Britton Manasco sparked an interesting discussion over the weekend on PR, influencers and the caliber of a client’s vision messaging. Britton’s take:
PR firms, too often, are letting their executive clients down. They are encouraging them to stroll out in the public square unclothed and unprepared. Result? Their clients are exposed as leaders without vision… It seems to me that too few have the strengths, expertise and capabilities necessary to help their clients develop and articulate a powerful vision.
I agree with Britton that CEOs and other corporate leaders need to differentiate themselves and their companies with a compelling vision of their market. There are too few CEOs who inspire us with a vision of where we are and where we could go.
We disagree somewhat on how much of a role a traditional PR team can be expected to play in the development of vision. I say less, Britton says more.
In my experience, vision is not a PR project. Vision isn’t the result of a messaging brainstorm. It comes from everyday dialogue and reading and observation. The group of people best equipped to inspire and nuture a CxO’s vision come from inside the company and from the CxO’s peers also deeply engaged in the marketplace — external thought leaders from the ranks of management consultants, competitors, partners, academics, etc.
Check out Britton’s post and comments from Chris Selland, Ardath Albee and Steve Parker and me.
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I’ll be at BiteBash in San Francisco tonight, “Navigating Your Brand through the Great Recession”. It’s such a timely topic. Bite’s David Hargreaves sums up the risks and opportunities that surround marketing right now:
“Harvard Business Review recently reported that companies who slash marketing spending often find that they later have to invest much more than they saved in order to recover from their prolonged absence from the media landscape. A separate article from Harvard Associate Dean John A. Quelch suggests organizations should even be spending more during a downturn to exploit the gaps left by their competitors.”
I’m focused on working with influencers as a straightforward approach to aligning marketing with business objectives so I’m keen to hear perspectives from the different speakers and the audience participants.
Please say hello if you’re there as well.
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Think the media is losing its power to influence the public? Apparently, many Americans would disagree. A poll released today by Opinion Research Corporation finds Americans blaming the U.S. media for making the economic situation worse.
77% of the 1,000 polled believe that the U.S. financial press is “damaging consumer confidence and damping investment” by focusing on and embellishing negative news.
This poll demonstrates a fundamental truth about the influence of media: Americans turn to the media first for bad news, and then for other news. Bad news sells, and everybody knows it. (If you want proof points, see the latest Pew Research Center study showing Disaster, Money and Conflicts stories got the most attention 1986-2006.)
That’s why companies get only a small spike of attention from a company press release, and such a onslaught of negative publicity when caught with their corporate pants down.
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