PR Influences April - May 2008

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Issue 32, April - May 2008 COMMENT: PR INDUSTRY IS A CASUALTY OF THE CREDIT CRISIS? IT’S TIME FOR A RETHINK. Published April - May 2008

By Grant Common Editor Grant has 30 years direct experience in public relations and communication in Australia and New Zealand - as well as directing and managing programs in the UK and USA. He has consulted to Governments, publicly listed companies, industry bodies, marketing organisations, multinationals and not-for-profit organisations.

He is Managing Director of Sydney-based Network PR and as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (having completed the Company Directors Diploma examination) he is also one of the few PR practitioners to have the perspective of the company director.

The last decade has not only been a period where credit standards have arguably been a little loose, leading to the current financial issues, it’s also been a decade, especially in Australia, where business and life have been good.

CONTENTS • Comment: PR Industry is a casualty of the credit crisis?

It’s time for a rethink.

• Issues: Going green – greenwashing becomes a PR issue for marketers • B2B Media relations: how do you look to the media?

• Online PR: Blogs – importance still underestimated • New Media Morsels • Fresh Thinking • What others say Southwest Airlines takes the good and the bad on its blog in pursuing transparency when coping with safety allegations

As a consequence everyone’s been bullish. Many companies have had a good yarn to tell. Most things have seemed pretty rosy in the corporate garden and corporates wanted to talk themselves up. At the same time the media had perhaps not been as questioning as it could have been, accepting much of the good news on face value.

With all this money and good news about, PR has largely been seen in a ‘cheerleader’ role. More often than not the PR task has been to beat the competitor – show that your results are better, that your product or service is superior, or that your founder or CEO is wealthier as a result of the success the organisation is experiencing.

And of course, it’s not hard work writing and pitching good-news stories!

However, the bubble has burst. Many companies, and some of their executives, have been exposed. Their organisations weren’t as successful as had been portrayed… at least their foundations weren’t. Furthermore their executives weren’t actually as rich as they wanted us to believe, once their liabilities had been taken into account.

Unfortunately, like much of the rest of Australia, a large proportion of this good news was simply on the credit card (or margin loan!).

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Companies already realise they are now in a different era. What worked previously may not continue to. The criteria the marketplace (and the media) is applying to judge everything an organisation says and does is also different. Yes, the media is on the ball again!

There are implications for PR which for most organisations is now intertwined at C level. It’s all about building and maintaining corporate and personal credibility for the organisation and those who run it.

PR people play a large role in both determining and delivering messages on behalf of the company and senior executives. They are often the public face of an organisation and can have a big influence in the ‘court of public opinion’.

How many PR people can now, with the benefit of hindsight, look back and cringe at things they did, said and promoted on behalf of an organisation? To use the over-worn phrase can they put their hand on their heart and say that the ‘spin’ they put out was in reality well founded. Did they question what they were asked to say and do enough – or did they just get carried along on the wave of enthusiasm?

Arguably, those who did question the details, tempered the desire for spin and engaged more meaningfully with media, will probably find a more forgiving, or at least reasonable, media this time around.

PR is not about playing a cheerleader role. PR is about building and maintaining credibility. It’s about adding to the Bank of Reputation in good times, so there is some credibility to draw down from when times get tough.

It’s about moderating the claims of over enthusiastic marketers and smart and clever financiers. It’s about thinking about the impact tomorrow- not just today; and planning for what to do we do if there’s a glitch (think British Airways and Terminal 5). It’s also about asking questions – and getting satisfactory answers before going public.

At this time of reflection perhaps its time for internal PR people to build in a little protection for the future. Just as Director’s protect themselves by Director and Officer liability insurance, all senior PR and corporate communications specialists should checking to see whether they are appropriately indemnified by those organisations they work for, and speak on behalf of.

We’ve written before about the company spokesperson role and the risks and liabilities that such positions are exposed to. During the investigation into James Hardie the actions of its Directors and Officers were investigated and the PR role apparently became very close to facing specific Court action. More recently PR has been a casualty of the Australian Wheat Board investigation, and a similar situation has arisen with the Victorian Police (although for different reasons).

In this issue of PR Influences we write about greenwashing. It’s arguably a legacy of the laissez-faire times we have been through. “Being seen to be green is good so how can we get on the bandwagon? Never mind if we haven’t thought it all through. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it”, is too often the attitude and approach.

Hopefully communicators, like those who run organisations, will learn from the wake-up call that the credit crisis has led to.

Grant Common ISSUES: GOING GREEN – GREENWASHING BECOMES A PR ISSUE FOR MARKETERS Published April - May 2008 Greenwashing, the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service, is an emerging issue confronting Australian marketers and their PR advisors.

Many companies, in the rush to embrace ‘sustainability’ and to be seen to be eco friendly, are embarking on ‘green marketing’ campaigns. And too often, in their rush to impress the public, they are making propositions that are ‘stretched’ at best, or simply not sustainable when put to the test.

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In fact an April 08 report by Nielson Online calls greenwashing a “failed corporate strategy” focusing in particular on the critical comments of bloggers saying that the online buzz volume is growing on this topic as they discuss the contradictory actions of companies.

As the Financial Week report on the Nielsen Report says – “when it comes to going green companies just can’t fake it”.

In February the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) released Green Marketing and the Trade Practices Act because of its concern that many small to medium businesses were falling into the greenwashing trap and needed guidance.

Ironically, almost immediately it was two multi-nationals – Coca Cola and Unilever – that found themselves under a strong media attack, accused of greenwashing here in Australia. But there are a host of companies and products, including Cascade beer and Alinta Gas already lining up to go public with their ‘green credentials’.

Time will tell whether they are subject to the same scrutiny.

In this issue of PR Influences we provide an overview of issues surrounding greenwashing for Australian marketers and internal public relations staffs.

What’s happening internationally?

Sustainability is BIG for the major multi-nationals. It’s gone far beyond mining, housing, and other likeorganisations embracing it because they are forced to; now major marketers are getting into the act because they want to and because they perceive it may give them a competitive advantage.

Advertising Age quotes Coca-Cola, General Electric, Toyota, IBM and others as all rushing to embrace it and many of them unveiling marketing and advertising campaigns. Another article also portrayed how giants Unilever and P&G are battling to ‘tout programs that benefit humanity because it offers big payoffs for marketers’.

What does the consumer think?

Research everywhere shows that consumers want the companies they buy from to be seen as responsible and contributing more to the planet.

However, it’s an ‘ideal’ that consumers are stating to research. As companies try harder and harder to meet that need (and many fail doing so) there’s evidence that consumers can quickly change their attitude and turn on those that they perceive have deceived them.

In short, the public will likely embrace those products or services that do it properly, but there will be a strong backlash against those they perceive to be pulling the wool over their eyes.

What about the green claims that companies are making?

Internationally, advertising watchdogs in several countries are stepping up efforts to censor advertisers who make false claims.

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority recently took the Malaysian Palm Oil Council to task for claiming the industry was good for the environment in its television advertising. And in the US the Federal Trade Commission has been active, with a manufacturer of infant feed bottles being targeted by authorities for false green claims.

In Australia, the starting point to understanding what can and can’t be done in green marketing is the recently released 24 page ACCC Green Marketing Guide . It has some excellent guidance for over-enthusiastic brand or marketing managers, their CEO’s who should be monitoring what they propose, advertising agencies and PR agencies.

The guide puts a strong focus on claims that cannot be substantiated or claims that are too general or unqualified… and they provide plenty of Australian examples.

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The ACCC has also recently signaled that it plans to aggressively scrutinise and monitor green marketing campaigns.

In one of the most blatant examples of a marketer trying to jump on the green bandwagon the ACCC publicly castigated GM Holden for making false claims about the greenness of Saab vehicles which it markets in Australia and its claim that planting 17 native trees would offset carbon emissions generated by the car. The ACCC is not only taking GM Holden to court; it is seeking to review GM Holden’s trade practices compliance program.

(Interestingly authorities in Belgium also asked Saab pull a print advertising campaign for making dubious environment-related claims. And in Norway all car ads are banned from making any green claims!)

The ACCC has also issued a ‘please explain’ to Energy Australia for some of its practices as well as bringing Origin Energy to task over some of its television advertising. Expect to see more of this from the ACCC. What role does the media play?

The media has a key role to play. While marketers mainly use paid advertising and marketing techniques to carry a green story to the consumer, the media is often the only ‘independent’ source to endorse or discredit the claims being made.

However, too often the media finds itself caught between ‘experts’ on both sides of an argument and ends up simply reporting the different viewpoints and leaving the consumer to judge for themselves. After all, some of the companies are big advertisers!

However, some media will take a stance. One Australian journalist already doing this is Julian Lee, Marketing Reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald. His February articles ‘Message on a bottle labelled as greenwash ’ and ‘Green claims come with big spin cycle’, followed by his March 6 article ‘Unilever’s pitch dissolves in the wash’, along with the space the newspaper devoted to these three articles, give fair warning that greenwashing is certainly on the media agenda. The lead he took resulted in a couple of trade publications, which generally don’t criticise too much, also casting a critical eye at Coca-Cola and Unilever.

Ordinarily companies, especially multi-nationals, could expect to ‘fly under the media radar’ in Australia with such practices. They must have been shocked to have been hit by such criticism and their overseas masters must have wondered what Australians were drinking!

What does this all mean for PR? There is a real danger that with the rush to do green marketing that PR staff will simply get caught up in the “let’s tell everyone” syndrome. In short – “we’ve decided what we want to say – it’s your job to help us communicate it”. That’s most likely to occur where PR within organisations is seen as functional rather than strategic and is staffed by people who don’t have a direct reporting line to the Marketing Director and/or CEO. The real PR role should be to act as the ‘devils advocate’. This means critically examining the green initiative from a public and media perspective in a way that examines possible shortcomings and dangers and alerts the organisation to them before going public.

To be able to provide sound Public Relations advice, it’s first necessary to thoroughly research everything connected with your proposal, as well as undertake an environmental scan. This will include: Obtaining a briefing from the organisation’s legal counsel to be sure that the proposal has been examined in relation to the Trade Practices Act, and if so what areas of the proposed initiative were through to be the most ‘sensitive’ and why they are considered to be OK. Studying the ACCC’s approach. Going through the Green Marketing and the Trade Practices Act and cross-checking every example against what is proposed by your organisation. Also, going through all the media statements ACCC has issued to note their concerns.

Undertaking an international and Australian media search to ascertain what’s been published a) specifically re environmental/green initiatives in your sector and, b) generally of the type of initiative proposed.

Monitoring the Australian online space to see what ‘chatter’ there is about eco initiatives and green marketing on blogs and in forums.

Interrogating those who have come up with the initiative. You don’t want to just be given a PowerPoint presentation about the finished campaign. You need to go right back to the start of the PR Influences

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project and understand the journey they have been on to get to this point. You especially want to understand their fears and concerns, and the roadblocks they faced.

Assuming that you are satisfied that the initiative is soundly based, the PR task is then to draw up a full communications program. This will identify critical audiences to reach, influencers and media (both traditional and online) who may need special communication and a whole host of stakeholders from staff to dealers/ retailers who need to be thoroughly briefed.

The bottom line is that green marketing should not just be created by the marketing department or an advertising agency (or PR agency). It has to be based on a very firm premise and part of an organisation’s fundamental approach to business. In the short term it is likely that the greatest role PR might have will be in helping organisations which want to jump on the green bandwagon from doing it badly and being accused of greenwashing.

MEDIA RELATIONS: AUSTRALIAN-FOCUSED WEB SITES A PR KEY FOR B2B AND HI-TECH MARKETERS Published April - May 2008 In this digital age, Australian B2B and technology companies seeking to use PR to raise their corporate awareness, or promote their products or services with mainstream and key vertical media, often overlook the one tool that says more about their standing and credibility than anything else – their web site.

What business-to-business and hi-tech marketers using public relations as a business or marketing tool need to understand is that today most media rely heavily on the Internet to search for, and verify, information about companies, their products and services.

If a journalist receives a media release from a new company, or one they haven’t heard about for a while, one of the first things they will do is go to their web site.

In fact a 2007 US study by Arketi Group a hi-tech business-to-business marketing and PR firm found that 60 percent of US business media spend more than 20 hours a week on the Internet, reading news, reading publications online and finding news sources etc.

If you’re in a marketing, communication or public relations role for a B2B or technology company and using PR to obtain publicity in specialist technology media, or in the technology sections of mainstream media, then ask yourself these questions: Do we have a local URL? If the answer is no, then unless you are a very large and respected Multinational Company (MNC), the future is dim. Anyone visiting a site with a .com/.uk/.fr type URL will have the immediate (and probably correct) impression that all information and access to information is held at Head Office, and that to try and find local (Australian) information on this site will be a nightmare.

If, on the other hand, you are a large and respected MNC, then you will still have to find a means of guiding digital (or online) audiences to relevant parts of your site.

Do we have a local NEWS section?

Even many organisations that do make available local URLs, present a thin veneer of localisation. Whilst the home page may give some local contact details, as soon as you click on a navigation bar such as ‘News’ or ‘About Us’ you find yourself redirected to the corporate head office site and any relevance to local news or customers evaporates.

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For those companies that do have a local ‘News’ section, the majority of the media releases posted there are often corporate announcements datelined thousands of kilometres away.

Do we have local media contacts?

Journalists want to speak to internal (or external public relations agency) people in Australia, not in Atlanta, or Santa Cara, or London. They are busy people. They do not wish to be making exploratory calls to foreign nationals at 3.00am. Or, worse still, waking them up by phoning their mobile on the east coast of the USA from Sydney at 5.00pm on a Monday.

A lack of local contact people is yet one more roadblock to having your organisation included in a local industry story.

Do we feature local management?

If I am a local journalist, I do not want to be discussing the latest trends in Australian Government IT procurement policies with President J Arthur Spatchcock in Cleveland Ohio. Nor do I wish to know how the esteemed J Arthur invented the Ethernet Inverter Nodule (EIN). What I DO want to talk about however is how that is being used by Australian companies.

As a journalist I would also like to know the background of the local country manager, his or her vision for the company HERE, and what local management is doing to counter imports of cheap copies of the EIN from Asia.

Do we list local customers?

Good PR is not about what you say about yourself. It is about what others say about you. And that is why a journalist or a prospective customer will want to find local reference customers on your Australian site.

There is a danger here, in that many companies like to show how happy their customers are with their products and services by publishing case studies on how they have worked together. Whilst this is natural, if a journalist sees a case study posted on a web site they will consider it to have already been published (it is in fact in the public domain) and quite rightly decide that it cannot be published again via editorial space in their publication.

PR people with organisations need to be working with their sales pipeline to see what is available, ‘cherrypicking’ the best on offer, and pitching these to media before writing up as web and sales collateral.

Does the site reflect our key verticals?

Often a company’s head office in, say, North America, has quite different key vertical markets than its regional offices. For example, Logistics is often a major sector in the US, but, due to the size of the logistics industry, another vertical such as Health may be the dominant sector here.

If the corporate web site is basically replicated with a localised URL, then your company’s products and services may not be placed in the right light here.

You will need to seriously address this with your Head Office counterparts to try and gain at the very least, a localised version of the corporate home page that reflects local realities.

Is it easy to understand what we actually do?

Implementations of technology in Australia can be significantly less broad than they are in larger markets such as the US and Europe. For example, email marketing and personalised loyalty program direct mail is quite different there to what it is here.

Yet the whole language, marketing-speak and thrust of a corporate home page, whilst understood in ‘home’ markets, may be confusing at best, or simply wrong at worst in regional areas of operation.

Once again, if you want media and prospects to truly and easily understand just what you do, you may have to fight for localisation of regional home pages of corporate web sites.

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The bottom line for marketing and communication professionals here, is that you may well have to be forceful with Head Office over your web site if you wish to implement any digital or online PR strategies and activities.

Without timely access to your own set of local pages, it will be impossible to effectively offer rss feeds to journalists, do electronic direct mail (EDM) campaigns to prospects that link back to local web collateral, or indeed be seen as actually having any real relevance to the Australian market other than as a sales outpost of a global company.

For further information on this topic see previous articles in PR Influences: Making B2B media work Writing better B2B media releases Media and Media Relations: 10 PR tips for tech media success

ONLINE PR: STRATEGY

TIPS ON ENGAGING WITH BLOGGERS AS A SOCIAL MEDIA

Published April - May 2008 As social media continues to expand, marketers, public relations staff and corporate communicators in Australia need to address the issue of whether their organisations should be using digital and online public relations techniques to monitor the growth of blogs and engage with bloggers.

An 2007 Australian study of online chatter on blogs, chat rooms and forums by advertising group Y & R brands was trumpeted in The Australian (13 September 2007) as ‘Big issues don’t rate on blogs’.

Superficially that might make Australian marketers think they don’t need to bother. However, the results were hardly surprising given that the events tracked included APEC and the Live Earth Concert.

Many marketers would be astounded at the degree of ‘chatter’ that is taking place about organisations, products and service within social media. The big public issues might not generate much online conversation, but there are dozens of niche subjects where people who have a passion are busily conversing.

So let’s dip our toe into the water on the question of bloggers and their relevance to marketers by asking – and answering- some of the basic questions coming from those new to the world of social media and online engagement and conversations.

1. The uptake of blogging is still statistically small across the Australian population – why should it be considered as part of our marketing or corporate communications?

A: It depends on your sector. For some sectors (eg entertainment) there is a deep use of blogging by consumers – for others, there may be relatively little use. Also consider that in most instances bloggers are as influential in your marketplace as media. Organisations principally engage with bloggers because it’s a PR function – joining the conversation with people who are opinion formers or are influencers. You can’t apply the advertising reach criteria to blogging. It’s not a numbers decision – it’s all about influence.

2. How do I discover whether there are a lot of bloggers in my sector? Also, how do I gauge how important they are? It’s very time consuming!

A: Unfortunately there are no ready-made lists of bloggers as there are for media publishers. There are tools that the few pr agencies in Australia which work in the social media and blogging space use, that short-cut the whole process. Essentially what you need to do is to identify and rank blogs on several criteria – both quantitative and qualitative. You also need to distinguish between influencers and enthusiasts. The former are like media commentators while the later are like those who read, listen or watch the media and like to offer an opinion. There might be 1000 Australians blogging about your product or service, but they in turn might be PR Influences

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largely influenced by just five. . Link to the influencer chart showing small percentage are influencers rest are influenced.

3. Are bloggers really ‘citizen journalists’? Should we think about dealing with bloggers as we do with media?

A: Yes, there are a lot of similarities – after you have sorted out which bloggers in your sector are influential and opinion formers and are therefore acting like media.

If your sector is rich in bloggers you should probably develop a blogger communication program to run in parallel with your media program. But bloggers are not journalists (ignoring those journalists who do blog). They are not obligated to report fairly on issues, they don’t run to deadlines and many have a personal bias (which they are open about). So don’t even think about stepping into this world with a corporate message or perspective without doing a lot of homework. Just as dealing with media requires specialist skills so do does dealing with bloggers.

4. We’ve already dabbled in some online promotions and done some interactive marketing campaigns and one or two of our brand managers are keen to try social media to support product launches. Is dealing with bloggers just a natural extension of this?

A: No – definitely not. Just as you wouldn’t use an advertising agency to help you build relations with the media, neither would you use people with promotional or advertising techniques and skills to enter the world of social media and deal with bloggers. This area is all about ‘joining the conversation’ and becoming part of a community; it’s also about a two-way conversation. If you appreciate the delicate nature of dealing with media, and understanding their needs, then multiply the ‘delicacy factor’ threefold when it comes to social media and blogs.

5. How do I make a case to management for our organisation to put this whole area of social media engagement, and bloggers, on to our marketing or corporate agenda?

A: First, you have to determine whether bloggers have the potential to impact on the reputation of your product, service or organisation. Second, you need to determine whether online conversations are already taking place about your organisation – and that you need to monitor what is being said. Third, you need to be able to show that by participating online it will result in a marketing or corporate benefit. Fourth you need to see whether others in your space, or your competitors (here in Australia or overseas) are already engaging online, and what their experience is. Fifth, you need some evaluation as to what opportunities are here, because Australians have a very different attitude towards blogs than (for example) Americans. In order to do this you probably need to use an external agency.

How do I make the case for PR to be driving our social media or blogging communication?

A: Rick Clancy, senior vice president, corporate communications for Sony Electronics Inc makes the case for PR to be at the centre of the social media revolution.

Quoted in an article about ‘Sony’s “No Baloney” Blog’ in the Public Relations Society of America’s publication “The Strategist”, Winter 2008 he says, “The other factor from a corporate communications point of view is who’s in a position to really have a discussion, or dialogue, with people?

“Corporate communications and PR people are in a strong position to be at the centre of this whole social media revolution because we are the communicators. We are listeners. We can engage in a conversation, and we’re not necessarily going in with an overt agenda to sell or market or hire someone.

“We’re there to have a discussion. Certainly we’re advocating a point of view, whether it’s about a product or a technology, a social issue or an environmental issue, but we have the mind-set of conversationalists. You don’t find that in many other disciplines within an organisation”.

For further information on this topic see previous articles in PR Influences: Marketing and PR: The growing important of social media and search.

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Online & Social Media: How Web 2.0 savvy is your PR and marketing communications? (Feb/March) in the Digital PR section Other reading: Harnessing Influence - How savvy brands are unleashing the new power of Blogs and social media’. A qualitative survey undertaken in December 07 by TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony over four countries which provides an insight into how marketers around the world are using – and reacting to – social media and blogs.

BLOG WATCH?

Published April - May 2008 Copyblogger An award winning blog by Brian Clark that discusses how to write for the web.

The posts are pithy and to the point. One not to miss. www.copyblogger.com Andy Beard A blog discussing niche marketing, blogging and social media. Lots of practical tips and advice. http://andybeard.eu/ PR Disasters Always informative and often entertaining. Written by PR analyst and author Gerry McCusker. http://www.prdisasters.com/

NEW MEDIA MORSELS Published April - May 2008

Social Media insights revealed in new study A new report ‘Harnessing Influence - How savvy brands are unleashing the new power of Blogs and social media’ gives one of the best insights yet into how marketers around the world are using - and reacting to - social media.

A qualitative survey undertaken in December 2007 by TNS media intelligence/Cymfony over four countries, it is significant because of the insights it provides through quoting executive comments.

Most of those interviewed believe that social media is not a passing fad. Some of the statistics the survey quotes are: • 50% believe social media is a vital component of corporate communications that should be monitored at the executive level and allocated significant resources, • 30% see social media as an unconventional new opportunity that businesses must grasp with a sense of urgency, • 65% believe that reading and analysing social media to understand unfiltered consumer perceptions would have the most impact on the future of their businesses.

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“Marketers have grasped social media’s significance as a source of real-time consumer insight, yet they cling to the mass-marketing model of social media as another media channel”, said Jim Nail, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer of TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony.

The survey breaks marketers into two broad groups -Revolutionaries’, (early adopters) who are the most advanced users of social media, and ‘Wait-and-sees’ who are only at the learning stage.

The influence of gossip A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US and reported on www.livescience.com says that individuals sometimes place so much stock in gossip that they accept it as true even if there own observations and experiences suggest otherwise.

“Gossip has a strong manipulative potential that could be used by cheaters to change the reputation of others or even change their own," lead author Ralf Sommerfeld of the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology and his colleagues write. "This finding suggests that humans are used to basing their decisions on gossip, rumors or other spoken information."

Does your organisation have G Cred?

You’ve probably heard of “Street Cred” - having credibility or popularity among your peers (especially if you are young). It was ‘in vogue’ around 2005.

But an even newer term is “G Cred” - G stands for Google and term literally means having Google credibility. According to www.adweek.com G Cred began to emerge in early 2007.

G Cred refers to what someone sees when they Google your name, business or product.

The ranking that you obtain on Google (largely where you are placed in the natural search column) confers a degree of legitimacy and credibility.

Market communications strategist and author of the book ‘The Credibility Factor’ is quoted in AdWeek as saying says that G Cred is the “cred of the next decade”.

“While there are multiple forms of credibility found within a company or product, Google is playing an increasingly important role in the perception puzzle. The bottom line is: Credibility fosters trust and Google is here to stay as a measure of that credibility”.

Local Australian endorsement of the importance of your Google ranking comes from Melbourne caterer Oron Raviv who runs ‘Catering on the Move’ and who claims to have been ranked in the top three listings in its category for the past two years. In ‘BRW’ (April 3-9, 2008) he is quoted as saying that high rankings on Google lends an unusual level of credibility and authority to small businesses. “Suppliers offer you better terms of trade.

Suddenly, big food companies are soliciting my business, sending me samples, and if I take one of their products on board they use my being ranked number one on Google as a testimonial”, he says.

Note: Rankings in the natural search section of Google are obtained through publishing strong content and employing search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques. As both ‘PR Influences’ and its publisher Network PR appear on the first Australian Google page of more than 50 search phrases relating to public relations and related communication topics both appear have a strong G Cred!

W(i)erd terminology and sayings Want some light relief - and the chance to laugh at all the stupid phrases that marketing and advertising people come up with?

Then go to www.addictionary.org a central repository for all the advertising-centric terms and phrases that are made up on a regular basis. It’s a small wiki-type site where you view what others have created- or you can add your own.

Examples are: PR Influences

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• resumaybe - A short, mostly fictitious account of one's career and qualifications prepared typically by an applicant for a position he/she is woefully unqualified for.

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perkatory - The minutes spent waiting for your first cup of coffee in the morning.

• cereal offender - A person who takes an item off the shelf in a grocery store, then later decides they don't want it and places it on some random shelf elsewhere in the store.

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photox - Using Photoshop to clone out wrinkles, blemishes and other imperfections.

reputation is emerging as a key business parameter for Australian companies in 2008. After a decade or more of economic and business sunshine, and comparatively benign conditions, clouds are gathering on the horizon.

It’s time for CEO’s and E-suites to begin to prepare for rougher conditions and to focus their attention on how to reinforce, or strengthen, their organisation’s reputations. One of the key tools to help them do this is PR.

FRESH THINKING

Published April - May 2008 1. HP turns to retirees to promote the brand Technology company Hewlett-Packard is recruiting an unlikely group of people to spread the word about the company and its products - its retirees.

HP says the move reflects a renewed emphasis on grass-roots marketing.

Those who ‘come back’ do so on a purely voluntary basis to become cheerleaders, good-will ambassadors and volunteer sales people.

HP believes that its heritage - the organisation was founded in 1939 - that has created an army of people who have served a lifetime with the company, gives it a resource and competitive edge over many of its competitors which are much younger companies.

The company says that its aim is inspire involvement in the US from as many as 40,000 retirees. It is encouraging them to do volunteer sales, join local alumni clubs, get involved in legislative issues the company cares about and represent Hewlett-Packard in philanthropic and community events.

The retirees also serve as a good intelligence-gathering network for HP. And they can prove a good way to channel feedback from the consumer to HP’s marketing department.

There has been some criticism of the move, particularly relating to HP using some retirees as salespeople and not paying them, but generally the initiative, which is being driven from the CEO’s office, has been successful. In fact other US companies with a pool of retirees are said to be looking to emulate the HP experience.

Source: International Herald Tribune 2. Whole Earth Generation goes UGC An American company Whole Foods recently launched the Whole Earth Generation, a video podcast (or vodcast) series dedicated to raising environmental awareness among today's youth. To start the initiative, the company announced a contest to find six kids aged 8 to 17 to serve as hosts of the green-themed series, which will run through April 29. Children from all over the United States and Canada can either submit a video at Whole Foods' YouTube page or they can show up in person at Whole Foods stores.

Source: Springwise - 24 March 2008 3. Online Communities for Women

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Reading material for women has never been in short supply but recently a new online womens community has sprung up called http://www.wowowow.com/ The BETA site initiated in the US has been set up with the over 40’s women in mind. The site has high profile women such as Candice Bergen, Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin all contributing to the site.

Source: PR Week March 2008 4. Chrysler starts a conversation Chrysler in the US has started to recruit residents to participate in closed online dialogues to gather information for the company’s marketing and product development areas.

The advisory panel is expected to have 2000 people who are happy to participate one or twice a week online.

VP-Chief Marketing Officer Deborah Wahl Meyer told Advertising Age, "It's a different way to be close to our customers and our future customers without doing physical focus groups”, she said. "We call it on-demand What Others Say. Source: Ad Age, March 2008

What Others Say SOUTHWEST AIRLINES TAKES THE GOOD AND THE BAD ON ITS BLOG IN PURSUING TRANSPARENCY WHEN COPING WITH SAFETY ALLEGATIONS Published April - May 2008

“Southwest Airlines has once again earned its reputation for communicating better than nearly everyone in the business.

“As readers know by now, the FAA delivered a punishing body blow to the Dallas-based airline last week, accusing the popular carrier of failing to conduct mandatory checks for fuselage cracking. This is the equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration telling consumers that their breakfast cereal may kill them.

“By Friday afternoon, Southwest had mobilized every communication channel at its disposal. The airline's CEO Gary Kelly appeared on CNN to declare the charges "unfair" and "unprecedented." A statement was posted on the carrier's ticket booking site, and the airline sent an e-mail (see below) to its Rapid Rewards customers clearly and simply stating its case. No passive voice, no statements that "mistakes were made," no jargon. Just the facts as it saw them.

“But what set this media defense campaign apart from any other in recent memory was its bold use of Nuts About Southwest---the company's external blog “Many companies talk about transparency. They talk about allowing honest conversations about their product. But few actually follow through. Southwest is transparency on steroids.

“In the coming months, the truth will be out, and the airline may indeed be left with a $10 million federal fine.

But as crisis PR campaigns go, it's hard to beat this one.

“Airline communicator Paula Berg posted a statement Thursday at 11:36 p.m., only hours after the FAA issued its statement. "It is important for you to know that the situation being reported in the media was never, and is not now, a safety of flight issue." She said the company had fully disclosed its "missed inspection area" to the FAA and that the agency had approved its actions. She cited a letter from Boeing saying the airline had acted properly and assuring its customers that the planes are safe.

“Despite these assurances, the condemnations came pouring onto the blog immediately. You know things are going to be rough when the first customer post was this simple, declarative statement: "I don't believe you."

“As of Monday morning, 113 people have responded to the post, including this from "Randall": PR Influences

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"Shame on you Southwest. Admit you were wrong and pay the fine. Then apologize and hope we'll forgive you."

“But just when you thought the airline would be buried under a mountain of criticism, customers began rushing to Southwest's defence.

"I have carefully watched your pilots' pre-flight inspections and despite the occasional levity of your own crews, I have nearly absolute faith in them," wrote Len Frank on a Friday morning post, one of dozens defending the carrier.

"I think there are two sides to every story," another poster wrote. "And I have chosen to wait until SWA has had their chance to fully present their side before forming an opinion."

“It was blog theory laid bare: Put yourself out there and absorb the blows and good stuff will follow. The mix of praise and condemnation from customers, employees, fans and enemies of the airline has the effect of saying, "wait a minute. This may not be as simple as the FAA says. Maybe there is another side to the story."

“Indeed the story appears to be infinitely more complicated than the FAA statement suggests. Southwest claims that it reported the missed inspections, that it reinspected all of the affected aircraft and that the regulatory body told the carrier that "the case was closed."

As final evidence to support its case, CEO Kelly even enlisted the nation's most credible business newspaper.

“Said Kelly: "We were surprised yesterday to get that notification by the FAA as well. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that as late as last month the FAA said that it had no safety issues with Southwest Airlines."

“Stay tuned”.

Email to Rapid Rewards Members: Dear Rapid Rewards Member:

You may have heard that Southwest Airlines was fined by the FAA regarding recent aircraft inspections. First and foremost, we want to assure you this was never and is not a safety of flight issue. From our inception, Southwest Airlines has maintained a rigorous Culture of Safety—and has maintained that same dedication for more than 37 years. It is and always has been our number one priority to ensure the Safety of every Southwest Customer and Employee. “We’ve got a 37-year history of very safe operations, one of the safest operations in the world, and we’re safer today than we’ve ever been,” said Southwest CEO Gary Kelly.

Receipt of the FAA letter of penalty gives us the chance to present the facts which we feel will support our actions taken in March 2007. The FAA penalty is related to one of many routine inspections on our aircraft fleet involving an extremely small area in one of the many overlapping inspections. These inspections were designed to detect early signs of skin cracking. Southwest Airlines discovered the missed inspection area, disclosed it to the FAA, and promptly re-inspected all potentially affected aircraft in March 2007. The FAA approved our actions and considered the matter closed as of April 2007.

The Boeing Company has stated its support of Southwest's aggressive compliance plan. Southwest acted responsibly and the safety of the fleet was not compromised, Boeing said.

Former National Transportation Safety Board Inspector-in-Charge Greg Feith said after a review of the available data and information that it’s apparent that there was no risk to the flying public in March 2007 while Southwest Airlines performed their program to re-inspect the small area of aircraft fuselages identified. Southwest consistently maintains a Leadership role in developing maintenance programs for the Boeing 737 aircraft. As always, we commit to keeping you informed. Please check southwest.com for periodic updates.

The above commentary was published by Mark Ragan of www.ragan.com on 11 March 2008

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