public relations, PR, publicity

Don Crowther’s
GreatPR Newsletter
Published by 101PublicRelations.com

Issue #105

In this issue:

Advertising For The PR Of It: How To Get Publicity From Your Advertising

Owning Up When The Going Gets Rough - The Power of "I Was Wrong"

What's That Again? Interpreter For The Deaf

Transcripts, We've Got Transcripts!
 

Advertising For The PR Of It:
How To Get Publicity
From Your Advertising


Our recent article on the racy Paris Hilton ads for Carl's Jr. and Hardees brought a flood of responses from you, our readers. (Didn't read that article? You may want to do so before reading this: Paris Hilton’s Carls Jr advertisement commentary)

Most were strongly in support of our stance, but several asked some variation of the question "What about all of the free showings of the ad on the network and local news - aren't they worth a tremendous amount?"

On the surface, those showings literally added millions of exposures without costing anything, probably resulting in the advertising equivalent of quadrupling (at least) the effect of their ad expenditures.

Normally, that's a good thing, except when the conclusion drawn by those who watch the news report is negative.

From what I saw in my community, as well as from the emails that I received, there was a large percentage of customers who viewed that ad, either as an ad or through the publicity surrounding it, who decided to vote with their wallets and never darken the door of a Carl's Jr. or a Hardees again.

I don't know about you, but where I come from, offending customers is a bad thing!

Ah, but what about those who felt the other way and came in to eat because of that ad?  Won't they balance out the group that decided to leave?

Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't. Let's look at the numbers for this particular ad.

In our last article we showed how the immediate results of running the ad lost CKE (the parent company) more in profits then they made in extra business.  But the key in situations like this is to look at the period of time *after* they take an ad off the air.  That's when you can tell whether the additional customers they added to the franchise outweighed those whom they offended.

So, I jump over to CKE's financial results and find...

That Hardee's sales actually dropped 1% in the month after the ad ran, Carl's Jr's remained flat.

So, you spend 10 million dollars in advertising and non-working costs, get the equivalent views of running a 40 million ad campaign, and what do you get as a result?  Flat results in one chain and a drop in business in the other. Meanwhile, McDonalds turned in a 4.9% sales increase.  Yes, there are many things that drive sales, but if you're running great advertising, you should see sales increases as a result! 

On top of that, consider that prior to the Paris ad, CKE's stock was trading at about $16 per share, now it's trading at $12. So, this ad contributed to a 25% loss in the worth of the company - flushing almost a quarter of a Billion dollars in company worth straight down the drain...

Did the ad work?  No!  And what's worse, those people whom they offended will be a drain on revenues for at least months, if not years to come!

This sounds like a good argument for firing their ad agency, CEO, and marketers.  I don't know about you, but I think the loss of about a quarter of a billion dollars in net worth sounds like a pretty good argument for rolling a few heads... It's time for the ad agencies, managers and marketers of the world to be held accountable for their lack of performance and the stupid choices they make.

Sorry for the aside... let's step back and look at the bigger principles here.


The Bigger Picture

Is it a good idea to create ads that generate publicity?  Is it a good idea to seek publicity for your ads?  Yes!

Is there a better way to do it? Absolutely!

Let me give you an example.  Not long ago a billboard appeared on a main street in my community.  It was very simple - black type on white.  It said "Your wife knows."

Within days I saw 2 mentions of it in the news section of the paper, plus a couple of letters to the editor.  The paper called the person who placed the ad, who refused to tell what the ad was about and who had purchased it. He did, however, promise that the billboard would be updated soon to give more information. People were talking about it at work, and many changed their commuting patterns to be able to see the next chapter in the story.

A couple of weeks later the billboard was changed to read "Your wife knows. Your children know too."

Bang, it all started up again. The prevailing opinion was that someone was being warned that they had been caught in their nefarious dealings... More newspaper articles, and now it hit the TV news from Milwaukee, and created even more water cooler talk. I'm sure a few men had second thoughts about whatever they were doing wrong.

Then a couple of weeks later the issue resolved. The sign then read. "Your wife knows. Your children know too - the best place to buy a car," followed by the name of a local dealer.

A disappointment, yes, but it played out in conversations throughout our community. 

Compare this campaign to the Paris one - both got publicity value that far exceeded their actual ad spend. However, the Paris ad offended many, while the car dealer one offended few if anyone.

Is advertising controversy a bad idea? Quite the opposite - just be sure that the controversy you create doesn't offend your core constituency.  In this case I will define core constituency as those who represent the bulk of your sales, NOT as those in your target market.

That's where Carl's Jr. and Hardees went wrong.  Their ads are targeting males 18-25, who like to eat large portions. To that audience, the Paris ad is probably pretty desirable :<).  What the company's leadership is ignoring, however, is that their new 18-25 hungry male target market represents only a small portion of the people who actually eat in their establishments - that group's still families. So, in the process of trying to target a new group with their ads and product selections, they are killing off the very group that is currently paying their bills.

Don't get me wrong - marketing is the process of making choices, and sometimes you need to shift your marketplace out of one group into another. But in doing so, you had better be prepared for the inevitable loss of business that will result as you drive away your old business franchise.

 
And, you'd better make sure that the new franchise you're after will be more profitable than the one you're leaving behind, or you'll be really sorry in the end. 

Far too many managers (and especially agencies) ignore these realities, assuming that their base will always be there, no matter who else they target in their future marketing efforts.  They're wrong!

I have another client who regularly runs billboards and full page print ads supporting their political agendas. Their messages are always controversial, and they regularly get publicity for their ads. There are many who passionately disagree with the political stances represented in those ads. But in this case, controversy actually helps to build my client's base because those messages reflect the beliefs of their current followers AND they draw others into their organization who also support those causes.

Controversy can be a very powerful, and valuable thing!

There are several lessons to be learned from this:

1. Make sure that your ads don't offend your base, unless you really want to do so

2. All publicity is not a good thing - bad publicity generally hurts your brand by driving people away

3. You can be controversial without being offensive

4. Never make a change in target markets without clearly thinking through the ramifications of that change, especially the risk of losing your current customer base.

Do you have an advertising campaign that's not working for you? Give us a call - we've been creating profit-generating ads for over 20 years. Maybe we can do the same for you!

Want to know more about how to create powerful advertising that will put more profit into your pocket?  I recommend two books. First is the classic John E. Kennedy book "Reason Why Advertising" which teaches how to create advertising that truly differentiates you from the competition. 

Second, we recommend this one that teaches how to use one of today's most powerful online advertising tools - Pay Per Click Advertising.


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


What's That Again?
Interpreter For The Deaf

The following announcement was recently run in the newspaper:

Mime at YA City Hall
The Young America Library has scheduled Michael Hennessy, a mime who studied with Marcel Marseau, to perform Friday at 3 p.m. at the Young America City Hall. There will be an interpreter for the hearing impaired.

Ah... our tax dollars at work!

 

Transcripts, We've Got Transcripts!


Y

 
ou probably are aware that we offer over 60 different CD recordings to help you get more free publicity for your business.  You can see a complete list here:


But what you may not know is that we have been working like crazy to create audio transcripts for those recordings in addition to the audio CDs..  These have several advantages:
1. They provide instantly-downloadable information, so you don't have to wait for the CD to ship.
2. They provide a resource for those who would rather read than listen.
3. You can get both the CD and audio transcript (so you can listen in your car AND have a written reference ) at a drastic discount over buying each of them separately.

We haven't gotten all of the CDs converted into transcripts yet, but here's a list of those ones we currently offer as transcripts.  You may want to review them to see if there's anything there that might help to build your business!

Until next time - make good choices, and start contemplating whether your advertising is doing anything to build your business.


Have a great week!
Don Crowther
President
101PublicRelations.com

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