MEASURING PR

It was the question of the week among global communicators at IABC’s 2007 conference: Can PR be measured?

7 days before I left for New Orleans I was asked a similar question by a group of 10 practitioners at one of the Caribbean’s top financial service firms.

It’ s not that our industry is devoid of measurement and several firms are on the right track counting their new clippings, looking at prominence scoring, examining newspaper tiers, conducting qualitative and quantitative research.

The difficulty for most however is the requirement to link PR to the bottom line. At IABC’s conference presenter Louis William said that the problem occurs when communicators are asked to determine the impact of a communication effort especially on organisational objectives especaily when those efforts require interfacing with other departments and functions to get the job done.

The answer lies in knowing what is possible, what can be measured and which communication variables can be isolated to demonstrate PRs return on the investment.
I guess that was my biggest learning here in New Orleans and as I set to change conventional thinking about the value of PR and business communication in Trinidad and Tobago I was happy to know that the week’s big question had a very simplistic answer: Yes! PR contributes to the bottom line and yes, it can be measured.

IABC's perfect backdrop

Post Katrina New Orleans is a really sad city to see. I came to here to attend IABC's international conference but I also came as a cultural tourist. I wanted to see old men in fedoras blowing trumpets under the balustrade of the French quarters. My quintessential southern dream had always been to eat hunky ribs that were barbequed and then smothered in Cajun sauce and after feel the pulse of town by strolling through busy city
streets with the sound of jazz everywhere. Of course I knew Katrina had happened, but news of the city's recovery had fallen off the headlines. No news is sometimes good news but in this case it wasn’t.


Recovery from 2005s devastating storm remains slow and painful. On Sunday evening by 7:00 pm most of the jazz bars are closed, their padlocked doors a concrete reminder that half of the city's employees had to go elsewhere in search of jobs and a new life. Cab drivers report a devastating effect on the city’s convention business and tourism. A Sarajevo cabbie said his business was down by 75%. The number of city employees has also decreased, going from 6,000 to 3, 000 since Katrina. While Southern life always had its own particular slow crawl, in New Orleans the tempo has slowed to a slug.

Nadine Johnson, TDC's marketing specialist, a frequent visitor to New Orleans in the past and part of the TDC’s team at the conference said that the city which she loved visiting so much now made her feel depressed. Yet IABC never wavered in its commitment to host its annual conference here. I think that decision is to be applauded.

The session’s opening guest speaker Ton Sancton who recently returned to New Orleans from France to accept a position at Tulane University told IABC attendees that New Orleans was grateful to IABC. He was particularly happy that IABC attendees spent the better part of two days helping to rebuild some homes under the Habitat for Humanity programme. He was grateful for IABC’s business in a town that is so much in need of it.

But it thinks it the hundreds of IABC attendees who are here in New Orleans who should be grateful because this stark backdrop provides real opportunity. It provides us with exceptional examples of life’s continuity in the face of disaster. It provides us with real examples of leadership and teamwork both which will still be needed if this city is to be returned to its former self. It also reminds us that communication is a process and for the city to rise creative solutions must be thought of implemented and that US Government must still be held accountable if only to ensure that news of the city’s recovery never falls too far from the radar.

Communicators press ahead with social media

Less than a third of professional communicators surveyed feel confident about using social media as part of an integrated communication strategy, according to Melcrum's new report How to use social media to engage employees. Yet despite the lack of strategy understanding revealed by the global study, many are going ahead with setting up tools inside their organizations - some 60% of organizations will have some form of social media in place by the end of 2007.

The new report combines key findings from a global study into social media and corporate communication, with case-study examples and expert advice on how to develop a social media strategy, launch new tools - such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networks - and monitor their progress.


Potential pitfalls

The potential pitfalls of launching social media tools without an understanding of the best way to use them is covered in the "Strategy" chapter of the new report. Ross Chestney, head of communication services at BT - where he has overseen the introduction of blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networking - comments that: "There are an awful lot of people who are very excited about this technology, but still have no real idea what it's about."

In the same chapter, Philippe Borremans, IBM's new media lead in Europe, talks about the strategic mission for social media at IBM and urges practitioners to develop a different mindset and strategy when it comes to introducing new tools: "Your social media strategy must look unlike a traditional communication strategy. It's not an enforced strategy - full of campaigns and 'push' models.

"The first step in building a social media strategy is to recognize that it's not for every company or every employee," says Borremans, "I can't claim this is a natural fit for every company. It all stems from understanding what kind of company and culture you're working in. But for us, it's the right way to go."


Strategy issues to consider

Based on the experiences of organizations such as BT, IBM, American Electric Power (AEP) and Nortel, the report identifies 10 issues that communicators should consider when developing a social media strategy, including:

- Assess your organization's cultural readiness.
- Think about the business purpose of the tools.
- Be experimental and involve employees.
- Clarify what employees can and can't do.
- Take a hands-off approach to marketing the tools.


Key findings from global survey

In addition to advice on strategy, the report shares key findings that shed light on what communicators expect to gain from using social media inside the organization, and which tools they feel are most relevant to them.

According to the 2,100 corporate communicators who responded to the global survey, the top perceived benefits for implementing social media tools are:

1. Improved employee engagement (71%).
2. Improved internal collaboration (59%).
3. Improved internal community development (51%).
4. Improved two-way dialogue with senior executives (42%).


Engaging employees

A chapter is devoted to each of the tools considered most relevant to internal communicators: blogs, podcasts, RSS, online video, wikis, social networking and virtual worlds and the 3-D web.

Each chapter shares key findings from the global survey together with advice on how to introduce the tools and case-study examples of how they're being put to use to engage employees in organizations such as BT, IBM, Unilever, The World Bank, Scottish & Newcastle, Microsoft and Nortel.

The report ends with a chapter on measurement, which shares advice from practitioners and experts on how to monitor the progress and outcomes of social media tools.

On the road to New Orleans

On Saturday I will be in New Orleans for my first IABC international conference. I have three goals in mind: to discover new approaches that will influence the further growth of my business and invigorate my team, to encourage RBTT's communicators to join the local chapter and scout for speakers for our Chapter's first Communication Summit in 2008.

I will be blogging from my New Orleans Hotel room for the entire week. Look out for my daily musings from jazz city.

What you wear. How you work.

In my office the suit is dead! I tell those who walk through the door that we are all professionals but our professionalism does not always manifest itself in high-powered suits. Perhaps it is because our field is creative that allows me to get away with pink circle skirts and a black tucked in T-shirt.

But research just published confirms my thoughts about dressing down at work. Globally, 23% of firms have a dress down policy for at least one day of the week compared with 5% in 1997. This seems to be far cry from the uniformed conformity of 1980's power dressing or the “let’s totter on our high-heels look” in the early 1990s.

Some call the new Friday style the 'Third Wardrobe'. In London, Arthur Andersen told its 7,000 UK employees that they no longer had to wear a suit. Like many other big firms in that city, they had been operating "dress down Fridays" for some time and decided this year to give their staff the option to dress down permanently. No to be outdone, other big global firms such as Credit Suisse First Boston, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have since followed this lead. Notice that they are all in the traditionally conservative financial world.

But why dress down, especially when the right label on a suit can indicate one’s status in a firm? My guess is that in many firms, when employees come dressed in the way that matches their sense of who they are, they feel more expressive. For instance, I get the best work from my graphic designer when he wears relaxed clothing; my assistant is also happier. And I’ve found that employees work longer hours when they feel relaxed, “When I am allowed to wear smart designer jeans and ballet shoes. I'm more comfortable," said one associate. But I like this comment best from Colin McLatchie Chief Operating Officer of an equitable asset management firm who said, "if you cannot trust your employees to dress themselves what can you trust them to do?"

Of course, it is unlikely that the business suit will become entirely extinct any time soon. It has its own special place in civilization. It is a signifier that business is taking place and that life is essentially compartmentalised into commercial and private spaces.

But what a surprise it was for me when from the minute I announced a dress down policy and saw one of my assistants, who is extremely conservative and very much I thought like a drone, show up to work in smart orange skirt and red blouse with a orange mid-heeled shoe. Thereafter, I thought that there is value in this thing called self expression, this is after I cursed myself for ever having called her a drone.

Top five things learnt from attending a Canada East IABC regional meeting

Observations form the Canada East regional conference

1. Sometime listening is the best form of communication
2. Strategise. Decide outcomes. Engage members. Measure = a successful chapter
3. Not all communicators communicate well
4. Reserve judgement until you have the full picture ; you just might end up with egg in your face
5. The Caribbean needs its own region

Does the suit make the woman

Sitting in the lobby of Angostura after long after IABC T&T's Wine and Cheese had finished, my colleagues Wynelle Gregorio of Clico, Carlon Kirton of CIB and I were shooting the breeze. We were talking about everything and nothing, all at the same time. It was the kind of conversation I like best though, there's no agenda, dialogue about the personal as well as the professional and what seems like all the time in the world.

During what seemed like an endless chat we stumbled across the topic of conforming and the perception that you are a professional if you dressed a certain way and looked a particular way. Think suits, high-heeled pumps and dark stockings. Somehow that irked me. I was none of the above and it got me thinking was I unprofessional because I wear my hair afro-styled? Is the label applicable, because although I have numerous suits in my closet I tend to shun them as I would the plague.

I must end all this by declaring that I run a very successful PR firm, have pioneered several large scale national projects and have a slew of clients that are not only the best in the region but the best in the world. And I got here sans the trappings of ‘the right look’.

What do you think? How much do you have to conform in order to do well in the professions you hold? I'd love to hear from you.

Energy. Persistence. Optimism

What a week! My lead project assistant La Toya always says there is never a dull moment at the firm. Coming to think of it, she may very well be echoing my own sentiments, which I often share out loud. But this week she was spot on.

We moved our marketing communications arm to an out-of-town location but retained the corporate communications and consulting arm of the business at the city office. We signed on to handle the reputation management and crisis communications of a major multi-national firm and also decided who would be our fifth new employee. All this of course amidst a non - functioning air condition unit, a low water supply at our new office and a moody wireless high speed connection that kept shutting down every 45 minutes or so.

And if that was not enough excitement I travel to Toronto to attend a regional IABC meeting. I keep telling La Toya that forget all the talk she's heard about genius and business smarts, it really takes three key ingredients to be a successful entrepreneur: energy, persistence and optimism.

Combatting Leadership fatigue

Follow the thread of a conversation I posted on the IABC Member's Speak section just one week ago. You can view it on line at
http://www.iabc.com/forums/messageview.cfm catid=3&threadid=1673&STARTPAGE=1&CFID=460702&CFTOKEN=73206572

The postings are below with the first comment being mine.


Mon May 14, 2007 12:21 AM

After a whirlwind 10 months of leading a new Chapter and accomplishing many of our original goals I am sensing that some of my board members are suffering from volunteer leader's fatigue. How can I rejuvenate them? What motivators should I, as a chapter president, use. I feel that is is important that we end on the same strong note as we started.

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Eleanor Curtis
Posts: 4
Joined: Sep 2003
Tue May 15, 2007 1:11 PM

Firstly, congratulations on what must have been a busy and challenging year - I hope it's been a lot of fun! A couple of thoughts for what they're worth - ideas we've adopted in the UK chapter. Firstly, remind everyone of what you've achieved! What did you set out to do and what have you done? If you have your AGM coming up, that would be the natural forum. And your newsletter if you have one. Recognition and explicit thanks goes a long way too. Depending on the funds you have available, this could range from giving everyone a certificate recognising the role they played. Design something and print it yourself. Doesn't cost much at all but if it looks smart, something for people to frame and display in their office. Or perhaps subsidising an evening out. I don't think any less active member would begrudge you rewarding active volunteers in this way. Perhaps you could purchase a webinar or teleseminar which the volunteers could take part in at no charge. We've been lucky in being able to offer scholarships to Leadership Institutes for our leaders - you might be able to ask your region to help with this. These sort of rewards are a good way to encourage future volunteers to step forward as well.

Anyway, hope there's some useful food for thought in there.

Eleanor
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Wilma Mathews, ABC
Senior Contributor

Posts: 95
Joined: Jun 2003
Thu May 17, 2007 6:50 PM



What a great problem to have!
You've got a new, and successful, chapter. Your volunteer board members have worked hard to achieve that success.
It's natural that they would have leader fatigue. Eleanor has given you some excellent ideas for recognizing and honoring your leaders. I'll add one more: write to their supervisors, extolling the wonderful work that individual did. Good words to the boss are always a boost!

Congratulations to you and your team!
Wilma Mathews, ABC
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Martha Retallick
Contributor
Posts: 13
Joined: Jun 2006
Thu May 17, 2007 7:08 PM

Speaking as someone who is a longtime resident of Free Agent Nation, I hear a lot of advice to get involved with various organizations. And not just to go to meetings, but to help run the organization. Reason: This is considered to be a good way to showcase one's skills to those who might be needing my services.

But, as one local designer once told me after she spent several years with a group (not IABC), "They got free newsletter out of me, but I didn't get any business from them."

So, tip to those of you who are recruiting or retaining volunteers for chapters: Business referrals and leads are a wonderful thing. Especially for your self-employed member/volunteers.

*********************************************
Martha Retallick
Western Sky Communications
Design & Consulting

Dressing your business for success.
On the Internet. And in print

Web: http://www.WesternSkyCommunications.com
E-mail: Retallick@Cox.net
Phone: 520-690-1888
*********************************************



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JUDETTE Coward Puglisi
Posts: 9
Joined: Oct 2005 Mon May 21, 2007 5:11 AM
Great tips. Thank you. I particularly like the certificate idea. I tend to write short thank you notes but I will consider a longer letter to the board members themselves; most of the IABC T&T board members are senior communicators or entrepreneurs so letters to their bosses may not work.

Martha, I hear what you're saying but I disagree about the "what's in it for me perspective," of your friend. I am somewhat of a professional volunteer (having a father who is a life long Rotarian and who devoted most of his free time teaching sports of underprivileged kids - I can't help but be) but I was taught that volunteerism is a honour and the call to serve, a privilege.

Now don't get me wrong, I have my own communications consulting firm and so leads and business referrals are welcomed and they certainly come my way because of my volunteer efforts, but it is never the focus of my service.

I find that effective networking occurs naturally once you take focus off of getting as opposed to giving. It helps of course to make sure that your volunteer work is of the same high standards as your paid-for work. Another helpful tip for your friend is if she articulated her business needs clearly to influencers within the Association.
......


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Combatting Leadership fatigue

Mon May 14, 2007 12:21 AM

After a whirlwind 10 months of leading a new Chapter and accomplishing many of our original goals I am sensing that some of my board members are suffering from volunteer leader's fatigue. How can I rejuvenate them? What motivators should I, as a chapter president, use. I feel that is is important that we end on the same strong note as we started.

Report this to a Moderator
Reply Quote Top Bottom Edit Delete


Eleanor Curtis
Posts: 4
Joined: Sep 2003
Tue May 15, 2007 1:11 PM

Firstly, congratulations on what must have been a busy and challenging year - I hope it's been a lot of fun! A couple of thoughts for what they're worth - ideas we've adopted in the UK chapter. Firstly, remind everyone of what you've achieved! What did you set out to do and what have you done? If you have your AGM coming up, that would be the natural forum. And your newsletter if you have one. Recognition and explicit thanks goes a long way too. Depending on the funds you have available, this could range from giving everyone a certificate recognising the role they played. Design something and print it yourself. Doesn't cost much at all but if it looks smart, something for people to frame and display in their office. Or perhaps subsidising an evening out. I don't think any less active member would begrudge you rewarding active volunteers in this way. Perhaps you could purchase a webinar or teleseminar which the volunteers could take part in at no charge. We've been lucky in being able to offer scholarships to Leadership Institutes for our leaders - you might be able to ask your region to help with this. These sort of rewards are a good way to encourage future volunteers to step forward as well.

Anyway, hope there's some useful food for thought in there.

Eleanor
Report this to a Moderator
Reply Quote Top Bottom Edit

Wilma Mathews, ABC
Senior Contributor

Posts: 95
Joined: Jun 2003
Thu May 17, 2007 6:50 PM



What a great problem to have!
You've got a new, and successful, chapter. Your volunteer board members have worked hard to achieve that success.
It's natural that they would have leader fatigue. Eleanor has given you some excellent ideas for recognizing and honoring your leaders. I'll add one more: write to their supervisors, extolling the wonderful work that individual did. Good words to the boss are always a boost!

Congratulations to you and your team!
Wilma Mathews, ABC
Report this to a Moderator
Reply Quote Top Bottom Edit





Martha Retallick
Contributor
Posts: 13
Joined: Jun 2006
Thu May 17, 2007 7:08 PM

Speaking as someone who is a longtime resident of Free Agent Nation, I hear a lot of advice to get involved with various organizations. And not just to go to meetings, but to help run the organization. Reason: This is considered to be a good way to showcase one's skills to those who might be needing my services.

But, as one local designer once told me after she spent several years with a group (not IABC), "They got free newsletter out of me, but I didn't get any business from them."

So, tip to those of you who are recruiting or retaining volunteers for chapters: Business referrals and leads are a wonderful thing. Especially for your self-employed member/volunteers.

*********************************************
Martha Retallick
Western Sky Communications
Design & Consulting

Dressing your business for success.
On the Internet. And in print

Web: http://www.WesternSkyCommunications.com
E-mail: Retallick@Cox.net
Phone: 520-690-1888
*********************************************



Report this to a Moderator
Reply Quote Top Bottom Edit





JUDETTE Coward Puglisi
Posts: 9
Joined: Oct 2005 Mon May 21, 2007 5:11 AM
Great tips. Thank you. I particularly like the certificate idea. I tend to write short thank you notes but I will consider a longer letter to the board members themselves; most of the IABC T&T board members are senior communicators or entrepreneurs so letters to their bosses may not work.

Martha, I hear what you're saying but I disagree about the "what's in it for me perspective," of your friend. I am somewhat of a professional volunteer (having a father who is a life long Rotarian and who devoted most of his free time teaching sports of underprivileged kids - I can't help but be) but I was taught that volunteerism is a honour and the call to serve, a privilege.

Now don't get me wrong, I have my own communications consulting firm and so leads and business referrals are welcomed and they certainly come my way because of my volunteer efforts, but it is never the focus of my service.

I find that effective networking occurs naturally once you take focus off of getting as opposed to giving. It helps of course to make sure that your volunteer work is of the same high standards as your paid-for work. Another helpful tip for your friend is if she articulated her business needs clearly to influencers within the Association.
......


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Getting more bang for your small business advertising buck. Judette Coward-Puglisi

This week I got a congratulatory call from the CEO of Stechers, Sheena Thorpe. My company produced a series of ads for her luxury stores’ bridal registry and she was happy to report an excellent consumer response. The success of the Stechers campaign had to do with a couple of factors. The design was clean. The product was hero. The message was simple. But there was another success factor; working with an exceptional media planner we determined which audience would receive the messages and what mediums would be most appropriate to them.

Not all businesses strike the right advertising note. In fact, I was having lunch 2 months ago with my friend, an advertising manager of a large service company and she were commiserating how her advertising strategy had failed – in her post campaign research only one in four of those surveyed remembered the messages in her ads.
Her dismay was a striking reminder that the advertising/marketing mix is difficult if you don’t understand the framework necessary for analysis.

1. Share of Voice
Whenever clients have an advertising dilemma, the first question I ask is do they understand their share of voice. Most of them don’t but it is a fundamental starting point. To arrive at the percentage of the total exposure for all business in their category, I ask them how much of the total signage is theirs. I also ask for the details about their TV, radio and print advertising. I also like to get the below the line details like their web traffic or the number of mentions their brand had in a news story as opposed to a competitor. Understanding the numbers makes them aware of their total share of voice and if they need to ramp it up simply because they are not visible in the market place.
In Stechers case, while her share of voice was not high it wasn’t important that it should be. After all, how many customers can afford an $8, 0000 crystal owl as a decorative piece. Not many. So be effective Thorpe was advised to buy more repetition for her ads but get it from fewer suppliers in the media chain i.e. increase her share of voice to the prospective buyers with targeted media buying.

2. Impact Quotient
Advertising fails for only two reasons. The ads are either reaching too many people with too little repetition or delivering a message that no one cares about. Let me give you an example. At Mango Media Caribbean, we provide a myriad of services under the umbrella of strategic communications and brand development. Last year, we wanted to increase the quantity of editorial projects we were executing so we came up with a message that addressed the fact that many smart business people who are not gifted writers have i.e. they get stuck writing the first sentence of their report, proposal etc.. Our ad began with the question: “Stuck for words?” and was supported by graphic design of someone doodling as they were trying to write. The impact of that ad was great. Our audience could relate to it easily and quickly and because they did our editorial work rose by 80%. So the question is how impressive is your advertising message? Does your audience care about what you’re saying. Does your audience understand what you’re saying? To generate sales your ad must look good and reach the right target message but first of all it must first be believable and it must deliver on what it promises, which brings me to my next point of your brand promise and the personal experience factor.

3. Personal Experience Factor
Have you ever seen a really good ad for a clothing sale, one that touted the store’s high quality designer wear but in fact sold designer knock offs. Chances are if you went to the store because of the ad and were disappointed because of its false promises, you probably wouldn’t return. In essence unimpressive products or services nullify impressive ads, especially in an era of word of mouth selling. A strong ad will only temporarily prop up a business that delivers a weak personal experience factor. Remember: your ad must create genuine impressions of what you’re selling.
If you haven’t been as successful as you’d like try examining your advertising through the lenses of share of voice, impact quotient and personal experience factor, that way you can get back your campaigns back on track quickly.

Better communication in the workplace

Consider the case of a letter an employee once wrote. After having been told that an executive position had opened up in her organisation and that the CEO already had a listing of talented people to interview, she sent a letter saying that she knew of the list and thought she was the right person for the job. Many employees resented her action. “It was too forward, too fresh,” they said and criticised her for it months later.

And therein lies the explanation in what is wrong with many of today’s organisations. The woman’s action generated considerable heat but no light on why an employee should not be forthright with an opinion. The real reason may be that in many of today’s organisation we dare not say what’s on our mind.

In many corporations employees lack not only words. They lack courage. Take for instance a corporate meeting where the chairperson babbles on and on. Meanwhile you are lost in the drone thinking all the while of piles of work on your desk. You know that what you should really be saying is “Enough already, let’s get back to work.” But you know your words may have consequences and you wade through another 2 hours of an unproductive meeting. Silent.

Employees often fail to use candour in the workplace and then wonder why nothing is ever resolved. "Most people," writes executive coach Susan Scott "would really like to have meaningful conversations at work but aren't really sure how to do that. They may have seen someone do it before and saw what happened to them, so they don't do it themselves."
Conversation is at the heart of business relationships. Yet, without talking about the issues in the workplace directly, there is little chance of finding a solution, according to Scott.
In the case of the woman with the letter, when she heard that her name was not on the list she thought she’d address the situation directly, hence the letter to her CEO. She later learnt that she would be promoted.

Analysts say that reluctance to speak candidly may have deep roots. We are given stern directions early in life in proper behavior. Girls are told not to speak until spoken to, most parents tell children to shut up unless they have something good to say. When we start jobs, the landscape may change but not the rules. Colleagues brief us on the lay of the land and we observe what is deemed the correct corporate behaviour. For instance you may notice after a few days on the job that no one talks to the boss before breakfast or that there is a list of important work issues that are just not ever discussed or that in meetings whatever one particular person says goes despite the discontent of work colleagues. "People tend to accept that these are rules through which they must navigate," Scott explains. "That means they won't ever be able to have the honest conversations needed to change things." The status quo is accepted.

The key to a successful conversation is to find ways to candidly discuss topics in a diplomatic way, without threats or accusations. This is mostly done in peer-to-peer relationships but when it comes to peer to supervisor relationships, the success of the conversations is often thwarted.

Supervisors, naturally because of the power issues involved, sometimes undermine any opportunity for a successful conversation. They may respond immediately to a worker's statement, suggesting why an idea won't work or dismissing it with a "I hear what you are saying, but ... "

Replacing “but” with “and” is a great technique for inviting discussion and building listening skills. So too is if every supervisor asks employees the most important thing on their mind and give them time to think about it. A well thought out answer means opening a door to the words an employee wants to say and not necessarily what the supervisor wants to hear.

And that’s the start.

IABC fosters the opportunity to connect

Last week Thursday, Executive VP of IABC T&T, Maria Rivas Mc Millan, and VP of Membership, Giselle La Ronde West and I shared a wonderful Thai lunch with the incoming chair of IABC Canada East Region, Rawle Borrel and his wife Abiola. Both are of T&T parentage but spent the majority of their lives in Canada.

We spent some time talking about IABC but most of it was spent chatting about our families, spouses, and our homes, what I like the call the real life stuff. Directly after our lunch, I told Maria that I felt as if I just had lunch with some old friends.

One of the real strong bonus points for me as a Chapter leader is the quality of global relationships I have struck up through IABC. When my husband and I vacation in Canada later this month we will be staying at the charming apartment of an IABC friend who is out of town for that very same week.

I met my friend Katherine Shelley from Toronto through IABC. Katherine, who comes to Trinidad every year for our world famous Carnival emailed me two years ago because she wanted to connect with other local IABC members. We hit it off immediately.

When I journey to New Orleans for the international conference in June, I am looking forward to attending the majority of the seminars on measurement & ROI but I am equally excited about connecting with the friends and colleagues I met earlier this year at IABC’s Leadership Institute in San Diego

When people ask me what drives me to continuously work at leading such a wonderful chapter, my answer is very simple...it really is all about the opportunity to connect.

BOOTSTRAPPING A NEW IDEA. Judette Coward-Puglisi

Selling our new software that measures the ROI on communication and PR campaigns has not been as hard as I expected. This week my company, Mango Media Caribbean tied up some loose sales ends with a public sector organisation and a multinational firm working in the oil and gas sector. We also expect a financial services company to sign up for a 12 month contract in the next four weeks. We made these crucial sales after three months of client prospecting and some long hours of doing our homework. In these months we looked at some of the best practices in some of the large corporations.

You see large companies that sell to other businesses have a massive advantage, an entire team that takes a pulse rate of the market sometimes by posing a singular question: "What do you want?" Once the need has been ascertained, another department takes over to make the deal happen.

At Mango Media Caribbean we are small but no less ambitious. Having determined what the corporate communications market was missing in Trinidad and Tobago, we spent months researching and analysing the new software acquisition. We developed a survey to make sure that we were not investing in something that no one wanted to buy. We took pains with the selection of our software developer and we decided who would be the clients most likely to buy into our new suite of services. Once we discovered who they were we then pre-sold them on the idea.

Why would a company be willing to buy into an idea? Our research indicated that while our clients- corporate communicators - were very interested in or PR measurement services, they didn't necessarily want to add this function to their already overtaxed list of things to do. If we could meet a need that no one else could, they were willing to fund the development of our new ROI communication services.

Be warned though, this is a very difficult strategy. It isn't easy to find scenarios where a big client has an unmet need that they a)realize is a need and b)haven't found a solution for. If you do find one, then you have the challenge of convincing the company that you have the expertise to develop and deliver a working product/service.. It helped that some of these clients were existing customers with whom we had a history and credibility.

Please don't get me wrong, if I am enjoying success with this it is only because I failed at it several times before. Like any entrepreneurial endeavor bootstrapping a business is incredibly hard work. But if you want a strategy that makes money from the beginning, this is one to look at.

The lesson here is that once you sell the idea/prototype, you have revenue that is somewhat guaranteed. Finding new customers thereafter becomes less painstaking.

Judette Coward Puglisi is the founder and managing director of a strategic comunications, brand development firm in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Visit her corporate website at www.mangomediacaribbean.com.

Brand building without deep pockets…A retailer’s experience

If you take as a given –and I do- that in today’s new economy a company can only remain competitive if it engages in strong brand building, then the next staggering question you might ask is: How? With the high cost of advertising, an increasingly fragmented media market and the advent of social media which allows consumers to talk directly to each other and bypass the traditional methods of getting information, many small business owners are forced to come up with increasingly creative ways to build their brand. While this has its challenges, it also presents a great opportunity to think creatively as one Caribbean based luxury goods store found out after its brand was re-energised without a massive dent in its pocket.

This company had long enjoyed a sterling reputation for its branded luxury goods from Europe and the United States. Its niche market were the high-end users of luxury items. But within the last decade the store had lagging sales. The brand had become diluted, poor management, poor merchandising and a lack of customer relationship management drove many of the store’s clients’ away and the company found itself in the black.

A new CEO was hired and as she examined the company and her role, she knew that one of the cornerstones to move the company into a position of profitability was to focus on the company’s linkage to its client base. From the outset three things were clear: 1) the new CEO had to make brand building part of the strategic plan, 2) the company had no money and could not rely heavily on mass media to promote their brand and 3) all the alternative approaches to brand building had to be integrated into an overall concept of the stores’ identity.

These were daunting tasks. But the 42-year-old female executive-who had arrived fresh from a top-level merchandising job in New York was not the faint-hearted type. Her first task was to get rid of her ad agency. Although the agency had served them moderately well, the directors of the luxury good store were not satisfied with the alternatives they presented for their media strategies.
“ I didn’t want to spend large sums of money on ads that reached no one. Clearly we had lost focus, we needed to recreate our lost luster, reach out to clients who had no longer identified with us. We had to start from scratch with only a name that had some residual good will.”

Clearly this was a woman who knew her stuff and instead of an agency she decided she would work closely with a brand consultant.. When they met the consultant was struck by the CEOs glamour, sense of style and knowledge of the high end market. “You are the epitomy of your brand,” she declared. The brand expert decided to increase the director’s visibility and suggested a series of personality profiles in the press (free publicity), a weekly lifestyle column and a radio ad where the CEO talked about lifestyles.

The executive was becoming her brand’s champion because the consultant felt she possessed the authority and the ability to ensure that her company’s brand identity was being delivered in a way that rang true.

The strategy worked; former customers like what they read and heard. They identified with the new CEO and because they wanted the lifestyle she eschewed they came in to the stores in droves. The stores were starting to become relevant to its audience once again.

There were other strategies employed, additional approaches to fuel word of mouth communications included placement of the store’s personal care line of products at elite and selective fitness centers. The company also started sponsoring women friendly events. Under much media hype, they launched a Fund to assist women with the cost of their cervical cancer operations. They also co- sponsored a large commercial bank’s 5k Breast Cancer Awareness Run. Sponsorship was viewed as a way of bolstering the brand’s image among concentrated groups of potential customers.
“Our aim was not to create visibility for visibility’s sake; without exception our efforts were directed at supporting the client’s brand identity,” says the consultant.

With sales on the rise and brand awareness increased, the CEO, who was now into her second year, felt that the time had come to involve her customers more intimately in the brand . She created events that would create a personal experience between the brand and the client. And therein was born free sampling days, customer appreciation nights, customer loyalty programmes. And once again sales soared.

The CEO inherited many liabilities when she joined her new firm but the liabilities forced her to think creatively. It didn’t happen in a New York minute. Developing alternative approaches to brand building is never easy but with dedication and commitment from those at the top, finding alternatives to mass media advertising can be worth the time and personal investment.

Independent thinking required for successful entrepreneurship

Independence. That’s why a majority of employees strike out on their own. Or so says a recent US survey put out by that country’s labour department. According to the survey there are more than 15 million self-employed people in America with independents representing one of the fastest growing sectors in that economy.
There is something glorious about being in charge of a small independent firm. The downfall is that sometimes the size of a small firm can preclude its effective exploitation of new markets; the advantage comes from knowing that your size allows for energetic experimentation.

Consider the growth of Elaine Singh, owner of a copywriting agency, “I believe that the reason for my success is that I have been able to align myself with some of the biggest advertising agencies in the business and created a win/win situation for us both,” said Singh. The 37-year-old is able to offer her specialised skills for a very reasonable price, the larger agencies embrace her because they can lower their employment and wage bill by cutting back on their health care, pension and other responsibilities.

Because of her firm’s size- Singh has one full time assistant and a part time accountant- she is able to continuously reinvent herself. She recently added photography and design to her list of services by forming strategic partnerships with other small firms. Singh is a believer in reinvention as the key to entrepreneurial success. “Reinvention is not about changing what is, but about creating what isn’t.” At the heart of Singh’s statement is perhaps a realisation that small companies in the new era need not be around forever and what matters most is the burst they may have in values creation rather than any dramatic claim of being around for 100 years.

Perhaps this may be the fundamental difference between the new enterprise and the old. Between the old firm and the new. The old enterprise viewed permanence as good. And set up vast building with glossy atriums to prove it. The glossier the atrium, well, the better the business. Atrium envy ruled. In the new enterprise there is no such envy because there are no such buildings. People are connected in wired quadrants that allows them to communicate, work and mange themselves in offices without walls and borderless communities. The size of the atrium is irrelevant, how high the mind can soar and what it can create in a short period of time are the determining factors.

In the new enterprise entrepreneurs like Singh recognises the need for a new reality, which does not surround exclusive bottom line issues. “If I focus on the bottom line and profits only I won’t be happy, instead I look around at other small business models and I would like to emulate those that place emphasis on their human community. Profits are vital but so too is the connectivity and the network.”
There are thousands like Singh running small firms, forming strategic alliances and setting their own strategies on how to function in the corporate world. There is no other alternative for Singh. “The idea of being a salaried worker in an organisation is unpalatable for me. There is just something about working for myself; I really, truly do love what I do.”

Leadership Challenges

Leadership is sometimes difficult especially when your work involves volunteers. Unlike a corporation, members of a volunteer organisation are not motivated by monetary rewards but by individual and personal aspirations. Some use it to test their mettle, others to win friends and develop skills while others look to build influence and their careers. All are to be encouraged, as a leader of several volunteer projects, committees and associations, I have learnt over the years that volunteers are to be supported and their individual needs met, but it ought to be done within a group context.

I had reason to ponder this lately when an individual member of the Association of which I am President took it upon herself to secure an appointment from our International Office without informing the local board, in fact, board members only learnt about it when it was announced in an email that went out to all other members, This went against one of the Association’s fundamental rules of email engagement for which the volunteer was privy too.

Members of the board called, upset. Frankly they had every reason to be. The board members’, all senior communicators, felt that basic protocol was breached.

It was a difficult position to be in, the volunteer is young, at the start of her career in communications, eager and a terrific member of the Association. But I had a responsibility to the group and so I told her that while she should go ahead and pursue opportunities presented to her she needed to be aware of the respect that must be paid to the local board and the process of communications. We are a communication association, communications is at the heart of what we do, at a basic level members need to get that at least right.

I also reminded the volunteer about the need to be inclusive, an absolute requirement in volunteerism since no matter what your individual goals I have found that in both volunteer and non-volunteer organisations, relationships are the key. It is relationships that cause members to ask constantly: "How can I help?” rather than, “What’s in it for me.”

Cool tool for blogging

Yesterday, I had my assistant sign me up for CoComment, a site that allows me to track comments and conversations from over 150,000 web sites.

I found their offering useful because lately I have been leaving a few postings at sites that I will seldom visit. CoComment allows me to be part of selected conversations by keep track of the discussions that interest me.

I recommend this as another cool Web 2. 0 tool that will help you blog sucessfully.

Getting the employee communication mix right

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Throwing a dinner party for a few of your friends? What do you think will determine that it is the best party of their lives? The wine? The five course meal? The cutlery that you delicately display. All this will probably be of some importance but you can bet that two or three of your friends will probably be able to serve better wines, have a gourmet meal catered and display sliver that outshines yours. The product is necessary but not sufficient, what will matter is who you invite to the table, the kind of atmosphere you create, and how well you ensure that your guests’ happiness are of paramount importance.

Running a business is very much like having a dinner party because the quality of employees you invite to your office spaces and the strategies you create to encourage them to stay will have a boomerang effect on your bottom line. Create passion in your employees, and watch your profits soar. Often times though what lies between the passion an employee has for his/her work and the profits that can accrue once they have that drive, is the chief executive officer. The business owner. The managing director. The boss.

"Sometimes I feel that in this company our leaders are more concerned with making themselves look good than they are with genuine straightforward human interaction,’ says one thirty-five year middle-manager when asked about what she saw were some of the company's major organisational challenges. This correlates with a survey done by the International Association of Business Communicators whose audit of American companies discovered that:
10% of employees felt that executives were aware of their concerns
15% agreed that head office communicated effectively
19% agreed that executives and bosses sought their views
21% agreed that they were informed of plans and directions
23% agreed that executives communicated well

They were shabby scores but they revealed a certain truth that may be applicable globally. The way we engage employees, like we do our guests at a dinner party, has a lot to do with communications. Effective communications is about listening as much as it is about talking. It is about connection and engaging employees every day by taking them on a personal journey of ideas. Be assured that will come along if they trust you to respect them and if your journey is meaningful to them.
Business management guru Kjelle Nordstom writes that there are four ways senior managers and bosses can communicate with people: either you appeal to their Reason, Affection, Intuition or their Desire.

Reason equates with logic, affection concerns love, intuition has everything to do with insight and desire has to do with passion. Every time we communicate we should be asking: Are we using the right mix? Striking the right keys? Our answer may require us to rethink how much reason has to do with ensuring success and profits. We may discover that if we use reason only, we may be speaking to our employees in terms of pure economic rationality and creating competence without commitment. That spells bad news, primarily because we are no longer made up of local villages.
Globalisation demands that we compete with the very best and if we have employees who simply do their jobs, who turn up for work and leave when the clock strikes the appointed hour, then we pave the way for disaster as exemplified by rapid turnovers, diminishing returns and collapsed businesses.

Getting the employee communication mix right

.

Throwing a dinner party for a few of your friends? What do you think will determine that it is the best party of their lives? The wine? The five course meal? The cutlery that you delicately display. All this will probably be of some importance but you can bet that two or three of your friends will probably be able to serve better wines, have a gourmet meal catered and display sliver that outshines yours. The product is necessary but not sufficient, what will matter is who you invite to the table, the kind of atmosphere you create, and how well you ensure that your guests’ happiness are of paramount importance.

Running a business is very much like having a dinner party because the quality of employees you invite to your office spaces and the strategies you create to encourage them to stay will have a boomerang effect on your bottom line. Create passion in your employees, and watch your profits soar. Often times though what lies between the passion an employee has for his/her work and the profits that can accrue once they have that drive, is the chief executive officer. The business owner. The managing director. The boss.

"Sometimes I feel that in this company our leaders are more concerned with making themselves look good than they are with genuine straightforward human interaction,’ says one thirty-five year middle-manager when asked about what she saw were some of the company's major organisational challenges. This correlates with a survey done by the International Association of Business Communicators whose audit of American companies discovered that:
10% of employees felt that executives were aware of their concerns
15% agreed that head office communicated effectively
19% agreed that executives and bosses sought their views
21% agreed that they were informed of plans and directions
23% agreed that executives communicated well

They were shabby scores but they revealed a certain truth that may be applicable globally. The way we engage employees, like we do our guests at a dinner party, has a lot to do with communications. Effective communications is about listening as much as it is about talking. It is about connection and engaging employees every day by taking them on a personal journey of ideas. Be assured that will come along if they trust you to respect them and if your journey is meaningful to them.
Business management guru Kjelle Nordstom writes that there are four ways senior managers and bosses can communicate with people: either you appeal to their Reason, Affection, Intuition or their Desire.

Reason equates with logic, affection concerns love, intuition has everything to do with insight and desire has to do with passion. Every time we communicate we should be asking: Are we using the right mix? Striking the right keys? Our answer may require us to rethink how much reason has to do with ensuring success and profits. We may discover that if we use reason only, we may be speaking to our employees in terms of pure economic rationality and creating competence without commitment. That spells bad news, primarily because we are no longer made up of local villages.
Globalisation demands that we compete with the very best and if we have employees who simply do their jobs, who turn up for work and leave when the clock strikes the appointed hour, then we pave the way for disaster as exemplified by rapid turnovers, diminishing returns and collapsed businesses.