone of voice that typifies the communications of many large companies and we’re headed into relationship hell.
Consumers won’t ask for counseling - they head straight to break-up (”I’ve had shampoos last longer than my relationships”). It’s up to the errant partner to mend things. Note to big corporations - get help! Listen to your diappointed partner. Be more open with your communications. Try to mend your ways.
If not, you could be small one day.
What’s In A Name?
I thought I’d done it all and seen it all - but not quite.
Client has a product that’s not doing well on the grocery store shelves. Decided a new name would help boost sales - and allow the creation of a “sub brand” underneath the over-arching product brand. Sounded fair - until we got into the brainstorming session.
Ever attend one of these? The goal is to encourage creativity and no idea is a bad idea. From a clunker might come a winner. The idea is to keep up the energy and thus the flow of great ideas.
The problem is the product. It’s a bog roll. (That’s Australian for toilet paper.) Seems this version has more sheets per roll and you have to change it less often. So out came the names…
To the credit of Claire here, the team did manage to stay on track and only dissolved into high school giggle fits once or twice. It just goes to show that every subject can be handled with a team creative session.
I’ll keep you posted on the winning name.
Small Errors in Media
A story finally appeared in The Australian Financial Review featuring a client. The interview was scheduled some weeks back. In advance background materials were provided to the writer, and the client was prepped with a review of the core facts - and messages.
It’s a challenge to summarise a highly complex story in a 20 minute meeting. Here the focus was a multi-million dollar project and how it would be implemented.
The interview went well and the reporter did her homework. She arrived well read and on point. The client focused on the core issues. In the end, the story was wonderful. It captured the complexities of the project and well positioned all parties.
Yet there was one mistake - a small error involving the number of people involved in bringing the project to fruition.
So the client wanted us to correct the mistake and call the reporter. In this instance it wasn’t worth the interference. The reporter thinks well of the client and his company. The project is positioned as a success. Circling back over a minor error raises a petty issue.
Public relations helps to limit misunderstanding and mistakes through careful preparation and well-considered approaches. There will always be minor inconsistencies as a story gets transferred through a journalist to a newspaper to an end audience. Yet the final reader will walk away with a good appreciation of our client company and their ability to deliver. The only one who will know the inaccuracy is the client.
Sometimes you have to live with the tiny errors to get across the bigger story.
What’s Your Position?
Melbourne is a perfect one hour flight from Sydney - it’s the most-serviced route of any air segment in the world. With clients in both cities I make the trip often.
One client is a growing and prosperous auto parts manufacturer. They’re new to communications. As they expand into China and America we need to develop their positioning.
It sounds easy, right?
Tell me about yourself. Make it pithy and memorable. Be unique but not hackneyed. Boil it up to a single phrase, then dive down where needed. How is that different to everyone else?
See? So it looks like a taxing day ahead.
If you see nothing, say nothing
I loved this off-beat sign posted randomly on building cladding in downtown Sydney. The small poster prescribed, “If you see nothing say nothing.” Really flies in the face of mass communications, terrorism terror and fits perfectly with my dilemma.
How do you start a blog? What’s the first thing you say? I’ve been puzzling that for the past three days.
I want to offer insights and experience from Australia. I was born American but chose to become Australian. After a career that spanned the globe, I was very happy to settle down in Sydney. Life is sweet here.
So Wally Down Undy is an attempt to help make sense of communications differences, life in Australia, what to expect if you’re here full-time or just for a business trip. It’s a wonderful place but it ain’t New Jersey. This place is rich and diverse and weird and wonderful. Hopefully I can show you all that and more.
Thanks for visiting!
