Marketing That’s Measurable

It’s that time of year again when many big name advertisers line-up and pay big bucks to entertain us with their ads. Most Superbowl’s are judged by the ad content and not the game itself. Worse yet, most of the ads don’t sell products or services — at least not enough to recoup the lavish spend required to air a spot on the big game.

This point was brought up again this year (You may recall I blogged about it last year) on the PR Crumudgeon blog.

Here’s to silly marketing spends…

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750

For those of you who have taken the time to read this blog in the past, you may recognize me as the guy who writes about public relations. The time has come, however, for me to say good-bye.

I have been truly blessed to work with Grant Johnson and the great measurable marketers at Johnson Direct. I’ve learned how to apply my skills in PR as direct response marketing tools, and have been shown ways to repurpose my work on behalf of clients, thereby multiplying the positive effect for them. In short, I have become a better PR guy because I have worked with measurable marketers.

Along the way, I’ve had a nice chance to interact with some of the folks whose blogs appear on our blogroll, like Jonathan Hutter at Garrand (At the End of the Day), Wendy Grey Maynard, the Marketing Maven, at Kinesis (Kinetic Ideas), and Bill Sledzik (Tough Sledding). If you haven’t already done so, you really ought to check out their wit and wisdom. Jonathan, I will always thank you for being the first to really rip the living daylights out of ABC for subjecting us to Cavemen. Wendy, how can I ever thank you for shedding light (and video!) on the latest, and funniest, ways to sell bras? And Bill, thanks ever so much both for being a thorn in the side of the PR establishment and for giving us that classic link to new media douche bags!

But most of all, I want to thank the boss (no, not Springsteen!), Grant Johnson, for giving me the chance to work on this blog. It’s been fun to the nth degree and has certainly broadened my professional horizons. You’ll be hearing a great deal more from Grant in this “Marketing that’s Measurable” blog. You should pay close attention to what he writes, because he is, unquestionably, one of this country’s leading measurable marketers. Grant speaks frequently at professional conferences around the country … if you ever get the chance, don’t miss him!

And don’t be too surprised to see my name suddenly pop up on a new blog about sleep disorders in the near future.

My friends, adieu.

Johnson Direct LLC

800-710-2750

The comments expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of Johnson Direct, LLC.

In 37 years in public relations, I don’t recall anything quite like the firestorm that Steve Jobs created when he startled his loyal throng of techno-geeks by announcing that Apple was slashing the price of its monster success, the i-Phone, by $200 for the 8-gigabyte model … just a few short months after it was introduced.

Apple loyalists, the same ones who slept outside in the rain for nights on end to be among the privileged many to shell out nearly $700 for the “one phone that does everything,” responded angrily by calling Jobs “arrogant” and “out of touch” with his customer base. Every possible means of communicating with Jobs was used to besiege him with angry words from i-Phone users. Marketers world-wide were shocked by his incredible blunder. After all, this wasn’t Crazy Eddie, the carpet salesman. This was Steve Jobs! Superman, Flash Gordon, and Batman all rolled into one!

PR people like me stood back and watched to see how Jobs would respond to the crisis of his own making. And we didn’t need to wait long. Suddenly, there was Steve Jobs, arguably one of the smartest business men of our generation, apologizing and promising to make it right. He offered $100 back to those who had bought the i-Phone when it was introduced, and he sincerely apologized.

Crisis Communications 101, folks. Done expertly by the same man who had just made one of the more spectacular marketing blunders in recent memory. Kudos to Jobs and his advisers, because this time a major crisis will blow over. He reacted quickly and properly. He said he was sorry, and not through some spokesman. He took it like a man.

Good job, i-Man!

Johnson Direct LLC

800-710-2750

The comments expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of Johnson Direct, LLC.

There are things right in front of us every day that we just don’t see … or think we see. Some are examples of clever marketing, some are indicators of other things, and some are just plain accidental. So, have you ever noticed …

… the almost hidden arrow in the FedEx logo? It’s very subtle, but it’s there, and it certainly states what the company does.

… how much different fast food products look in advertising than they do in real life? I don’t know how clever that is, but it certainly involves marketing.

… that long standing companies change their logos subtly, over time. Some make minor changes every two or three years. They don’t do it overnight. Unless you’re changing your name, this is definitely clever marketing.

… most prescription pills are dispensed with information that describes exactly what the pill looks like? This may be an FDA regulation, but it’s smart because pharmacies often switch back and forth between the companies they buy generics from.

… that the famous “G” of the Green Bay Packers is also used by the Georgia Bulldogs? But how often do you think of the “dawgs” when you see the “G?” And if it’s green on a gold background, forget about it!

… the Cleveland Browns are the only team in the National Football League without a logo on their helmets? Clever marketing to stand alone … and also a good idea because the team’s actual “brownie” logo looks a little effeminate.

… how common your name is? Go ahead, “Google” yourself and see what happens. Seems I am a minor league pitcher in the Chicago Cubs farm system. Odd. I don’t remember getting a signing bonus or anything like that!

… the grammatical errors in emails and other written communications? This is disturbing. Even resumes come through with the applicant’s name misspelled.

… how bad your handwriting has become since you started using a computer?

… that today’s college students were not around to see John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Richard Nixon and other influential figures in our country’s 20th Century history? Heck, these kids have never even watched a TV that didn’t have a remote.

… how Gen Y doesn’t trust and respond to traditional forms of advertising and communicating? Smart marketers are already looking into My Space, Facebook, email and text messaging for their messages (among other venues).

… your name looks totally ridiculous spelled backwards? Mine is Tnarg Nosnhoj.

… every advertising outlet is more than happy to provide you with confusing data that appear to show why you just can’t pass up the opportunity to work with them? If your company advertises, make sure you have someone who really understands media buying on your side.

… a father can spent countless hours in the yard teaching his son how to throw a football, but when the kid becomes a star and the cameras go on, he says “Hi, Mom!”?

… how car dealers invariably think that it’s a good idea for them to appear in their own TV ads? Earth to car dealers: get an agency that will be honest with you and try to help you SELL cars.

… how many advertisements give you absolutely no reason to buy anything? It’s called “image advertising,” and it’s not very useful.

… how the 2007 Hyundai Sonata looks remarkably like its chief competitor, the Honda Accord, has since 2004? Is that flattery, or an admission of “we can’t beat ‘em, so let’s join ‘em?”

… how you aren’t nearly as good a singer as you thought when you don’t have a CD player or a radio “backing” you up?

… how Lean Cuisine’s Chicken Enchilada Suiza has no chicken in it? Apparently, “Suiza” means “no stinking chicken!”

… how only the really cool people know who John Eddie is? I think this may be part of John’s secret marketing plan to sell his music only to the cool guys and gals.

What do you think?

Grant Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

800-710-2750

In the ever changing worlds of marketing and public relations, there are, somehow, certain things that never seem to change. Take, for instance, our own failure as professionals to address the destruction of young women’s and men’s psyches and even their lives through the work we enthusiastically perform.

Twenty-five years ago, I handled public relations for the first-ever eating disorders treatment program in Wisconsin. And I did it well. I drew almost constant attention to anorexia nervosa and bulimia, always pointing to the media as one of the major culprits in a sinister campaign to prevent our children from ever developing a solid sense of self-esteem. I pointed to the seemingly unbelievable death of Karen Carpenter, the ridiculous popularity of Twiggy, and the fame of that most idealized of all bulimics, actress and work-out maven Jane Fonda.

Fast forward to 2007. The fashion industry, of all people, complains about overly thin models and even refuses to use them in some instances. Good for them, even though they’re probably only bowing to pressure. But, at the same time, visit any basketball arena or football stadium and look at the “cheerleaders.” Cars are still sold by ads that boast very thin women. Parents give their daughters liposuction and breast implants as birthday and graduation presents. Paris Hilton becomes an icon to our daughters. Nicole Richie staggers her way through Hollywood, barely a shadow of her former self. “Barbie” has changed a bit, but she still has a figure that is totally unrealistic. The pressure to be thin just keeps on growing, and even little girls are feeling it. And by little, I mean five year olds. And now researchers report that eating disorders and body image distortion are affecting older women, too. Not just young adult women, but those in their 40s and 50s, too!

It’s really up to us in marketing and public relations to do something about it. While we are hardly the sole source of the problem, we need to take a stand, do the right thing and lead the way. Those aren’t stick figures we’re selling to out there … they’re real women with real women’s bodies and, unfortunately, all too often self-esteem that we contribute to destroying. How jaded can we be? We need to be courageous enough to tell our clients that harming potential customers in the name of sales is wrong. We need to show them alternatives that will work. We need to recognize, ourselves, that ignoring the mental and physical health of America’s children isn’t worth the business of any client.

Eating disorders are all about control. When you feel you can’t control anything else in life, you can control how much (or little) you eat. You numb out. You turn away from life. In all too many cases, you die. It’s unbelievable … it’s depressing … it’s ugly to watch a human being die in the name of trying to live up to someone else’s standards of “beauty.”

We all can help return that control to where it belongs … to each individual.

Just by being decent and doing the right thing.

Johnson Direct LLC

800-710-2750

The comments expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of Johnson Direct LLC.

I can easily adjust to most of the shifts in society that have taken place during my adult years … women’s “lib” has been a great example. I grew up in a male dominated society and, while some would certainly say today’s is still dominated by my gender, I can also remember a time when my profession, public relations, was heavily dominated by men. Now, I’m in the extreme minority whenever I go to professional meetings. And that’s ok.

But one development I cannot stand has been in today’s “journalism.” I remember the days when reporters quoted honest-to-goodness real sources. Now they quote each other. Worse yet, they quote anonymous “sources.” Case in point: my hometown, Milwaukee, was shocked the other night when all the news sources in town started quoting foxsports.com as saying Brett Favre, that most beloved of all saints in Wisconsin, wanted to be traded away from the Green Bay Packers. No, no! Tell us it isn’t so!

But then came the reality check. They didn’t quote Brett Favre. They didn’t quote Favre’s agent. They didn’t quote the Green Bay Packers. No, they quoted a reporter. Over and over and over again. Since when are reporters sources?

Or, on the political scene, “an anonymous White House source said …” Now, why should I believe that? I wish I could remember who it was that once quoted “an anonymous White Horse souse” in a story. Now THAT I could believe.

Come on folks. Give us real news … or no news at all. I’d rather you try to find a good news story to report (believe me, you won’t have to quote anonymous sources on those) than dither on about something that somebody faceless and nameless said somewhere … we think.

And that’s the way it is …

Johnson Direct LLC

800-710-2750

The comments expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of Johnson Direct, LLC.

It’s a good thing that Dave Berkman is a “former” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee journalism professor. It would be a serious shame if he were still spewing garbage on the campus of my alma mater.

In an article in Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express examining local television news and what the paper calls local stations’ “shortcomings,” Berkman throws out a truly bizarre comment that makes him the leading contender for this year’s “WTF Did He Say?” award. Apparently speaking from his own little corner of the Twilight Zone, the prof says: “It’s a moral contradiction in terms when you couple journalism with PR, where students are taught to lie.”

What????

I had to wait for my anger to subside and my hands to stop shaking before I wrote this commentary in response to Berkman’s sanctimonious, out-of-touch, pointless, and completely untrue assessment of public relations. I earned a journalism degree at that same school, before Berkman came on the scene with his poisonous rhetoric, and the faculty I knew were members of the working press. They knew about the real world of journalism and not one of them ever suggested that PR people should lie as part of their job or their nature.

I’ve been blessed to make a career for myself in the practice of public relations for 37 years. I love what I do. I take it very seriously. I’ve never told a lie to the media or the public in my job. The only time I was told by an employer to do so, I quit my job rather than damage my credibility and that of my profession. It was the highest paying job I’ve ever held, and I just walked away. Poorer, but far better off.

Honesty and accuracy are the most important tools available to the PR practitioner. I’ve always believed that lying is the one sure way to damage yourself, your career, and your employer irreparably. Lie to the media or public? That’s called “professional suicide.”

So, with all honesty and accuracy, I say to Dave Berkman: “You don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about … so it might be a good idea to stop talking!”

Johnson Direct, LLC

800-710-2750

The comments expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of Johnson Direct, LLC.

Sometimes it’s easy to misunderstand, to jump to the wrong conclusions. That’s what I told myself when the local daily newspaper ignored important developments last fall in an abstinence-based program at Milwaukee’s Rosalie Manor Community & Family Services, which has been combatting teen pregnancy, child abuse, and child neglect for nearly a century. But then, when the local United Way started a so-called “comprehensive” sex-ed program featuring a misleading, even tricky come-on (”For a Good Time, Call”), the newspaper couldn’t praise it enough.

That was followed by the report of one study that critized abstinence only programs, and the newspaper covered it thoroughly and even ran a “personal” editorial from one of its staff writers blasting abstinence programs. And now another sex-ed program with ties both to the United Way AND the newspaper is being heralded as one of the most important things to happen in Milwaukee in a long time. An editorial was even run that began the process of implanting United Way’s fall 2007 campaign in readers’ minds.

Let me be clear about something here. I, personally, don’t take a position in the debate over abstinence vs. comprehensive sex-ed programs. I believe there is both room and a distinct need for each, especially in Milwaukee, which consistently leads the nation in births to teenage mothers and has an increasing rate of sexually transmitted diseases among teens. I have strongly supported United Way over the years. My point here is that journalism depends on balanced reporting (or so I learned when earning my own degree in journalism), and there has been nothing balanced about the local newspaper’s approach.

Am I jumping to the wrong conclusion, or is it that the newspaper’s strong ties through its company leadership to the United Way results in having little interest in covering positive news that is generated by a so-called “competing” program? For a look at what The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has failed to cover, please see www.acryingshame.info. Maybe the real shame is that The Journal Sentinel is the only game in town, and once it takes a side, the game is over.

Johnson Direct LLC

800-710-2750

The comments expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of Johnson Direct, LLC.

Take your pick. Whether you’re involved in the pet food poisoning incident or the offensive behavior and words of your top on-air personality, a crisis is a crisis … and you better be ready to deal with it or it might just bring you down.

Crises are not something corporate America embraces, of course. But neither should we run away from them. No matter how good your product is, a poorly handled crisis can destroy it … and even your entire company. Even though the pet food contamination appears to have been caused by Chinese wheat gluten, most pet lover-consumers will cast a wary eye for a long time towards Menu Foods and the many products they manufacture … products that were previously trusted. Even if you don’t think Don Imus is a racist, you can’t deny that his credibility, and that of your company if you employ him, is badly damaged. Whether or not the damage is permanent remains to be seen but, for now, Imus is not exactly on most listeners’ preferred radio host list. And don’t think the advertisers aren’t watching. Ask Procter & Gamble whether they want to be associated with him again. WFAN radio reports that Imus had been worth $20 million in annual revenue to the station. Now that’s a crisis!

When a crisis happens, what is important is how you handle it and yourself. You can either react (and pray) or you can institute an already in-place solid plan that enables you to present your company in the best possible light and perhaps even save your brand. Think of what it cost to develop your brand. Is that not worth every possible effort to save? The old saying that “If you just ignore it, it will become yesterday’s news” is the kind of head-in-the-sand thinking that leads companies down the road to disaster.

Just as every company needs a disaster recovery plan, so do all need a crisis communications plan … BEFORE a crisis hits. The money spent now can save you considerably more in dollars and reputation down the road.

So, what is a crisis? Is it a 9/11 style catastrophe? Of course … and isn’t it shocking that most companies in the World Trade Center on that tragic day did not have crisis plans in place? But a crisis can also be something much smaller … a law suit that draws bad publicity day after day and ruins the morale of your employees … a storm that knocks out power to your shop and forces you to fail in making promised deliveries to customers … an accidental discharge of industrial chemicals into a nearby creek … an unfounded claim by a disgruntled former employee that finds its way into the press. A crisis can even be caused by your own inability to deal with a media surge if something good and unexpected happens to your company.

When I spent three-plus years as the crisis communications chairman of a major national trade organization in Washington, DC, we dealt with issues pertaining to the early days of the AIDS “crisis.” We did what is always the best thing to do in a crisis: we tackled it head on. We told the truth. We explained the situation in layman’s terms. We talked about what we were doing to protect safety. And we went through far less bad publicity than another national group that chose to deal with the same issue by being defensive, rather than helpful.

Johnson Direct LLC

800-710-2750

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