Well not really 'a day'. In fact it doesn't specify which day. Just "A DAY". You will get a 'thought' when there is one worth getting. Maybe I should rename the site "Try to have a thought a day" YOU CAN HAVE 'MARKETING THOUGHT A DAY' RSS FEEDBLITZ EMAILED TO YOU BY VISITING WWW.MICHAELKIELYMARKETING.COM.AU AND SIGNING ON FOR THE SERVICE. (Not every day, thought. You won't ready them all.)

Thursday, July 27, 2006

#@%&+?ƒ the Rules of Naming Brands

Hi,

I'm currently embroiled in an argument with an old style ad guy about naming a new company and product. He says we can't call the product a name that describes what it is. "It's against the rules!" he intones. Whose rules?

What about "Coca-Cola" for a cola drink originally made from cocoa when it was named. IBM was "International Business Machines" when it was launched. They were selling adding machines in many countries. "Microsoft" was a software company that aimed to focus on micro computers (later known as desktops and now laptops, etc.)

Here's a good reason to call your product a name that says what it is: your name is your most potent advertising vehicle. It will be seen by many people who won't know you. It will appear in phone listings and directories, on packages and boxes, on trucks, and in many other non-advertising surfaces. Places it has to be. It is your cheapest advertisement.

Old style ad guys think the world still burns old style ad budgets to build brands. That dream burst with the dot com bubble.

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

The Rules of Creating Brand Names

Hi,

Sometime in your career you are going to face the challenge of creating or signing off on a new name for a product, company, or whatever. Very few people are skilled in this field. There are a lot of blowhards who will try to bluff you into thinking they know how to do it. But there is only one rule with naming: There are no rules.

Look at the names of the world’s leading brands, aka. Business Week and Interbrand’s "100 Best Global Brands": Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, GE, Intel, Nokia, Disney, McDonald’s, Toyota and Marlboro. These brands make up the world’s "top ten" by value. See any patterns there, any 'best practice' re names? No? No. There is none. There are family names, like Disney and McDonald’s; initials, like IBM and GE; semi-descriptive and "associative" names, like Microsoft and Intel; and abstract names, like Nokia and Marlboro.

In fact, 46 of the 100 brands are named after their founders. There's not a lot of strategy in that. SO next time someone says, "You can't call a product that, it's against the rules...", just say: "I follow Kiely's Rule which says I can call it any damn thing I like."

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Crisis? What Crisis? 3

Hi,

You can plan for product tampering or any one of a thousand events just by playing 'what if' games.

Pepsi overcame a product tampering charge when it was able to prove the syringes weren't introduced to their cans during the production process. It had video surveillance of its entire production process. Smart.

The consumers who reported finding the syringes were eventually charged with criminal offences.

What if...

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Crisis? What Crisis? 2

Hi,

Crisis management plans are fairly easy to put together.

Step 1. Appoint a Crisis Management team. They meet as soon as the crisis is detected.
Step 2. Decide who the single spokesperson/media point of contact will be (to avoid conflicting messages getting out).
Step 3. Map out your Rapid Response Plan under which, simultaneously, these things will happen:
A.) Inform the media of your company's policies in this area and that a statement about this incident will be forthcoming shortly.
B.) Investigate the situation.*
C.) Inform the staff and remind them of the Crisis Management Procedures which they would have been exposed to during staff training and induction.
D.) Formulate your response and 'fess up. Don't try to sandbag the media or spin your way out of it.
E.) Keep all stakeholders informed - shareholders, regulators, suppliers, customers, community, etc.
F.) Act quickly to protect the public - ie. In the case of product contamination, order a complete recall, regardless of proof of how extensive the problem might be. It proves you care.

*When this takes time, keep the media informed, unless you are involved in a police investigation (such as in a product tampering/extortion case).

Preparing for product tampering.... More tomorrow.

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Crisis? What Crisis?

Hi,

You are interrupted at lunch by a phone call from someone at work saying the switchboard is melting down due to a barrage of calls from journalists wanting to speak to someone about the fact that your company was named in a court case as having engaged in illegal activity. Your financial director has resigned and left the building. No one has heard from your operations manager all day. "What should I say to them?" says your receptionist.

You simply say: 'Activate the Crisis Management Plan.' The what? A Crisis Management Plan is what protects you from reacting to unexpected catastrophic events like a rabbit caught in a spotlight. Every organisation should have one as part of their risk management strategy. (The what?)

More tomorrow... (Fingers crossed nothing happens until then.)

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

How's your press area?

Hi,

Professional operations - that are taken seriously by the media - have comprehensive "press areas" on their websites which cater to journalists. Latest press releases (plus archives), speeches, a full array of photographs of product and key people, product specifications, even video. Plus contact details.

You'll be surprised who'll go there - prospective clients, people looking to join you, regulators, etc. Not just journalists. Your press area is full of facts and is easily digested.

It surprises me a.) how many corporate websites don't have press areas and b.) how many that do keep non-journalists out by password protecting them.

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Caught in the spotlight?

Hi,

When I was conducting a brand audit for Macquarie Bank prior to developing the Bank's brand positioning, I made a fascinating discovery. The Bank has a simple method for alerting its executives to behaviour which is potentially dangerous to the Bank's good name. It suggests that the executives speak and act as though their words and actions could appear on the front page of the Financial Review... Because they could do just that.

Try applying the "Front Page of the Fin Review" Test to your daily activity.

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I "Watergated" John Singleton

Hi,

Larrikin Millionaire Adman John Singleton uses 'fruity' language in his everyday life and doesn't stop when being interviewed by journalists. He especially used the famous f---- word when I interviewed him for a cover story when I edited Marketing Magazine. Other journalists would edit out the word, but - as I wanted to give the reader the full "Singleton" experience - I left them in. When he opened the magazine for the first time at the luncheon where he spoke to launch the issue, he exclaimed: "You bastard, you Watergated me!" He invented the verb which, for young readers, refers to President Richard Nixon's habit of secretly recording every discussion that took place in the Oval Office at the White House. These tapes were played in the judicial enquiry into the break in to the Democratic campaign headquarters and the theft of documents that eventually saw the President leave office in disgrace. The tapes revealed that the President was a cussin' SOB.

The lesson? Assume the tape is rolling whenever you speak to a journalist. Assume every word you say could appear on the front page of the Australian Financial Review. Don't rely on any special understanding with a journalist. I've been Watergated myself. Treat a journalist as you would a snake. Cautiously.

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Scratching backs

My friend Robyn Henderson teaches networking skills. (More about that in a later post*.) She says the best way to start a two-way relationship with a good business contact is to send them some business... Simple. Direct. Compelling.

The same goes for editors or producers of media outlets. Send them story ideas. Not just glamour pieces on you or your product or your client. Real hard stories.

Analyse the outlet. What content do they use. Brainstorm some story suggestions. Some of them can involve you. You'll be helping them do the hardest part of their job. And you'll be noticed... And valued... And listened to. '

'Isn't that what you want?

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Saturday, July 15, 2006

"I was abducted by aliens!"

... And that's why I missed Friday's "Thought". Anyway they didn't make me have sex with anyone on the flying saucer.

Many popular (read: trashy) publications and programs have headlines like the one above... And your press release and your product story has to compete with that. A good publicist does the editor's job for them. They think like an editor. They think: "How can I spin this story to appeal to this readership? Could aliens abduct my client?"

Most failed attempts to get coverage in the media fail for one of two reasons:

1. There is insufficient excitement in the product story.
2. There is no attempt to make the story relevant to the audience.

Most press releases I have received in my 20+ years are as exciting and enticing as cold cabbage.

Read your company's press releases. What are they like? Do they excite you?

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Bad PR passes like a storm in a tea cup

Hi,

Zinedine Zidane delivered the most dramatic moment of the World Cup when he headbutted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the solar plexus.

What do you do when the boss has a brain explosion? Macquarie Bank's Nicholas Moore described Alan Jones as just a radio announcer in the early stages of the Sydney Airport debacle. Now Nicholas was probably MD Allan Moss's successor-elect. But he singlehandedly forced the share price into a vortex. Good luck, Nicholas.

John Brogden was the next Premier of NSW (he'd have smashed Iemma) until he had a bad night and foolishly resigned over a silly comment about Premier Carr's wife. (Come back John. You're a politician, not a priest.)

If you or your boss ever make the mistake of being honest about your feelings, in public, remember the words of Winston Churchill: "Never never never never resign." Nothing is as bad as it seems. People have short memories. It's tomorrow's fish and chips paper. There'll be a new scandal in the headlines soon. Tough it out. Give an explanation, apologise, but don't be silly about it. Your supporters want you to be strong for them. Live to fight another day.

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

PR Lessons from John and Peter, ex-buddies

Hi,

PR is not about covering up because the truth will always surface.
PM John Howard projects an image of honesty. In fact, he is not truthful. Remember the 'never ever GST'? 'Children overboard'? Despite all his skills, the truth has surfaced about John Howard. Peter Costello has revealed it in a king hit attempt to knock Howard out of the top job. Howard cannot suggest Ian McLauchlan is lying. He attended the 1994 meeting as Howard's witness and took notes. Costello sought only to make one point about Howard. Howard,in return, made one point about Costello. The Prime Ministership is not something to be bartered.* Anyone who thinks otherwise is guilty of "hubris and arrogance." Bingo. The truth about Peter Costello. Howard's counterpunch. What makes a government under Costello unelectable? His arrogance. Another lesson in PR from our leaders: choose your target well. Peter Costello is playing to anyone who'll listen, hoping we'll all turn away from a man who's word can't be trusted. Howard is playing to the 100 parliamentarians who elect the PM and whose continued seat in Government depends on the electability of the PM. Guess who'll win?

Cheers!

Michael

PS. One of our fellow readers wrote me to say this was just a storm in a tea cup. How many politicians cnca you fit inside as tea cup?

Monday, July 10, 2006

PR for ROI

Hi,

Public Relations started as Press Relations and that's what it does best. Publicity. Several years ago the PR industry claimed 70%-80% of everything that appears in the media is placed there by PR agencies.

Don't waste your time trying to run your own PR - get a professional. They'll be at it all the time whereas you'll be distracted.

Publicity isn't 'free ink'. Nothing's free. But it's better value for money than advertising. (Let's face it, anything's better value for money than advertising.)

Cheers!

Friday, July 07, 2006

How public are your relations?

Hi,

Every individual, company or institution has public relations. Not everyone has MANAGED public relations. Channel 9's Eddie Maguire, for instance, appears to not have access to professional PR advice. Because if he did he'd be less likely to act like a boofhead in public, such as describing the reaction to his crisis-inducing management of the once great television network as 'harassment' and warning the people criticising him that "I have a long memory." This statement is all the public needs to confirm the image of Eddie as a graceless bullyboy who in every likelihood did say he was going to 'bone' Jessica Rowe (to 'bone' apparently meaning to dismiss or fire, at Channel 9 - very male/macho imagery, revealing of the PBL culture). He denies saying it. A CEO who thinks he can manage a crisis without professional guidance, shooting from the lip and believing in his infallibility, will soon end up ending up. Especially in listed companies, where the sharemarket can vote with its feet any minute of the trading day. Kerry Packer was able to run his own PR and win because, underneath the brutal shell was a great strategic mind. But Eddie's no Kerry.
Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Feed the word of mouth monster everyday

Hi,

You've identified your Influentials, you've run your product sampling campaign, the word is out and sales are ramping up. What next?

Was it just a one night stand? Or shouldn't you recognise the relationship and treat your new 'insiders' as true insiders? Backstage tours of your operation, special invitations to special events, insider briefings, etc.

You know they're talkers with power. Give them something to talk about. Continually.

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Getting outa hand

Hi,

How depressing is the thought that armies of "Influentials" are being recruited and incentivised to behave like AMWAY distributors - but without the disclosure. How will I know if my best friend isn't a "sleeper" - programmed by General Motors or General Mills or Generals from the Pentagon to recommend their patrons' product or point of view? Shades of Orwell's 1984. Has your lover been infected with the Nescafe virus?
What about the potential for "Reverse Influentials"? Jerks who go around spruiking a product and pissing people off? Or "Guerilla Influentials"? Social/Category/Industry trend setters paid to badmouth a competitor?

This Word of Mouth thing could get outa hand!

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

"The Credibility League Ladder"

Hi.

I call the following "The Credibility League Ladder"

1. Personal experience
2. Friend’s recommendation
3. Stranger’s recommendation
4. News report
5. Expert opinion
6. Company newsletter
7. Direct mail
8. Advertising
9. Sales person

Which end is most credible and which is least?

Cheers!

Michael Kiely

Monday, July 03, 2006

Just ask...

Hi,

Word of Mouth "nodes" are easy to find. Just ask. You can use a 'sociometric
method' - ie. Map the networks by asking the members of a community who they
ask for recommendations. You can use a 'self designating method' - ie.
Identify nodes by asking people if they are one. "During the past 6 months,
have you told anyone about a new product, etc?" "Compared to your circle of
friends are you more likely to be asked advice about (XYZ) or less
likely..?" "When you and your friends discuss new ideas about (XYZ) do you
mainly listen or try to convince them of your ideas?"

Clunky but serviceable.

Cheers!

Michael Kiely