Hispanic Marketing and PR: It's Time to Challenge the Cookie-Cutter Approach
Effective Communications from East to West
Web 2.0: New Communication on the WWW?
Trust is good — control is better — open communication the best way of all for winning back trust!
Crisis Fundamentals ... Never Before So Fundamental
Sustainability as a China Business Strategy
PR in Hong Kong: The Way Forward
Public Relations with Chinese Characteristics: Thoughts about the PR industry in China
The Old Rules Still Apply in Crises
News Sources: Who Do You Trust?
The Next 50 Years of Public Relations
Managing Crises with Links and Pings: How Social Media Tools Can Help
Brand Communication Strengthens Brand Value
Going Global - Asia shows potential for global accounts
Big Brother Begins Branding - Asian governments embark on branding initiatives
Representaton of Women in Corporate Leadership
Superstars: Not necessarily the Solution
Ethics Imperative to Government Relations Success in Our Capitals
The Future of Employee Communications
The Elements of Earmarking: An art or a science?
Hispanic Marketing and PR: It's Time to Challenge the
Cookie-Cutter Approach
By Zandra Zuno
zzuno@golinharris.com
Every business has to consider the impact and opportunity of the rapidly expanding Hispanic population. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2050 one in every four Americans will be of Hispanic ancestry. Hispanics represent both the fastest-growing and largest minority group in the U.S. with an annual buying power of $870 billion—about nine percent of the total current U.S. purchasing power. There is no question that this is an influential market.
The rapid growth and acculturation of Hispanics in the U.S. demands targeted marketing communications programs. The availability of Latin America brands in the U.S. and newly developed "Hispanic brands," coupled with long-standing American brands, offer a broad range of choices for the Hispanic consumer. With more choices than the general market, building brand loyalty among Hispanics is paramount, and public relations becomes a key tool in driving brand preference among these consumers.
Today's Hispanic market is more complex than ever before. Hispanic PR programs deserve a smarter, more comprehensive approach to reaching this critically important audience that goes beyond cookie-cutter tactics. Do PR professionals know what they need to do to effectively communicate and connect with this vibrant group? Let me offer some initial suggestions:
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Effective Communications from East to West
By Sharon Sim-Krause
ssimkrause@golinharris.com
Excitement builds as the world counts down to the Beijing Olympics, now just little more than a month away. More and more US companies are expanding and venturing into China and the greater Asia-Pacific region; Asian companies are also coming here. Where companies go, PR follows.
Business success in any market is built on effective communications. How? By adapting the conventional approach and embracing a global, yet local mindset. Of course, significant variations are found between US and Asian PR tactics. Here are three considerations for practicing PR in the US or Asia:
- Understand cultural differences. Effective communications begins when you have a sense of how business is practiced in each country. Have an open mind and be aware of those differences. Understanding the economic, political, and social environment of the other country will equip you not just for those witty water-cooler chats, but it will also strengthen your local interactions and media relations outreach.
- The media holds the key here and over there. The media is no doubt vital to building a company's image and visibility. You must understand how to approach foreign media and target their interests.
For example, media phone interviews work in the US, but are rarely practiced in other countries. On the other hand, press conferences are an effective PR tool in Asia, but not as embraced by US reporters, who prefer one-to-one briefings, fresh news hooks, and generally don't accept invitations for sponsored trips. Some Asian media, on the contrary, welcome sponsored trips. In fact, some Chinese media expect "travel allowances" when attending press events hosted by companies.
- Localization is essential. When most people think of Asia, they think of countries like China, Japan, and India. But with more than 37 countries - home to nearly 4 billion people - localization is key. The US, with a population of 380 million, reflects distinct cultural differences from state to state, city to city.
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Web 2.0: New Communication on the WWW?
By Jan-Hendrik Eickmeier
eickmeier@golinharris.de
An up-to-date and informative website has long been a standard feature of a company's external communications. What is often neglected, alongside optical aspects such as consistent implementation of the corporate design and high usability, is integration into the overall communicative concept. Yet on the Internet too, it is precisely the combination of wide-ranging services and a target-oriented preparation that is so crucial. Under the heading of Web
2.0, the demand for communication with Internet users is becoming more prominent. User-generated content, blogs or viral campaigns steer the users' gaze towards new opportunities on the WWW.
Innovative is Not Necessarily Useful
However, a large number of these "new" means of communication should be selected, developed and applied with great care and with a view to customer and user structure. Here it is of prime importance that customer affinity to such tools should either be present or capable of being stimulated.
Blogs as an example: disillusionment is setting in increasingly here. Companies do in fact have to carry out regular maintenance in order to establish a serious dialogue with users. As with many PR concepts, they only function via the factor of continuity and interest. Those who have nothing to report will gain little credit with their own blogs and are unlikely to establish a genuine dialogue with users.
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Trust is Good — Control is Better — Open Communication
The Best Way of All for Winning Back Trust!
Managers and Banks in Discredit — Lost Trust
Can Not be Re-established Automatically or by Laws
By Jürgen Parr
parr@golinharris.de
No day passes without a new case of a bank losing billions or of a board member from a large corporation coming under suspicion of tax evasion. All of this continues to erode the population's trust in managers and banks. The current list stretches from Klaus Zumwinkel, takes in Jérome Kerviel (Société Générale), IKB, Bayern LB, West LB, Sachsen LB — and could go on. The Who's Who of leading managers and most prominent players in the financial market has managed to ensure that the public at large has lost any trust whatsoever in our financial system and its leading figures. It is therefore no surprise that generalizations abound and it is becoming virtually impossible to make a discriminating consideration. What can companies, banks and managers do "to combat this" or to help people view this image in a different light?
Increase transparency
Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück spelled out the communicative line of approach at the New Year's reception of Deutsche Börse on 28 January. The most important commandment for the banks at the moment, he claimed, was to sort things out quickly and "to do so without any long delay." Those who only reveal their information little by little were not only provoking punishment by the market, but damage for the entire financial sector, he went on, adding: in view of the current crisis of trust in the banking sector and in the financial markets, there was a need to increase transparency. Steinbrück demanded improvements in banks' internal risk management. Germany will also be campaigning for more transparency on the international level.
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Crisis Fundamentals ... Never Before So Fundamental
By John Morgan, Regional Managing Director
Greater China, Golin Harris
It has been a very interesting past several months for the GolinHarris in Asia Pacific. In addition to the diverse bodies of work featured in Breakthrough, we managed a half-dozen or more projects we'll never be able to discuss outside the sanctity of our client relationships.
Here's a sample of the kind of calls a public relations firm sometimes receives:
- A manufacturer is wrongfully accused of product defects by a very tiny NGO with abundant access to new media.
- A manufacturer needs to recall a product line due to a freak defect it never could have anticipated in which the item proves to be flammable in direct, intense sunlight.
- A transportation company experiences the death of an employee and the injury of a customer—in two different Asian geographies on the same day.
- A well-known F&B chain is taken to court by a customer who claims to have ingested a foreign object at one of the company's locations.
- A company fails to deliver on a customer promise, fails in its honest attempt to correct it and then wakes up to find the details of the episode in the paper the next day.
You probably already have a headache just reading about these unfortunate events. The good news, though, is that in all five scenarios, GH has seen clients live to do another day of business. When I look back on why these potentially catastrophic episodes did not explode, the answer is very clear: Every GH client had a healthy respect for the fundamentals of crisis management and the courage to act swiftly and responsibly.
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Sustainability as a China business strategy
By Brad Burgess, Consultant
Golin Harris, Beijing
Sustainability as a concept has been around for quite some time. In 1987, the United Nation's Brundtland Commission created a report with the intention of distributing resources and equity around the world. "Sustainable development," a key term coined by the group over two decades ago, has since grown to become a household term almost akin in popularity (or notoriety) to the "rise of China."
Indeed, one cannot open a newspaper or Web page now without seeing the announcement of an organization "greening" itself or demonstrating its commitment to sustainable practices. "Moving Consumers from Green Interest to Green Action," a recent study conducted by Insight Research Group, reports that 81% of respondents maintain the current focus on environmental or "green" issues is "here to stay" rather than a "passing fad," and 78% of respondents said they are "willing to make a lifestyle change for the good of the environment."
The popular consensus, with only a few dissenting opinions, is that incorporating sustainable practices into your business is not only a good way to earn respect with your stakeholders but also delivers concrete returns on investment. Having swept the Western world, sustainability is now nearly an equally important force driving business and political decisions in China.
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PR in Hong Kong: The Way Forward
By John Morgan, Regional Managing Director
Greater China, Golin Harris
Public Relations has clearly changed and prospered in many ways over the past 12 months in Hong Kong. The industry is more aggressive than ever before as agencies jostle to support the thriving HKSAR economy, which naturally feeds into China and all other parts of Asia. It's no longer a matter of survival for agencies; it's a matter of securing the right clients who truly understand how communications can drive their business strategies. Then, it's up to us to design and execute strategies that deliver, regardless of approach or the traditional boundaries of PR.
Many businesses remain cost-conscious years after SARS, 9-11, economic deflation and a new chief executive supported by a new, more progressive administration. Business leaders with vision understand the need to invest in communications-uniting it in meaningful ways beyond products to more far-reaching commitments such as sustainability, CSR and issues management-and then put in place strong advocates at the board level to ensure follow-through.
The key to success is simple: Don't limit yourself. Hong Kong has always been a place where people work tirelessly to succeed and entrepreneurs thrive. PR practitioners must have the chutzpah to keep pace. For instance, pharmaceuticals are thriving, but the regulatory environment is and always will be strict. How do we work around that? How do we stay within the bounds of the regulations but still employ enough creativity to catch the attention of consumers?
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Public Relations with Chinese Characteristics: Thoughts about the PR industry in China
By Nikki Lin, Director, Beijing
nlin@golinharris.com
Brad Burgess, Consultant, Beijing
bburgess@golinharris.com
When flipping through the pages of a European or North American newspaper, it is more than likely the reader will come across an article related to China. Mandarin Chinese is quickly being added to school curricula in the West as students and parents identify it as a key second language. The world is watching China and cares very much about what kind of country it is becoming as it takes a more prominent position on the world stage.
The public relations industry in China is in a similar position. Like China, the industry is growing at a very impressive rate. According to a recent survey conducted by the China International Public Relations Association, the public relations industry had grown by approximately 33 percent in 2006 compared to a year prior (2006 Report of the China Public Relations Industry).
In 2005, an article in PRWeek (UK) titled "News analysis: China's PR leap is brought to earth," claimed that 7,000 new staff would be needed in 2007 to work in the PR industry, and 9,500 in 2008.
What does all this excitement mean? It means that just like China's economy, the PR industry's rapid growth presents many opportunities-and many exciting changes.
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The Old Rules Still Apply in Crises
By Jean Gonsoulin, Senior Vice President, Los Angeles
jgonsoulin@golinharris.com
Those of us in the baby boomer generation, and perhaps those who followed, remember the cautionary rule for traffic safety we learned in school: "Stop, look and listen, before you cross the street." The same basic concept can apply to managing crises or volatile issues. When companies find themselves under attack, they often scramble to do damage control without really addressing the underlying problem. Instead, they need to do the things that fall naturally under the simple mantra of "Stop, Look and Listen" in order to truly resolve the issue and preserve the company's reputation.
Stop...doing what you're doing. Whether it's bad business practices that have now come back to bite you, or personal missteps that reflect poorly on the company, the only way you truly fix the problem is to stop doing it. Obviously the rule does not apply to crises that are beyond your control, but in those instances, the public is much more forgiving.
Remember, the true measure of a company's reputation is how it behaves when others aren't looking; so if you do things that are ethically or morally inappropriate, providing "key messages" will get you nowhere if fundamental change is not made.
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News Sources: Who Do You Trust?
By Jeff Beringer, Vice President, Dialogue
jberinger@golinharris.com
As we look forward to the next 50 years of communication, many in our industry are trying to predict which channels and information sources audiences may trust most in the years ahead.
Will mainstream media be obliterated by "citizen journalists" who self publish their thoughts on a whim -- and who don't always subscribe to conventions of journalistic integrity such as rigorous fact-checking and multiple sources commonplace in mainstream media?
And will online/digital sources of information replace the stalwarts of the media world today? Or will the biggest names in news simply keep evolving their product offerings into new formats?
The answer is probably somewhere in between.
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The Next 50 Years of Public Relations
By Fred Cook, President & CEO, GolinHarris
fcook@golinharris.com
As GolinHarris celebrates its 50th anniversary, we decided to look into the future. To better understand the issues facing our company and our clients it was best to look at the next 50 years.
We conducted extensive research and identified a few trends that we feel will have a major impact on society, consumers and companies. Here is our take on a few of them.
GLOBALIZATION
Globalization, the first of these trends, is at the center of this changing world. All businesses are dealing with the reality that the universe is shrinking. Brands are universal. Time zones are meaningless. Go global or go home!
As companies look to compete globally, outsourcing will become common practice in the coming years. According to Forrester Research, at least 3.3 million white-collar jobs and $136 billion in wages will shift from the U.S. to low-cost countries like India, China and Russia by 2015. Many of these will be white-collar jobs. In fact, some insurance companies are already sending heart patients to India for less expensive surgery. As every major company expands into Shanghai, Mumbai and Warsaw, the PR industry is customizing communications tools for those markets. But the global marketplace is complex.
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Managing Crises with Links and Pings: How Social Media Tools Can Help
By Idil Cakim, Vice President, Dialogue
icakim@golinharris.com
The emergence or blogs, wikis and social networking sites has pushed many communication professionals to the defense lines. Thinking of negative or misinformed comments posted in public forums, many associate social media with potential liability.
Yet, the same technologies that allow Internet users to post and circulate information in the blink of an eye can be used to communicate proactively during crises - when companies need to provide fast, accurate and candid information to their stakeholders.
Authenticity is the essence of social media. Using social networks to spread messages to consumers can give organizations the sincere, human voice they need to maintain trust and rebuild connections. An example of this novel approach recently came from JetBlue. When the airline's passengers were stuck for hours in aircrafts after a winter storm, the airline founder and CEO, David Neeleman, stepped up and apologized to his customers. JetBlue partnered with the user-generated video site YouTube to distribute the CEO's message to the airline's prospect, current and future customers. The video "Our Promise to You" was viewed over 275,000 times in a month. Close to 500 people left comments, many passed Neeleman's message to friends and family. The video appears among the top 25 findings on Google when searching under "jet blue," increasing the visibility of the company's response.
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Brand Communication Strengthens Brand Value
By Christian Fuchs, Director, Frankfurt
cfuchs@golinharris.com
More and more companies want to distinguish themselves as a brand. But how do they communicate this general orientation? Many of these companies acknowledge, with a view to potential clients, the importance and necessity of appropriate usage of communication tools. They therefore specifically invest in Corporate Identity, PR and/or advertisement.
However, to what extent brand communication is able to influence the value of a company is often disregarded. At this, many other target audiences must be factored in - staff, media, opinion leaders, associations, action groups and all that make investment decisions.
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Going Global - Asia shows potential for global accounts
By Nicolaus Wilk, Assistant Account Manager, Taiwan
nwilk@golinharris.com
In search of the next big trend and potential pivotal market, marketers need to keep an eye firmly fixed on Asia. As governments across the region place an increasing emphasis on building brands, more and more companies are running global accounts from the area, creating great opportunity for marketing services.
Asia has a unique mix of political systems and economies; religions and cultures; and companies and industries. This mix and match creates a necessity to adapt, resulting in widespread innovation across the region, and bringing with it a prominent role in industrial manufacturing.
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Big Brother Begins Branding - Asian governments embark on branding initiatives
By Stanley Liu, General Manager, Taiwan
sliu@golinharris.com
Asia has long been the destination many of the largest Western companies have turned to for production outsourcing. Lower manufacturing costs and companies eager for business readily produced products for big name Western brands.
However, as costs have risen and margins drop, and as outsourcing has shifted from one low-cost nation to the next, branding has come to be seen as a necessity in the new economy in Asia. As governments across Asia realize the value in branding, and the power of brand value, they are increasingly taking a more prominent role in developing domestic brands.
Several Asian countries have implemented "branding" initiatives; government programs designed to spur domestic companies in developing their own brands. GolinHarris, along with IPG sister company FutureBrand, conducted an internal study to further mark the rise in branding.
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Representation of Women in Corporate Leadership
By Dr. Chitra Rajaram
Managing Director, GolinHarris in Singapore
crajaram@golinharris.com
For all the progress made by women around the world, it almost always appears to be three steps forward and four steps back.
Take the role of women in corporate leadership. At first glance, there appears to be more women in such roles these days. But is it only because these few women are so high-profile that it appears as if there are more women in leadership roles than there actually are?
Statistically, things could not be better for women. In places like Scandinavia and Britain, a third or more corporate managers are female. In Japan, 26 female parliamentarians were voted into office in 2005. More recently, Ms. Angela Merkel was appointed as Germany's first female chancellor, the countries' highest office. But what do these numbers really mean? After all, there are only 17 female executive directors in companies listed in the FTSE 100 index.
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Superstars: Not Necessarily the Solution
By John Morgan
Managing Director, GolinHarris in Hong Kong
So, you've gone through all the strategy sessions, and like it or not, you realize you need a celebrity to help Client A make some waves to build their brand - particularly since Client A is a multinational with no real advertising budget and little resources on the ground in your pocket of Asia Pacific.
I'm not going to debate the use of celebrities in consumer PR. We all know it works well in some cases and not so well in others. Let's focus instead on the challenges many of us face today when the decision is made to use celebrities: limited budgets and the resulting need to be extremely practical yet creative in which celebrity we choose to endorse products; and then how we use said celebrity.
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Ethics Imperative to Government Relations Success in Our Capitals
By Michael Fulton
Executive Vice President, Washington, D.C.
mfulton@golinharris.com
There can be absolutely no compromise on ethics – you are either ethical or you are not. Ethics is a requirement for earning trust and at GolinHarris trust is more than a tagline, we live it everyday – especially in Washington, DC.
Recent scandals have rocked the nation's capital with unthinkable acts of bribery, forgery, deceit, mail fraud, over-billing and improper use of e-mail technology. Those on trial, convicted or charged with this conduct are surprisingly Members of Congress, their staff, lobbyists and defense contractors.
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The Future of Employee Communications
By S. Keith Burton
President, Insidedge
kburton@golinharris.com
Through 14 years of leading specialized teams in employee communications, change has been the watchword. Corporate re-engineering, cultural transformation efforts, waves of mergers and acquisitions, economic growth and decline, the introduction of new technologies, periods of recession and inactivity, layoffs and downsizing, labor relations campaigns, the globalization of business—all have dramatically influenced employee communications around the world.
Gone long ago are the days when employee communications practitioners were relegated to designing newsletter mastheads or video presentations. Our work is centered on providing strategic counsel in support of overarching business plans; creating information and tools to help align employee populations with business objectives; translating complex structural and organizational models so that front-line employees can deliver expected behaviors; and designing communications training programs to better engage employees in a client's business.
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The Elements of Earmarking: An art or a science?
By Michael Fulton
Executive Vice President, Washington, D.C.
mfulton@golinharris.com
Non-profit organizations, college and university administrators, and hospital executives across America are cataloging facility, equipment and research needs to present to their Congressional delegations for consideration of federal appropriations support. Some do it very well, and others stumble over the process and timing, which are designed to weed people and projects out of contention.
The process changes with new leadership in the White House and Congress, the economic situation, Congressional staff changes, the attitudes of agency heads, and the types of projects being requested. This year will be no different. As the deadline for Congressional scrutiny of federal proposals looms for the next cycle, let's look at what works.
Timing, Timing, Timing
The numbers of appropriations projects of all kinds continue to grow each year, so the Appropriations Committee staff set deadlines between mid-March and mid-April each year for the receipt of letters requesting funding from your Congressional representative. Missing this deadline and not following the often last-minute Subcommittee and Full Committee mark-up sessions as well as House, Senate and Conference Committee consideration can spell doom for your institution's project.
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