Business Communications

Just My Two…er, Fifty Cents on Marketing Your Brand

Business Communications

How can a brand (corporation, retail product, etc.) connect with its target market?  This is the type of question I tend to ponder at all hours.  Last week, while watching a little late night television, I found a great source in the form of 50 Cent on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.  Yes, that 50 Cent. 

I watched as the rapper came out and began chat with Conan and I literally put my laptop down and was drawn in.  He was engaging, funny, and charismatic to the point that you couldn’t help but like him. (Check out a clip via the good folks at Hulu here. )

Like him and his music or not, he does a great job of taking advantage of every opportunity put in front of him and clearly keeps business on his mind at all times.  In just a couple of minutes he highlights some of his varied business efforts (Vitamin Water to cologne and a no-go on condoms), flashes a million dollar (at least) smile, pokes fun at aspects of his own reputation and shows off how to properly fluff a pillow.  Seriously, he’s a renaissance man.

What can you really take away from 50?

Engage with personality– Not everyone will have a spokesperson (CEO, owner, or PR person) with natural charisma but the approach is still valid.  If you’re reading from a statement that you don’t believe in, it will show and your audience will know it’s phony.  Find a way to let personality come through in the best way possible to highlight the qualities of your speaker.

Have a purpose before you ever speak– As evidenced by his success and constant willingness to take on new ventures, 50 Cent is able to identify a goal for himself and go after it.  This appearance on Conan is to support the launch of his new album and what he did was show a side of himself that will engage a broad audience well beyond his core listeners.  He tailored his message to fit the audience he was speaking to and did it well.

You must have several channels to promote your brand– In digging around after the segment, I took a deeper look at how 50 approaches his own promotion.  It’s easy to see when you visit his site that he is taking full advantage of all the technology available to him to reach out to his fans, and potential fans, and build his own brand.  He blends his image of street tough performer and charming young businessman to reach his goals.  Facebook, Twitter, heavy video use, and contests to support the community all support his actual performance schedule.

If you can take and apply these ideas to your own brand, you may find some great new ways to put some added fun behind your organization.  And if that won’t work, maybe just call 50 Cent directly. If the price is right, he just might be your next spokesperson.

Minnesota AMA and Smart People

Business Communications

I had the great opportunity to attend the Minnesota AMA Conference on Tuesday and wanted to quickly say thank you to everyone I was able to meet while there. It was such a fun experience because many of the pros there were people that I either didn’t know at all or had only met online until Tuesday. The conference brought together a good mix of dedicated marketers along with many from related industries like PR, advertising, or sales.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, it’s important to understand and continually learn about these connected industries to provide good counsel to clients and/or our own employers. I walked away with a number of new ideas and many good reminders about constantly providing value propositions that will resonate with the end-user.

Some highlights for me included hearing more about how Bahram Akradi, Chairman and CEO of Lifetime Fitness, approaches adding value for members and how Michael Keller, Chief Brand Officer of Dairy Queen, is enhancing a strong emotional brand with a new line of product offerings designed to extend that brand further.

I’d like to also collect comments and ideas from others who attended the sessions. What did you learn? Who did you meet? I’d love to hear about your experiences and thoughts on breaking down boundaries with other pros who have differing responsibilities. That’s how we can all learn and get better.

The Social Media Poker Table

Business Communications, Social Media

One of my favorite movies is Rounders (1998) which features Matt Damon as a young poker player who has a gift for the game.  How could this possibly have any relation to social media? In one of the scenes, the main character travels to Atlantic City to get back into the game after taking some time off.  Once arriving, he finds a table filled with all the local players from his underground club in New York.  One of the players notes, “You know, if we wanted to take each others rolls, we could have just stayed home.”

I thought about this for a while in the sense that many communications and marketing professionals who are big proponents of social media may feel the same way at times.  If you find yourself always reading information and chatting with the same community members, it may be a sign that you’re staying too close to home (so to speak.) If you’re chatting online with the same people you see on your blog who are the same people you’re meeting at a conference, you’re missing one of the great opportunities for growth that social media can provide. 

The ability to meet and learn from others who are physically far away from you and, just as importantly, professionally far from what you do is essential if you’re really going to grow.  If you’re a PR person, reach out to a marketer or salesperson who will approach a customer relationship with a different viewpoint.  Find an economist that will drive you identify the financial impact of your ideas. Consider seeking out a copy editor who can help you improve your writing through tips or developing a genuine relationship.  Or find another colleague who thinks differently than you do in terms of tactics and strategy.

There is nothing wrong with building strong friendships and supporters within your community, it’s actually critical to have that too.  However, there are so many quality ways to improve your skills via social media.  I encourage everyone to resist the urge to succeed in building a community and relaxing too much into a comfort zone where you’re not challenging your own thinking and continuing to grow.

I Want it Now- The Veruca Salt Theory

Business Communications, Public Relations, Social Media

It’s human nature to want things, it really is.  I understand the desire to always have the latest and greatest ‘it’ as well as anyone.  However, while thinking about that concept in terms of communications, it’s an urge that professional communications pros need to restrain when it comes to identifying the right strategy for an organization.  We can’t allow ourselves to want for anything and everything like the wonderful Veruca Salt character, “Hey, Daddy, *I* want an Oompa Loompa! I want you to get me an Oompa Loompa right away!”

The Veruca parallel actually started in my mind when I was having a discussion focusing around social media (SM) and the opportunities that can be gained by playing an active roles in the SM space.  Now, let me be crystal clear here, I thoroughly enjoy and believe in the power of social media.  I’m not a huge naysayer that believes Twitter is a bunch of people posting where they went to lunch but I am saying that not everyone has to have a major Facebook or Twitter presence. 

The first step any organization should take is looking clearly and honestly at their overall goals.  At that point,  the organization and their agency/consultant/staff should look at how to create the optimal mix of social media, sales, marketing, advertising and PR come together to make a real difference to the organization.  In many cases, SM makes a great deal of sense especially for companies that have a strong consumer element.  If you’re customers and audience are there, then it’s a no-brainer that you should be too.  If you’re customers aren’t there…well, I’d figure out where they are.

As communications pros, we can’t just chase the latest shiny object we see.  If we are to provide good counsel and leadership, you have to remain focused first and foremost on the ultimate goals of any organization and that may include saying no to a Veruca Salt in your own group.  It’s hard sometimes (who wouldn’t want an Oompa Loompa of their very own) but it’s ultimately that smart, strategic counsel that will pay off for you and your organization or clients.

Creating Crisis

Business Communications, Public Relations

While taking a walk today I had the opportunity to take a few minutes to appreciate some of the natural beauty around me.  I find that I can often learn a great deal by simply being outdoors and watching the world. 

When passing by a small pond, I was struck by the calmness of the water on a cool, windy Minnesota day.  There was no visible reaction in the pond to the world around it.  No movement or wasted energy.  When a leaf disturbed the water, it was only a temporary ripple that disappeared as the water adjusted to its presence.

I began to think a bit about much of my day which involved projects that were dragging, addressing concerns of staff, and a number of phone calls that “had” to get done.  Our days are filled with challenges and demands on our time.  I wonder though, how often we create our own crisis. 

At times in public relations, there are very real crisis issues that we face on behalf of our own organization or on behalf of our clients.   However, I also believe our industry does itself harm when we react to other business issues in a crisis mode without critically assessing the proper level of response. I’ve seen it time and time again where a well-intentioned professional reacts and triggers a domino effect in their desire to resolve a legitimate challenge and turns it into a perceived “crisis”.  Teams are scrambled and top leadership is pulled away from other projects to address this new need.  Attorneys and management are put on edge.  Clear communication suffers.

Communications professionals have often faced an uphill battle in justifying our role at the highest levels of leadership in the corporate world.  How can you be sure that you’re responding at the right level of intensity when facing an issue?

  • Listen closely to the problem- There aren’t prizes for the first wrong answer.  Take a couple minutes to understand the situation fully based on all the information you have available.
  • Identify what solutions, if any, you already have in place- This is the time to show how well you know your organization and how you understand the business environment.
  • Provide a critical analysis of potential gaps- This is pretty obvious after going through the assessment above but providing a simple, clear list of top priority issues goes a long way.
  • Remain calm- Act as if you’re comfortable in this situation (even if you aren’t frankly) and demonstrate that you are in control.  If communications is shoved out of the process because of a perceived lack of leadership, you won’t get it back later in this process.
  • Provide your recommendations and assemble the right players- It’s at this point when you’re ready to really respond to the challenge in a way that puts your organization/client in the best situation and positions you to be part of a successful resolution.

You want to be as calm and steady as that pond on an otherwise busy day.  React to the changing environment but get back to the state of being you desire.  When you can control your environment, others will trust you in theirs.