Monday Morning Media Minute

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

One of my grandfathers was a country doctor in the little town of Grady, Arkansas.  He occasionally received chickens or something else besides cash in return for his services.

That was because in his day country doctors didn’t turn away patients, whether they could pay or not.  And some folks were too proud to accept something for nothing.  So, if they didn’t have cash, they paid with whatever they had to offer — including chickens.

But that’s not why I noticed when U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden of Nevada suggested recently that patients could use chickens to pay for their medical care.  That story caught my attention because I knew as soon as I heard it she was about to receive a lot of media attention she didn’t want.

Lowden quickly became the butt of jokes from comedians and opposing politicians.  The chicken-joke story hit its peak, as far as I can tell, with a Las Vegas TV story that’s since found its way onto YouTube.

Lowden made at least three mistakes:

• Her first mention of paying doctors with chickens appears to have been off the cuff.  She went off message.  Always have a clear message before you talk to reporters and stick to it.
• Once the story blew up, she didn’t take steps to contain the damage.  Check out the link to the Las Vegas TV story.  Lowden still looks like a deer in the headlights several days after this story went south on her.
• She doesn’t appear to have a strategy for putting the story behind her.  Lowden’s not the first public figure and won’t be the last to say something she shouldn’t have in public.  Such gaffes can be hard to fix   Just ask British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who quickly apologized last week after calling a woman he talked to while campaigning a bigot.  Brown was in his car when he made the “bigot” comment and thought he was speaking in private.  Unfortunately for him, he was still wearing a TV microphone.  The comment may have ended his chances of staying in office — despite his hasty effort to undo the damage.  Lowden hasn’t really tried to contain the damage.  She needs media training.  And help with her messaging.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

Are Ronald McDonald’s days numbered?  Will the day come when he’s promoting fruits and veggies instead of burgers and fries?

In last week’s MMMM, I wrote about the group that killed Joe Camel going after Ronald McDonald as “the product of a well-orchestrated and shrewd marketing strategy” that’s helping make kids fat and contributing to “a deadly epidemic of diet-related diseases.”

I concluded by saying I don’t know where the Ronald McDonald retirement campaign will go or how successful it will be.  But I said McDonald’s would do well to open up lines of communication with the group promoting the “retirement” campaign.

Business Wire founder Lorry Lokey, now retired, offers a starker view:

“Actually, Jerry, McDonald’s only route to saving the clown is to make radical adjustments to its menu.  That doesn’t mean doing away with fries and burgers. But why not add a parallel menu of the good stuff — fruits, veggies, yoghurt shakes and so on offered with any purchase?

“Maybe offering a free salad tray of small carrots, beets, tomatoes, celery, etc., would be an inducement, and all of those are pennies in price compared to the same volume as a hamburger.

“As for fries, some fast food outlets are dumping the high cholesterol oils in favor of other, less damaging stuff.  As for burgers, use 90% fat free beef. Problem is that it costs more.  And as for full flavor carbonated drinks, switch to diet only.  Boy, that’ll be the day!  And with all this have Ronald McDonald pushing acceptance of it.”

You might quibble with the details of what Lorry says simply because it’s impossible to know what the future holds.  But conceptually, I think he’s probably right on.  Unless McDonald’s finds a way to address the complaints underlying the Ronald McDonald “retirement” effort, the clown’s likely to become a growing liability for the company that created him.

Symbols are important storytelling tools.  But for the same reasons that Ronald McDonald is so good at selling the McDonald’s brand he could easily become a symbol for what’s wrong with the McDonald’s brand in the hands of a group using him to fight childhood obesity.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  And Lorry Lokey’s.  What’s yours?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

I find grocery lists useful when I’m buying groceries.  But they’re a disaster when talking to reporters.

A common mistake people make when talking to reporters is talking about too many things.

In his book, Selling the Invisible, Harry Beckwith describes it as the “grocery list problem.” I call it being unfocused.

Here’s what Beckwith says:

• “Saying many things usually communicates nothing.”
• “If you deliver two messages, most people will process just one of them — if that.  Say one thing.”
• “After you say one thing, repeat it again and again.”

That’s good advice. All I would add is this:  Be able to say that one thing in 10 to 15 seconds. If it takes you longer than that, the reporter may get it wrong. And the rest of us won’t remember it.

Does that mean you limit your media interviews to 10 to 15 seconds?  Of course not.

But be able to state your “headline” for any interview – the one thing you want to be sure gets into the story and you want people who see the story to remember – in 10 to 15 seconds.

And repeat it every chance you get.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

One of the first lessons I learned many years ago as a young newspaper reporter was never to let the facts get in the way of a good story.

It’s a lesson you should keep in mind when telling your story, too.

It’s not about playing fast and loose with the truth.  Far from it.  Being honest with your audience is important.  It’s about knowing what to include when you tell your story — and, equally important, what to leave out.

A good story is interesting and memorable.  It has a message.  And it has a narrative — a beginning, middle and end designed to get your audience to pay attention long enough to hear what you have to say and understand and remember your message once they’ve heard it.

What should go into your story?  You need to answer several other questions to answer that one:  Why are you telling your story?  What do you want to happen as a result of telling it?  That’s your objective.  Who’s your audience?  What will they want to know?  What do you want them to know?  If you want them to do something, how do you motivate them to do it?

Once you know the answers to those questions, craft a message — make it short enough to remember — that will tell your audience what you want them to know or persuade them to do what you want them to do.  Then build the rest of your story around that.

Humans have been telling stories to communicate with one another since prehistoric times.  We all know a good story when we hear one.  So, why do so many of us have trouble telling our story?  The two main reasons are too much information and being too self-serving in what we say.

A good story has enough information to be credible and tell us what we want to know without being so bogged down in facts that we miss your message and forget what you said.

People often pile so many facts into their stories that they forget to tell the story.  They let the facts get in the way of the story.  Include enough facts to make your story credible and to give your audience they information they really need.  But don’t get so bogged down in facts that your story feels like nothing more than a compilation of facts.

Leave out the self-serving sales pitch, too.  Make your story interesting or, better yet, useful to the rest of us.  But skip the purely self-serving stuff.  You’re the only one who cares about that.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

The Vancouver Olympics got off to a rocky start:  Bad weather, not enough snow, an athlete killed during a practice run on the luge track and a snafu during the opening ceremony.

Those are just some of the things that triggered negative press before and shortly after the games opened.

The event was a huge success.  And it’ll be remembered that way.

Anyone or anything that generates a lot of media coverage will encounter some negative coverage.  That’s a given.

If you or your organization are in the news a lot, you’ve had to deal with bad news.  Don’t let it keep you from telling your story.  I’m not suggesting you ignore bad news.  But if you have a good enough story to tell and you keep telling it, the bad news often will be forgotten.

It’s like the truth all good performers know:  If you make a mistake, keep going and keep smiling.  If you make too many flubs — or even one really bad one in some cases — your mistake will be remembered.  But if the rest of your performance is good enough, most of us will forgive and forget the flaws and remember how well you did.   It’s no different when you’re telling your story through the media.

Don’t get so distracted by bad news that you forget to tell your story.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

Toyota began fixing the accelerators on its cars last week, but the threat to its brand got significantly worse.

At least two reasons for that:

• The fix may not solve the problem.  Toyota’s fix is mechanical.  But there now are reports of a possible electronics problem with the accelerators.  The mechanical fix won’t fix the electronics problem, if there is one.  Are Toyota’s executives still in denial about a second problem with the accelerators?  I don’t know.  But if they are, then the company’s reputation may take a hit that will make its current problems pale by comparison.

• Toyota may be forced to recall some of its Prius hybrids because of a problem with their brakes.  In fact, at least one newspaper says this recall will come this week.  Not good anytime.  Potentially disastrous with another high-profile recall at the same time.

Toyota became the world’s largest car maker based on its reputation for quality and reliability.  People buy Toyotas expecting them to be more or less trouble free.

The sticking accelerators put a chink in that aura of quality.  If there’s yet another problem with the accelerators, the damage to the company’s reputation will rise exponentially – and be much longer lasting.  The simultaneous problem with the Prius makes this a truly dangerous situation for Toyota.

I have some personal experience with this.  Some years ago, while I was at U S WEST (one of the Baby Bell phone companies), the company’s executives chose to cut back on investing in the company’s phone network to increase profits.  The result?  U S WEST’s reputation for quality began to suffer.

For a while, we were able to counter the negative hits by trading on our reputation, just as Toyota is trying to do now.  But U S WEST’s executives ignored suggestions to fix the problem before the complaints grew any louder.  And the company paid a huge price — financially and otherwise — for many years to come.

What’s the lesson for the rest of us?  Today’s nagging problem could be tomorrow’s reputation breaker.  These problems almost never develop overnight.  But there are immense pressures within any organization to ignore them until they turn into a crisis.  Then the fix is much more expensive.  That’s where Toyota is today.  It’s in danger of becoming another U S WEST.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

Truth in advertising.  I’ve always thought Domino’s pizzas tasted like cardboard.  But I never expected them to agree with me.

So, I was pleasantly surprised a couple weeks ago when I saw the Domino’s ad, you’ve probably seen it too, acknowledging what I already knew — their crust tastes like cardboard and their sauce tastes like ketchup.

Well, they were just repeating customer complaints.  But they also said they’ve fixed the problem.  And they’re hoping a lot of us will buy one of their pizzas to see if their new pizzas really are better than the ones they used to make.

It’s great advertising.  And it makes several points worth noting:

• Great storytelling starts by grabbing your audience’s attention.  They did that.  Looking for a way to get your audience’s attention?  Start by telling them something that surprises them.

• Conceding obvious weaknesses in your story can help you gain credibility for the messages you really care about.  This is a point I often make during media training.  Don’t try to defend every point — especially the ones you know are indefensible.  Acknowledging a mistake or two is a great way to gain credibility for the things you really care about.  Okay, your pizza tasting like cardboard isn’t a small point.  Unless, of course, enough of us believe it that it’s hurting your sales – and you can tell us with a straight face that you’ve fixed it.

• No matter how strong your story, the proof is in the . . . pizza.  Domino’s “cardboard” ad works as an ad because it got our attention.  But the real proof of whether it worked will be decided by whether enough people who give them another try agree they’re now making good pizzas.  I think the verdict is still out on that one.

I also heard from several of you last week who said Toyota is mishandling their big recall.  I don’t agree.  I think the verdict is still out on that one, too.

Crisis Communications 101:  Acknowledge the problem, fix it, and make a credible promise to assure us it won’t happen again.

Toyota has stepped up to the problem.  And they say they’ll begin fixing it this week.  If they do, and if they live up to their promise of restoring our confidence in the quality of their cars, then they will have done a good job.

But they’re in the same boat as Domino’s.  What they say will be less important than what they do.  If they’ve really begun cutting corners that affect quality as some analysts have suggested, and if that shows up in more problems with their cars, then Toyota’s reputation will suffer.  Ditto, if they screw up the repairs to the cars they’ve recalled.

But if the accelerator problem proves to be an aberration and if they fix the problem, they’ll ultimately come out of their current crisis just fine.  In fact, if they do a great job of fixing the accelerator problem, this incident could actually help their reputation. But the jury’s still out on that.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

Former Major League home run hitter Mark McGwire finally confessed to the obvious last week — that he used steroids back when he was hitting all those home runs.

It may be too little, too late.  But it’s also too early to tell.

A basic tenet of crisis communication is that you need to act as quickly as possible to acknowledge your mistakes, fix the problem and take convincing steps to prevent the problem from happening again.

Even with last week’s confession, McGwire falls short on all three counts:

• His confession is late.  And self-serving.  Five years ago, McGwire refused to answer questions about drug use during a congressional hearing, saying he was “not here to talk about the past.”  Five years ago, he wanted to protect his reputation and avoid legal liability.  Now he’s talking because he’s accepted a job as hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and apparently has gotten advice that a preemptive confession would make it easier to keep the job.  In short, the reason for his confession is self-serving.  And he’s still making the unbelievable claim that he would have hit all those home runs even without the drugs.  He only took them for “health” reasons, he says.  Really, Mark?

• He can’t “fix” the problem.  The Major League record books still list all those home runs, including the 70 he hit in 1998 to “break” Roger Maris’ single-season record of 61.  Statistics are a really big deal for many baseball fans.  McGwire and others who rewrote the record books while on steroids have created a huge statistics problem for Major League baseball.  And McGwire is still trying to argue his records should stand because the drugs didn’t affect his performance.  Of course not.

• McGwire retired nearly a decade ago.  He certainly can urge younger players not to follow his example.  But he can’t undo what he’s already done.

I heard at least one on-air suggestion following McGwire’s confession that he be banned from baseball.  Baseball commissioner Bud Selig almost certainly will face pressure to do just that.

McGwire’s already been passed over several times for baseball’s Hall of Fame because of suspicions about his drug use.  The early evidence is that finally coming clean won’t improve his chances.  If anything just the opposite is likely to be true.

There is one thing that may work in McGwire’s favor.  Apparently, he’s still popular in St. Louis.  McGwire received a standing ovation this weekend from local fans in his first public appearance in St. Louis since making his confession.  Popular support may help him keep his new job.  But stay tuned.  This story isn’t over yet.

In the meantime, what’s the lesson for the rest of us?  The opportunity to begin restoring your reputation by acknowledging your mistakes is short-lived.  Wait too long and it becomes virtually impossible to do.  Just ask Pete Rose.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

The calendar can be your friend.

An example.  Some years ago, my friend and colleague Jane Dvorak had a client who had written a book about men’s journaling.  That’s a fancy word keeping a diary.  No one was buying the book.  The problem?  Men don’t journal.  Not as often as women do, anyway.

Jane’s advice to her client:  Wait until Father’s Day, which was several months away.

Why?  Because Jane knew that newspapers would be looking for Father’s Day gift-idea stories.  And Jane knew women were more likely to buy the book – as Father’s Day gifts – than men were.

She was right.  By waiting until shortly before Father’s Day to pitch the story, she got the Denver Post to lead its Living section with a story about the book.  And that story sold a lot of books.

Do you have a story that lends itself to certain dates or seasons? January is a time for stories about resolutions, what happened during the year that’s ending, what the year ahead will bring, how the new year will differ from the last.

But there are calendar-related news opportunities all year long: end-of-school, back-to-school, holidays, anniversaries, you name it. Do you have a story that fits something on the calendar? If so, tailor your story to take advantage of it.

Look far enough ahead to get your story placed. Some long-lead publications are working on Christmas before the rest of us have celebrated Labor Day.

A corollary to the calendar is to take advantage of stories already making news to grab headlines of your own.  Do you have a story that touches on a story already in the news? If so, use those headlines to make headlines of your own.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?

By Jerry Brown, APR
www.pr-impact.com

If I offered you 30 seconds on national television to tell your story, would you know what to say?

The idea’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.  Companies regularly spend thousands – even millions – of dollars to do just that with the commercials they produce.  Many of them miss the mark.

Any time you tell your story you should know the answer to this question:  What’s the one thing you want your audience to remember?  And you should be able to say it 15 seconds or less.  That’s true whether you’re preparing a 30-second commercial, a news release or a newsletter to your customers.  And, yes, it’s true for the things you post on Facebook, your blog or your Web site.

If you can’t say it in 15 seconds, it’s too complicated for the rest of us to remember.  And if you try to tell us too many things at once, we’ll forget everything you say.

So, you want to tell me your story?  Before you do, make sure you know the one thing you want me to remember.  And be sure to say it clearly enough that I will.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?