Soulati-'TUDE!

Marketing Fair-Trade Quinoa

08/31/2010 By Jayme Soulati

(Note to readers: Today’s post is a rambling observation with a nit while sharing and pushing a dotted line to marketing and social media; blink and you might miss the latter!)

: Fair Trade Quinoa Farmers in Ecuador (Wikimedia Commons)

I eat quinoa (keen-wah) every day mixed with steel cut oats, ground flax, walnuts and fresh fruit with a dash of almond milk. This fuels my body until well after noon; however, I try to eat before I get hungry to maintain metabolism. (You can learn more about clean eating from my favorite cookbook author Tosca Reno.)

Quinoa is a complete protein grown in the Andes since 3000 B.C. It’s not always easy to find at the grocer, although I buy from Trader Joe’s and recently at Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati. As a buyer of quinoa for more than a year now, I’m dismayed its price has skyrocketed nearly 50 percent since January.

What’s happening? The classic demand and supply along with Fair Trade and good, solid marketing.

There are now quinoa products coming to our shelves straight from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru; priced higher to accommodate the world’s farmers in developing nations. The word “organic” is included on the packaging, too.

Remember the berry (true or not true?) and the recent pomegranate craze? These high anti-oxidant berries (blueberries, too) raised consumers’ consciousness about free radicals and anti-oxidants in our diets. How did this happen? With good, solid marketing!

I support fair trade, and I also support our need to eat healthier foods without worry from salmonella, pesticide, and other illness resulting from chemical additives. While I’m not a worrier warrior about this, it nags at the back of my head when thinking of food prep for my family.

Glance back above and note the date I shared with you…3000 B.C. That’s when quinoa began its production as “gold of the Incas” and a sacred food. Why has it taken so long to grace our tables in the North? We can thank fair-trade programs that bring more coffee, cocoa, quinoa and other products to consumers across the globe. We can thank social media and the Internet for making the world smaller to inform us about these products.

While that’s all well and good, it also means we pay more for health-oriented items while junk food costs less. Perhaps, there’s more work to be done by good, solid marketing to switch the balance of the previous statement.

What began here as the germ of a quinoa seed, sprouted into more on fair trade, marketing and price. Interesting to me, and perhaps to you, as well. Thanks for stopping by.

That Blogging Voice

08/27/2010 By Jayme Soulati

What's Your Voice?

Apparently, “voice” for bloggers is the Holy Grail. To get there as a newbie, you need:

1. Confidence you know what you want to say

2. Ignorance of others’ critiques when you’re having an off day

3. Knowledge about where you’d like to be one day (a few goals are good)

4. Patience and perseverance about design and techy back-end crapola

5. Strength of spirit to plug away as frequently or infrequently as you like

I had a stressful summer as is typical around my life as a working professional and mom. I struggled to manage time with travel, family and a reduced work day. The blog suffered.

Not only wasn’t I posting as regularly, I wasn’t feeling it either; yet, I pushed to post. A few remarks (see number two above), and my confidence shattered to the point of almost throwing in the towel.

Rather than quit, I wrote (what some called by best post) “Blogging Takes Confidence,” a heartfelt rendition to share I was not on top of my game. Buoyed by support from that post, I am again compelled to tackle the world.

What’s changed?

My child is back in school.
I’ve regained four to five hours in my work day.
My desk is (relatively) clean again.
My brain is de-cluttered, and my countenance is calm.

So what is this “voice” thing?

Merely, voice is the confidence to believe what you’ve got to say has merit; to know the criticism of others is not intended to derail you but to help you get over a natural hump or two; it’s the ability to find a diamond in the rough and share it with the world from your own perspective and, well, I think that’s right?

Who is Today’s Entrepreneur?

08/26/2010 By Jayme Soulati

My 8-year-old announced she wanted to have a store (after the failed lemonade stand two years ago), so I commenced setting her up with the glass jars I’d been saving for rainy-

For Sale By Jayme's Daughter

day crafts. Her pencil jars are a hit; she’s pocketed $13 plus $.50 for two hand-made magnets. She has an order for six more.

Now, that’s entrepreneurship.

A client of mine in 2008 declared that no one is an entrepreneur who doesn’t manufacture goods. I took that to heart; in fact, that ruined my impression that I, too, am an entrepreneur.

I’ve been launching companies since 1990; some with employees, health benefits and real office space and others, like Soulati Media, Inc., a virtual public relations firm that hires independent contractors and of which I’m an employee. Alas, I deliver professional services in public relations, social media and marketing. I am organized as a corporation and pay appropriate business taxes for my company and my person. I conduct my own business development to make money, and I do the work — you know, chief, cook and bottle washer.

Is that entrepreneurship?

Jobless claims jumped 12,000 to 500,000 last week, according to the U.S. Labor Department. This is the highest level in nine months. The Wall Street Journal (darn, if I can find that piece) recently wrote a story about the link between unemployment and lack of education suggesting a college degree is a must-have.

That said, how many people are starting home-based businesses to find alternative means of earning? This story suggests somewhere in the range of 38 million home-based businesses now exist according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or the U.S. Census Bureau.

Those who launch home-based businesses…are they entrepreneurs?

I don’t much like the definition of entrepreneurship in Wikipedia (and, neither does Wikipedia, if you open this link). How do you define entrepreneurship? The definition is no longer cut and dry.

Greenpeace’s Social Media Win Has Losers

08/23/2010 By Jayme Soulati

Rainforest

If you were paying attention to social and traditional media, you will recall the Greenpeace/Nestle global crisis communications situation primarily in March and April this year. I wrote about it here; it was a fascinating study in public relations. (I would’ve liked to have been teaching a PR class when this was unfolding.)

The issue became quite ugly quite fast when Greenpeace launched a crusade with a viral video accusing Nestle of killing orangutans in the rainforest due to its purchase of palm oil from a company in Indonesia that harvested palm oil from the rainforest and sold it to the likes of Nestle.

Nestle went on the defensive on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media hot spots and garnered thousands of hits to its page. Social media erupted against Nestle, as well, and Greenpeace watched their fireworks for weeks. In spite of Greenpeace’s social media win, the losers are still trying to uncover.

The accused Indonesian company from which Nestle and Unilever had been purchasing palm oil, PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology (SMART), ceased doing business with the two global giants as a result of the allegations. Unilever had been purchasing 47,000 tons of palm oil from SMART annually.

On August 11, 2010, this headline in the Wall Street Journal grabbed my attention, “Palm Oil Firm Rebuts Greenpeace Claim.” STAR paid to conduct a third-party audit of its estates to determine research “shows the company wasn’t responsible for cutting down forest and destroying orangutan habitat for palm cultivation.”

While I can’t corroborate the research report (Greenpeace is rebutting it), I can give you the skinny:

DAMAGE DONE, GREENPEACE “WINS.”

The public relations and social media strategy behind the Greenpeace maneuvers are amazing; and, they’ve been doing this for years. These campaigns are the most well-orchestrated on a global scale; why? Because we live in an interconnected world where videos go viral within hours, and instantaneous, real- time, in-bound communication on social networks heightens the crisis to unmanageable proportion.

The tools are available to all the players except STAR. I have not done my research on this company’s mission, values or business philosophy (here’s a link to Business.com with some info). What I can assume is that people in Indonesia lost money and jobs because of this campaign and monkeys perhaps lost homes, too. World-wide, real-time refute via social media of the allegations by STAR were not possible, but the Wall Street Journal provided the company a solid foundation for which to air its side of the story.

As I weave this story again, I’m drawing your focus to the profound impact social media has all companies. Size Doesn’t Matter!! Word-of-mouth marketing is an amazing channel. If you watched the man in the video biting off the finger of an orangutan when he opened a Kit Kat, it’s highly likely you’ll never eat another (uh, chocolate bar).

Awesome Customer Service Story

08/19/2010 By Jayme Soulati

eReleases editors welcome Soulati Media, Inc.

Let me tell a story about good customer service.

I fielded a phone call in the spring from a man selling for eReleases. At the time, I didn’t have a need to send a traditional press release on the traditional wires because so much of Soulati Media, Inc. business is oriented to online press releases.

But, I saved his number and phoned him within the last month. After explaining the package levels and how to use the e-Releases services, he informed me he no longer worked at the company. Now, that’s customer service #1!

Recently, I used the company’s services and was pleased to be able to distribute my story on the PR Newswire for 2/3 the cost; cool. Afterward, a welcome note comes in the snail mail with $100 coupon and hand-written ideas from the editors on staff suggesting other ways I might consider writing a follow-up story. Now, that’s customer service #2!

Today, trolling through my in box of 7,000+ horrid emails, I found a note from the editorial staff of e-Releases with a clever, funny, happy photo of the gang there welcoming me to the e-Releases family. See the photo above; you can’t miss the feel-good customer service of that effort (sent to me a month ago, sadly; but, I still saw it!). Now, that’s customer service #3!

So, what’s the summary here?

Welcome new customers into the mix in a personalized way.
Welcome new customers into the mix with a coupon for the next purchase.
Welcome new customers into the mix in a clever way that brings a smile.

Thanks, e-Releases, for some amazing customer service to cut through the clutter of every-day online life.

What awesome addition can you make to this story about customer service over and above?

JetBlue Flight Attendant, Social Media and Jobs

08/18/2010 By Jayme Soulati

Slater quits JetBlue after luggage lands on head

Just read the current Bloomberg Businessweek to arrive in the mail (I do like magazines). Its first story about the “Mad As Hell” JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater caught my eye and that of the rest of America, too.

To bring you up to speed, he quit his job in a flamboyant way, over the plane’s PA system to “curse a rude customer whose bag landed on his head, politely thanking other passengers, grabbing two beers from the galley before sliding down the inflatable emergency chute and sprinting toward home.”

What did America do in response? APPLAUD! And, social media erupted.

Facebook pages attracting 18,000+ fans with 211,000 likes lauded his gutsy move to quit a 20-year career in the airline industry. Others lamented their lack of nerve to do the same.

While Slater ponders a possible seven years in prison for criminal mischief and reckless endangerment, companies should ponder the entire real-life situation. Social media is not attacking JetBlue in this case; luckily the employer had nothing to do with this incident – or did they?

I think there may be some culpability on the company’s part; however, not in a financial or legal way…here’s how.

Everyone is aware of the state of the ever-worsening economy. Those with jobs are coping with workloads overflowing and work-life balance in disarray. Companies with a majority of frontline sales and customer service reps need to examine how they keep employees’ tempers in check when hazards of the job cause stress eruptions.

It may be easier for teleservice representatives to maintain composure, but the airline industry, retail, health care and professional services, for example, should look at new programs to de-stress frontline employees.

When was the last time you interacted with a customer service rep face to face? Was the experience professional, calm, satisfactory? Hopefully, it was because employees are not trained in social work or psychology and really don’t know how to handle other peoples’ stress beyond their own (even that’s suspect).

Perhaps workers who engage the public as frontline ambassadors should experience a friendly course in anger management for non-offenders.
Maybe employers can pop for a hotel getaway on the company to help de-stress frontline workers.
What about engaging a company-wide spa day? That would jolt a niche of the economy, wouldn’t it?

What do you think about Steven Slater’s decision to toss a job down the chute and contemplate prison garb in the not-too-distant future?

This is fascinating, and he, too, has hired a publicist; just like the post I wrote about Mark Hurd of H-P who has a PR firm on board to manage their celebrity.

(photo credit courtesy of Facebook)

Former H-P CEO Hires PR Firm; Lesson for Tiger

08/13/2010 By Jayme Soulati

Mark Hurd in 2009 (Credit: Mark Peterson)

By now, you’ve read the unfolding story of former H-P CEO Mark Hurd asked to resign a week ago due to some “I-did-not-have- sex-with-that-woman” snafu. What you likely haven’t heard about Hurd is the truth. The H-P board of directors is already bored with the entire scandal, and instead of releasing the truth behind the untruth, everyone is left to guess why the lack of transparency.

In the wake of the crisis, Mark Hurd hired Sitrick Public Relations of Los Angeles to help influence his brand and maintain his positive image as we await the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Is Hurd’s hiring of the PR firm Paris Hilton uses a smart thing? Or, is it squarely an admission of guilt? If anyone needed to hire a PR firm, it’s former-presidential-hopeful -now-fallen-star John Edwards or Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford.

That’s an interesting move by Hurd to hire my peers in Los Angeles. Stories in the Wall Street Journal suggest he did it to pave the way for future employment and to set the unbalanced record straight.

My first impression was that Hurd is hiding something and that his decision to hire PR is an admission of guilt beyond a faulty expense account and a “close personal relationship” with Jodie Fisher, actress turned hostess. Let’s use Tiger Woods as an example.

Tiger’s crisis unfolded via a front-man gatekeeper who was a criminal attorney. No PR team in place to help craft the message in the immediate aftermath of Tiger’s early morning crash turned sex scandal extraordinaire. If Tiger had hired a public relations team to help with his horrendous image, perhaps he’d be farther along on the pathway to repair than where he’s floundering now.

Back to Mark Hurd. At the time of this writing, the man is apparently not that guilty; yet, he hires a public relations firm to be the frontline spokespeople on his behalf. EXTREMELY SMART.

I love that Hurd turned immediately to PR as his frontline support and crisis team. I expect Hurd’s lawyer is also on that team, but the Wall Street Journal prominently featured a Sitrick spokesperson in its story and not a lawyer.

The “Smart Money” column in the Wall Street Journal by James B. Stewart on August 11, 2010 is a can’t-miss read. I appreciate Stewart’s candor and blunt talk about transparency at H-P, “Hewlett-Packard Still Can’t Handle the Truth” on August 11, 2010. Nothing for H-P to be happy about, Stewart suggests investors avoid H-P stock. The $35 million exit package paid to the fired Hurd, the lack of transparency by H-P, and ridiculous way this situation is being handled have all created a nose dive for H-P stock. This week, $8.7 billion was shaved off H-P’s market value. (Seriously?)

I hope H-P is taking lessons from its former CEO. It should have a full-court press in investor relations, public relations, crisis communications along with social media strategies front and center to reverse its embarrassing downward spiral.

What’s your impression of yet another sex scandal plaguing corporate America and government?

Blogging Takes Confidence

08/06/2010 By Jayme Soulati

This post is as much for me as it may be for you.

Blogging takes confidence. This list below includes several circumstances and what I know from experience helps make that confidence grow upward instead of into the dumps:

The recognition to spot a stumble with content and how to get ahead from that confidence-lacking position.
The ability to hear, process and get beyond the somewhat-negative commentary implying that “you suck” at this blogging thing and should hang it up.
The strength to read and take inspiration from the massive amounts of content being generated by others in the blogosphere and on social networking that put your feeble attempts to match that to shame.

If anyone is anyone who is a blogger who had to start somewhere, I bet any of the above has come to fruition. Indeed; for me it’s true. And, let’s not forget – we are our own worst critics.

And, so, these tips below are as much for me as they may be for you:

Blog with confidence and believe that you have something to say today.
Hear, process and determine whether to take action about others’ negative comments who at heart are critics not intending to derail you.
Read the blogs you subscribe to, comment there, and become inspired from peer bloggers’ inspiration. It’s OK to adopt a topic and fashion it into one of your own with a new perspective.
Be true to yourself. If your editorial content is more about reporting on a wide variety of topics, there’s a reason for that. Perhaps you come from the agency world of public relations (ahem) where knowledge about a breadth of topics, industries, companies, and concerns navigate your ship.
Know that it’s commonplace to stumble on voice because no one has the perfect voice every day they blog. It’s OK to craft a simple, short post chock full of emotion about one topic or another. It’s OK to struggle with what to write about today and then recognize that maybe today is not a good day to write.
It’s very OK to wonder if anyone is reading these words, and then it’s OK to be pleasantly surprised when someone provides a comment (whether positive or slightly smarmy) verbally or on e-mail because that is an indicator someone is paying attention.
You’re not to worry about the dag-gone back-end of the blog because that, too, comes with experience. You will persevere on the technical insides of your blog (Jayme) because learning does not happen overnight (Jayme).
When you’re having second thoughts about blogging, look around. Are you in balance? What circumstances have your inner balance off kilter? This can be your children, your finances, summer, and a house under construction, clutter, or lack of “me” /”you” time. Breathe, and focus on you.

So, blog with confidence, people, and know that that is exactly what you’re charged to do. Being a thought leader or expert comes with time.

I’d like to thank Macali Communications, Kevin Donnellon and Christina Rampersad for providing the inspiration for pushing this blog forth.

What expertise can you lend to we less-than-a-year bloggers to keep on truckin’?

Observations and Ponderings in Marketing Public Relations

08/03/2010 By Jayme Soulati

Sometimes the trivia and inanity pile up. Here are some observations I need to share. Anything goes — marketing, public relations, social media, and just plain old stuff. What can you add?

“Tectonic shift” is the new popular, overdone phrase. Where was the last place you read it?
Who is using mobile apps enough to warrant the price tag to develop and market them? Mashable says there are some 200,000+ mobile apps. Kinda hard to find the exact data, but this story provides some healthy competitive info from Apple v. Android.
Are there any law firms developing mobile applications? I’d like to know!
Do the unemployed consist of people truly seeking work or waiting for the next government extension because the job market stinks?
Will alternative fee arrangements hit public relations firms just as it is doing in law firms?
Who understands health care reform well?
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a typo in a sub-headline “plan vanilla” versus “plain vanilla,” and then it also spelled button as “buttom.” Now the latter is not a word, and spell check ought to have caught that, right?
Social media automaters are hot and vying for business. The prey – SMBs in need of social media assistance to leverage new media for new revenue streams.
September 27, 2010 is the Advertising Age Media 2011 issue. It will explore all the channels and complicated distribution of content. It will address how agencies and media are struggling as companies and marketers aggregate their own audiences.
Love the UK campaign by Damian Barr, a journalist and cultural entrepreneur, who engaged with Volvo to park 25 Volvos at the Starlite Urban Drive-In in London. Tickets at $40 each sold out in 30 seconds online for showings of “Grease” and “Dirty Dancing.” If that’s not lifestyle marketing, behavioral/emotional marketing and public relations, what is??!

Donation Plug to be a Good Citizen

07/30/2010 By Jayme Soulati

Donations come in all shapes, sizes and dollar amounts. Charitable giving is something all of us need to do, and I don’t mean donating our junk to AmVets or Goodwill. What I mean is actually donating hard-earned cash to charities and not-for-profits and those they serve who need the money now more than ever to stay afloat.

I was so thrilled with myself when I got the call from the police federation, or fraternal order of police or firefighters, etc. The guy, always persistent and ticked off when I say “take me off the list,” opened the call with “Hi, Jayme, this is a paid fund-raiser for the blah, blah. Can we count on your donation today just like last time and is your address blah, blah?”

And, I said to his mouthful, “How much of my donation goes to the charitable organization you’re fund-raising for?” When he said 20 percent, I said, “thanks, but NO thanks.” We need to consider that more…where does our dollar go when donating to not-for-profits?

There are more than 1.5 million not-for-profits in the U.S. according to Foundation Center. There are ways to check on the ratio of operations dollars to services dollars. I like this site, Charity Navigator. It offers plenty of resources for donors.

Think about the last time you made a charitable donation. Was it for Haiti? Was it for the Gulf vicitims of the oil spill? Was it for Hurricane Katrina? Are you merely a crisis giver? Or, perhaps you have a list of organizations you give to each year who appreciate your donation because they’re managing on a shoe-string budget. Maybe you’re a micro donor and text $10 when the call to action comes in or use Kiva or other fair-trade organization to share your wealth. I found Danny Brown’s 12for12K.org on Twitter and was happy to donate to its causes in 2009. There was a familiar and trustable face doing the soft ask.

Whatever your style of sharing money with those less fortunate, please ensure you have a style.

Start small with $10 given somewhere, but please start!
G to Kiva and give it as a gift (that’s how I was turned on to it; as a birthday gift to me).
Answer the invitation by a fund-raising committee of a local not-for-profit with $25, or go all out and donate $100.

It’s all tax-deductible, too, although speak with your accountant to ensure you follow federal guidelines about that.

Need a little push? Clothes That Work, Victoria Theater, League of Women Voters, Health For Peace, American Red Cross…no need to continue, is there?

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