Shape of Things

We see them and marginalize them: Those street vendors offering phone cards, knock-offs and overtly fake fashion accessories.  But, as Robert Neuwirth points out in an interview in this month’s issue of Wired magazine, these unregulated economies have a collective GDP of $10 trillion a year.

It got me to thinking about how most high-tech companies do marketing and PR: It’s almost always about people coming to them, not the other way around.  And, it often involves the grand gesture.  The big advertising and PR campaign. 

What if, like street vendors, we went to the places people hang out.  No, not the big trade shows, but to home-town markets around the globe, inviting people to see our wares and spend some time with us.

OK, I know what you’re thinking: big bucks.  But it doesn’t have to be.  It can be one man or woman and a laptop (or whatever other equipment your technology requires) on a tour of underserved, but significant markets.

This isn’t about the New Yorks, San Franciscos, LAs, Londons, Parises, Hong Kongs and Berlins of the world — those cities are already served by major conferences and waves of sales troops.  It’s about having feet on the street in cities that don’t get a lot of high-tech suitors.

In the U.S., that could include places like Boise, Idaho; Wichita, Kansas; Durham, North Carolina; Houston, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; and others a bit off the usual high-tech conference circuit.

Recruit locals from your customer base, find out the cool places where customers and potential customers hang out, book the hottest local band or DJ and have a workshop followed by a party.  Give out swag. Buy beer. Make friends. Be personable.  Generate fun. Tweet and facebook about it.

People will love the fact that you came to them and delivered an experience that reflects their needs and culture.  And, it sets up a foundation for that most important business-builder: a relationship.

While not everyone appreciates a Gucci knock-off, most people will approve of a company that brings a good product and a good time to their fair city.

You might have thought that the pressure to say the right thing, wear the right thing, do the right thing, left you in high school, but you’re likely wrong.

Studies cited in yesterday’s New York Times magazine (”Nudge the Vote” by Sasha Issenberg) show that peer pressure is the biggest single generator of higher voter turnout.  The article also punctures the myths of celebrity endorsements, four-color glossy mailings and robo calls (or almost any call for that matter).

Leave fingerprints behind

The findings are interesting for all marketers.  How can we use subtle (or maybe not so subtle) peer pressure to help sell products? Beauty and exercise products have used this forever, of course, but couldn’t it be applied to technology or informational products?

A finding that I found aligns closely with the sensibilities of engineers and other buyers of technology is that voters don’t want marketing dazzle, according to political consultant Hal Malchow.  His primary findings:

• E-mail and text messages from unexciting senders (such as “Election Center”) often do better than those with livelier “from” lines.
• Voters pay less attention to glossy four-color brochures than they do to spare envelopes containing simple letters like ones received from government officials.

“People want information, they don’t want advertising,” Malchow says. “When they see our fingerprints on this stuff, they believe it less.”

Voters are a lot like your audience

Other interesting snippets from the article:

• People are more likely to perform an action if they have already visualized doing it.
• In-person canvassing outperformed all other voter promotions by a wide margin.
• The most effective way to find what works is testing different messages with small samples and then sending the most influential ones to a much larger target audience.

If you think of the audience for your products — especially if you are in high-technology — chances are they are a close fit with voters: skeptical, disillusioned with marketing, and not convinced by displays of force or flash.

Conformity is a bit like heroin: comforting, but extremely addictive.

If your company or clients value conformity over creative, it’s your role to try to break the chain of addiction.  Then again, maybe you are the pusher.

About a decade ago, an innovative 3D graphics company I was working with was sold to a major computer company.  I was entrusted with preparing a brochure and poster that conveyed the excitement of a new product. It shouldn’t have been hard: the images generated by this computer were stunning, and its capabilities singular.

The challenge was overcoming the rigid standards of the parent company: Use one of two typeface choices and one of a few design templates. Exact color and positioning for the logo. Reference the company name in the exact same way all the time.

The pieces ended up looking and sounding fine, but they took three times as long to produce and involved four times as many people as they should have. And, they could have been much better. I vowed never to do a project for a company like that again; I’m glad to say I’ve stuck to that vow.

About five years later, what a relief it was to see Google snub conformity. Silly company name. Logo that it changed daily and had fun with — in fact, playing with the company logo became part of Google’s corporate identity and a subject of discussion.

Think about things you do to conform to some rules that were written years ago and might not be relevant, or are actually dragging down your corporate image. Like that boring standard paragraph at the end of your press releases.  Or the corporate-speak that saturates your marketing materials. Or those quotes from the CEO that sound like they came from an automaton. Or using trademarks when they aren’t needed. Or the staid design of your web site.

Conformity sends a message: “We’re like all the rest and we don’t care if you think so.”  Is that the corporate message you want? If so, fine.  If not, time to get the conformity monkey off your back.

Sometimes the hardest thing is just getting started.  Objections are easy to come by, and big change seems insurmountable.

Maybe like the multiphobic Bob Wiley (Bill Murray) in the movie “What About Bob,” you should consider taking baby steps.  Here are five you can take to get involved with social media and lay the groundwork for establishing a community around your products and services.

1. Establish or participate in LinkedIn groups that share information about your industry. Initiate intelligent discussions and add constructive commentary on others’ discussion topics to solidify your credentials and expertise.  Provide special free offers that are valuable to group participants and provide an ancillary benefit of promoting your product or service. But, whatever you do, don’t pander.

2. Participate in forums.  Provide information and initiate discussion on topics related to your company’s products or services.

3. Get on twitter to monitor discussion about your company and the industry it serves, and to develop followers to whom you can provide information and perspectives.

4. Start a blog on your web site and contribute to it regularly — at least twice a month, but preferably once a week. If you don’t know how to do it, bring in a journalist to help you. Topics: technical information on your products or services, profiles of customers, industry perspectives or opinions, surveys, open-ended inquiries of readers, guest blogs by partners, video tutorials, research results — there are tons of resources within your company waiting to be harvested.

5. Take the information that you regularly use for press releases, case studies, white papers, and support documents and consolidate it into a permission-based e-newsletter.  Add surveys or forums to encourage interaction with readers. Six times a year is a good frequency. This will set up a direct link to your customers for sharing information and collecting feedback. Remember that the information has to be valuable to and welcomed by recipients.

These five steps will begin establishing a conversation with customers and potential customers, creating a sharing relationship rather than a vendor dictatorship. The ultimate goal is to begin establishing a community around your products and services — more on that soon.

I’m in ample, though fairly silent, company when I say that my greatest regrets have come from fear and complacency — the dual killers of ambition.

Afraid of appearing foolish, being ridiculed, called stupid or naive.  Then justifying my inaction and certifying it with complacency.

For everyone who feels this way about new forms of marketing, PR and communications, it’s not too late to catch up according to Seth Godin. My nomination for the best place to start is by reading Inbound Marketing, the new book by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. 

I’ve heard Dharmesh speak twice at the Business of Software conferences, and he walks the walk. I knew this book would be practical and well-written, but didn’t anticipate how inspiring it would be (although I’m not giving up my newspapers as the authors suggest).

I’ll spare you a full review, as I wouldn’t have much to add to the excellent one by Neil Davidson on the Business of Software blog.

If you are bound by fear or complacency regarding new forms of marketing, PR and communications, this is where you shrug off those shackles.

Ever hear of Bill Simmons? I hadn’t until last week when I saw that his The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy was number one on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller’s list. 

Simmons’ success in traditional publishing stems from his millions of followers on espn.com, where he made his name as The Sports Guy. The appeal is that he’s like any other sports fan, except perhaps a bit more obsessed and a better writer and self-marketer.

Simmons doesn’t write in-depth analysis, go on the road with a team, do psychological profiles, or any of the other things great sports writers have done in the past. He’s not a reporter; he’s a fan. He taps into the common obsessions of fans. Who’s the best basketball center, Wilt or Russell? What football player do you hate the most? He’s fueled by lists, emotions, biases and statistics– just like every other fan.

Like it or not, this is where communications is going — think of twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs.  The majority don’t want an authoritative voice; they want someone like them, or at least, someone like the best vision of themself.

What does this mean to the PR person, the marketer, the publisher, the corporate communicator?

It means you have to stop making proclamations from on high and communicate from the trenches.

You have to speak with your customer’s voice, in terms he or she can relate to.

You have to bring customers’ stories to the forefront of your communications.

You have to establish an ongoing dialog with customers and help make them part of a community.

You have to forego marketing generalities and get into the nitty gritty of your customers’ everyday jobs. 

You have to elevate conversational approaches and downgrade pronouncements.

In short, you likely have to change everything you’ve been doing for the last couple of decades. 

Future posts will deal with how corporate communications and marketing can be revamped to get in synch with how customers want to be engaged. This isn’t theory anymore; it’s a mandate. In the words of David Bowie, “This ain’t rock and roll, this is genocide.”

I thought it would die a pleasant death, like interest in Paris Hilton after she became a good girl, but it’s not: Authentic is still embedded in the minds of the American business world, especially among PR and marketing people.

The way authentic is being practiced reminds me of a Mad magazine cartoon from the late 60s. A guy’s walking down the street while kids snicker, “What a schmuck!”  Guy gets home, looks himself in the mirror and says “People think I’m a schmuck because I dress like a schmuck.” In the final frame, he’s walking down the street dressed for success like Hugh Hefner (tweed jacket with elbow patches, ascot and pipe) while kids snicker in the background, “What a schmuck!”

What authenticity ain’t

Authenticity isn’t about dressing yourself in new clothes or describing yourself as authentic.  It’s not saying “honestly” or “truly” in your press releases and speeches.  And it’s definitely not posting a picture of your CEO on the website wearing distressed jeans and a retro t-shirt or pursuing his or her rock-climbing hobby.

What it is

Authentic is what someone else feels instinctively about your organization.  What your customers say because all of your dealings with them are embedded with integrity. What the media says because you’re honest and upfront with them. What employees say because they are valued and treated fairly.

If you are doing the above, your company will automatically benefit from word of mouth. But, if you want to extend that, here’s five ways you can ensure authenticity in your communications.

1. Remove adjectives and cliches from your marketing and PR materials, unless you are quoting third parties such as customers and/or analysts.

2. Use clear prose and illustrations to help customers, partners and media understand what you do — don’t hide behind bloated corporate speak.

3. Communicate openly with your customers and employees; take what they suggest, consider it, act on it and thank them for the input.

4. Care about the community of people who use your products and services; provide programs and forums that help them improve professionally and personally.

5. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Show a sense of humor in your communications whenever appropriate.

No amount of rhetoric can buy authentic. If your organization’s values are not strong, no matter what you say, you won’t be able to hide the inner schmuck.

Before Twitter, there were even shorter blasts of pithy language, where plangent puns, juxtaposition, jaunty wordplay and irony stretched their splendid feathers daily.

They were called headlines.  Sadly, they are becoming a lost art amid bland, search-engine-optimized titles affixed like a shabby gimme-cap above press releases and case studies.

Fortunately, we still have some examples of the art used to entice, delight and amuse.

Heads of the class

Give thanks that the New York Post continues to wave the flag.  The Post, of course, penned perhaps the greatest tabloid headline: “Headless Body Found in Topless Bar.” In the past couple of years, Post headlines have branded the womanizing Alex Rodriguez as “Stray Rod” and blared this message after a humiliating Yankee loss on a Mexican holiday: “Stinko de Mayo.”

In a more serious vein, the Wall Street Journal holds sway daily with an array of headlines that draw a curious reader into the story like a barker in front of a circus tent.  Wow, I never knew I’d be interested in yak farming!  WSJ can put on the jester’s cap at times, too, as when it topped its story about petty jealousy among male British writers toward Martin Amis with this tickler: “British Writers Suffering from Amis Envy.”

Why heads matter

OK, so fun is fun, but what do great headlines have to do with the humble press release, case story or blog posting?

Just as in a newspaper, technical publication or web site, the headline makes the difference in who reads a piece and who doesn’t. Take a look at Business Wire or PR Newswire.  Is there a headline in any of those press releases that makes you want to read it?

Now, I know what you’re saying: “We can’t do what news outlets do.  We have requirements, such as getting the company’s name and/or keywords in the headline.”  Yes, these are real challenges, but they shouldn’t make you settle for the mundane. You don’t have to be Oscar Wilde: If you can’t make the headline entertaining, or the subject matter won’t support it, strive for clean, clear and concise.

Here are some examples from my vaults.

This one pulled out a user quote to add life to a new product announcement:

Red Gate’s new ANTS Memory Profiler 5:
“freaking sweet” to find memory leaks in minutes

Here’s another for a press release on software used to make 56-foot-tall models of soccer players:

Geomagic makes soccer players
larger than life in Zurich train station

If you can’t fit the differentiating information into a two-deck headline, opt for the big kicker head followed by a detailed headline:

The City Tap opens in Pittsboro

Amp builder, ex-bookseller and sculptor combine comfort
of neighborhood bar with eclectic mix of art, sound, food & drink

It’s your business

None of the above headlines is a classic, but they are different enough from the bland labels that sit atop most stories - just enough to attract an editor or to pull in readers that might otherwise pass over this material.  And, ultimately, that’s what we’re supposed to be doing - getting people to pay attention. It’s not a sideline or an ancillary goal; it’s a requirement.  Every time out, we need to remember that the story starts from the top.

Marketing and PR people say a lot of stuff that they don’t really believe. Or, that they’ve convinced themselves is true. And when it gets into the public’s hands, it invariably rings false.

How often do you see a press release or marketing piece that describes a technology product as “robust,” “intuitive,” “flexible,” or “setting a new paradigm?” Or a corporate announcement larded with exec-speak that obscures any meaning and annoys the average person?

Here’s a little exercise the next time you’re working on a press release, marketing brochure or corporate speech: Make believe you’re talking to your most cynical friend. The friend who brings you thudding to earth when you get too grandiose or preachy. The friend who has no compunction about telling you that you’re full of it.  Now write something that this friend can swallow and digest — possibly even enjoy.

You have little to lose but your pretension.

I know I promised a “PR in Practice” posting on press releases this week.  But, just thinking about it put me off into some dangerous and angry mind currents. 

You’ve probably experienced this before: You’re at a party and someone you don’t know all that well (maybe a soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend or -boyfriend or a casual friend) says, “Well, the thing about Bob…” and proceeds to characterize you in a way that is unfathomable to you.  You’re angry, but your protests are too late - you’ve been third-party characterized.

In a bigger way, that’s what a lot of companies are doing - letting others tell their stories for them.  In the process, one of the most precious commodities of the company - its identity - is lost, misrepresented or compromised.  How basic  of a sin is that?  Yet, companies let it happen all the time.

They let poorly written press releases  and poorly informed PR people deliver watered-down, clichéd versions of their story.

They copy the stories of other, bigger companies, completely undermining the advantages of their uniqueness.

They tarnish their stories with hype and puffery.

They communicate with benign dishonesty, but dishonesty just the same.

They believe their own myths and foist them on the public.

They put all information dissemination in the hands of the media, even though they could likely tell the story better and more accurately if they spoke directly to their communities.

They don’t talk with their customers or use customers’ stories to help define the company and engender trust.

They never taint their company’s steeliness with an ounce of warmth or personality.

They concentrate on product positioning, engineering and false branding while kicking their central story to the curb.

O.K., I feel a bit better.  The end-of-the-week martini is about an hour away.  If you engage in the above practices, I hope you’re slightly uncomfortable.  But, probably not: Your story most likely left the building a long time ago.