Marketing Craftsmanship

April 19, 2011 · 11:25 pm

4 PR Lessons from the SharesPost / Wall Street Journal Fistfight

If you’re not a habitual rubbernecker of battles between companies and the press, here’s a condensed version of a recent incident that can provide some lessons for all those subject to public scrutiny…which includes just about every individual, institution and company, public or private.

On April 12, the Wall Street Journal published “Meet My Departed Grandma, Fledgling Facebook Investor” in “The Game” column by Dennis K. Berman, who as deputy bureau chief for the Journal’s Money & Investing, is no cub reporter. The column was based on Berman’s assessment of the performance of online broker SharesPost, after posing as a would-be investor using the identity of his long departed grandmother.

Following publication, SharesPost CEO David Weir voiced strong objection to Berman’s column – in a letter to the editor at the Wall Street Journal and through an aggressive behind-the-scenes campaign directed at any blog editor willing to listen – focused on the journalistic ethics of Berman’s methods, as well as the accuracy of his reporting. Public controversy has erupted over the piece, prompting insider publications including Columbia Journalism Review to weigh in on Berman’s column.

Here are some lessons other companies can learn from the SharesPost coverage:

The Press Is Not Your Friend – There will always be reporters willing to employ any available means to make a name for themselves. Journalistic ideals espoused by Edward R. Murrow are long forgotten, and the line between news and entertainment has been blurred for decades. The Wall Street Journal and other media sources are NOT in business to make SharesPost look good…or even to report its (or your) side of the story. They’re simply competing for eyeballs.

Reporters Have Personal Agendas – Failure to recognize that reporters have opinions, prejudices, deadlines, career aspirations, overbearing bosses and overdue credit card bills often results in coverage that’s a big disappointment to those being written about. SharesPost may have been blind-sided by Berman in this story, but for many companies, their refusal to deal honestly and respectfully with a reporter can yield unpleasant results.

You Need To Suck It Up – SharesPost claimed that Berman’s column was one-sided and left out key facts, but CEOs are rarely objective and often thin-skinned with respect to the opinion of any outsider. More importantly, readers often have little interest in and pay much less attention to negative coverage than what’s imagined by the offended party. If you’re running an upstanding business, taking an occasional negative shot will not sink your ship.

It Can Pay to Make a Stink – Although SharesPost is unlikely to receive corrections, a retraction or an apology from the Wall Street Journal, its CEO was correct in making a public stink about Berman’s column. In this viral age, when the shelf-life of media coverage appears to be unlimited, it’s important to have your point of view on the record. But before you take that step, make sure your appeal is based on hard-nosed facts rather than ego or opinion, or you’ll be digging an even deeper hole.

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April 17, 2011 · 9:47 pm

Will Internet Transparency Devalue Craftsmanship?

As online access to information and insight into a broad range of professional and technical skills becomes more widely available, will “knowledge worker” craftsmanship become an anachronism?

For decades, medical schools have told students that patients want the Three As: Accessibility, Affability and Ability…in that order. Med students are taught that “patients don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” With the exception of Dr. Gregory House, most physicians understand that bedside manner often trumps a correct diagnosis or successful procedure. And insurance company research shows that physicians who apologize to patients for their errors are sued for malpractice far less often than those physicians who “lawyer up.”

Increasingly, online search and social media transparency will enable us to understand, manipulate, second-guess and validate the counsel of every professional discipline. If motivated, you can learn as much as your CPA knows about arcane tax laws, as much as your lawyer knows about divorce agreements, or as much as your real estate broker knows about mortgage lending.

With this level of virtual transparency, what’s the motivation for any knowledge worker to excel in their profession? If knowing only what’s necessary becomes sufficient – to avoid embarrassment and lawsuits – then why should any professional seek excellence? Rather than studying IRS rulings, is your accountant better served, in terms of business development and retention, by inviting clients and prospects out for a round of golf, dinner and drinks? As the client, would you prefer to be schmoozed by your CPA, or to have him increase your tax refund by $1,500? Would you even know if he’s capable of doing a better job for you? Maybe that’s why you’ve already replaced him withTurboTax.

Google, Twitter and TurboTax notwithstanding, as a knowledge worker, I take some solace in having seen that information and tools are often no substitute for experience. Several years ago, I was asked by a new client to create an integrated marketing strategy to serve as that company’s detailed blueprint to be implemented entirely by the CEO and his young, in-house marketing director. Two months later, the CEO engaged me again, to help his marketing director make the plan actually work.

So keep your former CPA’s phone number, because your TurboTax customer service rep will not be helpful at a tax audit with the IRS.

My guess is that true craftsmen in any profession will leverage online transparency to enhance their skills, rather than to use it as an excuse to join the status quo.

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April 15, 2011 · 10:56 pm

Pride is the Heart of Craftsmanship

“Pride in one’s work lies at the heart of craftsmanship as the reward for skill and commitment. Though brute pride figures as a sin in both Judaism and Christianity by putting self in place of God, pride in one’s work might seem to remove this sin, since the work has an independent existence. ”

Richard Sennett The Craftsman

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April 14, 2011 · 7:55 am

Is Craftsmanship Simply True Gravity?

From "Golf in the Kingdom" by Michael Murphy

“True gravity…. ’tis Seamus’s term for deeper lines o’ force, the deeper structure of the universe. But this is the thing…ye can only know wha’ it is by livin’ into it yersel’ — not through squeezin’ in and shovin’ it the way they do in the universities and laboratories. Ye must go into the heart o’ it, through your own body and senses and livin experience, level after level, right to the heart o’ it.”
— Shivas Irons, Golf Professional, Burningbush Links, Kingdom of Fife

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April 12, 2011 · 12:48 pm

If I get you on the cover of Forbes Magazine…

…what will you do with that exposure?

I often pose this question to prospective B2B clients when they ask me if I can generate exposure for their company in Forbes, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC or some other influential media source.

They typically respond, “Isn’t just being there in Forbes (or wherever) the goal?”

My answer to their “being there” question is always NO, and here’s why:

The intrinsic value of beneficial media exposure, particularly from a B2B marketing perspective, is based on the inherent endorsement of an objective and respected 3^rd party. Nearly everyone understands why positive media exposure is a good thing; it provides current and prospective clients with some comfort that they are making a smart, informed decision. The assumption: if Forbes has covered your company, it must be legitimate.

But most companies don’t understand that – even with secondary online exposure – the likelihood that clients, prospects or referral sources will take notice of the Forbes coverage, recognize their company’s involvement in it, and actually do something about that exposure…are pretty close to zero. This is never encouraging news for a company paying a fat monthly retainer in exchange for a pile of press clippings that get hung like trophies on its website.

Media placement is “credibility tool” generation. It’s a single, albeit important step in a multi-step process that BEGINS with defining a very specific business outcome the media placement will help to achieve, if the 3^rd party endorsement is properly merchandised. (Proper merchandising simply means taking steps to ensure that the company’s target audiences actually receive the credibility tool, in the proper context, and with an appropriate call to action.)

Smart marketers understand this concept: that media placement is simply a means, not an end result. And here’s the toughest part of this reality for those enlightened practitioners: telling their CEO that a bylined article in an obscure vertical trade publication may yield a greater return – in terms of practical marketing application and tangible business metrics – than being mentioned in an industry round-up story in Forbes.

Business metrics notwithstanding, some CEOs would prefer the cachet of being included in Forbes. And most CMOS would prefer continued employment.

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April 10, 2011 · 10:21 pm

Military Craftsmanship

: Kilo Company, Fifth Marine Regiment

“Marines run towards our bullets.”

– Afghan Taliban

Regardless of your politics, your opinion of U.S. military involvement, or your viewpoint on war in general…there’s no denying the skill, pride, dedication and courage of the American soldier.

Their craftsmanship is often unseen and always under-appreciated. We’re too busy keeping tabs on Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen and Lady GaGa.

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April 8, 2011 · 1:17 pm

Is Your Website Content a Brand Liability?

Either Feed the Content Beast or Don’t Create One

Distracted by all the social media buzz, it’s easy for a company to lose sight of the fact that their website remains the mother ship of brand expression and commerce. The standard marketing approach – particularly among B2B firms – is to create a brochureware-esque “Who We Are / What We Do / Why You Should Select Us” web presence, which forever serves as a handy repository for press releases, case studies, white papers and other expressions of thought leadership. For many firms, “build it once & fill it with stuff” is considered effective website management.

What often happens – soon after LAUNCH COMPANY WEBSITE is crossed off the corporate to-do list – is that companies don’t apply the same standards of excellence or levels of scrutiny to the content generated post-launch that were applied during development of the website’s original core content.

For a host of political and practical reasons, inappropriate and ineffective web content gets posted; sorely outdated content is granted lifetime tenure; and assorted layers of information…in WORD documents, PDFs, YouTube videos, podcasts, webinars…all obscure the company’s core messages and brand positioning. When it comes to website content, less is absolutely more.

If the brand police were to issue citations for website content-related abuse, some of the most common violations might include:

Vagrancy – If your most recent press release, example of news pickup, or last blog posting is more than two months old…website visitors will wonder “Are these guys still is business?” or “Is this how they will keep up with my needs as a client?” If a company can’t produce and maintain a fresh inventory of content, then from a brand perspective it’s better off without having any content at all. Dump the dated material and put a bullet in the blog with few posts. If you’re unable to trash the old content, at least bury it in an archive tab so it’s not as visible.

Prostitution – If your white papers, case studies, newsletters, webinars and other tools are nothing more than re-labeled sales pitches…website visitors will classify you a self-promoter and discount the credibility of all the information on your website. Admittedly, it’s often a battle for marketers to convince a CEO or Sales VP that their company needs to produce content that empowers prospects to draw their own conclusions…but pursuit of that cause is well worth the effort, if only in terms of professional self-respect.

Hoarding – If your company believes its content is so proprietary that visitors must be registered and approved to gain access to it, then you’re a prisoner of Web World 1.0, and here’s a news flash from 2014: Online content that requires registration is no longer an effective carrot to generate leads. Your company’s intellectual capital – showcased in website content – is its most valuable asset. If you restrict access, potential customers are more likely to move on to a competitor than they are to request permission to see it.

B2B companies will increasingly be tasked with having to feed new, relevant content to the online beasts that now rule our world. But rather than approach this as an endless, thankless chore, they need to embrace the opportunity to promote their expertise. A company that’s unwilling or unable to invest the resources necessary to keep their website current and vibrant needs to re-think how it presents its brand online.

[Previously published at http://prbreakfastclub.com/2011/04/08/content-marketing-liability/]

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April 4, 2011 · 10:46 pm

Jerry Maguire’s Mission Statement…

…Revisited

“If the tapdancing becomes less constant, less furious, less necessary, what will the result be? The result will be more honesty, more focus, fewer clients, but eventually the revenues will be the same. Because the new day of honesty will create a machine more personalized, more truthful, and the client that wasn’t bullshitted this year, has a greater chance of greatness next year.

The answer is fewer clients. Less dancing. More truth. We must crack open the tightly clenched fist of commerce and give a little back for the greater good. Eventually revenues will be the same, and that goodness will be infectious. We will have taken our number oneness and turned it into something greater. And eventually smaller will become bigger, in every way, and especially in our hearts…

Forget the dance. Focus…Love the job. Be the job.”

Jerry Maguire’s Mission Statement

Hikers wait for 3 years, pay $700 and travel to New Hampshire for boots made by Peter Limmer.
Musicians wait for 5 years, and pay more than $100,000 for a violin made by Sam Zygmuntowicz in Brooklyn.
Hunters and dog lovers wait years, and pay $15,000 to $20,000 for a “finished” Labrador Retriever raised by Mike Stewart in Mississippi.
Fly fishermen waited years, and paid up to $2,500 for reels made by Stanley Bogdan, who passed away last month at 92.
There’s a wait of more than 5 years for bikes built by Sacha White in Portland, at an average price of $10,000.

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April 1, 2011 · 3:15 pm

Solace for Rejected College Applicants

Earlier this week, Thomas Eisner – Cornell University professor of chemical ecology, author of “For Love of Insects,” and a true craftsman in his field of study – passed away at age 81.

Dr. Eisner is broadly recognized in the scientific community for advancing our understanding of insects and their ecological significance. He discovered that in addition to sounds, colored markings and elaborate dances, insects communicate through chemical signals.

In his work, he often pushed beyond the discoveries of well known biologists such as Charles Darwin. In his study of the Bombardier Beetle, for example, Dr. Eisner found that it produced its own form of boiling hot rocket fuel by combining two separately stored chemicals, which the beetle shot out from its abdomen as a defense mechanism.

Scientific achievements aside, here’s a fun fact about Dr. Eisner that should be taken to heart by college applicants who’ve been rejected by their school of choice…in his office the professor displayed the rejection letter Cornell had sent many years earlier, denying him admission as an undergraduate student.