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Do Powerful Brands Use Heart?

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photo-28The full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal boasts a “four-layered masterpiece” describing the hazelnut swirl atop the new Hazelnut Macchiato by Starbucks. The final words we’re left with (there are only 25 words total) are “Crafted by hand and heart.”

Several years ago, I complained to anyone who’d listen that Starbucks was in bed with the Wall Street Journal. I had never seen so much publicity and positive stories in this national business daily for a brand without the power and global reach of IBM, for example.

Incidentally, IBM is one of the five stocks being attributed for pushing the Dow to record high on March 6, 2013.

The ad we’re seeing by Starbucks today is colorfully creamy with espresso blending into the white latte to show a caramel you can’t resist (I never buy those ridiculously expensive lattes that are so full of calories, too). What is an appeal, suggests Starbucks, is that every barista makes  your coffee drink with loving care — from the heart.

I’ve heard of people say that some baristas write a patron’s name on a cup with a cute little heart and a “have a great day” sentiment. I wonder if anyone has ever written a phone number for some cute customer? I think that would be too much heart.

Brands Using Heart Marketing

No other examples of powerful brands using heart come directly to mind, and (I think I just coined a new marketing field, Heart Marketing), so let’s do a scan through the last two days of Wall Street Journals to see whether heart is conjured:

  • Toyota: Toyota Shakes Up Top Ranks. Apparently, the family-owned car giant is now ready to welcome outsiders with open arms to its executive management. Think that’s a heart-felt move? Nope, just one of necessity for survival.
  • Clorox: The general counsel of Clorox, Laura Stein, researched the new CEO’s management style to learn how better to work with him. The new CEO, Donald Knauss “likes her go-getter style; ‘she will help anyone who asks for help.'” Heart or get-ahead smarts? I’m saying a bit of both. People who help have to be transparent or it’s just too smarmy.
  • Honest Tea: I wrote a post right here about Honest Tea and its CEO op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (what is it about the Wall Street Journal and beverage companies?) and in today’s paper that company gets a quarter page of top publicity with three color photos of beverages about Honest Tea’s New Soda. This company does have a heart and I know its guiding principles are about heart. Yes, a good example of powerful brands living by and using heart.

Let’s think of this a bit differently:

  • The world is a horrifying place for adults who are in touch with global and domestic news.
  • While the Dow dinks around in record territory and the housing crisis abates somewhat, students are still faced with record tuition at public universities.
  • Families are still grappling with lack of employment and other personal issues which contribute to red ink.

Is Starbucks on to something? With its subliminal copywriting that its baristas have a heart and care for you; does that work and will that bring in the patrons to order the new Hazelnut Macchiato?

Heart should not ever be taken with a grain of salt. It’s what I’m teaching kidlet — live from the heart, give to others first, focus outward, understand why someone is a bully and try to help them (well that’s a bit far fetched for a kid), but hopefully you get my drift.

Heart and Social Media

Heart computes in social media, too.

There are numerous people asking for help.

  • In fact, a 16-year-old asked me this week two questions about his brand new social media agency. Did I believe his prices were solid and how could he earn some credibility because people didn’t want to work with someone so young. I gave him my thoughts more than once and I invited him to write a guest post for The Happy Friday series.
  • How about the young man who found me locally who was writing a book and wanted my help publicizing that book? Now, mind you, that book of his was ensconced with one of those you-pay-we-publish businesses that just wanted his money; however, I spent time with him and counseled him and wrote a website and did a video with him. No charge.

What does your heart look like? How do you live it?  I’m not talking about how much love you have for your offspring or spouse or partner. I’m talking about the values with which you live at work. Do you spout off about having heart, “C’mon, have a heart already!” or do you seriously come from a genuine place filled to the core with nurturing and caring and a desire to help, teach, support, share, and develop solid relationships?

Powerful brands can try to use heart to appeal to a patron who is down in the dumps; you, however, have the opportunity to make that a reality — a genuine and authentic reality.

What’s the outcome of all this? When someone you don’t know says to someone you do know who shares it with you, “You know what? I really like that girl, she’s the real deal.”

Enough said. Show me your heart…there’s a place for more love in business and social media. The scuttle butt I’m seeing, reading and hearing hasn’t been from the heart; perhaps it should be a guiding principle for each of us.

By Jayme Soulati

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Did Anyone Media Train Lance Armstrong?

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Cover of The Power of Body Language

During the station (there were two of them), I was particularly interested in body language, facial expressions, and an earnest apology with sincerity.

What we got was a stone “who” only on occasion succeeded in being sincere. Only once did he tear up and that was when he was speaking about the regret he had for his eldest son. Not once did he look into the camera and speak one to one with any viewer; in particular those he most bullied and abused.

When media relations specialists work with spokespeople, we do what’s called media training.
Everyone is familiar with the word “handler” in political and celebrity circles. That’s the pro who manages the media and turns away reporters getting too close for comfort. That’s also the publicist who has the frontline backdoor role to be on top of current events with a snappy response.

It’s obvious Lance Armstrong didn’t have a handler (they probably couldn’t lie like he did) nor did he have any formal media training.

Here’s what the pros say about Lance Armstrong’s performance (from ):

Lance Armstrong’s Marketability

  • , Sports business reporter, ESPN: “Lance Armstrong doesn’t have any future marketability; it’s over. It was his inspiring story of a cancer survivor triumphing in races that made him marketable. If the wins are not legit, then neither is he.”

Lance Armstrong’s Body Language

  • Tonya Reiman, author, “The Power of Body Language:” This is the first time I ever heard the term “fig-leafed” – he nervously covered his groin with his hands. He was also wringing his hands, crossed his legs, tucked his hands between his legs, touched his face, bit his lip, took deep breaths, and swallowed hard. Tonya says these are all signs of a man under serious pressure and his face showed “so much arrogance and not enough real remorse” which is what viewers wanted to see.

Lance Armstrong and PR

  • Mike Paul is a crisis PR expert quoted in Advertising Age. He believes Lance only partially told the truth. In not so many words, Mike believes Armstrong failed his first crisis-PR move (when “scandal-plagued athletes often do confessional interviews where they come clean and throw themselves at the mercy of the court of public opinion.”)

How To Prepare For Media Interviews

Regardless of whether you’re a “scandal-plagued athlete” or a bona fide Wall Street executive, there are stones to turn over and it’s reporters’ jobs to find them (except in the case of the scandal!). Preparing for an interview with the Wall Street Journal is akin to Lance Armstrong preparing for an interview with Oprah. It takes hours and hours of pre-interview preparation prior to sitting in front of an investigative reporter or someone with the skills the likes of Oprah Winfrey.

Here are several media training tips:
1. This tool is golden when it comes to putting a story on one page.
2. Hire a media trainer who consults with a media relations professional. You need someone from the outside who isn’t close to the situation to come in and drill. In the case of Lance Armstrong, he should’ve been preparing and practicing just like it was a presidential debate.
3. Write a Q&A document with every single possible question that could be raised. Answer these questions using a message map. In the case of Lance Armstrong, however, there was more than a decade of lies to address and rectify in advance of the Oprah interview.
4. Rehearse, but be careful how rehearsed answers become. Lance was too stone-faced; however, no amount of preparation was going to allow him to break down in front of an international audience. He failed to earn respect from anyone; he succeeded in being labeled a consummate liar.
5. Review reporters’ history of interviews and writings. This is a job for any good media relations professional. It’s called writing a brief. It allows spokespeople to reference previous stories, break the ice, and also be prepared for the type of style and to expect a barrage or line of questioning.

Here’s the nutshell…no one in this era of visible online identity should ever assume anything is private. Prepare for an interview as if you’re Lance Armstrong being interviewed by Oprah.

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Yum Brands Bad Publicity in China, Or Is It?

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YumBrandsThe headline on the cover of the Marketplace section of this morning’s Wall Street Journal caught the eye, “Bad Publicity Dents Yum Brands.” Woah. Must be really bad for the other side to add that key word, “publicity,” in a call out.

Jumping into the story, I got 2/3 through still seeking any mention or indication of bad PR. The story is about how the brand and its KFC stores continues to bounce back after a government review of China poultry supplies, the outbreak of SARS, and a dye potentially linked to increase cancer risk.

What the Chinese consumer is being extra cautious about, however, is whether KFC poultry is tainted with more antibiotics than what’s permitted. Food safety, in the wake of tainted milk issues that plagued the country, has become a top-of-mind issue.

The headline on top of the story says, “China Woes Put Dent in Yum Brands.”

Uh-huh.

That’s more like it, copy desk. The call out header on the section cover implied that Yum Brands was really messing up in China with negative media coverage – after all, isn’t publicity defined by news coverage?

The story didn’t read that way at all. It told about a brand suffering from the natural ebbs and flows of economic issues and stressors that affect any business playing in the food industry.

I think the headline writer wanted to dig at we in public relations and earn a few more readers by using “publicity,” a rare word in a headline for a global daily newspaper the likes of the Wall Street Journal.

 

 

 

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Twitter’s Demise Or Ascension?

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twitter fail image

twitter fail image (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a self-professed Twitter-holic since early 2009 in a 24/7 pattern, I know and whine about the changes to my first-love social media channel. When Google+ launched Communities Dec. 12, 2012, Twitter was a veritable graveyard. These days, the stream is littered with retweets of others’ content. Instead, I strive to post personal messages or say good morning to someone missing from my columns on HootSuite. In fact, last week I suggested we’d need to work harder to keep Twitter viable instead of it becoming a re-posting only channel.

What’s your view of whether Twitter can survive other channels’ apparent popularity? According to The Wall Street Journal, Twitter only has 140 million registered users, dwarfing that of other channels (remember Facebook’s news of 1 billion this summer?). Can Twitter survive?

News on December 17, 2012 in The Wall Street Journal suggests a resounding yes! “Now On Twitter: Holiday Shopping Deals,” is all about big-box retailers flocking to Twitter to share Black Friday and holiday gift-giving deals. Among them are Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Radio Shack, and Toys ‘R Us.

Great article about the purchase of sponsored tweets by Best Buy and its use of Twitter “parties,” hour-long Twitter chats about gift ideas for target shoppers like moms and fitness buffs.  Best Buy and its peers did not disclose to reporters how much their collective ad budget was; however, when you read the piece, it’s heartening to see that Twitter is finally getting some respect:

Marketing brand strategists prepped Best Buy retailers in various markets in advance with holiday-marketing planning sessions.

Eight weeks of Twitter attention was launched prior to Thanksgiving and is still going on during this especially zany last-minute shopping week for Best Buy.

A more creative strategy was launched other than just tweeting all day long with an inside-out perspective. Best Buy targeted shopper demographics and held 60 minute Twitter chats (there’s probably a hashtag out there somewhere) to engage peeps about gift giving.

Here’s the coolest thing about what’s happening on Twitter that the Best Buy brand strategist learned from his location-based retailers – tone of voice and authenticity were critical to the success of the campaign.

I absolutely love, love this. We on Twitter, engaging all day long for years, know the power of authentic voice. We know which brands are real, which ones care and which ones are one-way (inside out). For brands to get Twitter, they need to appoint a solid and seasoned team on the frontlines that can engage appropriately and with authenticity. When they invest in that way, the return on investment comes back in spades.

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First Blog Post: 15 Tips for New Bloggers

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Keeping up with my Sunday pattern of posting one from the archives, this post below was one of my very first written March 22, 2010. Upon reading it, I’m impressed this list still has merit nearly three years later…what tips might you add based on your own blogging journey? Lastly, how about publish your “First Blog Post?” (Still relevant and well written?)

From Soulati’-TUDE! Archives:

Now that I’m officially a blogger, it feels pretty cool. I’m eager to put all the back-end stuff behind me and concentrate on perfecting and building the network. Unfortunately, I need to dig deeper for the patience as it’s all part of the larger journey.

In spite of my short time here, there are tools a newbie blogger needs to stay the course. Let me suggest several based on direct experience in the first two weeks:

  1. Patience and Perseverance. Without high levels of patience, a new blogger cannot persevere.
  2. Tech Know-How. IT knowledge is not a necessity, although it’s a bonus. Some of the more daunting areas are installations, code, ftp, renaming files, creating databases on c-panel and so much more. When self-hosting a WordPress blog, be prepared to be frustrated.
  3. Know your limit. Hit a wall? Ask for help; hire the experts. I didn’t, but needed to. (I had hit my wall, but a guy on Twitter blew me off for a week, and it angered me so much I insisted on doing this myself.)
  4. Time. Blogging requires more time. Obstacles and snafus galore and solving each take precious hours. See number two.
  5. Listen at a higher level. When speaking with clients, colleagues, friends, peers, listen for the next blog topic. After any conversation, if something strikes you, jot down key words to trigger topics.
  6. Keep a notebook, folder. Keep the notes, posts, items you read in a manual notebook or desktop folder.
  7. Rip tear sheets. Familiar with this term? Public relations practitioners use it when one of our stories we’ve placed hits. Get oriented to tearing out stories and filing into an idea folder. I’m already tearing sheets from Advertising Age, BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal which offer an array of ideas.
  8. Follow and subscribe. No better way to get post ideas then to follow people on Twitter lists via or . Subscribe to blogs in a reader. That way when on the road, you can access posts galore and delete subscriptions not making the grade.
  9. Use a dictionary/thesaurus. There’s nothing like a good dictionary to help find the right word or look up a synonym. Each post I’ve written has required reference to the dictionary. I’m expecting a few grammar lessons along the way, too.
  10. Be aware. Being aware is more than just combing content for ideas. Curiosity is the first step towards greater awareness. Surf 10 minutes daily on Technorati and get a sense of topics, style, and popular bloggers’ content. With awareness comes relevance.
  11. Engage on Twitter. A blogger must have a Twitter account, but all tweeps don’t have a blog. Twitter is the first best marketing tool for a blog; it’s a built-in audience who already finds you credible enough to follow. Blog posts are first promoted on Twitter. Whether you include Facebook in this marketing scheme is up to how you use it (friends/family or mix of business).
  12. Be responsive. When you post, the objective is to get attention. The ultimate goal is to get comments and furthermore subscribers. Answer everyone with appreciation who takes time to jot a note.
  13. Queue the posts. It’s Sunday morning. I’ve written 3.5 posts. Am thrilled to have something in queue for the week. Find that quiet time to draft skeleton content. Come back to it and edit. Find support points from the Web to empower the message.
  14. Learn! Already after a solid week of blogging, I’m thrilled with learning opportunities. While I thought Twitter was wonderful, blogging beats it hands down. I now look at everything through the blogging glass…is this a good topic? Is it a trend? Where can I find the data to support this statement? Do I need to back up my opinions? Shall I link to that site? Should I self-promote the blog on another’s post? Does this content resonate? Who cares?
  15. Respect one another. Everyone is entitled to opinions. It’s what makes the blogosphere rich. Set a positive tone with the goal of garnering respect.

What might you add to the list, please?

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