PR 101

It came to me Wednesday morning why creative marketing scares many senior executives. In fact, the same fear factor holds true for any kind of marketing that is not conventional advertising or public relations.

It is the fear of the uncertainty of creativity. I think to the average CEO or CMO who came through a business school being creative is a foreign concept. Most of those people are left brain types. Their dominant personality traits are that they are logical, sequential, rational, analytical and objective. They are not used to operating in an arena where creativity is demanded. Those traits often lead to the creation of boringly beige ineffective marketing.

The idea of doing something where possible outcomes cannot not always be predicted makes them nervous. So when confronted with something such as social media that demands creativity and intuitive thinking, their brains lock. The simplest thing for them to then do is either reject or ignore the ideas. The idea of a truly out there campaign – no matter how effective it might be – scares them.

I realized this at the Milwaukee-based BizTimesMedia’s 2011 BizTech Conference-Expo. EPrize founder and Chairman Josh Linker was speaking at the conference’s opening breakfast about how to empower employees to be creative. A creative company can develop a strong competitive advantage over its competitors, he argued.

Linker should know. The entrepreneur is also a jazz musician. He explained that any jazz musician that sticks strictly to the score is soon asked to leave. “This fluid, improvisation art form is all about taking risks and trying new things,” Linker wrote in his blog. “Going out on limb can be scary, but it is where the magic happens. Extending yourself outside your comfort zone is where the best rewards will be discovered.”

He goes on to say that “Jazz is also about listening. Listening to your fellow musicians, the audience, and your own creative voice. In business, that means listening to your team, your customers, your competitors, your industry, your suppliers, the latest trends and best practice, and of course, your own creativity. Through focused listening comes adaptation. Allowing the environment and your collaborators to influence the outcome as a group. Seeking inspiration and creativity from others, and adapting in real-time to your own Creative Challenge.”

At the breakfast Linker explained jazz musicians expect creativity from those with whom they perform. The jazz band is a collective creative effort.

The problem for many executives is they run their businesses from the top down. The modern corporate structure is essentially based on a military model. Think about it – there’s the CEO or commanding general. Underneath him are the division leaders. Do you think that designation was an accident? There are senior officers and junior officers, enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. The titles are different, but the roles are the same.

Not an atmosphere that lends itself to nurturing creative impulses. What those companies like is an ad agency coming in and saying we are spending $10 million on this television commercial. We are doing 15 million direct mail pieces and placing ads in 15 national publications. The campaign will look like the campaigns of all their competitors. Cut and dried – and there’s the rub. The CEO and CMO approve it and off it goes. The problem it is formulaic. It is result of that almost always fatal directive “that’s the way we have always done it.”

Many executives live the “fire and forget” marketing campaign. They feel they should not have to be involved in selling their own company. That’s the job of the marketing department and the outside agency.

Think about beer marketing or local auto dealers – all boringly the same.

All good marketing has to be creative. It is like jazz. There are core elements, but each player bends those elements, improves on them, while at the same time staying with the group. It demands that the company executives and employees take any active role in the campaign. It is their company, they should part of the effort to market its products. They need to learn to play with the band. Nine times out of ten, it is really effective. Good marketing works the same way.

There is always element of uncertainty in that. I always tell client not everything we try is going to work. We won’t know what works until we try it. Any marketer who says she does is not telling the truth. You can do all the research possible – from focus groups to surveys – and there is still no predicting the outcome.

As an aside don’t confuse that with measuring return on investment. ROI is measurable. That measurement takes place on what does work.

So if a CEO or CMO is told that the marketing effort is going to more jazz than symphony, they get nervous. It is way outside any envelope in which they operate. Someone needs to take them to a jazz club.

Why it is every time I turn on the television or listen to the radio, some company is trying to scare me into buying their product? Instead of touting the benefits of their offering, they tell me I will be facing dire consequences if I don’t purchase what they’re selling.

Now, I don’t watch a lot of television, but there are some shows I like. I am excluding watching sports. That’s a whole another issue. As a loyal Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees and Green Bay Packer fan, I try to watch as many of their games as possible.

Of course, watching television means accepting the advertising that comes with it. I don’t have a problem with that. It is how the broadcast networks can afford to provide those shows. I love PBS, but I am not naïve enough to think every network could hold pledge drives to keep themselves on the air.

What I don’t like are ads such as the one General Motors runs for its OnStar® system. Briefly, OnStar® is an “in-vehicle security, communications, and diagnostics system” GM puts in more than 50 of its models. It notifies an operator when there has been accident. It can also be used to track and shut down a stolen car and be used for diagnostic purposes.

In the television commercials, former NFL player Howie Long shows a “skeptical” customer how only OnStar® will help him in the event of an accident. The radio commercials are lot more graphic. The commercials play out scenarios where someone has been in accident and because of OnStar®, they are saved. Or a stolen car is found because of OnStar®.

H & R Block, the tax preparers, did something similar during tax season. At least one commercial talked about how there were something like over 1,000 changes made to the U.S. Tax Code. The narrator said how people should have H & R Block prepare their returns because of those changes. It intimated if you didn’t go there, you would be in trouble.

To deal with the last example first, there might have been over 1,000 changes to the tax code. But, I am willing to bet most of them were not to the personal income tax section of the code. What most people don’t realize is lot of laws are changed every year for many reasons, often very minor ones such as misplaced period or a word out of place.

Why should creating even more anxiety over something that has sweating already be a marketing technique?

As for GM, to me those ads are almost disingenuous. Yes, it is true OnStar® would help you. But, so would a lot of other new cars’ systems. Almost every car built today has Blue Tooth capability. Ford, for instance, has a hands free system in its cars. I was in a Lexus the other day that had the same thing. The systems allow a cell phone to be locked in to a cradle, so it would not go flying in an accident. A call could be made after an accident.

However, I have yet to see either Ford or Toyota, or other car companies, talk about how you need that Blue Tooth system in case of accident.

Plus, I am not sure I want people to be able to find me when I am in my car. Maybe I have read George Orwell’s “1984” one too many times, but I don’t like the idea of someone else being able to track my car. I don’t want someone else, no matter how benevolent they are now, to have the power to stop my car.

Frankly, in both cases here, and all of the other companies that do the same thing, I would rather hear about the product’s features and cost. I don’t want to think I end facing prison for tax evasion, or left to die an accident. That is just not the way I want to be approached.

I would like to thank the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater Public Relations Student Society of America for inviting me to speak April 24^th. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. There were a lot of very bright students from UW-Whitewater, UW-Lacrosse, UW-Stephens Point and UW-Oshkosh at the PRSSA regional meeting. Thanks again.



Last Wednesday, I said Toyota was slow out of the blocks to respond to the various crises it has faced of late. I think I was blogger 10,143 to state the obvious. However, I also said the company is showing signs of regaining its equilibrium.

Note: I drive a 2000 Camry. Both my children drive Corollas.

The company is running ads in every print and broadcast outlet it can find – including a lot of radio. It has shown pictures of its idled factories to demonstrate how serious it is in identifying the accelerator and brake issues. It also has a very active presence on Facebook.

Still while this is a good start, I think the company could do more. I think they if they handled it as I suggest, they would turn a negative into a positive.

Do What Datsun Did

The first thing Toyota’s C-Suite executives should do is plan road trips to every dealer in every country where Toyota is sold. The road trippers should be Chairman Fujio Cho, Vice Chairmen of the Board Katsuaki Watanabe and Kazuo Okamo, President Akio Toyoda, and in North America, Jim Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales, USA. If there are people who hold the same positions as Lenz in Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East and Africa, they should also pack their bags.

They need to take a page from the handbook of retired Nissan executive Yutaka Katayama.  It was Katayama who made Datsun (which later returned to its original name of Nissan) into the first Japanese automobile success story in the United States, according to the late journalist and author David Halberstam. It was Halberstam who detailed Datsun’s success in “The Reckoning” – his account of the rise the Japanese auto industry.

Katayama lived in the United States. He traveled constantly around the U.S., meeting, customers, dealers, reporters and anyone else who talk to him. Halberstam explained that Katayama made Datsun a powerhouse because “he (Katayama) was a rare man. He brought a face to the Japanese mercantile presence; meeting him, Americans felt they knew, understood and liked the Japan that was behind his products.”

This is what Toyota’s executives should be doing. Going to every place in the world where there have been problems. Once there, they should personally apologize to their customers. They should be interviewed by the media in each city and repeat the apology. They should honestly answer the tough questions about what they knew and when they knew it. They should be speaking to every group that will listen. There should be town hall style meetings at dealerships for the customers and the general public to air grievances.

These public appearances will, in my opinion, do much to quell the anger and rebuild trust. Most people are willing to forgive a mistake, as long the one who makes the mistake sincerely apologizes.

Cut Prices

Second, a simple thing to do would to be slash prices on all models. Not a token five percent cut – a real one in the neighborhood of 25 percent. For those who have a car with a defective accelerator or brakes, give them a new car. I would throw into five years free maintenance for every car sold. Not just for oil changes and other minor things, but for all repairs from replacing a headlamp to replacing a transmission.

More Social Media

Third, I would make better use of social media than they are. Both Cho and Lenz should be blogging every week. Craig Newmark – the Craig of Craig’s List does, as does Jonathan Swartz, president and chief operating officer of Sun Microsystems and my personal favorite CEO blog, that of Southwest Airlines Gary Kelly. It has helped all three companies when they have hit rough patches. Explanations sound so much better when they come from the person in charge.

Finally, there are many, many people out there who are still strong Toyota supporters. Anecdotally, I know that because as Chester the Wonder Dog and I walk each day, I talk to Toyota owners. I have yet to find one who would get rid of their car.

I have also been on the Toyota Facebook page for U.S. owners. The level of support is amazing. Toyota needs to get those people more organized around company support. Most kind of companies would kill for that kind of support.

Put this all together and I think Toyota will be just fine.