How to Manage Media Relations - An Analysis (part 9)

Going Global: How to Manage International Media Relations (part A)

by

Charles Lamson

At the beginning of the age of exploration, there was a warning on early maps that guided navigators heading off to new worlds. Unknown portions of the oceans were marked, "Here there be monsters." Such "monsters" provided opportunities for learning, adventure and heroes. That certainly is true today for media relations specialists whose company or clients are expanding around the world. The opportunities are great, but so too is the risk of failure. There can be trouble if you are not sensitive to local conditions, willing to ask advice and eager to learn. Robert L. Wakefield, an expert on cross-cultural issues, warned: "PR agencies frequently convert inexperienced managers into global executives simply because they handled a domestic account that now is going global. Beyond this, too often we in the U.S. look at our borders and see mirrors instead of windows."

It takes savvy and sensitivity to succeed. Yet many firms---not only giant corporations but also smaller businesses---are adapting to become global enterprises because of the huge opportunities for increased sales and profits in new markets and the cost-savings inherent in sharing resources worldwide. If your company or client is going global, you have expanded opportunities to make unique contributions on a larger scale than ever before. Media relations professionals can be vital resources in efforts to enter new markets; establish corporate reputation and brand identity; launch new products; and employees, suppliers and other opinion leaders. Key to being successful in each new market is finding the right balance between universal interests and local customs, taking advantage of global scale while also adapting to local conditions. "One size fits all" does not work.

Even the much heralded European Community did not result in one homogenized market. Nor did the introduction of the euro automatically eliminate cultural differences. Europeans have sharply contrasting outlooks, tastes and resources. More than 450 million people in 25 countries---yes, they have common interests but they also have distinct individual identities. The Dutch will remain Dutch. The French will remain French. And the Germans will remain German.

Being Sensitive to Other Cultures

In fact, as trade barriers come down sometimes sensitivities go up. Witness ongoing conflict relating to the North American Free Trade Agreement about which countries are losing or gaining jobs. That is what makes going global so interesting---and doing business in international markets so dangerous if you do not keep your cross-cultural wits about you. In his book 7 Secrets of Marketing in a Multi-Cultural World, G. Clotaire Rapaille says the key to marketing globally is understanding how cultures live and function. Every culture views the world from its own unique perspective. 

Even little things can mean a great deal. For example, entertaining effectively often is very important to doing business successfully. In China, there is no such thing as "fashionably late." In all of Asia especially and also in other countries, protocol must be observed at banquets because rank and status are serious matters. Seating arrangements and who is at or near the head table can be major issues. Huge partnerships have gone bad because North American executives who did not understand local customs and courtesies committed seemingly small faux pas that cost their companies millions of dollars in lost deals and opportunities. And what about Euro Disney refusing to serve wine in the new park outside Paris until customer animosity and and staff defections forced them to "do it the French way"?

It is not a superficial shift. It is not business as usual. It is a major strategic refocus. As a result, media relations professionals have new opportunities to broaden our perspectives and learn a great deal about cultures and traditions other than our own. With the technological advances of the Internet, email, faxes, voice mail, satellite hookups and global networks, you can brainstorm magazine publicity strategy in Sydney and organize a news conference in Stockholm while still keeping up with the work in your home office.

*SOURCE: ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS 4TH ED., CAROLE M. HOWARD AND WILMA K. MATHEWS, PGS. 153-155*

END

How to Manage Media Relations (part 8)

Media Events: How to Make Them Work for You

 (part C)

by

Charles Lamson

The High Price of News Leaks

Frequently, employees are a major cause of news leaks. Sometimes they are salespeople hoping to impress customers by offering advance information about a new product, forgetting that they may be flirting with an antitrust violation by preannouncing a product. Or they are staff managers carelessly chatting about their work. Indeed, Business Week explained how a major article on personal computers came to be written by quoting a reporter as saying, "I heard intimations at a lunch, at a cocktail party, and again from a research expert while I was in a grocery store about a major product announcement coming."Said publisher James R. Pierce candidly: "Using these bits of information as a wedge, [we] got interviews with [the company's] executives."

There is a very basic reason to keep a tight lid on new product information until the announcement day: You likely cannot afford to alienate the news media and lose the free---and probably positive---publicity they will give you. Except in rare cases, journalists will not cover the announcement of a new product as a major news event if the story has leaked out in dribs and drabs. They understand the necessity for a trial location or two. But any more widespread knowledge and reporters tend to say too many of their readers or viewers already know the story to make it news, and they send you off to the very expensive advertising section. As the old saying goes, "Loose lips sink ships."

Editors also frequently refuse to carry a story on a new product on their pages or programs if your company has a paid ad running. Their feeling is that if your company had time to produce and place an advertisement, the product is no longer "hard news" to their readers and viewers and the publication is being used to provide free advertising. It is thus an important part of the media relations person's responsibility to ensure your news conference precedes any advertising by at least a day or two.

Integrated Marketing Communications

The poster ads for the new Volkswagon Beetle will go down in advertising history: "Less flower, more power," and "If you sold your soul in the 80s, here's your chance to buy it back." But it was not advertising that launched the new Love Bug. Rather, it was public relations, according to PR Week.

The Beetle was introduced at the North American Auto Show in January 1999 with a satellite media tour. Volkwagon and Ruder Finn generated more than 900 national and local television segments about the Beetle in the first week alone. The publicity kept rolling in when the new Beetle was delivered. It made news by stopping traffic whenever it appeared, and customers responded by heading for their car dealers to buy. Said Rudder Finn creative director Michael Schubert, "We arranged it so that the car was seen in high-profile, high-traffic situations like Times Square in New York and Rodeo Drive in L.A."

By the time the advertising started in April, there was 65 percent awareness among the general public. And when a wiring problem caused VW to recall 10,000 Beetles it had sold, owners who took their cars in for repairs got a loaner or a free taxi, a car wash, a tank of gas and a bouquet of flowers for their trouble---"Nice PR touches that embellished the Beetle's image and defused a potential crisis," as PR Week put it. The launch of the Beetle is just the latest in the growing line of companies and brands where PR has become central to the marketing program." In fact, in an editorial titled, "Packaged PR Is Key to Branding," PR Week opined: "The success of strongly branded operations like Starbucks, Amazon.com, Virgin, and The Body Shop [is] predicated on public relations and not advertising."

The softening of the traditional boundaries between marketing, advertising and PR is a natural response to the economic and competitive imperatives facing companies and clients. Organizational silos are out and teamwork is in. CEOs have little interest in what function traditionally had responsibility for a given task. Rather, they want the brightest and most creative minds addressing business challenges no matter where they reside in the organizational chart. Communicating priority messages cost-effectively to journalists, customers, shareholders, employees and other target publics is necessary to an organization's survival. Integrated marketing communications is an effective way to do that.

Said Thomas L. Harris, author of The Marketers Guide to Public Relations, "It is this need to get more bang for their bucks that has driven the growth of marketing public relations and the move to integrated marketing. The leave-it-all-to-advertising mindset is giving way to more targeted, more diverse ways to sell goods and services, maintain customer confidence and build brand equity."

To create an effective integrated marketing communications program and avoid a cheerleading approach to promotions, get all the key functions together to decide in your priority messages and key selling points. Step back and look at the new product or service as a journalist would. Forget ego. Ask, what really is news? What is new or unique? What aspect of the product or service would have the most interest for the media's readers, viewers or listeners? Look for a human side as well as a business side to the story. Your role as a strategist and counselor means thinking through and guiding the entire publicity program, not just writing a news release.

In fact, Harris sees a long list of ways PR adds value to integrated marketing communications programs, including reinforcing brand position, building marketplace excitement before advertising breaks, making advertising news where there is no product news, reviving brand excitement, and building personal relationships with customers. "The opposing opportunity is there if the talent is there to make it happen," in Harris' view.

*SOURCE: ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS 4TH ED., 2006, CAROLE M. HOWARD AND WILMA K. MATHEWS, PGS. 146-148* 

END

How to Manage Media Relations (part 7)

Media Events: How to Make Them Work for You

 (part B)

by

Charles Lamson

Announcing the purchase of property and the building of a new facility provides unparalleled opportunities for positive media and community relations. It also serves as a fine example of how to plan a media event. It will however, tax your abilities if you find yourself operating in new territory without the benefit of established relationships with local reporters and editors (or even knowledge of the local geography).

Integral to your planning should be the knowledge that your plans very likely are not going to be kept secret until announcement day. If the deal is a big one---in terms of size of the property, cost of construction, prestige of the company or number of potential jobs, for example---you should count on the fact that there will be a leak. Real estate agents showing property, local boards approached for zoning regulations, a hotel visited to evaluate conference facilitates, news can slip out no matter what precautions your organization takes.

You should have approved and ready for immediate use a standby statement in case a reporter calls seeking your comment on rumors. If your plans are so uncertain that you do not even have an announcement date tentatively set, you should probably say nothing more than your organization is looking at a number of potential sites for possible future expansion, but no plans are firm yet. If you have a timetable in mind, you might want to go further by adding that you will let the reporter know when a decision is made and an announcement is imminent.

You also will want to develop a solid relationship early on with others involved in the project. People from such disciplines as real estate, legal and finance, either on your organization's staff or retained for this job, will become critical resources as announcement time draws near. Your involvement in the planning stages helps build their confidence in you and in your contribution to the project's successful outcome. It also makes it more likely that you can get their early concurrence on an objective and working strategy---not to mention their personal involvement in the implementation of your information plan.

Once you know the announcement is a "go"---even before you have a firm date---you should immediately develop a checklist of all activities that need to be undertaken and write down any related issues that must be considered. This will be your overall master list. It will also spawn a number of more "to-do" lists for many of the entries.

For a major announcement, you will probably be working with other departments within your organization or even an outside agency hired to put on this event. It is critical that you colleagues know who is doing what and do not overlap your work. You are in charge of the media side of the event while someone else should handle the logistics of permits, food, parking, limo pickup and so forth. Included on your media list should be the following:

1. Date/time of announcement. Probability of bad weather? Other conflicting events such as a holiday or an election? Best time for the local news media? Availability of key participants?
2. Site of announcement. At your organization's headquarters or at location of new property? On-site or in a hotel or commercial establishment? Ease of accessibility for guests and news media?
3. Main theme/primary message. Expansion of your organization into new territory? New business? Move from older facility?
4. Guests and media. Federal, state and local government officials? Key community and business leaders? Local people helpful in site selection? News media---local? national? trade? Other VIPs? Employees? Spouses? Financial analysts?
5. Speakers. Only your organization's executives? Governor or top state or federal official? Mayor or local official?
6. Type of occasion. News conference alone? Low-key or big blast? With lunch or dinner? Reception?
7. Media relations. Press kit materials? Transportation to site? Satellite tour? One-on-one interviews?
8. Invitations to media. Reporters and editors? Editorial board members? Bloggers?
9. Mementos. Appropriate? Different ones for media?
10. Collateral materials. Exhibit? Printed program? "Who we are, what we do" brochure for guests? "Working news media only" sign outside news conference room?

It is a good idea to ask others who will be involved to review your list to see if you have left anything out or overlooked any local media customs. Next, you should establish an information objective and budget, assign responsibility for each of the activities, develop an overall time timetable, and set specific due dates. Then you must oversee implementation of the media plans on virtually a day-to-day basis to ensure everything gets done on time. 

To be continued . . .

*SOURCE: ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS 4TH ED., 2006, CAROLE M. HOWARD AND WILMA K. MATHEWS, PGS. 133-134*

END

How to Manage Media Relations (part 6)

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Media Events: How to Make Them Work for You 

(part A)

by

Charles Lamson

Your organization may not always have dramatic new products, hundred-million-dollar new offices or a vital scientific breakthrough to attract reporters' attention. But the basic principals of announcements remain the same for all of us, and you too can hold an event to help your organization generate increased sales and positive media coverage.

In addition to new product or service announcements, a manufacturing plant opening, hiring a new CEO, an open house or market expansion. All are fine reasons to host a celebration and news conference. These media events are staged occurrences, so you usually control the timing. They are held to promote good news, so you are on the offensive not the defensive. They tend to have a more casual atmosphere to encourage person-to-person dialogue between the news media and your organization's executives.

Working on media events can be fun. The trick is to make it profitable for your organization in terms of increased sales, positive news media coverage, improved public opinion---and maybe also a jump in the stock price. There are two keys to getting the most effective media relations results from these events. First, clearly enunciate your communications objective and then evaluate every idea by whether or not it helps meet the objective. Remember that when management asks what it is getting for its PR investment, it is asking for evidence that communications activities have supported business goals. Second keep running lists that track progress and responsibility for all planned and possible activities. You must think constantly in generalities while at the same time living in detail. Michelangelo is said to have counseled a young artist, "Perfection is made up of details." It will be your ability to keep sight of the forest and every single tree that will make the event a success from a media viewpoint---and well worth the expense from your organization's perspective.

Remember Your Target Audiences

Look at your event from the point of view of the reporters you will be inviting. They get invitations almost daily. So your event must be different in some way to attract their attention. It must be unique, to differentiate it from the competition. It must be relevant to be considered newsworthy or worth being given attention. It must be cost-effective. And, above all, it needs to sell---because that is what we are all here for. As the late advertising legend David Ogilvy counseled his agency. "A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself."

If your company's stock is traded publicly, you also will want to coordinate with those colleagues responsible for investor relations. Reporters frequently call financial analysts and market experts for an outside, objective evaluation---and a quotable quote---to include in their story on a major corporate announcement. Thus it is to your advantage to keep financial analysts who follow your company and industry fully informed about your news, preferably on announcement day. You can have copies of the press kit sent or delivered to key financial analysts who follow your company and industry fully informed about your news, preferably on announcement day. You can have copies of the press kit sent or delivered to key financial analysts. Or you may want to arrange a separate restaging of the news conference for them. (It is normally not wise to invite journalists and financial analysts to the same announcement event.)

Also, remember your employees. Broadcast the event live to employees via your internal video network or on a streaming video on your Web site.

*SOURCE: ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS 4TH ED., 2006, CAROLE M. HOWARD AND WILMA K. MATHEWS, PGS. 131-132*

END

How to Manage Media Relations (part 5)

Hints for News Conferences

by

Charles Lamson

When you are participating in a news conference, you have the obligation not only to answer reporters' questions but also to make a few opening remarks giving the purpose of the conference and formally announcing the news that caused it. Answering questions at a news conference is very similar to being interviewed except that you have more than one person asking questions and you are not in the comfortable surroundings of your own office. Making the opening remarks at a conference is much like giving a brief speech. As you look out over the crowd of cameras, lights, microphones and people peering up at you expectantly, you may feel like a mother robin perched on the edge of her nest looking into the hungry, gaping mouths of her babies. Much like the mother bird, your obligation is to feed the media---that is, provide them with news in an interesting way in the shortest period of time. The same techniques you use for interviews and TV appearances will serve you well here.

Before the news conference, come to the room to familiarize yourself with the set-up. Work out signals with your media relations person as cues if you begin speaking too quickly or answering reporters' questions too abruptly. Then leave and use the time to practice what you intend to say---and perhaps to go for a brisk walk to clear your mind.

Do not show up again until immediately before the news conference is scheduled to start. Do not mingle with reporters ahead of time. Whether you are introduced by your media relations person or open the news conference yourself is up to you. In any case, ignore the many microphones that are placed on the podium. Do not ask if everyone can hear you---it is the responsibility of the audio engineers and your media person to ensure all the microphone levels are correct. Just begin your formal remarks, speaking slowly and clearly and following your text closely if it has been included in the press kit materials. Like any attentive participants, the TV camera will be focused on you. But if you become long-winded or the cameraperson's attention wanes, the camera may scan the listeners---particularly that station's reporter---for reaction shots. If things really get dull the little red light will go off as the technician turns the camera off altogether.

After your introductory talk, open the session up to questions. Use an open phrase like "Now I would be happy to answer your questions" or "What are your questions?" or just simply "Questions?" rather than closed construction "Does anyone have any questions?" If you do not know them all, ask the journalists to give their names and publications or stations as they are called on. Do not pace around, or the microphones and TV cameras will have trouble following you.

If there are no questions right away, do not panic. The reporters probably are reviewing their notes on your opening remarks and framing questions that will appeal to their readers or viewers. Simply wait a few minutes (it will seem like hours) and then invite questions again. Or point to a reporter you know and say "Susan, you usually have a good question for me." If there still are none, thank the reporters for coming and say you are available for individual questions if they wish.

More likely the questions will start popping several at a time. Once you select a reporter to ask a question keep your eyes on her/him as much as possible while you answer. This will keep other reporters from interrupting and help the reporter's camera crew get both of you on tape if they so desire. Allow one follow-up question from that journalist---but then establish eye contact with another questioner so one person is not able to dominate.

Use the reporter's name in your answer whenever possible. Do not be unnerved if someone moves around with a hand-held camera or even crawls up to the podium on hands and knees to adjust a microphone or test the lighting with a light meter. You probably will be asked several similar questions by TV people, because broadcast editors generally like to show their own reporters on the screen asking questions. So do not hesitate to repeat your key point in answer to each question---again only one version will appear on each channel---and be sure not to say, "As I said in response to an earlier question . . ." 

If very few journalists have shown up, you should proceed as planned. But if a small turnout is obvious, you may wish to acknowledge it with a light comment such as "Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like you will have an exclusive by coming here today . . ." and conduct the session in a less formal manner.

Equally important is for your media relations person to be prepared with everything from extra chairs to additional press kits in case many more people than expected show up. But if they are non-media people, they should politely but firmly be kept out of the news conference room. Journalists do not appreciate an audience, which can create distractions and generate noises picked by the noises picked up by the sensitive TV and radio audio equipment. And you are likely to be nervous enough without having such distractions.

Twenty to 30 minutes is the normal length of a news conference. Nevertheless, if questions are still coming, you may decide to go a few minutes over the scheduled time. You can end the conference yourself or have your media relations person do so by announcing that you have time for one more question.

Mingle afterwards with reporters in case they want private interviews or individual on-camera shots of you talking with them. But remember that everything you say during these conversations is also on the record. Therefore, you should be no less careful with your comments than you were when you were at the podium.

*SOURCE: ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS 4TH ED., 2006, CAROLE M. HOWARD AND WILMA K. MATHEWS, PGS. 113-115*

END

How to Manage Media Relations: An Analysis (part 4)

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Reporters (part C)

by

Charles Lamson

Test Your Knowledge, Involvement

There is no sin in admitting you do not know an answer; simply say you will check it out and get back to the reporter. But if that happens very often, you should ask yourself some soul-searching questions:

• Am I doing everything I can to keep current on company activities and industry trends? Should I expand my regular reading or use of the Internet or blogs? Make a point of keeping in touch with people in other departments? Be more active in trade associations or professional societies?
• Am I anticipating news and activities in this organization that would cause media interest and preparing to handle news queries in advance? 
• Am I---or is my boss---included in planning meetings and in the decision-making process? Do I have the confidence of top management so that I am among the first to know what is happening within the organization? (If not, you cannot be considered a spokesperson; at best you may be a well-qualified reference point.)

Recently, a fellow media relations practitioner complained that he was left out of the planning and media announcement activities when his company was awarded a major government contract in a bid against a Japanese company. But even superficial questioning made it clear he had not kept up with the current highly sensitive government negotiations on lowering foreign import barriers. Nor was he aware of the various congressional committees conducting hearings on international trade at the time. And he was not a regular reader of the trade press or visitor to Web sites covering his industry. So he was never up to date on what his company's competitors were doing or how the industry viewed his company. Little wonder his boss---and perhaps his CEO---felt that he was not qualified to be the company's spokesperson on this critical subject.

George V. Grune, retired chairman and CEO of The Reader's Digest Association told the public relations directors of its worldwide operations that one of management's key expectations of them was that they have a thorough knowledge of the business. "That means you need to understand our corporate strategy, our marketing plans, our products, our competition, our internal challenges and our future opportunities. Go out of your way to build working relationships with your operations colleagues," he advised. "They are your clients and excellent sources of information. Attend marketing meetings and ask the project managers to brief you on their plans. Participate in brainstorming sessions, join task forces and become more proactive in the way you act on key business issues."


Master the Fundamentals

Equally important is that you master the basics of your craft. that means you have to be an outstanding writer and editor in all media---especially news releases and other media relations materials such as photographs and videos.



Watch to see what happens to your news releases. You will soon come to accept the fact that reporters will rewrite your carefully crafted sentences. If they do it too often, however, you might ask yourself why. Are you following the accepted rules of press style? (The New York Times, Associated Press or another widely accepted stylebook is a must to be kept handy as a constant reference source.) Or maybe the reporter's sentences are shorter and easier to understand than yours.

Another excellent feedback vehicle is a media audit---hiring an outside research firm to ask reporters covering your organization (and those who do not whom you would like to attract) how you are meeting their needs. If your question list is short and to the point, most journalists are willing to answer because upgrading your skills and services helps them as well as you. This also is a good opportunity to get their views on the usefulness of your Web site.

A reporter is a lot more likely to get your position right---or indeed, use your statement at all---if it is a "quotable quote." Similarly, the public is a lot more likely to agree with you if you speak in terms they can understand. It is critical that news releases and statements be written in plain English---not in "legalize," and not in corporate gobbledygook, defined as incomprehensible or pompous jargon of specialists. To communicate is the beginning of understanding, surely it must also be true that we must all comprehend the terminology.



Organizations bring much  of the public's misunderstanding and mistrust upon themselves when they issue news releases and statements full of highly technical jargon and industry lingo. You can get so lost as you read or listen to so-called information sources. "You're not more informed," says Tom Rosenstiel, a former Los Angeles Times media critic, "you're just numbed."

*SOURCE: ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS 4TH ED., 2006, CAROLE M. HOWARD AND WILMA K. MATHEWS, PGS. 79-81*

END