THINKing

Media Bias?

OK, by now you know that I believe the media is biased beyond belief and that is a primary reason that print journalism is in the tank from a circulation perspective. The last time I brought this up, the liberals came out of the woodwork to skewer me. That’s OK. I’m a big boy. But don’t just take it from me.

Let’s hear from Michael Malone, a reporter who has been in the business for 30 years. He is one of the nation’s best-known technology writers. He has covered Silicon Valley and high-tech for more than 25 years, beginning with the San Jose Mercury News as the nation’s first daily high-tech reporter. His articles and editorials have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, the Economist and Fortune, and for two years he was a columnist for The New York Times. He was editor of Forbes ASAP, the world’s largest-circulation business-tech magazine, at the height of the dot-com boom. Malone is the author or co-author of a dozen books, notably the best-selling “Virtual Corporation.” Malone has also hosted three public television interview series, and most recently co-produced the celebrated PBS miniseries on social entrepreneurs, “The New Heroes.” He has been the ABCNews.com “Silicon Insider” columnist since 2000.

Writes Malone in a column for ABC News,

The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous game — with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own fates. The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling.

Malone, a fourth generation newspaperman, says that he now is too embarrassed to tell people what he does for a living. Like me, Malone understands that humans are biased. But in journalism school we were taught to try to rise above it. We were taught to ask the same kinds of tough questions of Democrats and Republicans, businessmen and workers no matter your opinion. Ask tough questions, present the facts and let the reader decide.

Malone says that we have moved far from that ideal.

No, what I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side — or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for the presidential ticket of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Joe Biden, D-Del.

Put aside any knee jerk reactions, read Malone’s article and then let me know what you think.

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Blame Weak Marketers Not Economy

OK, we have yet another story about an abysmal showing for newspapers. Circulation, according to USA Today, is down 4.6 percent for US newspapers overall. Says the national newspaper,

Circulation and advertising have been dropping at newspapers as readers continue to migrate to the Internet. Ad revenue began to decline more steeply this summer as the weak economy prompted advertisers to pull back on spending.

In this case, it is not the economy. Newspapers have failed in their marketing efforts for too long. For so many years they had a stranglehold on the news consumer. They believed their own news clippings; they drank the Kool-Aid. They served up what they thought news consumers wanted. But because journalists tend to have a high opinion of their own intellect, they thought they knew better than the reader what the reader wanted. How’s that working out for you major daily newspapers? Not too good.

As the media have become more partisan, they have lost readers from both sides of the aisle. The media have an agenda now and have moved beyond the original mission of a free press. What’s that mission? The Pagosa Free Press (Pagosa Springs, CO) has one of the best explanations I’ve seen:

We remain committed to the original mission of the free press in a free society — as a light, exposing corruption, fraud, waste and abuse of power wherever and whenever it is found.

Too bad there aren’t more major newspapers delivering on a similar mission.

Poor marketers look for an excuse like the economy, like the internet, like…well you get the picture. If you have a good product that meets the needs and wishes of your customer, you will retain your customers in good times and bad.

More on the newspaper circulation decline. And a post that agrees with me.

UPDATE: LA Times cuts more staff 

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Get Active

My lovely bride and mystery novelist par excellence, Terry Hoover, is the queen of the vivid verb. Read the first chapter of her book, Double Dead, to see what I mean.

This is one of the hardest things for most writers to get a handle on. Many writers tell their stories passively, and that puts readers to sleep. They don’t use active voice to move the story along. They do this because they think it makes them sound smarter. Au contraire.

I was in radio news years ago, and that probably helped me avoid most of the passive voice problems. Radio requires you to be conversational and passive voice is far from conversational.

Let’s look at a few examples of active and passive voice.

Which is better in your opinion: the boy was bitten by the dog or the dog bit the boy. I’ve got to go with active: the dog bit the boy. Here are some more examples at the Purdue University online writing lab.

So, remember, to liven up your writing, get active.

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Join My Cause

Today, I distributed a news release through PitchEngine about a new cause marketing program. Next week I’ll be announcing the details via the My Creative Team enewsletter, Think. I am making a $500 donation to Crisis Assistance Ministry, a non-profit that provides assistance and advocacy for people in financial crisis, helping them move toward self-sufficiency.

I’m involving readers by offering to give an additional $1 each time they forward the newsletter to a colleague. So, the total pot could be $1,000. Here’s how you can get involved. Sign up for my newsletter. When you receive the October 21 issue, use the forward feature in the newsletter to send it along to friends who might have an interest in marketing and PR. You must use the newsletter’s forward button so I can track the forwards.

Simple. You click a button and a very effective charity gets a $1 to help the working poor. Or, you can donate directly to Crisis Assistance yourself. I’m using Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and StumbleUpon, to name a few social media outlets, as a means of publicizing the cause, too.

What’s your cause? Let us know if we can help spread the word about your cause.

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More Cause

We talked about cause marketing recently, and I wanted to delve deeper into some of the findings of the Cone study we discussed.

Cone’s study not only shows that people say they will do more business with companies involved in a cause, but that they actually do more business with cause marketers.

Substantial cause-related sales lift for two of the four consumer packaged goods categories tested:

- 74% increase in actual purchase for a shampoo brand when associated with a cause (47% of participants who saw the cause-related message chose the brand while only 27% of those who saw the generic corporate advertisement chose the brand)

- 28% increase in actual purchase for a toothpaste brand when associated with a cause (64% of participants who saw the cause message chose the target brand vs. 50% who viewed the generic corporate advertisement)

- Modest increases in the other two product categories tested (chips and light bulbs) – Qualitative consumer responses showed that the issue, the nonprofit and the inherent nature of products were key factors in making cause-related purchasing decisions and helped explain why movement in these categories was not significant.

Top causes Americans want companies to be involved in include:

- Education – 80%

- Economic development (i.e.: job creation, income generation, wealth accumulation) 80%

- Health and disease – 79%

- Access to clean water – 79%

- Environment – 77%

- Disaster relief – 77%

- Hunger – 77%

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Leadership 101

Despite the financial mess we are in and the negative, woe is me media frenzy, America is going to be all right. In our relatively short national history, we have been through many trials and always have come out on top. It is the good people of this country – not the government, not elected officials – who are responsible for getting us through tough times. We will help family and friends and those less fortunate members of our communities. That’s what we do. It’s part of our character.

Americans don’t take orders very well, but we will take direction. From Bunker Hill to the beaches of Normandy, we have had leaders who have provided this function. George Washington, although not comfortable with public speaking, gave voice to the people by his actions. He suffered the same privations as his troops. And he acted audaciously – like his crossing of the frozen Delaware in the dead of night – when it was necessary.

During the financial panic of 1907, millionaire JP Morgan walked calmly onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and bought bank shares, restoring confidence in the markets.

There were the fireside chats of Franklin Roosevelt that reminded us of what we would have to do to defeat tyranny during World War II. Ronald Reagan, facing an economic malaise featuring mortgage rates as high as 17.5%, reminded us that we were Americans and we could do anything. He restored confidence and optimism in us and we worked our way out of the financial abyss.

What we don’t have right now is a leader who can give voice to the people, and remind us about our positive characteristics and abilities.

Today’s so-called leaders are too busy blamescaping. Now, there is plenty of blame to go around, but it goes back decades. So, as we discussed here recently – there is no need dredging it up right now. We need audacious leaders willing to direct our actions. Who will those leaders be? I’m guessing they won’t be elected officials. I’m also guessing that there will be a lot of local leaders ranging from the world of business to the church who mobilize us and remind us that we – as Americans – can do anything.

I’m sure some will criticize me for my positive outlook. It’s trendy to be negative and to complain about everything, not to trumpet American exceptionalism. But I believe what I’ve written and won’t apologize for it.

Marketers and communicators have the tools and the training, but do they have the audacity, do they have the fortitude to communicate from a positive position? Are you willing to lead? Let’s talk about how we can help our fellows weather this maelstrom.

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Wordle Up

Joe Pulizzi at Junta42 wrote recently about Wordle. Like Joe, I had forgotten about it and his reminder made me go over to see how the application would “see” THINKing.

It says it right there: positioning customers is what I do.

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Marketing For Just Cause – Part 2

As we discussed in part one, cause marketing – done correctly – can boost a company’s performance. Now, let’s take a look at the five steps you need to take in developing a successful cause marketing program.

Choose Your Cause Strategically. Search for a single charitable cause that you and your employees can believe in, as well as one that helps advance your business objectives. For instance, a company may choose an educational cause to ensure it has a continuing pool of well-educated workers. Many companies seek issues that align with their products, services or geographic service area. Others look for issues that resonate with niche audiences or that differentiate them in the marketplace. You may want to consider choosing an emerging issue. This way, your company will be a pioneer rather than just another in a list of companies.

Perform Due Diligence. Once you have identified the cause, check out the individual charities involved in that cause just as you would any other strategic ally. Do they deserve your support? What is their public perception? Are they well run? What are their objectives, goals, successes and failures? Who are their executives and board members? Do they have any complaints lodged against them? How much of their money goes to salaries and overhead and how much actually gets to those it serves? Are they capable of helping you access intended target markets? Visit Give.org to evaluate charities of interest to you. Below is a link to a site that helps you evaluate charities.

Establish Goals. Now that you have selected your charity, determine what it is you want to accomplish with your involvement from a business perspective. There are tangible and intangible goals you can reach through cause marketing. Are you looking for networking opportunities at the board or donor level? Do you want to raise your business’ profile through publicity about your involvement? Are you trying to build employee or customer loyalty? Or, do you just want to shore up support in your home community? Set your goals and then you can determine what resources, both time and money, to budget for the cause.

Dive In. Although writing a check to the cause will help, this should not be the extent of your participation. Choose a single cause and maintain a focused campaign that integrates the cause into the very fabric of your organization. Look at other ways to expand your involvement. Serve on the board. Become a volunteer for your selected cause. Encourage employees to get involved in projects with the selected charity. Give them a “charitable time” budget each month that lets them use business hours to perform their service with your chosen cause. Strategic allies and even customers may want to be involved if you have selected your cause wisely.

Communicate. Develop a simple, direct and compelling message that not only explains the cause but the reason your company is involved. Explain how purchases – if part of the program – are directed into the cause and how that contribution will affect it. Then, promote the cause in customer mailings and in your advertising. Create joint events with your nonprofit partner to attract customers, prospects and media coverage.

Selecting and supporting the right cause for your company can build profit, brand equity, as well as employee and customer loyalty, while improving the world. So, what could be better than that?

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Marketing For Just Cause

Cause marketing is a relationship between a for-profit and a nonprofit that brings in money and resources for the nonprofit, while providing credibility and goodwill for the business. According to the IEG Sponsorship Report, this category will grow to $1.5 billion in the US in 2008.

There are a number of reasons for that growth. A Cone survey found that:

- 85% of Americans say they have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about (remains unchanged from 1993)

- 85% feel it is acceptable for companies to involve a cause in their marketing (compared to 66% in 1993)

- 79% say they would be likely to switch from one brand to another, when price and quality are about equal, if the other brand is associated with a good cause (compared to 66% in 1993)

- 38% percent have bought a product associated with a cause in the last 12 months (compared to 20% in 1993)

As you can see, adopting good causes can be beneficial, but your company’s involvement should be planned just as you plan any other business activity. Tomorrow, we’ll look at five steps toward developing an effective cause marketing program.

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Go Ask Alice – Part 2

In part 1, we discussed positioning and positioning statements. Today, let’s talk about how to develop an effective positioning statement.

My approach to developing an effective positioning statement and an actionable marketing plan begins with gaining a clear understanding of your business’ acumen, what truly differentiates your organization and your market. Here’s how we go about it, and you can too:

- interviews with management and employees to learn job responsibilities, current marketing practices, as well as to surface questions for customer interviews

- a review of appropriate primary and secondary research

- a series of one-on-one customer interviews

Customer interviews allow us to probe for information such as:

- how customers perceive your “product” and other products in the category. what the customer wants from the product category he is not now receiving. what is the primary customer benefit of your product

- how your customers currently position your brand. how customers perceive your competitors

- what media habits, lifestyles do customers share. what industries do they work in, what are their titles, what associations do they belong to

- how do customers want to be communicated with

Once all the information is in, you may develop a positioning statement that clearly says who you are, defines your audiences, indicates what markets you are targeting, and states what makes you different from your competitors.

Once this is done, everyone knows where they are going and then it’s easy to find the right path.

Do you have a positioning statement? Share it with us.

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