PeppercomBlog

Welcome to the Reason Enough Archive

Hi Visitors,

We have enjoyed publishing here on Reason Enough over the past few years. While this blog is no longer active, we are leaving the archive up, in case you find something helpful to you from our prior writing. In the meantime, we invite you to visit Peppercom's other blogs: RepMan, The Stand Up Executive, PepperDigital, About You, and PRiscope.

What the Oil Spill Really Means for PR

Posted by Matt Purdue

Too much has already been written and said about BP CEO Tony Hayward’s numerous PR gaffes since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20. But far be it from me not to pile on. These are actual quotes from Hayward: 

“What the hell did we do to deserve this?”

"I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest.”

“The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”

“I would like my life back.”

The “Don’t Know” Price Tag

Posted by Milos Sugovic

It’s no secret: A clear company vision, efficient allocation of marketing dollars, and the use of digital media to support sales will accelerate the return on a marketing or PR initiative. Yet only 12% of surveyed firms are adept at all three. 

Peppercom conducted a survey of 104 c-suite executives at small- and mid-size firms. The findings reveal that companies across various sectors do not have their act together. Almost half (48%) of the firms have no clear digital media strategy, absolutely no idea where and how their marketing dollars are being spent, and no agreement over the company vision at the executive level. As our findings show, the know-nothing approach comes with a high price tag of missed market opportunities, limited exposure to the target audiences, and foregone sales.

My Big, Fat, Greek Collapse. Who’s Next?

Posted by Matt Purdue

What a difference six years makes. In the summer of 2004, Greece was preparing to host the Olympic Games. By many accounts, the games were a great success. But now, less than a decade later, Greece stands on the brink of economic collapse. I wonder if the Greeks would like to have back the 7 billion Euros they spent to stage the games.

Alex Monro at Risk.net writes the best analysis I’ve seen yet of the Greek crisis, and what it could mean for the world economy. 

As Jerry Seinfeld might opine, “So, what’s with Greece?” Essentially, most of Europe owes money to itself. Many countries are indebted to each other. Greece has taken on more debt than most, and can’t keep up its debt payments. The NY Times has an excellent graphic illustrating this tragic co-dependency.

F@#king in Paris

Posted by Matt Purdue

Your client comes to you with a great new project: launch a huge PR campaign around their new line of trucker hats. This is a five-figure deal, and sounds like great fun. There’s only one catch: the hats are emblazoned with the word F@#K.

Far fetched? Not in Paris, mes amis. I just returned from a week’s vacation in the French capital, the birthplace of the Age of Enlightenment. Amid the statues of Rousseau and Verlaine, the F-bomb seems to the plat du jour of young Parisians. I noticed no fewer than three young French people strolling down the boulevards of Paris with F@#K boldly emblazoned on either a trucker hat or t-shirt. 

Does it ring a bell?

Posted by Milos Sugovic

2009 is long gone and the results of your Q4 PR efforts are finally in. Let’s say you had 100 media placements during this time period and you want to know how you did. Before you even read the executive summary of the PR measurement report, what can you expect? The good, the bad, or the mediocre? 

The correct answer is: all of the above. 

But many of us fall in this trap where our expectations are shaped by extreme events: “We had a great hit in the NYT this quarter. That means we did great!” or “The WSJ article ripped us apart, we are dreading the report findings.” We tend to focus too much on one or two good or bad eggs out of a whole basket, and wrongfully so. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s important to identify and be mindful of the outliers, but if you’re measuring the overall success of a PR initiative, it’s the central tendency of the effort that really matters.

To illustrate, let’s go back to my initial question: If you had 100 media mentions in Q4 of 2009, what should your expectation be? I can bet you that, on average, you’ll see the following: 16 poor hits, 68 mediocre hits, and 16 exceptional hits.  How do I know this? It’s not magic; it’s called the normal distribution.

The Bankers Still Don’t Get It

Posted by Matt Purdue

You know the whining must be loud when you can hear it all the way from Switzerland. The world’s banking titans are once again assembled in Davos for their annual confab. Amid all the confusion about how the global banking system may look in the future, one thing is painfully clear: the big banks still don’t get it when it comes to PR.

Financial giants are complaining that government leaders are threatening to place tighter restrictions on the way they do business. However, at least in the U.S., only a small portion of citizens surveyed in a recent Rasmussem poll opposes such measures. For example, only 29% of respondents are against limits on the type of investments banks can make.

But the bankers quoted in this Financial Times article just don’t understand the power of public opinion. Politicians read polls religiously, and they are feeding off the disgust Main Street currently has for Wall Street, the City, etc.