Moving from Technology to Brand (Part 1)

By Vijaya Dhillon

In the industrial b2b world, we witness the birth of new, cutting-edge technologies continually. It is commonplace for companies to invest heavily on capital equipment to develop smarter, faster and better products/technologies.

Once built and patented – what happens to these valuable assets?

Few technologies live on for a long time, while most others become commodities, giving way to competitive offerings, possibly improved, in a relatively short span. The difference lies in the technology’s promise to create value for its users.  And that’s what I mean by a brand.  It is more than a tagline or an attention-grabbing logo.  A brand in many ways is a business strategy that aligns the value a technology delivers to customer needs.  Think about it – would consumers really consider buying a complex product/technology, whose value they don’t fully understand, and for which they may not have a pressing need today?

A strong brand that defines how you will deliver value – the sum total of your processes, capabilities and insights – each time, globally to solve the customer’s problems now can help you get to a market leadership position.

A brand can also guide business decisions. The cornerstone of good branding is value creation for customers. You are either creating value or not. And as such, your decision is either in line with the agreed-upon strategy or not.

You need a brand to differentiate yourself.  Gone are the days where good quality was a compelling selling proposition and a unique differentiator. In a crowded marketplace defined by collapsing boundaries, quality is a given. And frankly, it is imperative for survival.  In an environment where anything that can be copied will be copied, including quality, your brand equity will be your most promising revenue generation source in the long run.

In my next post, I will offer tips on how to effectively lay the foundation for developing a strong brand.

Vijaya Dhillon is Deputy Managing Director, Americas at ABI marketing public relations. You can reach her at +1 212-529-2633 and vdhillon@abipr.com.

Social Media and the Tylenol Crisis

By Elliot Schimel

On September 29, 1982, Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village, Illinois died. The doctors speculated that the cause was a capsule of Extra Strength Tylenol. A family member grieved over Facebook.

Later that day, Adam Janus of Arlington Heights, Illinois, died in the hospital shortly thereafter, also seemingly caused by Extra Strength Tylenol. A nurse tweeted about the incident. It was retweeted by four people within the hour. Within 12 hours there were 2,000 tweets. Groups of concerned bloggers posted hundreds of notes warning their readers to throw out their Tylenol bottles. Thousands of nervous consumers tossed their Tylenol bottles.

By the next morning, the Chicago Tribune, New York Times and Associated Press all had stories out about the scare. All this occurred within 24 hours and before Tylenol had a chance to react.

Fortunately for Johnson & Johnson, social media and digital communication were not mainstream communication tools in 1982. Despite this terrible situation, they had over a month to deal with the crisis. Johnson & Johnson took over a week to evaluate the situation, create an effective media relations campaign and recall all Tylenol bottles from retail shops. Two weeks later the Washington Post said, “Johnson & Johnson has effectively demonstrated how a major business ought to handle a disaster.”

That worked almost 30 years ago, but Johnson & Johnson would have to navigate a much more difficult communications terrain today and have much less time to do so. A brand’s reputation can be destroyed before the story hits the mainstream media.

There are certainly many benefits for a brand to communicate with their online community, but the key to a successful online presence is to have a trusted brand ambassador who can reach out to this community in times of crisis. Should a crisis occur, brands need to have a trusted online community manager who regularly interacting with key online influencers.

A successful social communications campaign does not necessarily result in media placements or a successful marketing campaign.  Although these are certainly potential benefits from a successful social media presence, the main goal is to establish a trusted voice in the forums where people are discussing their brands.

Elliot Schimel is a Senior Account Manager at ABI marketing public relations. You can reach him at +1 212-529-2583 and eschimel@abipr.com.

That One Question

By Vijaya Dhillon

I just got off the phone with a service provider who called to ask “Is there anything we could be doing better”? And it got me thinking.  More or less, I was satisfied with the service, but sure it would make me a much happier customer if I had an easier time with their automated billing system.  I would have never thought to proactively call and raise this issue with a customer service representative. It’s not like I haven’t thought about changing service providers. Every time that I have run into billing issues with this company, I consider the possibility of pulling the trigger.

But this question gave me the opportunity to talk about something they could do for me – and that something would help them keep my business.

Generally speaking, most people in business have a pretty good sense of whether or not a client is happy.  But how often do we stop and ask “what could we be doing better”? At first glance, this seems like a really simple question, but the response to it can help unearth very important information about client priorities and concerns.

Mike, the customer service representative taught me an invaluable lesson – remember not to reserve this question for situations where you feel you have fallen short.  Be proactive.  The dialogue you will have as a result will be very enlightening.  You will uncover areas of improvement and the client will appreciate your efforts to actively get feedback.

As I write this, I ask myself – Is there anything simpler than asking that one question for a great impact on your bottom line?

Vijaya Dhillon is Deputy Managing Director, Americas at ABI marketing public relations. You can reach her at +1 212-529-2633 and vdhillon@abipr.com.

We recommend…

It is always interesting to hear about books that our peers find valuable. We asked some ABIers to recommend books they have found useful in their careers. Here are the books they chose:

Alan Isacson, CEO: Good to Great by Jim Collins

“Good to Great continues to impact many of my strategies and decisions. I highly recommend it.”

Maria Arias, Account Associate in the New York office: 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers

“48 Laws of Power helped me put things into perspective when entering into my new career straight out of college.”

Charlotte Fougeres, Account Executive in the London office: Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson

“Who Moved My Cheese? has principles that help you handle stress,  your career and your life  in general.”

Joel Mazmanian, Account Manager is the New York office: Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach by Kathleen Fearn-Banks

“As a PR practitioner in the B to B space, I have found that it is important to be familiar with varied disciplines within the field of public relations. In addition to the lessons taken from my background as a journalist and a publicist in the consumer space, books like this help me to learn about all areas of my craft.”

James Nicholson, Account Manager in the New York office: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR by Brian Solis & Deidre Breakenridge

“While some may not warm to Solis and Breakenridge’s writing style, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is the definitive guide to how social media has affected the practice of PR and discusses how to survive – and thrive – in the new environment.”

Elliot Schimel, Senior Account Manager in the New York office: Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy

“Many of the lessons covered by Ogilvy are appropriate across all types of marketing and public relations work. They continue to be relevant today.”

What books have you found useful in guiding your career?

The Great ROI Conundrum

By James Nicholson

My last post was addressed to PR practitioners who jump on the social media bandwagon without a clear strategy in mind. Today, I’d like to talk a bit about what their expectations should be, once that strategy is in place.

ROI is simultaneously the bane and the bread and butter of the public relations industry. For any communications campaign, whoever’s footing the bill wants to know exactly what they are getting for their money – not just deliverables – but in terms of the ultimate effect on their business.

That return can come in many forms, although media placements, ad-equivalency values and number of leads generated are by far the most common. It’s important to identify these measurement tools when first determining a communications strategy.

Social Media ROI, in contrast, is considered a highly nebulous term, and one about which debate continues to rage fiercely and freely.

Many believe it is difficult to measure the ROI of a social media campaign. Dell’s success notwithstanding, some feel that it is impossible to be confident that if you spend X dollars on a social media program, you will earn Y dollars back. Others see social media as an ongoing process, while ROI can only be calculated for distinct and finite projects.

Some practitioners, however believe there are metrics that can determine the ROI from social media marketing. Many are looking at measurements beyond the dollar value and suggest – as Brian Solis does – that the industry faces an evolution beyond traditional measurement forms.

Everyone has an opinion, and what side of the fence they come down on usually influences whether or not they fully commit to social media relations as a communications tool.

And therein lies the rub.

As Tom Pick tells us in his excellent summary of the ROI Debate:

“Metrics can be useful to help determine what to do more of, less of, or differently, but should not act as the basis for whether or not to engage in social media.”

Pick’s point is well-made – in, for example, a traditional media communications campaign, practitioners use metrics to adjust their style, edit their messaging, and target new audiences. What they don’t use them for is deciding against communication with the media at all.

Social media communications is neither a magical cure nor a brave new world – it is simply another of the PR tools at our disposal. Just because the industry has not yet perfected the art of determining its ROI does not mean we should avoid it altogether.

James Nicholson is an Account Manager at ABI marketing public relations. You can reach him at +1 212-529-2543 and jnicholson@abipr.com.

The Value of a Public Relations Stunt

By Amy Berman

Back in 1903, the philosophy for any given newspaper was that it is not good enough to simply report the news, but to also help create the news being reported.  With this in mind, Geo Lefevre , a journalist for L’Auto magazine in France, came up with the idea that a race around France on bikes would generate some interest in his publication as well as stir up some headline grabbing stories.  Thus, Tour de France was born—a PR stunt that not only put L’Auto’s competitors out of business, but is also a tradition still very much alive today.

The PR Stunt—a way to drum up media and public interest in a strange or sensational way and create recognition for the brand or product with which the stunt is associated.  Sometimes risky, as reaction (whether positive or negative) can never be guaranteed, but in these hard-going economic times, a public relations stunt may be exactly the kind of light-hearted campaign a consumer will engage with.

In 2009, Tourism Queensland took an advert to recruit an “island caretaker” willing to spend six months exploring the land and waters around the Great Barrier Reef for £70,000. The post, billed as “the best job in the world” would involve the successful applicant moving to a rent-free three-bedroom villa, complete with pool, on Hamilton Island.  This stunt was hailed as one of the most effective in recent PR history as it had the whole world talking about Queensland.

Of course not all clients are as glamorous as Queensland and not all stunts will result in the consumer winning “the best job in the world”.  What this campaign does demonstrate though, as did the Tour de France over 100 years earlier, is that consumers like interaction.  A product or brand becomes a whole lot more exciting when a sensation is attached to it; be that a holiday, a sporting event, or even just a man submerged in a glass tank filled with two million skittles.

Amy Berman is an Account Associate in the London office of ABI marketing public relations. You can reach her at + 44 (0)2070 14 3500  or aberman@abipr.com.

Sounds Proofy

By Paula Pou

I went to journalism school with a lot of other kids who would break into cold sweats and panicky twitches whenever math came up. One of my professors was a fellow by the name of Charles Seife, whose math background (A.B. in math from Princeton, M.S. in math from Yale) made him the resident expert on all things numbers. He used a scientific approach to disprove claim after mathematical claim made by bastions of respectable journalism and changed our fear of numbers into a healthy respect.

A few weeks ago I came across a review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review of Seife’s latest book—Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception. In it, he launches into an investigation of why (and how) so many people buy into statements that are glaringly untrue. He explores the many ways we misunderstand simple mathematical terms—confusing average, for example, with typical—and our natural tendency to treat numbers as truth and to see patterns where none exist.

Of course if proofiness exists in journalism, it’s rampant in marketing—for better or for worse. And in both professions there’s a common denominator lurking: the writer. One of the biggest temptations that exists for us is the manipulation of data—especially when it’s unilateral and complex. But what do we really gain by playing into that? Look around. According to a Gallup poll from September, a majority of Americans (57%) express “little to no trust in the media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly.” Did you know that Americans also don’t trust social networks, banks and credit card firms, politicians and government? Apparently, Americans trust no one—or at least we get told we don’t on a regular basis.

With all this proofiness going on all around us, it’s a really good time to go for the whole honesty as a best policy approach if you’ve got something to sell. You just might be surprised by how much trust you get back if you trust consumers to make up their own minds with “just the facts, ma’am.”

(Full disclosure, I still need a calculator to perform simple math).

Paula Pou is an Account Manager at ABI marketing public relations. You can reach her at +1 212-529-2543 ppou@abipr.com.

Dispatches from ZMOT…Part 1

By Elisabeth King

Ever since P&G started talking about the “First Moment of Truth,” those few seconds at the store shelf when a consumer first comes in contact with a product, suppliers to CPGs and retailers have tried to show how their products help engage buyers at the point of sale.

Then comes the second one, in the home, where consumers use the product and begin to feel (or not) loyalty to it. “The Third Moment of Truth,” the decision to actually buy a product again, comes after and so on.

At the Shopper Marketing Conference in Chicago in October, those savvy consumer marketers focused on a fourth stage. Research shows, and our own experience as consumers tells us, that we are spending way more time researching products before we go shopping.

That time spent has been christened, “The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).” It’s a brilliant concept, and frankly a gift to b2b marketers, who also know that time invested in building awareness about products and services is essential to gaining interest from prospects and ultimately closing the sale.

In the days of traditional public relations programs and advertising, we did this simply with print and advertising coverage. Before people went shopping for new technologies, before they even knew they needed something, you found them, and if the message was right, they contacted you for more information.

Today, ZMOT has taken on new meaning. It’s moved beyond spraying out a message, as Christina Birgy reminded us, to truly understanding your target audience, then sending out product information, tailoring website content and showcasing industry expertise that directly meets their needs.

The key is to make sure that a prospect’s first experience with you, that zero moment, is one that really engages them in what you do, and that subsequent experiences mirror this first encounter.

It means having a great website with a strong business value story well told. Once you’ve engaged them, it means filling in the gaps between sales meetings with the information they need, the way they want it, until the sale closes. And, long after the sale closes, it means continuing that support to build loyalty and gain repeat business.

Elisabeth King is Director of Strategy at ABI marketing public relations. You can reach her at +1 212-529-4756 and eking@abipr.com.

Listen, Engage, and Drive Sales!

By Christina Birgy

Whether you are a b2b or b2c marketer, recognizing what is expected of you can be the key to success. Recently, the Direct Marketing Association held a session at Advertising Week 2010 entitled “Listen, Engage, and Drive Sales!” The idea seems simple enough – tailoring your marketing efforts to what your customers want and need will increase response rates, and in turn, ROI. Yet some marketers continue to waste their time and money with the “spray and pray method.”

Ernan Roman, president of Ernan Roman Direct Marketing, kicked off the session by focusing on Voice of Customer-driven (VOC) Relationship Marketing. VOC marketing starts with in-depth customer interviews, followed by a multichannel communications strategy based on their requests. Instead of what you think they want, customers get what they want and how they want it. People are more responsive and more likely to opt-in on future offers.

Leslie C. Reiser, interactive marketing director at IBM, also shared valuable VOC knowledge from her experience with infoBOOM, an online community for technology professionals. Based on early VOC insights, she understood that community members wanted, first and foremost, access to IBM and industry experts. The site was tailored accordingly with great results. She found that site visitors were more likely to become members, and members were more likely to purchase IBM products since they were also given the opportunity able to evaluate those products in the online community. By doing her homework, Ms. Reiser knew she was connecting with her audience in the right way, and was able to achieve success from the get-go.

Doug Stein, president of HMS National, which specializes in home warranties, emphasized the importance of building a relationship with every customer. HMS transformed its customer outreach packet from something purely informational to an engaging, personalized letter. Mr. Stein compared HMS to a friend that customers can call when their water heater is broken. You need to be someone customers can rely on, which, he emphasized, also means following through on your promises.

Tools that enable customer engagement seem to emerge daily, but it is essential that companies listen to their customers before creating and implementing their messages. Above all, VOC marketing is about building trust and treating customers the way they want to be treated.

Christina Birgy is an intern in the New York office at ABI marketing public relations. You can reach her at +1 212-529-4754 and cbirgy@abipr.com.

CSI: Crafting Stronger Information

By Erica Helton

For over ten years, I’ve been involved in an activity called forensics, or speech – not to be confused with forensic science like you see on CSI every week.  What we do is more about the dissection of words, in the form of ten minute original persuasive and informative speeches and literary performances of prose, poetry and drama.

This past weekend kicked off the season for the team I help coach at Seton Hall University.   As I was sitting in rounds on the college campus watching speeches and performances, it occurred to me that the lessons we teach our students about crafting arguments and presenting them in an audience-friendly way translates into the business world, particularly business-to-business communications.

B2B companies, who typically promote extremely technical products, often struggle to simplify their messages in a way that will resonate with target audiences.  Below are three strategies we teach our students to overcome that very challenge.  Consider using them as you work to craft and present your company’s positioning and key messaging.

• The Rule of Three – Research indicates that when listening to a presentation, whether it be for a sales pitch or a presentation at a technical conference, the audience will only remember three messages.  So, when you’re working to promote your products or services, be sure to define the three key messages you want the audience to walk away with.
• Practice Makes Perfect – Speech students spend countless hours perfecting their scripts and performances for competition.  That same work ethic can be applied to B2B companies as they work to craft their messages and present them in a way that is easy to understand for any audience, from potential customers to the media.  Whether conducting sales or media training, do not undervalue the virtue of practice.
• Networking is King – The college forensics circuit is a tight-knit community, making it crucial for students get to know their fellow competitors and coaches, who will not only help them with competition but could one day be a resource for a graduate assistantship or career opportunity.  Many B2B industries are also relatively small so think about increasing your attendance at trade shows and conferences.  Networking may not result in a sales lead right away, but you never know when your contacts will find themselves in a position to make a purchasing decision.

The Seton Hall Pirates are off to a great start!  As you look ahead to 2011, apply these strategies to kick off your season right.

Erica Helton is an Account Manager at ABI marketing public relations. You can reach her at +1 212-529-2632 and ehelton@abipr.com.