REICH COMMUNICATIONS

Juneteenth...What It Means

Torrey Maldonado, a friend who is a teacher and Christopher Award-winning children's book author, shared some thoughts on the meaning of Juneteenth, along with some other writers he knows.

Here's what he had to say...

"Heading into Juneteenth, I had dinner with a friend. Lots of laughs, no. Business. At some point, us joking turned into him saying, “I gave my staff off for Juneteenth. But I want to write a letter to them about why. What would you say? What does Juneteenth mean to you?” I felt two things. First, he’s the Executive Director of a human rights organization so it makes sense that his employees get a day off for a holiday that recognizes our humanity. Second, the history teacher in me got fired up to explain Juneteenth.

I’ve taught history for over twenty years and wanted to say, “Juneteenth is the promise of freedom for enslaved Black people that wasn’t kept until two years after the Emancipation Proclamation” then something inside steered me to do something else—compare notes. Because I hoped to learn if what we experienced today connected us to Juneteenth. So, I gave his question back to him, “What does Juneteenth mean to you?” He shared and each time he spoke I nodded, “Same” because we both experienced what he said. “Didn’t celebrate it. Didn’t know about it. People around us didn’t either. And schools didn’t teach Juneteenth.” But even though we both were born and raised in New York City housing projects, which are very different from the Texas birthplace of Juneteenth, our chat revealed deeper, everlasting connections to Juneteenth.

For starters, our ancestors survived slavery and promises were made to our people that were not kept and still keep us from being fully free. “Liberty and justice for all’ was never fully applied to our families. Our pre-Juneteenth dinner strengthened a feeling in me that Juneteenth is history yet it’s also right now."

Click here to see the entire post, with thoughts from several other writers.

 

Other Voices: "We're all in the crossfire"

We open this space from time to time to others, to hear thoughts and opinions by other voices.  My friend, mentor and former business partner Alan Hirsch sent this around to his friends by email this morning, and I thought it was worth sharing with other readers here.  It's especially significant during this holy week for both Christians and Jews.

 

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The April 14th New York Times op-ed piece contained some fresh thoughts about hate crimes, specifically covering the shootings in Kansas over the past weekend.

 

Last Sunday, the killer nut drove to a Jewish community center in Overland Park, Kansas, and opened fire.  Then he went to a Jewish retirement home nearby and did the same.  Three people were killed.

 

This killer nut is so stupid that none of the three victims was Jewish. They were all Christians.  A point made by the Times writer, Frank Bruni, is that "When hatred is loosed, we're all in the crossfire."

 

FBI statistics (the latest from 2012) show that there were 6,573 hate crimes reported to the bureau.

 

Of the religion-prompted hate crimes reported,  65 percent were aimed at Jews, the same number as 10 years earlier, and 11 percent were aimed at Muslims.

 

Following 9/11,  since 100 percent of the 20 terrorists in the planes attacking the U.S. were Muslims, "there was enormous concern that all Muslims would be stereotyped and scapegoated, and this heightened sensitivity lingers," the article pointed out.

 

Anti-Semitism is alive and well in America.  Many U.S. colleges promote or accept anti-Israel discussions and the general public too often just sits by, not bothered by the open bias against Jewish people.  Non-Jews in America, and that totals 97 percent of the population, or more than 320 million people, appear not to be aware of the  point that "When hatred is loosed, we're all in the crossfire."

Other Voices: 5 Marketing and Communications Techniques to Leave in 2013

 

From time to time, we open my 2 cents to others... people who don't blog, others in PR or marketing, or students looking to get some exposure and experience.  This article is written by Sarah del Rosario of UK Toner Cartridges.

 

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Marketing techniques spread the word about your brand, while communication techniques refer to how information is distributed within the organization. Both are equally important in business and in 2013 there are techniques which have proven to be more effective than others.  Let’s find out which marketing and communication trends did work, and which ones are best left behind in 2013.

Whichever industry you’re in, you would notice how quickly trends catch up, especially when it comes to how business is promoted. One example of a trend which quickly caught on is “Content is king.”  When this appeared to be working for many online businesses a few years ago, others quickly followed by hiring freelance web content writers to populate their site with articles, press releases, etc. The problem is that content should have been combined with other elements to make promoting a brand more successful. This phrase still holds true today, but let's focus more on which marketing and communication techniques became trendy last year but are best left forgotten with 2013:

1.  Using a buzzword for marketing.

Similar to how content should be king, there are some annoying buzzwords which became big hits in 2013. Authenticity is one example. Although this may apply to some brands – starting from musical groups to supposedly innovative products – there are very few authentic ideas out there. For 2014, it is better to ditch such catchphrases for marketing and simply focus on the strengths of your brand.

2.  Focusing on your company, not your prospects.

Whatever happened to putting the focus on customers?  Unfortunately for the general consuming public, the marketing efforts of most companies in 2013 veered more towards their image. Instead of focusing on your brand, why not put back the focus on your prospects?  Remember that when customers take advantage of a product or service, they always think about what’s in it for them – so realign your marketing campaign in this regard.

3.  Selling features over benefits.

The rule of thumb to remember here is simple: customers buy benefits, not features. When coming up with a marketing campaign, make sure to answer the question “What benefit will your product/service bring to me as a customer?” By doing so, you are selling benefits over the features, something which most customers could care less about.

4.  Overcomplicating your message.

Whether it’s internal or external communication, resist the temptation to overcomplicate your message. Big words and complex messages become a trend in 2013, which is something that is best left behind now that the New Year is officially here. Overly complex, wordy messages can overpromise or, worse, confuse the receiver of the message. For 2014, less is more. Let's be straightforward and upfront whenever possible.

5.  Being device-centric in communication.

Finally, BYOD or Bring Your Own Device was a huge trend for 2013. Although there are some organizations where this perfectly works, the emerging practice for 2014 is to use cloud storage. This means that no matter which smartphone, tablet or any kind of gadget you own, all the data will be stored "in the cloud" where everyone can work in a high-tech, standardized fashion. Seeing the progress on a specific file will keep you updated on what still needs to be done, making things more interactive in the workplace.

 

Which 2013 marketing and communication trends would you like to see totally forgotten this 2014?

 

 

 

 

Other Voices: Do's & Don'ts of Mobile Marketing

From time to time, we open my 2 cents to the thoughts of others who have something to say online.  Today's guest post is written by Lori Campbell, a New Yorker who is part of a group called PressThe Word.  The group shows beginners and others with no programming knowledge how to create their own websites.  Some of their material is free; some is for sale.

 

by Lori Campbell...

With mobile devices now generating more than 10% of the overall traffic on the internet, mobile marketing has become a key part of any business strategy targeting web conversion.  Going after mobile customers, though, is not the same as targeting PC-based users. 

Here are some thoughts on what to do and what to avoid in your mobile marketing efforts.

Don't – Use Popup Ads

A popup ad on a typical website is a minor annoyance that can be easily dealt with.  But on a mobile device, that same popup ad can dominate the screen and take some effort to get it to close.  That will likely prompt mobile users to abandon your page entirely.

Do - Use Target Search Ads

One growing trend has seen companies spend large portions of their mobile advertising budget for targeted search ads in Google and other search engines.  Some companies have even narrowed this to target advertising by region.  One real estate company in Denver, for example, targets specific zip codes, allowing them to improve their odds of reaching customers in their business region.

Don't - Provide Random Ads

How often have you been playing a word game on Facebook and seen an ad for "male enhancement" products or something that has nothing to do with your content.  The same applies for mobile users.  Paying to advertise washing machines for people searching for designer shoes makes little sense and will produce no sales results.

Do - Make the Ads Fun and Useful

An ad is much more likely to succeed if it will provide useful information or reward the customer in some way to click the ad.  One company we know pays to have their contact information and photo included on smartphone ads for those looking for homes.  The company got a 50% increase in leads as a result. 

Don't - Use Static Ads or Banners

One huge problem in the early days of mobile advertising is static banner ads that take up a quarter or more a user's browser space.  Keep in mind that screen space is at a premium and if your customer has a large chunk screen taken up by ads, they will likely move on to another site.

Do - Use a Responsive Website Design

Responsive web designs allow websites to automatically adjust according to the user's device.  Images and banners adjust as well, resizing themselves to a size appropriate for a user's screen.  For more information on how to setup a responsive web design, check out this tutorial on how to setup a Wordpress website.

Only two years ago, mobile marketing was not viewed as a viable tool by most businesses.  But with the continued explosion of mobile technology, it’s become a concept that can no longer be ignored.  Those who get ahead of the curve now will be able to benefit this new customer base and will be best suited to adapt to changing needs in the future.

 

 

Other Voices: Why Your Marketing Plan May Not be Working

 

 

We open our pages periodically to others who want to add their voice to the blogosphere.

Our guest blogger is Aileen Galsim, a graphic and print design enthusiast in the U.K. who blogs for Showcase Creative, a UK based printing company that provides Custom Presentation folders, calendars, and other printed presentation products.  Aileen asks that you check out http://www.showcasecreative.com to see their range of products.

 

Many people believe that a great marketing plan is the most important part of getting your products or services out into the mainstream. After all, a company can have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, then it’s a waste, right?

But a marketing plan can be completely useless to a company’s bottom line if its products or services are not up to industry standards.

If you have a budding business and feel like you are ready to take the next step by investing in a marketing plan, the first action that you should take—and it may be one that saves you money in the long run—is to make sure that your products and services are good enough to handle close scrutiny from the general public.

Being a small- or medium-sized business can often keep your products or services insulated from truthful advice or constructive criticism from customers. One of the smartest things a company can do before embarking on a large-scale marketing plan is to invest money into improving its products and services first.

There is no advertising campaign in the world that can cover up for a bad product or a company that provides poor service. Defects that may not have been an issue with hundreds of customers may become apparent when you have thousands of customers. And your customer service people may be stellar, but are they prepared to handle the sudden surge in sales?

If not, the consumer will catch on very quickly in these times of social media, and your company will lose sales, customers, and its overall reputation.

Start from the Bottom Up 

It's natural to want to start from the top and work down. The mindset of trying to get as many customers as possible first, and then focusing on your products or services, can bring a quick, short-term boost to your sales, but it could be little more than a mirage. Exposing your products to a large market prematurely can do more harm than good.

What can you do to ensure you’re providing earnest service?

• Conduct thorough product testing
• Re-train your service employees
• Make sure your customer service is scalable to your growth
• Use surveys and questionnaires to get feedback from current clients
• Speak with a lawyer about potential liabilities

Even after your marketing plan launches, you'll want to ensure you’re staying on top of what the customer is thinking. Newsletters and social media can provide ways to communicate with customers, to be sure you are addressing their needs and staying on top of any potential issues.

Word-of-mouth is still one of the most powerful marketing tools available. In fact, the internet has only made it stronger, since one person’s opinion can be heard by hundreds, if not thousands, through blogs and social media. Remember, you want long-term growth, not just a blip.

The key is to build a solid foundation by providing a great produce or service first, and then embark on a large-scale marketing plan later. Everything starts with your reputation, and once that is in place, your marketing, advertising, and sales will begin to take care of themselves.

 

Other Voices: 2013 Marketing Trends That You Shouldn't Try

 

Periodically, we open our blog to others who have ideas or viewpoints to share. 

Aileen Pablo, a Filipina business and finance blogger, asked if she could write a post for my 2 cents. She works  at www.opencolleges.edu.au, an online education provider in Australia. You can reach her at [email protected].

 

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What’s our future? Change.

Fast change. Constant change. It used to be that marketers, economists and other professionals whose job it is to predict things could look a decade into the future, or at least a few years, but more and faster changes have made that kind of long view difficult.

For people in advertising and marketing, this has meant a shift towards constant vigilance and trying to instantaneously shift gears. Unfortunately, not all trends are wise for every business to follow. Here are some of the top marketing trends of 2013 that you need to be careful with, and which may want to avoid altogether.

Optimizing everything all the time. SEO has become such a ubiquitous and arguably important aspect of making yourself known on the web that proponents are suggesting that businesses use keywords everywhere. That means not only on the static pages of their website and in blogs (which makes sense), but also in things like white papers, emails, newsletters, in guest posts, and even in the blurb that you create when you put your company into directory services. In theory, all of these mentions of “Idaho cheap tires” will raise your profile and bring more people to your business, but companies would be wise to remember the reason why search engines keep changing the way they decide rankings—too much of something adds up to a whole lot of nothing and turns off consumers.

Ignoring campaigns. With the instant feedback businesses have access to in today’s marketplace, some gurus are suggesting that companies eschew the marketing campaign altogether and simply act (or, rather, react) based on how people are responding in real time. The problem with this “fly by the seat of your pants” methodology is manifold.

First, people tend to be incredibly fickle, and if you’re trying to do an about face every time something seems to change, you’re going to end up chasing your tail. Second, advertising is a creative endeavor; you can’t just pull good ideas that stick with people out of the air—at least, not on a consistent basis. Should your campaign have flexibility? Sure. But don’t simply decide not to come up with one.

Just creating content. We’ve moved into a phase of marketing where both everything and nothing is an advertisement at the same time. What does that mean? Well, experts know that people don’t want to be sold all the time (which you really shouldn’t take an expert to tell you), so they are convincing more and more companies to focus on creating quality content and making themselves experts in their respective field.

This is done through methods such as writing blogs, submitting guest posts on other big sites, creating and giving away white papers and eBooks, and generally just providing people with information and entertainment for free so that they’ll like and respect you and (hopefully) keep coming back. Eventually, the point of this is to slowly lead people toward your products and services so that they’ll be more likely to buy from you when they get there. But the problem is that a lot of businesses spend so much time and energy on the first half of this process that they ignore the second half—the part where they’re actually getting money by converting browsers into customers. Get people to like you, sure, but don’t forget that you need them to pay you, too.

Nothing but mobile. If you’re in advertising or own a business, you’ve seen the trends: people are using mobile more than ever before, and the numbers just keep going up by leaps and bounds. Companies that ignore the mobile market are doing so at their own risk, because that’s a lot of people to just write off. In fact, you might be smart just to put all of your marketing resources into mobile and really work to build that audience.

Wait, what? While mobile is certainly important, no one short of a few companies whose entire demographic is mobile should forget about the rest of their audience—which, by the way, is still the vast majority of almost every single company’s customers. Yes, mobile is growing by leaps and bounds but it’s still just a fraction of the rest of the market.

 

Other Voices: Seasonal-themed Facebook Campaign

We open this space from time to time to others, to get a variety of ideas and views.  This post is written by Stan Johnson, who works as a freelance writer for Qwaya, a Facebook ad manager tool.  She writes about social media trends and strategies.

 

People who use Facebook for business realize that one of the good things about this medium is that you can constantly change your page based on any number of factors. Just using the calendar as a reference, you could find hundreds of different occasions to change to a new theme.  On a big holiday like Halloween, you might want to attract more fans by creating a themed page, post or app.

Sears, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Progressive Insurance and a wide assortment of other brands have used a Halloween theme, and they’ve all proven very popular.

Here are some tips that may help you theme your FB page for Halloween.

Find True Seasonal Influence

Focus less on the technical history of the holiday and more on what it’s become in the land of commercialization. Halloween not only means dressing up, candy and spooky creatures, but also encompasses more adult-based activities like parties and food and cocktail recipes. So you have an incredibly wide range of influences to select from. Don’t settle on something as overused as a vampire or zombie (unless you can add your creativity to it); draw your Halloween influence from a unique corner of the genre and work to create an exclusive theme.

Give Technology a Whirl

Some of the best themes out there use technology via applications. For instance, an app that allowed for regular pictures to be turned into zombies was big for one company, while a game full of pumpkins was big for another. Don’t be afraid to let your creativity shine through with the use of technology. Apps are easy to create, and delivering something Halloween-based can put you on par with the big players.

Research the Competition

You want to ensure that you use parity, not plagiarism. Look at your competition, direct and indirect, to see what they’re doing.  While you can use them for inspiration while also referencing their methods, avoid copying anything directly. If they’re using a regular post, make an app. If they have a cool way to encourage sign-ups, do them one better and offer more incentive.

Don’t Scare People Away

There’s a side of Halloween that’s very dark. Unless you’re catering to this niche in some fashion, try to avoid that side of the season and air more on the side of whimsical. You can still go a bit gruesome while keeping it wholesome. You’ll just have to focus more on caricatures than characters. Whether it’s Facebook ads, a page post, a download app, etc, keep it light. You don’t want to go to the dark side and alienate your base. People-friendly images, videos and apps. That’s what you want.

Creating a themed page can be quite easy or it can be very difficult. It all depends on how you personally approach the subject. For Halloween, remember to find your influence while keeping things original and playful. Appeal to a mass audience during this season.

 

 

 

Other Voices

Are you hiring rabbits to swim & fish to run?

Under the heading of Other Voices, we sometimes give this blog to other people who are not bloggers. 

Jan Vincent heads her own organizational/performance development practice in New York.  Before launching her own consultancy, she had a long career with a leading global professional services firm. Jan and I are also cousins.  Although you can't pick your relatives, Jan says she would have chosen my friendship  despite the "relative" connection.  (Aww shucks.) 

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Extensive research shows that, no matter how big or small the company, in any position you have some people who come to work every day and hit the ball out of the park... your top performers or stars.

And you also have people who come to work who are neither so good nor so bad as to call attention to themselves.  These are the average performers, or passengers along for the ride.

And then you have some who come in who you almost wish would stay home.  These are the bottom performers, who cause 66% of the problems managers must face.  Imagine what your managers could accomplish if 66% of their time were suddenly freed up.

People who come in to hit the ball out of the park have many things in common... how they approach their job, their attitude about work, how they process information and handle and de-fuse problems.  These commonalities can be effectively and objectively identified in order to accomplish several things that will help you make good personnel decisions:

*  You can predictively duplicate your star players in your hiring and promotion process, so you are more likely to hire and promote star performers every time.

*  You can evaluate average workers so you know immediately where to concentrate your efforts to coach and improve their performance, moving them up toward star level.

*  You can receive objective feedback that tells you, without exception, who, regardless of how much training, financial investment and mentoring, will never move up to star level.  Management guru Peter Drucker noted that most organizations spend more time, effort and resources trying to elevate incompetence to low mediocrity, rather than focusing on competence and elevating it to excellence.

What this allows you to do, as a caring and concerned employer, is to know objectively that you have not necessarily made a bad hire, but that you may have tried to fit the wrong person for that particular job.  That same person in another job (or maybe in another company) may become a star because he has the traits that are compatible with other star performers in that position -- or, in other words, a good job fit.  Harvard Business Review research shows that the most important factor in determining success in a job boils down to a good job fit.

This, then, gives you, the employer, emotional; permission to admit you've made a good decision in a person, but perhaps a misdirected decision in fitting the person to the particular job, saving you money, time and emotional investment... and leaving you and the employee feeling better about themselves.

So, the question remains... Are you hiring rabbits to swim and fish to run?

Jan Vincent can be reached at [email protected]

Other Voices: Is The Times shilling for Spitzer?

Guest blogger Rocco Sacci is a longtime friend and business associate.  We shared office space for many years and worked together on several public relations accounts.  He then became a client, when he moved west to become Director of PR and Communications for a giant logistics company.  I now see him a few times a year, when he heads south to the City from his home in the beautiful upper Hudson Valley to enjoy the opera and meet me for sushi.

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I am interested in knowing if other public relations and media professionals are struck (and perhaps stunned) by the intensity in which The New York Times is giving to the opinions of the disgraced Eliot Spitzer.

It is almost like the Times is running a private public relations campaign for Spitzer's political comeback, what with major feature stories on him almost every week in various sections of the newspapers. A few weeks ago, there was the front page positive profile on Spitzer in the Thursday Styles section. After reading it, I was perplexed to know just what the point of the article was, especially since it appeared in a lifestyle section. Does the Times think we should follow Spitzerism as a lifestyle?

Then, yesterday, on the front page of the Sunday Times, what do we have but another feature interview with the most stupefying headline: Spitzer on Cuomo: He's Driven, Often by Politics. Dah. Cuomo is political! He’s a politician. Is Spitzer really above politics? Not only did Spitzer fail the public trust with his immoral, unlawful acts, not to mention his disloyalty to his wife and family, but here is the Times trying to tell us that we should listen to what this man has to say about proper governance by other elected officials.

Is it me or do others find this strange and intriguing on why the Times has undertaken such an effort for a disgraced, disloyal and should-have-been-convicted of felony scoundrel?  And the Times is not alone. Several other media are providing Spitzer with platforms for his opinions on a wide range of subjects. Why, I wonder? And, in the final analysis, do any of really care what Spitzer has to say about anything?

I'm with Shel Silver: Eliot, shut up.

-- Rocco Sacci

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Editor's note: So that's what Rocco has to say. Anyone have thoughts to add?

Other Voices: Rush to Technology Outpaces Need to Use Intelligence

Other Voices

This guest post is by Kenneth J. Weiss, director of e-commerce for Hoover.  Ken has a new book out titled Slightware -- The Next Great Threat to Brands.  You can download the first chapter free at www.slightware.com.

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Companies are turning up the use of technology for marketing and operations.  Unfortunately, the rush to do it is outpacing the need to do it intelligently.  Last month, the brand hits kept on coming and, remarkably, companies thought they could shrug off brand damage with a carefully constructed press release.  Some examples...

App Absurdity

A few months ago, Apple took a huge PR hit when it released a "Shake the Baby" game in its App Store.  When the animated baby started to cry, the user needed to shake the iPhone until the baby stopped.  After a huge backlash, Apple simply removed the app and offered the typical "Sorry" press release.  Not to be outdone as the leading classless iPhone app, Pepsi launched one in October to help users "Score with women."  Enter the type of woman in question and the app would offer ways to make her feel bubbly.  The app got plenty of coverage, but nearly all of it was negative.

PhotoSchlock

The fashion industry has been hammered repeatedly for settinn impossible standards of "thinness" for women.  So how does Ralph Lauren respond?  By Photoshopping a model to non-human, stick-thin proportions and then firing her when she complained.  The story broke in mid-October when Fillipa Hamilton was fired for being overweight.  Ironically, the Photoshopped ad showing Fillipa was supposedly approved by Ralph Lauren himself.  The company claims the ad was only intended to run in Japan.  Somehow, an internationally known model and brand would be immune to the dynamics of the "World Wide Web," right?

Lose Data - Lose Customers

T-Mobile and Facebook are supposed to be brands that are good with technology.  Well... both suffered massive data problems last month.  T-Mobile experienced a glitch that compromised personal data and information for thousands of users.  The company eventually came clean and said "most" of the data had been recovered.  "Most?"  How well is the company perceived if you are one of the people not part of "most?"

Facebook took a page from the corner-crack-dealer playbook.  First it gets people addicted to checking their Facebook page with relentless emails, and then it blocks 150,000 people for nearl;y a week.  How bad do they want it now?  Some want it more and others have happily decided to go cold-turkey.

Banks You Can Trust - Technology You Can't

No industry has more trouble with consumer trust than banking.  October started with Rocky Mountain Bank attempting to explain why it sent confidential information of more than 1,000 customers to an unauthorized Gmail account.  Next, TD Bank, which bills itself as "the most convenient bank in America," had a technical problem that prevented deposits from showing up in people's accounts.  Convenience quickly turned to panic when paychecks were vaporized.  Bank of America followed with a glitch that stopped people from making ATM withdrawals.  The problem then expanded to drive-ins and tellers.  In all instances, competitive banks reported an increase in new customers.

The drive to do business faster and cheaper will continue to fuel the rush to technology, and mistakes are likely to continue.  Brands need to realize that an apology may make the brand people feel better, but the consumer will feel differently once they've been burned by the brand.

A note from David Reich:  Ken's piece points up the need to think things through carefully by trying to put yourself into the mind of customers and non-customers.  Had that been done, it's hard to imagine the examples of Ken's "App Absurdity" section would have advanced beyond the brainstorming session.

Embrace new technology, for sure.  But don't forget to use good old common sense as well.