Posted by an Honored Guest
Saturday, June 23, 2007
 Did you catch the Whole Foods vs. FTC fight this week. Great lesson in communications, i.e what to do... and especially what NOT to do.
Well, today we've got a special treat. Today we have an analysis by Eric Starkman, President of Starkman & Associates. Starkman, a seasoned crisis communications executive, is well known and respected among the national media. He's a journo turned crisis communications pro with pretty extensive creds. Eric’s career includes reporter-editor gigs at major newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, including The Toronto Star, The Montreal Gazette and The Detroit News. Charlie Gasparino, one of the most respected – and feared – reporters on Wall Street, includes Starkman in the acknowledgements of his acclaimed book “Blood on the Street.” Starkman was later the head of the Corporate Communications practice at one of the largest national Investor Relations firms, the former Morgen-Walke Associates.
Without further ado... here's Eric.
The "Taken Out of Context" Defense
By Eric Starkman
I've always been dubious about the "taken out of context" defense. It's like the dog-ate-my-homework excuse. Sure it's a possible explanation, but nobody really buys it.
Merrill Lynch gave it a shot when it first became public that its once-high-profile analyst Henry Blodgett was singing the praises of certain stocks publicly while privately referring to them in emails as "crap" and "pieces of s***." Ouch. Merrill, to its credit, came clean a week later and acknowledged that the analyst's e-mails were "unacceptable" and "inappropriate and well below the standards that Merrill aims to achieve."
Flash forward to this year and you have former Wal-Mart marketing executive Julie Roehm giving the "taken out of context" defense a whirl. Roehm was fired for various alleged improprieties, including an inappropriate relationship with an underling. She claims that some of the risqué comments in a series of lovelorn emails to subordinate Sean Womack are "easily explainable" and don't prove that she violated the retailer's policy against employee fraternization. If that's the case, I'd love to see Wal-Mart's HR manual. I just can't figure out any scenario under which "I think about us together all the time. Little moments like watching your face when you kiss me..." could possibly be deemed appropriate corporate-speak.
Don't get me wrong -- I am hardly declaring Goliath victor over David in this PR battle. Wal-Mart has had plenty of its own missteps in the public handling of this affair -- ahem, no pun intended -- but we'll leave that Monday morning quarterbacking for another day.
So back to current headlines and more people with context issues. This time it is John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, who is waving the "taken out of context" flag. At issue are some seemingly damaging comments he made in emails and other correspondence that the FTC subsequently cited when issuing its rationale for blocking the retailer's proposed acquisition of rival Wild Oats Markets. Among the remarks was a discussion about how the acquisition would enable the company to "avoid nasty price wars" that could harm gross margins. Hmmm, that sure smells of antitrust aroma to me.
Here's the kicker: Turns out Mackay’s comments really were taken out of context and "easily explainable" as well (eat your heart out, Julie Roehm).
How do I know? Rather than ask the general public to blindly take their word for it, Mackay and the folks at Whole Foods took the bold step of posting the alleged damning documents and other related materials -- including a confidential memo to the board of directors outlining the rationale for the Wild Oats acquisition -- to its website. And you know what? MacKay makes a pretty convincing business argument why the Wild Oats acquisition isn't anticompetitive.
While Whole Foods certainly gets some positive points for backing up its claims of comments being taken out of context with tangible evidence, they are offset by demerits earned for two negative outcomes generated by their transparency play.
First, Whole Foods' leadership lets its collective frustration get the better of themselves by launching a highly questionable and very vitriolic attack on the FTC as part of its posted defense. Questioning the legitimacy of the agency and the ethics of government bureaucrats before whom you have significant business dealings is not a smart negotiating tactic.
The second related cringe-inducer is from a PR standpoint: As shared in his blog, Mackay argued that Whole Foods faces formidable competition from mainstream supermarkets, not just ones specializing in natural foods. He is especially passionate about Wegmans Food Markets, an upscale Northeast supermarket chain with legions of fans, including one of my colleagues, who lives for its chocolate chip muffins.
To wit: "Wegman's (sic) operates huge stores with excellent quality of perishables and low prices and it is difficult for us to effectively compete against them". (emphasis mine).
If I were Wegmans, I'd have my advertising team working on full-page advertisements with the following headline: "Even Whole Foods Raves about Our Excellent Quality and Low Prices." John Mackay has already written the ad copy.
Eric Starkman is President of Starkman & Associates, a full service public and investor relations firm based in New York City. Prior to a career in PR, he was a journalist with several major newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. The firm has a strong crisis communications practice, having worked with numerous organizations and high-profile individuals to manage and mitigate the reputational damage of real and perceived communications crises.
Posted by Amanda Chapel
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Prima di tutto vorrei ringraziare Toni Muzi Falconi di prconversations.com per averci segnalato l'importanza di questa storia.
Here’s an excellent example of a corporation doing it right and utilizing social media to LISTEN to the “conversation.”
Meet our new friend Roberto Zangrandi. Sig Zangrandi heads Corporate Social Responsibility with Enel, the largest electric utility in Italy. Prior to Enel, he was a financial journalist with a number of leading Italian magazines, and he also served as Head, International Media Relations at Fiat. He is visiting professor for Public Relations Theory and Techniques at Udine, Teramo Universities and is Founding Chairman of the CSR Manager Network of Italy. Excuse me but Roberto’s the real deal.
It is our distinct pleasure to have him with us here today. So without further ado... Sig. Zangrandi.
Enel’s CSR Sustainability Meter
How a Web Tool Can Open “One-with-One” Constituent Dialogue
By Roberto Zangrandi
Head Corporate Social Responsibility
Enel S.p.A.
The place is Italy and my company is Enel, the leading electric utility and one of Europe’s leading energy players. Enel, with a shareholder base of 2.5 million, I am proud to say in recent years has become an internationally recognized benchmark for its corporate responsibility approach and strategy. Actually, according to the AccountAbility’s ranking recently published by Fortune, we are sixth in the world. But for all the accolades and recognition we’ve received for traditional stakeholder communications -- with segments such as employees, suppliers, customers, shareholders, local communities – last week we launched a new cutting-edge tool aimed at developing a direct dialogue with individual stakeholders. Enel launched a sustainability meter (see http://csrmeter.palomarlab.net/it).
First question, why? Well, in recent years we’ve learned that one can commission a lot of useful and sophisticated quali/quantitative surveys investigating stakeholders segment by segment; but when it comes to receiving in depth feelings about the company on the individuals composing those segments, one does not usually find many clues. Thus, the challenge is to develop a simple, attractive and revealing tool capable of fostering one-with-one relationship and dialogue. The Web, and especially today’s new social media tools, now gives us the ability to create and facilitate virtual communities. In theory at least, we saw the possibility of building and managing one-with-one relationships broadly.
Our inspiration? The original idea came to us more than a year ago, when a team of bright geeks (Palomar New Media) enabled Italian web visitors to express their views on 25 hot political issues in an election period which allowed them to instantly measure their positions to the policies voiced by the many different running political parties. More than 650,000 voters checked this out on a dedicated web site in a few weeks and positioned themselves online. One of the member of our CSR team, Pierluigi Orati, said, “hey… why aren’t we talking to these geeks?’ And with the support of Gianluca Comin, EVP Corporate External Relations, we did and began work to jointly develop a system. After a few months what we were able to devise is a web tool that allows the stakeholder to readily determine their proximity in relationship to Edel’s CSR model. To confirm our commitment to move as close as possible to his/her position, we also ask our interlocutor to select at least three (out of eight) priority operational CSR projects, either in progress or about to be launched. Of course, we than will use that information to help tailor various CSR projects, as needed.
Are there limitations? Of course. At this stage, almost as many as there are opportunities. First: inputs are clearly not statistically reliable. Second: self profiling is not yet mandatory, so we risk losing precious information on the specific identity of our voluntary interlocutors. And thirdly, the issues appraised are unilaterally suggested by the company, as well as the areas of improvement. That said, as we make preliminary adjustments to the system, we intend to “open up” additional space for qualitative comments and commit to providing immediate and personalized feedback. Frankly, we’re very excited to get the conversation going.
Some preliminary results? As of yesterday we’ve gleaned the following:
- 14% of early adopters are between 40 and 55 years old while “future generations” total 33%. 37% are males and 16% females. More than 10% are students, 16% employees, 22% self employed. Singles are 13%, couples with kids 25%.
- 51% think the company should focus on high dividends, 77% believe corporate governance is important, 95% think that volume and quality of debt needs to be kept under control.
- More than 72% give equal opportunity practices a high rank.
- 63% consider their electricity bill fair and 84% are positive about the interest of ethical funds in our company.
- Social and environmental policies are important to almost 87% of the respondents.
- 84% believe development of renewable energy sources to be core for future development, and 61% agree with nuclear powered production while 39% strongly oppose it.
- Carbon emission reduction and renewable sources of energy are the most popular operative projects for almost 37%. 15% ask for a strong commitment to educate the public on smarter energy use.
Now, of course, we now need to take that information and facilitate the dialogue with top management and strategy planners.
Scopri quanto la tua visione di sostenibilità è distante da quella di Enel, con il Sustainability Meter ti chiediamo di dedicare pochi minuti del tuo tempo per esprimerti su 24 temi di sicuro interesse. Il sociale, l'ambientale e l'economico sono le tre aree, nel cui centro ideale, vive e prospera la sostenibilità. A noi interessa farti sapere dove ci troviamo e ci piacerebbe sapere dove sei tu. Scopo principale è quello di rendere le nostre posizioni più vicine.
Posted by Amanda Chapel
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Schizophrenia: Any of a group of psychotic disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, and hallucinations. A condition that results from the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic qualities, identities, or activities.
Yikes! Then again, if the shoe fits, as they say. If there's one thing that the Strumpette project has demonstrated definitively, there is the coexistence of disparate and antagonistic qualities, identities, and activities in the PR business today. In some cases they are radically disparate.
Today, we are thrilled to have a true industry heavyweight share his thoughts on the topic. Jerry Johnson is an EVP at the global communications firm Brodeur. He heads the New York and DC offices there and also directs the agency’s issues management and public affairs practice. He has nearly 20 years experience in advising corporations, trade associations and foreign governments on corporate communications, public relations and public affairs strategies. He was a founding member of the Washington-based public relations and public affairs firm Powell Tate and also worked as a vice president at Ogilvy & Mathers Public Affairs.
For us here, he's the author of one of our favorite online publications, Jerry's Juicebar. We are huge fans of his writing and especially his thinking. Jerry's clear as a bell.
Without further ado... it is my distinct pleasure to introduce Jerry Johnson.
Posted by an Honored Guest
Monday, May 7, 2007
Ya know, every so often, a good crack up the back of the head is a blessing. I think it's human nature: You get into a groove and find comfort in doing things by rote. Regrettably, we tend to continue no matter how irrelevant or actually counterproductive the activity has gotten.
Well, here's a good smack! Today, we are thrilled to have David Henderson, the author of "Making News," an insider's look at media relations in a New Media world. Here the Emmy Award winning journalist and former CBS Network News correspondent addresses the #1 complaint about the Public Relations business.
Without further ado...SMACK!!
PR: The World's Most Prolific Spammer
By David Henderson
Ask journalists and PR people, alike, and many will tell you that press releases seldom result in making news. News releases simply are not the way news stories happen in today’s highly competitive world.
There are, of course, a few exceptions. Apple Computer and Nike are two companies that have mastered the technique of actually delivering legitimate news stories through their news releases, and they achieve outstanding results because of it. Apple and Nike know that reporters are paid to write stories so their news releases are actual stories. But they are the exception … the rare exception … rather than the rule.
The vast majority of news releases are little more than self-serving promotion and thinly disguised attempts at sales marketing. Don’t believe me? Well, then, explain that compulsive habit of adding an “About…” paragraph at the end of each news release?
It started during the tech boom of the 1990s when startups had CEOs and marketing people, not communicators, writing news releases, and they saw it was an opportunity to turn a news release into a sales brochure. In other words, “Since we don’t have any real news to announce, let’s issue a release to make up stuff and brag about how great we are!” When the attorneys got their hands on it, they recognized such bravado as “b-s” and insisted that releases contain safe harbor statements that essentially said that nothing in the release is true and the company has no memory of ever having claimed it and it’s not their fault.
Apple and Nike, by the way, don’t detract from the news they are announcing releases to bother with those insipid “About…” paragraphs because if you don’t know who they are and can’t easily find out on the Web, then you really don’t matter. Sorry.
Many PR agencies know that releases are largely a waste of time but crank them out nonetheless at the behest of clients.
By best estimates, public relations people in America flood the news media with upwards of 75-million news releases each year. The two largest news release distribution services – PR Newswire and BusinessWire – alone distribute approximately four million releases every month. Pile on the countless news releases that PR agencies, companies, governments and organizations email, fax and mail to the media, and the total amount is staggering. It is a myth that sending news releases to thousands of reporters will make a difference. Quite the contrary, you just might get tagged as an annoyance.
Here is the reality – most news releases are not read or are ignored. Unsolicited, irrelevant and meaningless news releases – the overwhelming bulk of releases emailed to newsrooms – are the #1 complaint of journalists about the PR business.
The problem has reach such proportions that most news organizations now actively work to block press releases in special spam filters to prevent the sheer volume of them from overwhelming the email inboxes of reporters and editors.
There is a rising tide of concern that the public relations industry could be labeled among the top spammers on the Internet. PR’s volume of blind and unsolicited pitches to the news media via email is already staggering, out of control and growing, fueled by a proliferation of online services that promise to deliver your press release to thousands of journalists by email, even though such an approach is rarely effective.
A PR person recently sent a single news release to about 1,300 people reporters and editors. I learned about it because an editor I know shared the email with me after counting the names in the “To” line. He stopped counting at 1,300 email addresses. The sender hadn’t bothered to hide the 1,300 in the “Bcc” line, but simply just mindlessly blasted out his news release with all the names revealed. The amount of space those 1,300 names consumed in an email was massive. Incidentally, he left the “Subject” line empty even though that’s an important place to try to get a journalist’s attention.
So, here’s the takeaway: First, blast and unsolicited emails rarely work to either get the attention of a journalist or to result in a story. What’s more, many PR people are actually teaching smart spam software to recognize more and more of the materials of public relations as spam. Hence, PR is becoming seen as online spam. Sorry but true.
Second, the news business has gotten so fiercely competitive that reporters are mandated to find exclusive and appealing stories that have not appeared elsewhere. News releases go to everyone so what reporter who wants to keep a job will bother to touch it? Today’s style of effective media relations is relationship-based. The most effective PR people smartly build trusted relationships with only the right reporters and share story ideas, one-on-one.
Here’s my advice – forget news releases. Get to know reporters who cover your business or organization. Chances are there is just a few. Establish yourself as a regular resource of tips and information which gives you an opportunity to stay in contact with the journalists. Then, when you have legitimate news, pick up the phone and talk with them. That’s how the best stories happen today.
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