The Year in Review

The visit in September 2008 of Hurricane Ike was closely followed by a dramatic dip in the financial world.  Those two events, at least for the Texas Gulf Coast area, seemed to put a near halt to many marketing initiatives by the first of 2009.  Some companies saw this an an opportunity to re-brand and make a mark in their fields while their competitors cautiously held tight.  Others, either unsure of what the future may hold or mindful of the appearance of frugality in volatile times, chose to slow or stop their marketing efforts altogether.  As the fears of the bottom dropping out seem to be subsiding, many companies are now emerging from their year long hibernation with new energy and ambitions.  Those who recognized the value of reinforcing their identities through the economic downturn will have a much better position as we head into 2010.  Those who have been in a holding pattern may find they have a lot of work to do to get back into the game.  Either way, 2010 looks to be a busy year as companies revive their marketing efforts and look for ways to reinforce their brands and images in a more competitive marketplace.

Taking the Emotion out of Crisis Situations

One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in any organization undergoing a crisis is emotion: Stakeholders, especially management and employees, often become defensive because their livelihood may be at stake. It’s basic human nature.

When defensiveness rules, the lawyers are usually put in charge. Virtually all outside communication is then shut down or limited to stilted legalese, the goal being to limit discoverable materials and protect the organization from lawsuits. The problem with this sort of response is that it smacks of a cover-up. Unanswered questions lead to speculation and speculation leads to rumor and eventually, perception can become reality and you’re doomed.

Consider Arthur Andersen. When representatives of that firm aided and abetted Enron in perpetrating its massive fraud on investors and energy consumers, AA adopted a purely defensive posture. Andersen’s legal team and managers couldn’t see the forest for the trees. The central issue was not protecting the company against lawsuits by angry investors who had relied on its audit opinions regarding Enron’s financial situation, it was preserving the franchise itself. But AA’S lawyers, senior management and Board of Directors never realized what was at stake until it was too late. As a result, the franchise that had been built up over 89 years was destroyed, along with 85,000 jobs.

AA could have weathered the fallout. A new leadership team, headed by some prominent person with impeccable credentials, could then have launched an internal investigation into how the AA-Enron scandal came to be and into how conflicts of interest among Andersen’s different lines of business might have contributed to the scandal. Changes in policies and procedures, divestiture of conflicting lines of business, full cooperation with the authorities and perhaps a name change might even have saved the firm.

Crises that threaten an organization’s reputation or franchise are essentially public relations problems. A good consultant will put all emotion aside, examine the situation as a detached observer and thereby identify the essence of the crisis, the true costs involved (both short- and long-term) and what it will take to fix the problem at hand. Sure, they may have legal implications that could cost significant money over the short term, and the lawyers have their job to do in limiting that liability. But this short-term focus can lead to winning the battle but losing the war.

-Posted by Tony Lentini 11/9/09

Learning to Speak Twitterese

The Twitter Dictionary aka Twittonary provides explanations of various Twitter related words. Here are a few examples, to find more visit www. twittonary.com

Teletwitter: experimental open source client. –Teletwitter

TikiTwit: match your iChat status to your last tweet using your mac.

TinyTwitter: works with any Java enabled device (includes the BlackBerry) and any Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone. –TinyTwitter

TrashTweeter: someone who tweets trash or talking trash on twitter

TreoTwit: easily check and update your Twitter right from your Treo.

Twitophant/twitophantic: one who repeatedly tweets the Top 100 in an attempt to gain more followers.

Twabe/Twabes: Twitter Slang. A young woman. Or informal. Sweetheart; dear. Used as a term of endearment.

Twabulous: fabulous tweet or fabulous information or fabulous take...

Twad: wad, bunch; viral twitter outrage over something thats misunderstood

Twadget: Simple gadget that lets you view and submit tweets right from Vista’s Sidebar

Twaffic: Twitter traffic.

Twaigslist: to sell something via Twitter (also Twebay).

Twantrum: a tantrum thrown by excessively tweeting!

Tweet You Later!

-Posted by Ron Cutsinger 11/5/09

What happened to the Corporate Logo?

The really interesting classes I took in college were the ones that dealt with corporate identity. I remember that IBM, “big blue," was the benchmark that every company was measured against. It was a time when memorable marks were created to withstand the changing times. Once upon a time, the logo/mark represented the heart and soul of what the company stood for. I wonder if that is the case today?

Today, identity is often called branding, but I think in reality this term has muddied up the whole point of why you create a symbol that represents the company in the first place. A symbol or mark use to be the visual that represented the company beyond the commercials and clever sayings that changed with the seasons, economic ups and downs, and advertising fads of the time. The mark was the one symbol that represented core company values and integrity no matter what the conditions. It was what you stood for and who you were.

Now, it seems a lot of today’s marks are created for the industry they represent. Developing and cultivating a unique identity seems to be a lost art. Maybe I am being hard on these new “techie” logos, but I wonder how much staying power they will have when their symbol stands more for their industry than for their unique offerings. It seems many corporations today would rather the industry identify their personality rather than taking control and investing in developing a mark that becomes unquestionably theirs.

An example of a great mark is, Apple. They have lead the way in revolutionizing the computer world without forsaking their image or mark for the sake of their industry. Their symbol, a piece of fruit, is a simple mark that has come to represent a highly complex company, in a high tech industry. I don’t think anyone would question the integrity of their products, even if they started selling toasters. There was a time the same was said of IBM.

Time will tell, but when you look at some of the older marks for corporations, they have withstood the test of time and their identity has been firmly established. Of course, ingenious marketing played a role in developing and defining these timeless brands, but I wonder if these new marks represent a phase or if they too will hold up over time. I guess I will have to write another blog in 25 years to let you know the answer!

-Posted by John Weaver 11/2/09

Crisis Management… Letterman Style

David Letterman may have won the first round in his sex-with-staffers crisis, but it remains to be seen whether his strategy of announcing the scandal in a comedy monologue will help or hurt him over the long run.

A cardinal principle in crisis management is taking charge of your crisis: Don’t leave it to others to define you; define yourself. Letterman did just that. He preempted the media by addressing the situation himself, live on his popular late-night television show. And he did it in the style he knows best, hoping to win over viewers and the studio audience through humor. It was a masterful performance. “Good old Dave; there he goes again!”

Under those controlled conditions, he was also able shift much of the focus away from the affairs and toward the blackmail attempt, thereby eliciting sympathy as a crime victim.

Letterman had at least a couple of other options for taking charge of the bad news:

1. He could have announced it on his show in a serious manner, asking for forgiveness and understanding as so many philandering politicians do. But that is wearing thin and therefore becoming less and less effective. And a serious announcement at the beginning of “Late Night” would have put a damper on the entire remainder of the show. Announcing it at the end would have been just as bad, ending on a down note.

2. Letterman could have broken the news himself by issuing a news release and/or conducting a press conference, but this would give him much less spin control than a “Late Night” announcement. And a press conference would entail answering questions about his sexual conduct, without the comedy. He can dodge most media queries from this point on by refusing comment, so as not to interfere with the investigation in

One thing Letterman knew he couldn’t control was the fact that the news was going to get out, one way or the other. He made the right choice in preempting the media, and in the setting and manner in which he made the announcement.

However, his comedy monologue would have been a bit more helpful to his situation over time had it been more self-deprecating and apologetic in tone. Letterman is a master at his craft and could have pulled it off. Instead, he was almost flippant. It was all, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, “Aren’t I just a loveable little devil pulling the most outrageous stunts?” That could come back to haunt him.

Letterman’s overall strategy for handling his crisis is to weather the storm and survive as the host of “Late Night”. He won round one by delivering ratings and not hurting his show.
What happens from here?

Letterman’s flippant “apology” could eventually backfire.

-Posted by Tony Lentini 10/29/09

Spending Versus investing Your Marketing Dollar

These are tough times. Everyone is trying to find ways to cut costs and operate more efficiently. Perhaps your company has had a layoff in its marketing and PR functions and is contemplating a change in direction. The first thing to find out is: How effective are your organization’s brand awareness and communications programs? How do they stack up against the competition?

Is your brand well recognized by customers, investors and employees? Is it still effective and geared toward the right consumers? Is your logo still fresh and relevant, or does it send the wrong message to the right people? Are your marketing and sales collaterals, signage, corporate communications materials and messages consistent and correctly targeted all across your organization? Are you losing market share to a competitor? Is your perception in the marketplace something you control, or are you leaving that for others to decide? Are your messages driving sales and growth or are they falling flat? Many executives would say, “Now is not the time to mess with our identity; it’s expensive and takes the focus off of our day-to-day operations.”

Those executives don’t work for top-brand companies. Top-brand companies, such as Coca Cola, McDonalds, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson know that their image and what their brand stands for, are of paramount importance, especially in a down economy. Their brand drives sales. So when is the best time to evaluate the above questions? Yesterday!

-Posted by John Sr. 10/15/09

Photoshop or Fireworks?

Which is better for web designers, Photoshop or Fireworks? This is a question many web designers seeking the best out of their work ask themselves. Back before Adobe bought-out Macromedia that was an easy answer, Fireworks. But as time has gone by Adobe since added Fireworks to it’s product line, and Photoshop has evolved adding many features that Fireworks once called it’s own. So, which is better? Even though Photoshop and Fireworks share many of the same tools and both can produce websites there is still differences. Without confusing anyone about the differences I’ll try to help make your choice easier by asking another question. Do you do graphic design and web design, or just web design? If you are a web designer who does more than just web and you dabble in graphic design, then Photoshop would mostly likely be the better choice. With its versatility for photography, it would suit those better who demand more than just web design. But if your focus is strictly web design, then Fireworks is a great choice, and one I would recommend without hesitation. From it’s first release, Fireworks has focused on web designers, and that focus still stands today. So in conclusion, both Photoshop and Fireworks are great tools for web designers. The better choice for you just depends on what your workload includes.

-Posted by Brad 10/9/09