Thou Shalt Be Ready for a Crisis... Or Else!

Crisis communications and crisis management should be the crowning achievement of the PR world – it shows the ability of the PR professional to take charge of a potentially explosive situation and effectively defuse it. And, indeed, there are many sterling examples of crisis communications efforts (the most notably being the 1982 Tylenol tampering crisis).

But at the same time, too much crisis communications is reactive and not proactive. The PR person is often the last to know something has gone very wrong – and the reason for that is because of what was stated earlier about the lack of access to the C-Suite. In this case, it is a double-edged problem.

For the PR professional, who is not considered an equal to the others at the C-Suite table, it means having to work overtime (literally and figuratively) to put out the fires created by a crisis. And for the executives in the C-Suite, who are unaware of what the PR professional can provide to their mission (see last week’s Gospel), it exposes them a multitude of problems (ranging from tarnished images to criminal investigation and all points in between).

"PR professionals need to convince the C-Suite, especially the General Counsel, that they must understand that news is controversy and controversy is news,” says Steve Ellis, senior vice president with Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, DC. “Crisis management to a large extent is news management. If you do not understand news, you cannot manage a crisis. To extrapolate: if a company, organization or country does not understand news, the people running these entities will fail. It’s that simple.”

Mike Paul, president of MGP & Associates in New York, believes that most corporations only consider reputation management as a reaction to a crisis, rather than as a proactive process to stave off potential problems. “Indeed, crisis preparedness is not usually at the forefront of corporate communications planning,” he says. “Ironically, it should be because more and more corporations are facing reputations in crisis because of unethical, immoral and legal behavior of executives within the corporate world. Just open your daily newspaper and count the dozens of stories highlighting corporate misdeeds.”

Paul continues: “Truth, transparency, accountability, humility and consistency are the building blocks or reputation bricks for a corporation. A corporation is made up of many individuals. These rules are for executives, employees and support staff. They are easy to talk about, but difficult to consistently put into practice because of deceitful human behavior.”

At the New York agency Peppercom, an in-house crisis communications program called CARES is used for crisis in need of such assistance. The CARES acronym stands for Composure and collection of information, Assessment, Reaction, Evaluation and Success (okay, we’ll forgive them for stretching that “C” a bit).

“CARES has been effectively implemented for Peppercom clients of all sizes to create realistic and logical processes to follow during and after the onset of a crisis,” explains Ted Birkhahn, managing director at Peppercom. “CARES also provides a true measuring stick by which these crisis management processes and actions can be continually improved after a crisis takes place, allowing for quick modification, if necessary.”

Birkhahn points out that his agency delivers a three-part crisis training-drill-assessment program to prepare senior executives and crisis teams for any crisis situation. This includes a mock-crisis situation (which creates a two-to-three-hour imaginary crisis scenario that is captured on videotape), which is then followed by a diagnostic review of that mock-crisis that results in a professional assessment and recommendation of where improvement may be needed.

“We carefully review the video, process, notes taken by the team, their assessment of how well they did and our own ongoing assessment,” explains Birkahn. “This would showcase a gap that might exist on how well they think they are prepared but really aren’t. Through our assessment, our deliverable is to present ‘the good, bad and ugly’ of how well the team did and to provide detailed recommendations (being consistent with client procedures) to the team the next day. These recommendations would actually be presented in a three-ring binder. Based upon the crisis team’s actual handling of the simulated crisis, we will also present them with a fictitious end-result that occurred (i.e. an article, directive from within the company, etc.), so they can truly understand how their actions led to something good, bad or nothing at all.”

The day after that mock-crisis, Birkhahn and his team holds a strategic training session to review specific findings, offer recommendations and then offer training tips on how the crisis should be handled the next time around. That can last from three to four hours.

As you may gather, that level of in-depth crisis training requires time, energy and the full cooperation of senior management. For the PR professionals who can obtain all of that, the end result could be invaluable. For those who cannot, however…well, let’s just say it might be helpful to have a clean rag ready in the event the fan gets hit with you-know-what.

(Phil Hall is the former president of Open City Communications, a New York PR agency, and former editor of PR News. His latest book "The New PR" will be released later this year from Larstan Publishing.)

Thou Shalt Learn the Truth About the C-Suite

For those unfamiliar with the expression, “C-Suite” is business slang for the exclusive gathering of chief officers within a corporation or organization. Some of these individuals literally have the word “chief” in their titles: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer.

Some entities (not many) also have a Chief Marketing Officer, under whose control the PR functions would operate. In the scheme of things, it is a relatively recent development: as far as anyone can determine, the very first person to be granted this title was Sergio Zyman, who was Chief Marketing Officer at the Coca-Cola Company from 1993 to 1998.

But within the C-Suite, the Chief Marketing Officer (or CMO for the acronym obsessed) is usually the weakest link in the executive chain. In November 2005, the CMO Council, a trade association, issued a report that exposed the problems in this C-Suite niche. The survey of 400 executives found only 10% believed their marketing groups were “highly influential and strategic” within the company. Furthermore, less than half expressed confidence that their efforts were “well regarded and respected.”

“This study confirms marketers need to move from a tactical orientation to a more analytic and strategic approach that will enable them to realign marketing initiatives with the overall corporate mission,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, in a news release that accompanied the report.

Even more troubling is the CMOs rarely stay long in the C-Suite. A July 2004 survey from research firm Spencer Stuart found that the average tenure for chief marketing officers at the top 100 branded companies is just 23 months. In comparison, chief executive officers stay in the C-Suite, on average, 54 months.

The Spencer Stuart survey discovered that “14% of CMOs for the world’s top brands have been with their companies for more than three years — and nearly half are new to the job over the last 12 months.”

Now, the realm of CMO goes far beyond PR – it can encompass all aspects of marketing (including advertising, sales management, product development, market research, customer service and internal communications).

But that raises a question: where do PR professionals sit at the C-Suite table? The answer: they don’t. Or at least they’re not there yet.

“We hear how PR should be at the table, but I would contend most PR people are not qualified to be at the table,” says Terry Hemeyer, senior counsel at Pierpont Communications in Houston and a senior lecturer on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin. “First, they don’t understand the business well enough. Second, they are too tactical – they are too worried about using the AP style in press releases and not about the company, its goals and its objectives.”

And herein lies the problem. PR is proactive in its promotional aspects, but too often it is reactive when it comes to the bigger picture. Namely, when it comes to the bottom line issues affecting a company or organization’s financial health, PR professionals are often clueless.

“The folks on mahogany row already nod reverently in the direction of lawyers and CPAs and other specialists,” explains Richard Barger, president of Barger Consulting. “PR pros need to figure out what keeps the boss up at night and provide objective-based, business-oriented solutions. No CEO gives a rip about whether you use a fifth color on that brochure, but they sure care about reducing turnover, increasing sales, cutting costs, improving profits, and many other business metrics.”

Barger’s advice for addressing this situation: “Become a businessperson who understands biz-com, not a communicator who is trying to communicate ‘about’ business.”

J. Brooks Christol, corporate communications specialist at Healthways in Nashville, echoes Barger’s sentiments. “It is easy to blame the woes of our industry on the C-Suite, but the truth is that we are just as much to blame as anyone,” he says. “So many people come into the industry thinking it is easy to garner press attention, that their role is to get a client in front of a reporter, do a follow-up to make sure the story runs, and then move on to the next appearance. The problem is that we don't pay attention to the details and nuances that are constantly evolving, the details that can skew the tone of the messages we're sending out.”

I embrace the opinions reflected here. PR people don’t belong in the C-Suite if all they are bringing to the table is a standard-issue PR bag of tricks. Why do so few PR people have friends in the C-Suite? Because too many PR people are, genuinely, their own worst enemies.

(Phil Hall is the former president of Open City Communications, a New York PR agency, and former editor of PR News. His latest book "The New PR" will be released later this year from Larstan Publishing.)

Thou Shalt Steal a Drink From Coca-Cola’s Experiential PR Fountain

Is there a better way to introduce a product to its intended audience than through experiential promotions? By literally putting the product before those who need to know about it, the PR professional is able to allow the target audience to build their own impressions of the newly introduced item.

Consider the following case study on how the Coca-Cola Company launched its Full Throttle energy drink product line in 2005. Full Throttle was described by the company as “16 ounces of citrus flavored fury in a can,” and its target market was primarily blue collar men between 20 and 30. Coca-Cola determined the product needed to be branded with a macho yet good-humored image – a man’s drink, but without masculine pretensions.

Coca-Cola tapped the agency Fast Horse Inc. of Minneapolis to handle the product launch. The agency’s initial research for the potential target audiences was handled in one-on-one intercepts at vocational schools, construction sites and sporting venues (as opposed to other venues that may have been interested in the product).

“With limited time and budget for the research phase of the planning process, we needed to identify the most efficient way to gather insights from target consumers – young adult, blue-collar males,” recalls Scott Broberg, vice president at Fast Horse Inc. “As an alternative to formal focus groups, conducting one-on-one intercepts at locations with a large cross section of blue-collar males – such as vocational schools, construction sites and sporting venues – became an effective way to secure qualitative research and validate our creative concepts.”

The agency decided to use the 2005 NASCAR season to launch Full Throttle. In a way, that was somewhat daring since NASCAR has a lot of promotional activities and advertising connected to it. Yet Broberg felt this was the right venue to pursue – and to stand out from the other vehicles at the racetrack, Fast Horse created custom-built motorized armchairs that would be raced by some of NASCAR’s popular drivers.

“Even in the marketing-heavy world of NASCAR, the image of two celebrities racing each other in motorized armchairs created a visual compelling enough to break through the clutter,” says Broberg. “In addition, we specifically held the event on the Friday before the Daytona 500, since there was little on-track activity that day after qualifying races took place for much of the week. With the lack of on-track activity to fill the NASCAR news hole heading into the weekend, our lighthearted story appealed to sports media around the country that were previewing NASCAR’s first – and biggest – race of the year.”

Getting NASCAR drivers to step out of their automobiles and into the motorized armchairs was not difficult. “Michael Waltrip and Greg Biffle were excited to drive the world’s fastest armchairs,” recalls Broberg. “Most NASCAR drivers will race anything at anytime, and in the case of the Full Throttle Armchair Challenge, Waltrip and Biffle had plenty of assurance the ‘vehicles’ were safe. The motorized armchairs were inspected and approved by a qualified risk management expert upon completion of the fabrication process. In addition, the builder was on-site to give the drivers a tutorial, and they were able to get familiar with the vehicles by taking a test drive prior to the event.”

The motorized armchair race and post-race interviews with Waltrip and Biffle received coverage on ESPN, Comcast Sports South and the Speed Channel. Broberg also created a b-roll package featuring the event highlights for satellite distribution to TV stations across the nation. Needless to say, the b-roll made mention of the Full Throttle brand as part of the video coverage being provided.

“With a satellite truck on-site at the event, we were able to quickly edit a b-roll package and transmit the best footage and sound bites via satellite to TV stations around the country that afternoon,” continues Broberg. “The majority of the campaign’s broadcast coverage – more than 400 stories – was generated by the b-roll package, including segments on national outlets, such as The Weather Channel, FOX News and WGN SuperStation, as well as local affiliates in 20 of the top 25 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta.”

So how did it help Full Throttle? According to Broberg, the product achieved a 7.8% share of the energy drink market within four months of the NASCAR event. During that period, it also became available in more than three-quarter of all American convenience store locations. The latter statistic helped Full Throttle win the Retailer Choice Best New Product of 2005 from the convenience store trade publication CSP Magazine.

And what became of the motorized armchairs? “They are currently in storage,” says Broberg. “We’re hoping they will see the road again someday as part of a special event or grassroots campaign for the Full Throttle brand.”

So what did we learn from this PR endeavor? Simple summary:

• Having direct contact with your target audience is crucial in determining the PR and marketing strategy for a new product launch.
• Creating a promotional activity that can stand out, even in the midst of an event-heavy happening like NASCAR, will help call attention to your endeavors.
• Using a sense of humor doesn’t hurt, especially if it is a gentle good-humored bit of fun.
• Including the product name in the promotional event is crucial, as the media will incorporate that in its coverage of the event.
• Creating your own media coverage (in this case, b-roll footage) is a great idea because it can help you reach media outlets that were unable to be part of the event as it occurred.

(Phil Hall is the former president of Open City Communications, a New York PR agency, and former editor of PR News. His latest book "The New PR" will be released later this year from Larstan Publishing.)

Thou Shalt Pay Attention to MySpace’s PR Potential

I have a confession to make: I am something of a MySpace addict. But I make no apologies for that. I’ve stayed in touch with old friends and made new acquaintances thanks to this social networking resource (you can visit me at www.myspace.com/philhallsuperstar).

MySpace is more than just empty-headed chat, however. It has surprisingly been an effective place to score PR points – especially if you are aiming for a youth audience.

For example, let’s consider mortgage lenders. Now you may be saying: Mortgages and MySpace? Huh?

Well... yes!

"We needed to start targeting a younger market," explains Melissa McCarty, business development/sales representative at Motor City Community Credit Union (MCCCU), headquartered in Windsor, Ontario. "Among our members, the average age was around 52. We figured the best way to reach the younger demographic was to go directly to them - a lot of younger people don't know who we are and what we're about. Lots of younger people don't even know what a credit union is."

Keeping the Net spirit of interactivity alive, the MCCCU MySpace page is rich in conversation rather than monologues. "We've had great interaction with our friends," explains McCarty. (MySpace people who are linked to each other's pages are "friends.") "They've asked questions about credit scores. Credit scores were not something we thought about covering, so we posted information on that on our blog."

Another lender taking this marketing avenue is State Street Mortgage of Illinois. As with MCCCU, the company is using MySpace to introduce itself to a younger customer demographic.

"It's amazing how many young people are buying homes," says Bill Clanton, manager at State Street Mortgage. "Even 18-year-olds are buying homes."

Clanton also uses MySpace to clearly show how much State Street Mortgage has in common with its desired target market: the company's MySpace page features a music video of Shakira performing "Hips Don't Lie." For Clanton, the sultry singer's presence makes perfect sense in the middle of a page devoted to mortgage banking topics.

"We're just trying to be fun and show that we're real people," he explains. "We want to bond with people at more than one level and show that we're not just a suit."

But Clanton, who beefs up his hipster cred by volunteering that he rides a Harley-Davidson and wears a tie only for formal business meetings, nonetheless acknowledges he relied on an expert consultant for the Shakira video selection.

"I asked my 16-year-old daughter about that," he says with a laugh. "She hangs out with the 22-year-olds, and they're the ones buying the homes."

Neither McCarty nor Clanton can point to any home sales secured entirely to MySpace, but they acknowledge that being a part of their target market's cyber-environment helps keep them relevant.

"All of the kids are on MySpace," says Clanton. "We want to be on any avenue that gets us their attention."

"No one asked specifically about that," says McCarty about MCCCU's MySpace audience. "But we're providing them with information to think about it - until such time they are ready to do so, then they'll think about us."

(Phil Hall is the former president of Open City Communications, a New York PR agency, and former editor of PR News. His latest book "The New PR" will be released later this year from Larstan Publishing.)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Also of interest, see www.myspace.com/strumpette .