“How are you marketing yourself?” This is a question that one my marketing professors asked our class about ½ way through our senior year. You might imagine our ‘deer in the headlight” response to this inquiry since most of the semester had been spent on a massive promotional project to increase the interaction of the student body with our surrounding city. We were neck deep in planning a bar crawl, designing T-shirts, and brainstorming promotional slogans, so this question about how we were approaching our personal brands seemed a bit poorly timed. However, with only a few months left in our college careers, it was better late than never. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘image’
Fire-Proof Your Reputation
Monday, February 7th, 2011
When I purchased a house, the insurance company made sure that I installed smoke detectors and bought a small fire extinguisher for the kitchen. So far, knock on wood, these minor investments have never been tested – other than by an occasional burnt piece of toast.
Still, everyone recognizes that these are sensible precautions. In the same way, you should be doing a few small things to ensure that your reputation is protected from disaster, such as an employee incident, product problem or some other unforseen event. Here are some tactics that will help keep your reputation from burning down: (more…)
The Power of Networking – Kate’s Story
Friday, January 8th, 2010
I’ve been at Broadreach PR for a year now and one of the first things I learned was that the power of networking is not just for professionals, but is also extremely valuable for college students and recent grads out there on the job hunt. (more…)
Is That Really What You Meant?
Friday, October 16th, 2009
On the way home from the fair the other day, I noticed a marquee sign in a small community proclaiming “Best Thai Food in Town!”
Now, I like Thai food, and this place might be wonderful. But instead of convincing me that I should stop by, the sign made me wonder: Can there be more than one Thai place in town? Is this the best claim to fame that the owner can come up with, even if there is a second Thai place?
We stopped somewhere else.
I’m not trying to pick on this harried restaurateur. In fact, the experience was one of several I had last week that got me to thinking about the unintended consequences that marketing choices can create in the mind of a potential customer.
If you shoot too low with your superlative, the claim will make the shopper wonder whether there is much of an attraction there. If you overstate your case and claim to the best Thai food in the world, for example, you also are likely to turn them off with a “yeah, right” response. (more…)
Shark Vision Can Bite Your PR Effort
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Organizations sometimes behave like sharks when it comes to getting their message out: They do a great job of looking ahead to the next big project, but never back at their existing materials.
Do you have shark vision?
This problem has been on my mind recently because I keep seeing otherwise well-run organizations relying on inaccurate websites, brochures and collateral material to tell their stories. Facts change, but these once-perfect marketing vehicles do not. No longer does the company have 47 stores, or achieve a 15 percent recycling rate, or sell XYZ product.
Can GM Perform Public Relations Jujitsu?
Friday, July 10th, 2009
The other day, I told somebody that a particular company was small, “no General Motors.”
Now, I realized right away that this phrase has kind of lost its punch, and I switched it over to Wal-Mart, the biggest corporation in the world. General Motors, of course, is just a shadow of its once world-dominating self.
But GM is trying to rebuild. Just this morning, the corporation crawled out of bankruptcy court from the financial wreckage and debt that this once-great company had become.
Branding: Search for the Essential
Friday, June 19th, 2009
In junior high, we did science experiments that distilled one liquid from another, leaving us with highly concentrated substances that we’d weigh and measure and use for other experiments.
Branding is a lot like that. It requires you to break down something – a product, business, political candidate – to its essence.
We’ve been doing a lot of that lately, working to create positioning statements and brand books that capture the most-important aspects of our clients’ operations, starting with 25- and 50-word statements and a tagline.
