June 29, 2006
Removing Fear Through Effective Public Relations
I like my neighbor, with one small exception - he raises pit bulls. He's got 8 of them, with 3-4 rotating in to live right next door all the time.
Justified or not, the entire neighborhood is scared of them, with parents being unwilling to let their kids play outside unsupervised (a first in my small subdivision.) My wife's terrified of them, and if she's outside when he lets them out to do their business she goes inside until they're done.
It's even gotten to the point where calls have been made to the police several times by various neighborhood members for various infractions.
So I admired the way he pulled off a public relations coup this week.
Most of the neighbors were out enjoying a summer evening (hey, when it's too cold to go outside for much of the year, we Northerners take advantage of every nice evening we can get!), watching the kids play and enjoying parental conversation, when the neighbor walked out of his house carrying a laundry basket onto his driveway.
That attracted a few eyeballs. But when he reached inside and pulled out a 10" long, 4-week old puppy, it took just a few minutes before the entire neighborhood was gathered around, and each of the 8 puppies had someone cuddling it.
They were awfully cute puppies and they did what puppies do naturally - they captured the hearts of everyone.
As I was holding the puppy, I mentioned to him that I should get my wife to try to remove some of her fear of the pit bulls. He not only thought that was a good idea, but told me to take a puppy to her. A few seconds later, my wife was right in the midst of the cuddle session.
It's been interesting to watch my neighborhood ever since. Each night, the puppies come out, and everyone gathers around. Barriers are being broken, fear is being reduced, comfort is increasing.
I'm not saying that the neighborhood has lost their fear of his adult dogs, but the edge has definitely been taken off, conversations have changed from fear and accusation to intelligent communications, and he has made progress in gaining acceptance in our small community.
There's a PR lesson to be learned here. When you're trying to remove fear, one of the best ways is to educate through experiential interactions.
There are lots of ways to do this.
We've all heard that you're 29 times more likely to get killed driving in a car than in an airplane, but those facts aren't enough to change the minds of many of those who have a fear of flying. What does seem to work is fear of flying lessons, putting people into classrooms, then airplanes sitting on the ground, and eventually an actual short flight.
Another example: there's an upscale neighborhood in the Milwaukee area that suddenly had a huge printing plant built right beside it. The printing plant put up a 40' berm between them and the houses, but it wasn't until they held openhouses for all of the neighborhood, fed them, and most importantly took them on tours of the facility, showing them that the chemicals in the plant were relatively harmless solvents, and that they were properly stored and carefully disposed of that talk of mass selling dissipated.
But my favorite fear removal story comes from my days as a salesman for a paper company. We had just launched thin disposable diapers (remember the old thick ones that took up half your shopping cart for a week's supply?) and were trying to sell them into all of the retailers. One major chain refused to buy them, not saying why.
Salesperson after salesperson, even up to corporate VP's and marketing people had come in to present to the buyer, with no luck.
I was the youngest, most junior salesperson in the district. But when I heard that the district manager had given up after 7 unsuccessful calls, I asked permission to try one last time.
As I arrived with my district manager at the appointment, the buyer gave a wisecrack about how all of the old guys had failed, so now he was turning to a teenager (I looked really young in my 20's). I sat down and said, "I hear that you've said no to this product 7 times now. I'm not going to give you all the reasons why you should buy them, you've probably got the presentation memorized. I'd like to make a deal with you. If you'll tell me the real reason why you're not buying, I'll make sure that nobody else will waste your time trying to sell you them anymore."
He looked at me and scowled... and thought... Finally he said, "OK, I'll tell you. I'm sick of you guys wasting my time anyway. So, [turning to the district manager] you'll back his guarantee?"
My district manager had already given up anyway and he quickly agreed.
"OK," the buyer said, "I'll tell you. But you've got to keep your promise. I'm terrified that we're going to get dragged into a class action suit for killing some baby by exposing them to dangerous chemicals next to their skin."
My reaction? I laughed. Not only had we just made a breakthrough, but it was an overcomable objection. I reached into my bag and pulled out a little bag of the magic stuff that makes thin diapers work, a white powder called superabsorbent.
(By the way, you wouldn't believe the number of times that I got pulled aside in airports, and even strip-searched one time, for carrying little bags of white superabsorbent powder in my carry-on...)
I carefully explained that the superabsorbent used to make the thin diapers had gone through literally years of testing that proved it harmless. In fact, it is an ingredient in many different food products, including beer. I ended by saying "You could eat this bagful, if you wanted, and it wouldn't do anything to you, besides giving you a very dry mouth and throat."
"Really?" the buyer said.
"Really."
"Prove it!"
Now, I'd heard in the sales meeting that eating it was perfectly harmless, but I'd never actually sampled any. But I decided that the risk was worthwhile. So I asked "Another deal? If I eat it and don't die on you, will you place an order?"
Big grin "Sure, but you won't do it."
"OK," I said, and gulped down a full 2 tablespoons.
Now I have to admit, my mouth, throat and stomach got really dry instantly, and I felt like I was turning into a prune. But once I got a quick couple of glasses of water, everything was fine.
I offered him a bag to try for himself. He declined...
But I walked out of his office with a 1.5 million dollar order.
Not bad for a junior salesman!
What are the lessons to be learned here?
1. If your product, company, or service scares people, the best way to resolve it is through experiential training
2. The best education occurs when they actually can get directly involved in the process (if I could have gotten him to eat the superabsorbent) and see that it won't kill them
3. If you can't get them involved, actually seeing someone else experience it first hand is the next best thing
4. Sometimes logistics or regulations make it so you're unable to actually get the public directly involved in the training. This can be an excellent opportunity to bring in a reporter and camera crew or a documentary crew and let them record the experience for their audiences.
5. It is generally much better to reach out and proactively remove fears than to shut down communications. Privacy breeds imagination, which will almost always create fears that are worse than the actual risk involved.
Just remember that justifiable fear never really goes away...
And keep in mind that if your company has something that people are afraid of, you have a special need of a crisis communications plan to deal with situations that could destroy you. We recommend checking out Crisis Communications Planning: Organizing and Completing a Plan That Works
Have fun educating!
Posted by Don Crowther at 09:12 AM | TrackBack
August 26, 2005
Owning Up When The Going Gets Rough - The Power of "I Was Wrong"
They say that the 3 most important words in a marriage are "I love you" and that the five most important words are "I'm sorry, I was wrong"
When foam fell off the Shuttle Discovery during it's last launch, NASA faced a whole set of decisions. Most important was what to do about the astronauts. Thankfully, they made the right set of decisions and brought them home safely.
One other key decision they faced was whether to be honest or to follow the traditional path of bureaucratic obfuscation. In a move that is increasingly becoming best practice, NASA chose to come clean.
Michael D. Griffin, NASA's administrator bluntly stated several times that the decision to not deal with the risk of foam breaking off from the Discovery's liquid fuel tank at the spot where it did "was clearly wrong."
And William W. Parsons, the shuttle program manager stated: "You have to admit when you're wrong. (The) foam should not have come off. It came off. We've got to do something about that."
How refreshing! "We were wrong" rather than "it's under investigation".
Michelon (the tire company) learned this lesson too late last June when faults in their tires caused 14 of the 20 cars in the US Grand Prix to drop out of the race. Michelon chose to do nothing and their brand got hammered in the racing press and the consumer's mind. A week later they finally came clean, admitted their fault, and agreed to rebate admission prices for all attendees and to buy all of the tickets for next year's race - a 12 million dollar out-of-pocket error, plus the results from all of the bad will this problem has caused.
The decision to come clean when you're wrong fits with the times. While the kinder, gentler media environment of the past would tacitly accept announcements and answers that revealed nothing, today's reporters (and today's public) want to know the facts. What really did happen and why?
This next statement will make lawyers cringe all over the world, but I believe that admitting you were wrong, when you actually were, is generally better for the long-term health of your brand than the alternative.
Think of it this way - which will hurt your brand more? A devastatingly quick "we were wrong and now we're going to fix it" or months of denials, investigations, negative news stories and huge lawsuits?
In the end, doing the right thing, doing it quickly, and doing it completely will almost always win over trying to hide the truth.
Plus, it may well cost you far less in the long run and keep you out of jail (think Martha Stewart...)
It goes back to what your Mother has always said "just do the right thing." What is it that makes business people forget that?
Unfortunately, these decisions are often faced during moments of crisis, when the pressure's on and millions of factors are influencing your thought process. There are ways to prevent this, to plan ahead, to make preparations and decisions in advance, so that your mind is clear to make those that are situationally-dependent. For more information on how to do so, check out Crisis Communication Planning
Posted by Don Crowther at 11:33 PM | TrackBack
June 15, 2005
What Should Michael Jackson Do Now? Lessons In Crisis Management
Michael Jackson's acquittal has created a flood of media calls to PR experts asking "what should Michael do now to resurrect his career?"
While most of us will hopefully never to deal with Jackson's specific situation, and no matter how you feel about this particular verdict, this case does present some principles from which we can learn.
There are basically 4 steps to dealing with most crisis situations:
1. Immediately (as in drop everything and do it now, nothing's more important) assess the situation, find out what really happened, and what your involvement is/was
2. State and support your position to the press (if appropriate and necessary)
3. Once the press furor has died down, go silent on that particular issue so as to allow it to disappear from public consciousness
4. Work to rebuild your image
At this point, Michael Jackson is in the tail end of step 2. So what should Michael do at this point?
1. Reinforce the innocent verdict from the trial
Do the morning talk shows (which he is doing), say yes to Diane Sawyer, and grant the printed media their interviews.
One other suggestion in this area - Michael, we know that you're happy, feel vindicated, and that this is probably the most important moment of your life. But comparing yourself to Nelson Mandella, and putting this date on par with the fall of the Berlin Wall (which he has done on his website http://mjjsource.com/ ) is taking the celebration too far. Humility is a good thing, even in celebration. Plus, this gives your detractors further evidence to use in their battle against you.
2. Do the book
Michael's got a bubble of opportunity here - get that ghostwriter going, and turn out the story in 30 days or less to hit the shelves for fall and Christmas release. That book's focus should be on the good that Michael's done, not the sob story of how he never had a childhood. This is an important step in rebuilding the image of Michael.
3. Utilize the Internet as part of the recreation of Michael Jackson
What better way to say thank you to a loyal fan base right at this moment than to release a song onto the Internet for free download? Ideally, this would be a new song, written to honor the occasion, but it could also be classic Jackson, maybe a live concert cut with some words from Michael at the beginning or end to thank the fans that stuck by him throughout this period.
4. Get back on stage and into the studio, now
Michael built his career on music. The best way to recreate that career will be through music.
If I were Michael, I would call up that star-studded cast of trial witnesses, and ask to do duets with them in their next concert. That's the fastest way to get back out there.
Then I'd do a 6-city "Victory" thank-you tour in the US on the way to a full tour schedule in Europe, Asia and Africa where his exposure has been lower.
Since that will take 6 months to assemble, I'd spend 3 14-hour days a week in the studio cutting a new (no greatest hits allowed) album, with songs that take the classic Jackson sound and meld it with a bit of hip hop and rap. Show them on stage as part of the tour, and introduce some new moves to the Jackson arsenal.
It's going to be hard, as I'm sure that Michael would prefer to retreat, get healthy, and recover. But a career's (and a 50% stake in Beatles' discography!) at stake here, and speed is of the essence.
5. Avoid the very appearance of impropriety
No more kids sleeping in the bedroom.
In fact, I recommend that Michael go so far as to get a new pet cause. His past focus on trying to recreate the childhood he never had is simply too dangerous now.
Simply stated - it's time to grow up. Sorry, Michael, but you're an adult now.
He may want to consider donating his Neverland park equipment to some charitable organization for kids, on the condition that it is removed from his property. He certainly should bag the idea of a theme park in Africa, and stop focusing on children's causes. Those come too close to appearance of impropriety.
There's lots of other, very worthy causes out there. It's time to find one.
Now let's get general again and look back at this list of recommendations and why we're making them.
The interviews and the book are designed to support the message of innocent in a court of law.
The other three recommendations (free song release, getting back on stage and avoiding the appearance of impropriety) are ways for Michael to begin to rebuild his brand.
This is how PR works - taking general principles that work, then putting specifics into place that fit your particular situation.
PR masters have to do both - they have to clearly understand the basic concepts upon which successful publicity is built. Then they have to be creative and innovative in applying them in their situation.
My recommendation - look at your company and brainstorm 5 potential crises that could affect you sometime in the next 5 years. Choose one that has some interesting lessons to be learned in the area of crisis management.
Then call your management team together, and present a simulation. Have them imagine that your selected scenario just occurred. Then take the four principles outlined in this article, (make an assumption for point one that it's either true or untrue) and put an action plan together to deal with that specific situation.
You can make it as realistic as you wish, maybe even writing out the press release and having some people play the role of media sticking microphones in the faces of management and asking tough questions.
Afterwards, debrief the team and ask for lessons learned.
It will probably be a very valuable exercise, not only for the lessons learned, but for the experience of having lived through the simulation.
Because if it ever happens...
For more information on how to prepare for crises, check out our training manual Crisis Communication Planning
Posted by Don Crowther at 12:07 PM | TrackBack
January 17, 2005
Telling Everyone You're OK - A Key Element In Crisis Communications
Have you ever noticed that one of the first side effects of most disaster situations is that the phone lines in the area immediately go down?
I don't know what first crossed your mind when you heard about the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami, but for me it was people's faces.
Steffie, Subandriyo, Eischa, Yuswan, Ibu Hetarihon, and dozens more of my friends made during the 14 months that I lived in Indonesia. I wanted to know if they were ok, if they were directly affected, and most importantly, what I could do to help.
There's a consumer insight here. I believe that the first thing people think about in disasters is how it affects the people they know, or maybe just know of. That's why the phone lines go down - calls to check.
We've talked a great deal about how every company needs a crisis communications plan to handle any kind of crisis. And for most companies, their crisis communications plan doesn't kick into action unless they are directly involved.
Consumer behavior says that's not the way to do it. It says that if there's a crisis in your area, your customers, clients and friends want to know your status...
Even if you're not affected.
Imagine your reaction if you were to receive a note like this:
"As you are aware, this morning a major earthquake and tsunami struck the west coast of Sumatra. While damage reports are still coming in, it appears that loss of life and property will be huge.
"Fortunately, none of our facilities nor employees were directly affected by this disaster. All of our production lines are operating at full capacity, and we see no difficulty in meeting all current and future orders."
It's a simple, informative way to let people know that everything's ok.
And it could help to ensure that the order they were hesitating to send you still arrives.
You could even take this announcement further by announcing that you are sending a crew to the disaster site to assist in rescue and cleanup efforts, too.
How close does a disaster have to strike to trigger this type of communication? That's up to you. But remember that few people pay enough attention to the news reports to know more than the general area where something occurred. On top of that, most people have very little concept of geography. (I've heard many times "Oh, I know someone from the U.S.. Do you know them? They live in Texas." "No, Texas is more than 1000 miles from where I live.")
Conclusion - don't forget to include an "all's well" alert system in your Crisis Communications Plan - it can not only reduce concerns, but it may help to preserve business that you might have otherwise lost.
Need more information on how to develop and implement a Crisis Communications Plan? Pick up a copy of Crisis Communication Planning: Organizing and Completing A Plan That Works. It's a must for every organization!
Posted by Don Crowther at 09:28 AM | TrackBack
July 15, 2004
7 Must-have Elements in Every Crisis Communications Kit
Chances are incredibly high that your company is going to experience a crisis of some kind in the next 5 years. It's how you handle that crisis with the media which will likely determine whether that crisis builds or seriously damages your company.
That's why it is vital that you develop a crisis communications and management plan that prepares you in advance for this eventuality.
In preparing this plan, keep in mind that this crisis may allow you to continue business as normal, or it may result in a situation where you aren't able to get access to the tools you normally use to do your job (natural disaster, lockout, etc.) so your crisis communications kit needs to provide the capability for you to provide the appearance of normality even in the most abnormal situations.
Thus it's important for your crisis communications kit to not only be duplicated in some offsite location, but to also include information, disks, graphics, computer files, photos, etc. that are normally readily at your fingertips in your office.
Here's a starter list of seven items that should be included in any crisis communications kit:
1. A list of the members of the crisis management team, which should include, at minimum, the CEO, a trusted assistant/top manager from the CEO's office, heads of each department, public relations and marketing team members, legal and security.
In case of actual crisis, this team will be focused down to the group applicable to that specific crisis.
2. Contact information for key officers, spokespeople, and crisis management team members
Including company and personal phone numbers, email addresses, cell numbers, pagers, faxes, instant message handles, addresses, even spouse's cell numbers.
3. Fact sheets on the company, each division, each physical location, and each product offered.
These should be in camera-ready condition, plus available on a disk in a generally-accepted word processor format (Microsoft Word) so they can be revised and printed out if necessary on a computer external to your facilities. Photos should also be included.
4. Profiles and biographies for each key manager in your company, again in camera-ready condition and on disk.
5. Copies of your company, division and product logos, your press release format and the scanned in signature of your CEO on disk in a format that works on your internal word processing program plus one in Microsoft Word in case you have to work on a computer that isn't tied to your network.
6. Pre-written scripts answering key questions that you have generated through your crisis scenario analysis. Included in these scripts should be the words you use to say "we don't have that information yet, but will let you know as soon as it becomes available."
7. Contact information for each of your key media contacts both locally, nationally, and if appropriate, key financial press and analysts. Contact information for your appropriate political, regulatory, and union leaders should also be included. Don't be afraid to go overboard here - if you have a large chemical release, your CEO will probably want to call not only the Mayor, but the Governor and congressional representatives as soon as possible.
We strongly recommend that you assemble this kit shortly. They'll be one of the best insurance policies that you can have on hand once a crisis begins.
For more information on crisis management and communications, we recommend that you check out Crisis Communication Planning: Organizing and Completing A Plan That Works.
Posted by Don Crowther at 11:57 AM | TrackBack
July 01, 2004
Heat Wave Spins Public Relations
This has been an exceptionally warm year. Summer has brought out the worst in temperatures in many places. Where we're at, the humidity makes it seem like we're breathing water instead of oxygen. But that's not nearly as bad as what's going on in France.
In France, air conditioning is fairly rare. Why? I don't know...perhaps it presents a moral dilemma. Anyhow, the heat wave over there has caused over 15,000 deaths! That's not just a problem, that's an emergency!
France has decided that they will need to find a better way to finance their health care system so people who need continued care will actually get it. In order to finance it, they are considering getting rid of a major holiday so that more money moves. Rumor has it that the holiday in question is Christmas. Does that make you furious? It should.
Now...Would you like to know why they chose Christmas? Because they knew it would anger people enough that the prospect of raising taxes looks far less ominous. How long do you think it will take before it is decided that raising taxes will solve the problem? Not very long.
Now, to the PR standpoint...
When trying to convince someone of something (such as raising taxes), and you need to highlight the alternative to get your point across, what do you do? Use the most visible and controversial option available. The reason is simple. Contrasting the two options is very effective. Nobody wants the extreme alternative and it makes what is best the most palatable.
Posted by Angie at 05:28 PM | TrackBack
June 29, 2004
Using Crises As Publicity Opportunities
There are two kinds of Crisis Management: Internal (for when something happens within your company or externally that affects your company directly) and External (for when something happens in the world that indirectly affects your company). We recommend that every company have a written plan on how to handle a range of both internal and external crises.
This tip deals with external crisis management, and how you can, with advanced planning, gain positive publicity for your company when an external event occurs.
Crises happen virtually every day. Wars break out, earthquakes occur, competitors drop into bankruptcy, and breakthrough new legislation is proposed. Everyone's stunned. The media scrambles for information. Regular stories get dropped until further notice to make room for the breaking news.
What can you do?
First, grab your top thinkers and ask yourselves "how can we get positive publicity from this event?"
One key way to do this is to provide what the media wants at a time like this . . . experts. The media loves to trot out their panel of experts (and better yet, each media player needs it's own panel, giving even more experts the chance to strut their stuff.)
So, if you're an expert, or have experts in your company, you've got a huge opportunity when a crisis comes along. Here are eight ways to let the media know that you have them.
1. Make sure that you have an experts list as part of your media kit. This list should contain each expert's full name, title, contact phone numbers, address, areas of expertise, email, fax, and any other method that the press can use to get in contact with them.
2. Post your experts directory on your website. But don't stop there. Include story related ideas to get the creative juices flowing.
3. Advertise your experts just as you would a product. Buy an ad in the Yearbook of Experts, Authorities & Spokespersons. This is one of the first places that the media look for experts info. If you have to cut down on options, don't cut this one out. You will find them at www.yearbook.com
4. Subscribe to PRLeads at http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=18262 which sends you emails each day from reporters asking for experts to give their input. It's a great way to get leads with very little effort.
5. Have your experts write! But not just one thing, many! Then post those at ExpertArticles.com. The media searches through these by category.
6. Have your experts submit letters to the editor to comment on the crisis.
7. If the news is still breaking, call assignment editors at local stations to let them know who your experts are. They are sometimes hard pressed to find experts on short notice.
8. Make sure that you have up-to-date photos of your experts. Be sure that you can fulfill a request for both a print and electronic format.
When time is short, you need to be on your toes about getting your experts in front of everybody. PR gets sticky when the pressure is on. Make sure that you're the first one to get a call from the media.
This article is an adaptation from The Publicity Hound Print Newsletter. Click if you would like more information on The Publicity Hound Print Newsletter.
Posted by Angie at 07:41 PM | TrackBack
When PR Goes REALLY Bad
Many people will assume that it is only the new PR people who make significant mistakes in public relations. Perhaps they make their fair share, however, sometimes the experienced "professionals" mess up royally and end up paying dearly for it. Here are some examples from Fineman Associates top ten from various years:
In 1996, Structural Dynamics Research Corporation fired a guy on Take Our Daughters To Work Day while his 8-year old daughter was with him in the building!
Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas, Texas, announced during the 2002 year that they would begin charging overweight passengers for two seats instead of one. Big people cried foul and so did many others including many newspaper columnists.
In the midst of 1998's homerun race, it was made known from our friendly neighborhood taxman that the person who caught the record-breaking home run ball would be subject to a six figure gift tax, even if they returned the ball! Mike McCurry, then White House spokesman, relayed his opinion at a press conference when he said that was "...about the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life." The IRS quickly withdrew, but not before they showed their image of being stone cold and unforgiving.
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers once tried to force the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to pay royalties for singing songs around the campfire.
Do you see this disturbing trend? Not a single one of these organizations intended to ruin their image. They simply failed to think their decisions through.
What are you going to do when a crisis rears its ugly head? Are you prepared to head off the media in a PR nightmare? It takes a lot to fix a serious media goof up. Just ask any of these organizations. I'm sure it wasn't an overnight fix.
Posted by Angie at 06:46 PM | TrackBack
June 25, 2004
Analyzing Your Business In Time Of War
One of the problems of doing business during the war is that it’s virtually inevitable that your phones are going to stop ringing, customer traffic will whither, sales will decrease and your people will have time on their hands.
Unfortunately, the natural inclination in times like these is to run huge sales, cutting prices to buy more business.
We don't recommend doing this. Remember that your customer’s attention is focused elsewhere, not on running out to support your huge sale. So, you'll pay lots of extra money to promote your sale, and the sales that result will be less profitable. The net result - an unprofitable sale!
Our recommendation? Instead of sweating trying to pull in more customers, spend this time doing those things that will build your business in the long term - those things that never seem to get done because of the pressures of day-to-day business from your customers. Analysis, planning, customer service and training are all potential tools.
Possibilities include:
1. Analyze your customer base. Who are your customers? Where are they from (plotting them on a map is oftentimes helpful.) What do they have in common? What businesses are they in?
But analysis does no good without application - how can you reach more people who are like your current customers? Create a plan to do so, with specific action steps to reach and convince them to try your products and services.
2. Analyze the profitability of your current customer base. If you're like most companies, a small portion of your current customers deliver the bulk of your profits, and most of the time, your biggest customers are not your most profitable ones. Create two lists, one ranking customers by net sales, and the other by net profits. Then look at the differences and why they exist. Is it what they buy? Is it because they're a house account so you don't have to pay a sales commission? Is it how they buy, requiring less of your staff’s time?
Next, look at your least profitable customers. What do they have in common? Is it possible to move them into profitability? How would you do that? Or, are they hopeless, and should just be fired? We make it a practice to fire 10% of our client base every year. Some we fire because they're not profitable, others we fire because they're a royal pain to deal with. And it’s amazing, every time we do this, another better company shows up to fill the vacuum, and business becomes easier and more pleasant.
Application: Create an action plan to make each of your customer’s more profitable. Consider especially the changes you can make to your product line, promotion materials and customer base to make that conversion.
3. Analyze your product mix. It seems counter-intuitive, but one of the best ways that you can build your profitability is to get rid of products that don't generate significant levels of sales. Remember that inventory, shelf space and working capital costs dollars, money that can be better spent in acquiring more profitable products or promoting the product line that you currently have.
Application: Rank your product/service line by sales volume. Then cut the bottom 5-10%. If you sell goods, return them to the manufacturer, or put them on clearance. If you sell services, remove them from your web site and other promotional materials.
4. Analyze your Web Site. Business has clearly turned to the web. But most companies have sites that are years old, that look horrible, and that aren't equipped to help customers do business online. More importantly, most companies sites aren't written to get good rankings on the search engines, so they get no traffic.
Application: Do a thorough review of your site and its traffic. Make changes to make it relevant, to ask for orders, and to get it high on the search engines.
5. Analyze your systems. The best businesses systematize how they do key tasks, eliminating questions, standardizing behaviors and removing costs from the system. Key systems to check are marketing, order processing, accounts receivable processing, billing, job costing, and customer follow-ups.
Application: Develop at least three new systems to handle tasks within your organization, write system descriptions and train your staff to use the new procedures.
6. Analyze your customer service practices. Employees develop bad habits over time that turn customers away. Carefully analyze your customer service norms. How long do responses take? How empowered are your people? How do they deal with dissatisfied customers?
Application: Develop an action list of customer service problems that you need to resolve in your company, then get the training, do the performance reviews, and if necessary, replace the employees who create those problems.
7. Analyze your customer needs. In virtually every category there are some major unmet customer needs. You probably know what some are, but not everything.
Application: Pick up the phone or visit several major customers. Ask them to tell you about the biggest challenges in their business, and what they would like to see you do differently. Analyze your customer correspondence, ask your salespeople, and look at the industry literature for new products/services that you can offer and ways that you can change your current products/services to meet the unmet needs of your customers. Then create an action plan to better meet those needs.
8. Analyze your business plan. Are you hitting your numbers? Both sales and profits? What needs to be done differently to ensure that your year comes in on target?
don't blame the customer. Look at how you can better meet their needs. The best companies flex, reforecast and revise their plans frequently to achieve the desired objectives. Remember also, that the most common practice of cutting marketing funds to hit profit numbers is the last thing you should do if sales are low. Rather, figure out how to spend them more effectively, test, revise and test again to generate the results you need.
Application: Prepare a revised plan, including reforecast numbers, action plans and measurements.
9. Analyze your habits. Almost every business develops bad habits over time. Perhaps it’s a single ad that gets run over and over again, with no testing. Perhaps it’s a focus on a single trade show. Perhaps it’s a total reliance on sales reps. Perhaps it’s a constant pattern of useless meetings. Perhaps it’s a reluctance to do business in a changing world. Or maybe it’s an insistence on a six-week turnaround when you could do it in two if your systems were revised. Most of these habits had a reason behind them at one point in time, but have never changed through laziness or lack of analysis.
Application: Make a list of the things that constitute "the way we do business." Then analyze it carefully. Create an action plan to challenge and revise those habits that hurt your business.
10. Analyze the value you add. Businesses exist because they add value that the customer either can't or doesn't want to add. Unfortunately, the world may slowly change to the point where the value you add is no longer worth the cost required to obtain that value from you. Companies close every day for this very reason.
Application: Analyze the value you add versus what the customer really needs. Are you worth a continued position in the value chain? How could you add more value? What would people be willing to pay more to receive? Create an action plan to implement changes!
As you do these things, you'll find that your short-term sales and profits decrease less than they might have otherwise and that you'll find your business running at a higher level once the war ends - creating more sales and profits for years to come!
Who says that war will be bad for business?
Posted by Angie at 01:00 PM | TrackBack
June 24, 2004
Lessons Learned From The Blackout: Crisis Communications Planning
Those of us in the United States are blindingly aware of what is being billed as the largest power blackout in US history. This blackout struck the Northeast US and a big hunk of Canada just before rush hour.
I first heard about it about 10 minutes after it started when I received an email titled "Check out CNN". CNN came on (actually CNBC) and I proceeded to watch and learn a major set of lessons that apply to PR.
Here are some of the lessons that I learned from yesterday's situation:
1. Every organization needs a crisis plan
NYC obviously had one, and it appears that they executed it fairly well. Since I'm not in NY, I don't know what the word is on the street, but from here, it looks like NYC will once again enjoy praise for how well they handled the situation. How it could have been prevented? Well, that's another story, isn't it!
As much as we may not want to admit it, crises happen, to us!
We never know what's going to hit us, but we can guess, and we can prepare in advance for the most likely situations. Consider this list of just a few of the potential crises that can affect an organization:
- Major power outage
- Government investigation
- Controversial law suit
- Accusation of discrimination based on race, sexual preference or gender
- Product recall
- Serious injury to someone within or outside of the organization
- Protest
- Strike
- Physical violence between co-workers
- Insider trading scandal
- Theft by an outsider (ideas or physical assets)
- Embezzlement
- Hostile takeover
- Outbreak of food poisoning caused by your company (maybe even at your company picnic
- this just happened this week in our area and the Country Club where it occurred is getting hurt in the media)
- Death of top executive
- CEO gets arrested for drunk driving
- Natural disaster
- Company plane crash
- Books were cooked
- Congressional hearings make something that was legal illegal, and your company is used as an example
- Plummeting stock price
- Major interruptions in service
- Computer system crash, causing you to lose all data
- One of your employees is accused of a high profile crime
- Harassment case
- Fire
- Explosion
- R^ape on your premises
- Dramatic downsizing causing significant job loss in a geographic region
- Chemical spill
- Radiation leak
- A major competitor has a huge crisis, throwing attention on your company
- Caught in a lie
- False advertising accusation
- Celebrity spokesperson embroiled in personal scandal
- Oil spill
- Closing of a facility
- Production sourcing internationally or at a non-union facility
- Union grievance
I was personally very relieved to see that one of my company's crisis plans worked perfectly yesterday.
As an Internet company, our company's crisis plan identifies one operational necessity as having a web server with instant battery backups, continuous air conditioning (computers don't work when they get hot) and backup diesel power generators sufficient to keep our sites and our shopping cart system (which lives on a totally separate server system in a different state for security purposes) online for at least 72 hours in the case of a power outage.
I say fortunately, because one of our 4 servers is located in Connecticut and our shopping cart system is in another blackout-affected area, and the power was down in both facilities. But the backup systems kicked in so our sites stayed up, serving pages and taking orders in spite of the darkness in the rooms around them. I'm a happy camper!
Others, however, didn't fare as well, and a number of sites went down, including one who should have known better, a certain conservative talk show host who's last name starts with the letters L-I-M-B-A-U-G-H.
Fortunately, many of the things that are covered in a given crisis management scenario also work for other scenarios, so preparation and implementation is not quite of a daunting task as it may seem.
In spite of that, the vast majority of companies have no plan in place, thinking that it won't happen to them, and if it does, that they'll do fine flying by the seat of their pants.
And you can see it, every time a crisis happens. Those are the companies who spend years trying to recover from the crisis, instead of days preparing for it.
2. Every organization needs a crisis communications plan.
This is separate from the actual crisis plan! The crisis plan deals with who gets called first, where the supplies are to resolve the situation, backup systems to ensure continuous operation, succession plans, etc.
The crisis communications plan deals with how you will communicate with the media and the public about the crisis.
Since most of us are involved in PR, I will be focusing on this aspect for the rest of this article.
3. When the crisis happens, focus your public communications first on its impact on people, second on everything else.
Mayor Bloomberg did a great job during his press conference of focusing as much attention as possible on the effects of the crisis on the people, rather than other aspects. He stated concerns with people fainting from the heat as they walked home, of being safe if they stayed in town, of not dying from heat in their homes, of drinking lots of water, of freeing people trapped in subways and elevators, of the police and firefighter's safety, of community pride to prevent people going out looting, etc.
How different the reaction may have been if his focus would have been on how much it was going to cost, how taxes may have to raise, etc.
This people focus creates a feeling of being kinder and gentler. You still communicate to the media that these other issues are real, but "our first focus is making sure that everyone is safe" rings loud and clear in the midst of a crisis.
4. You can actually use a crisis to help you look good.
I found it very interesting to hear CNBC announce about 2 hours in that "Citigroup has just implemented its business continuation plan."
Interesting - I bet that every major financial institution in NY had implemented its version of its business continuation plan - making sure that people were there staffing key activities, moving key functions to other cities, backing up computers, rerouting lines, etc. but Citigroup made the announcement to the press.
"Oh," thought I, "Citigroup is a pretty sharp company." Then those companies that saw Citigroup's announcement then made their own announcement looked like copycats and probably didn't get coverage. Be wise in what you do, but "firstest was bestest" in this situation.
You can also use it to draw attention to your specific situation by creating tie-in articles. This isn't a PR article, but it's a good example of how it could be done:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/952838.asp?vts=081520031315
So, if you run a company selling fridges and freezers, you should have an article out today on preserving food during power outages.
If you make rollerblades, you should have called your customers in NYC and found out how many incremental pairs they sold to people who decided to skate home rather than walk across the bridge.
If you're a health-related facility, pitch your local media on Monday with an article on how to prevent heat problems if you live in a house with no air conditioning. "New Yorkers experienced this in last week's power outage, but thousands of people in our community who have no air conditioning experience it every day - what to do when the heat makes your house unsafe."
That's called tying into national stories, and you can get more information about it here: Special Report #35: How to be the Local Angle to National Stories
And this report is about Tying Your Pitches into Weather Stories
5. Make sure that you're clear and emphatic when you're right.
During the initial minutes of the blackout, blame was placed on one of the NYC power stations, believing that there was a major fire there that caused the blackout. Proponents cited as evidence the huge plumes of black smoke that came out from the powerplant's smokestacks right after the power had gone out.
Mayor Bloomberg made short shift with that argument, explaining that there had been no fire. When challenged, he simply stated that when they turn the system off, black smoke is a common side effect and that's exactly what happened here.
His convincing, Bloomberg'ish style immediately killed that rumor.
There's much to be said for your crisis media person doing the same when something clearly false is being reported.
6. Use others to help remove blame if you're innocent.
Once the fire rumor went away, blame was focused on the Niagara Mohawk system as the cause and this was reported widely. I found it very interesting to see how they handled it.
First, they came out with an announcement about 3 hours in that said that "there was no evidence that" they were at fault.
Unfortunately, the news media continued to report that they were the cause.
The parent company, National Grid Transco LLC, had a rough stock market time staring them in the face if they didn't change the market's belief about their guilt in this situation.
So they went to Merril Lynch, showed them the evidence, and had Merril Lynch issue a report verifying their perception of innocence. You can see the report here (This probably will wrap in your browser, so you may need to paste the second line in to see the story.
Nothing like support from outside. Their stock closed today just 1.35% down, a major relief to their management.
7. Use the web to help communicate your point of view.
Yes, National Grid Transco did a good job of enlisting the help of Merril Lynch, but they blew it big time on their website. Here, they're in the middle of a potential disaster for their company, and their website, http://www.ngtgroup.com/scripts/homepage.asp , shows their last news report as 21 Jul 2003. You mean nothing important has happened to the company in, say, the last 2 weeks?
They clearly don't recognize the power of the web to influence the public and to communicate with the press. If my company was involved, I know that this disaster would have taken over most of the home page.
Some people just don't get it...
8. Make sure that a copy of your crisis communications plan is in hard copy in at least two easily accessible locations.
Imagine how embarrassing it would have been to have had a crisis communications plan all ready to go... on your computer that's down because the power's out. 'Nuff said!
Let's shift now from key learnings to question time.
We estimate that at least 95% of all companies have no established crisis plan in place and that an even larger percentage have no established crisis communications plan in place.
Does yours?
If you don't have one written and updated frequently, you need one, quickly.
That's why we have spent the last several weeks (really, we didn't write it last night, this just happened at a convenient time...) writing a new report: Crisis Communication Planning: Organizing and Completing A Plan That Works. This report takes you step by step through the process of developing a plan for your company.
We wrote it because we're convinced that every company, no matter how small, needs one, just in case.
Because just in case seems to happen all too frequently these days.
There are probably 10,000 different companies represented on our subscriber list. Only 5-10% of them will be smart enough to pick up a copy of this report, then to implement it within their organization.
Will you be one of those who acts? Or are you willing to gamble your job, your company and your reputation on the possibility that a crisis won't happen to you? I hope not!
Think of it as really inexpensive insurance.
You can get more information about this vital report here:
Crisis Communication Planning
Posted by Angie at 01:32 PM | TrackBack
June 23, 2004
Crisis Planning -Of Prime Importance
Of all the materials that we have produced, the one that seems to generate the most calls and emails is our PR Toolkit on Crisis Planning.
It seems that the world is very focused on this vital key area, and more and more people every week are coming to understand the importance of preparing themselves in advance for the crises that inevitably will occur at some point in the future.
Are you prepared? Do you have a written plan in place?
Doesn't that sound like a key resolution for the new year?
Pick up a copy of our special PR Toolkit on Crisis Planning today. You really need this info!
Posted by Angie at 03:04 PM | TrackBack
June 22, 2004
Crisis Management
My wife hates shopping with me because I drive her crazy.
It's the "Marketer's Curse" that does it.
Very simply, it’s the inability, once you've learned how marketing really works (what makes a great ad, what makes a package sell product, how to position your company), it becomes physically impossible to view the world without doing it through marketing lenses.
That’s why my wife hates shopping with me. What she wants is for me to help us both get out of the store faster, by each of us taking half of the list then meeting together at the checkout counter.
What she gets is a husband who heads off on his assigned duties, then comes back, not with items for the cart, but with a package of something we'll never buy just to show her the really cool way they integrated the logo into the food shot, or who drags her out to the aisle to have a debate about whether he should fix the 16-year-old-who-set-up-the-display’s work so that it will sell more stuff.
Maybe you know someone with this disease. Maybe you're infected yourself...Maybe you've got the similar strain -"The PR Curse"
The occurrences of the past few weeks have created several noteworthy attacks of the curse that might provide useful learning for us all.
Here's one which happened in the Washington-area sniper case. I had the TV on in the background when one of the many news conferences by the very able and competent police task force team came on. Except this time, they made a serious blunder. In this early afternoon news conference, they reported that they had received word at 8:30 the night before, that confirmed that the latest shooting had been from the same gun the sniper had been using.
The curse immediately kicked, and I found myself riveted to the screen. I knew exactly what was going to happen, and sure enough, it did. The first question was asked "Why, if you knew at 8:30 last night, did you wait until this afternoon to tell us?" Of the next 10 questions, 8 of them were theme and variations on the exact same question. The answers, ranging from "We didn't see a need to call a separate conference just to tell you this," to "It doesn't change anything," were wrong, and unacceptable to the those in the press corps.
Now, we all know what was happening here. Here we had a very competent Police Chief (who's team thankfully caught the guys!), and a room full of other excellent law enforcement personnel who had received some PR training. In that training they received the wise counsel to "be complete and precise in dealing with the press." So they naturally said "as of 8:30 last night..."
Unfortunately for them, the trainer had forgotten to teach the overriding principle of dealing with the press in crisis situations...
Think about the ramifications of what you're going to say before you say it!
It sounds easy, but it never is. Think about how many statements have gone down in history because of not doing this...
"But I never inhaled."
"I never had sex with that woman."
"It depends on what the definition of 'is' is." (OK, I'll stop picking on him)...
"Read my lips, no new taxes."
"Potato, P-O-T-A-T-O-E, Potato."
Now consider the opposite, well-planned lines that had a lasting impact...
"If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit"
"I have a dream..."
"...within 10 years of placing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth."
"Houston, we have a problem."
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
"We have decided to recall all Tylenol from all shelves nationwide."
Not all of these were crisis management situations, but some were.
Now, here's the rub - the stress of a crisis situation is exactly what causes statements like this to happen and it's clearly not the time to create powerful sound byte statements that will make the difference for years.
But why do these have to be developed in the heat of the crisis?
I hold that one of the keys to crisis management planning is to develop a bank of one-line sound byte quotes covering a wide range of contingencies, that can be used as required.
Do you have such a list?
Would it be wise to create one?
Would you like to know more about handling crises? Check out our Audio-CD:
How To Keep The Media Wolves At Bay (The Do’s and Don't’s of Crisis Communications).
Another resource, which applies both for crisis situations and day-to-day communications is our Audio CD:
How To Become An Expert Spokesperson That The Media Love.
