Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
“You don’t sell yourself. You are yourself.” With that statement, Mark Canlis, of the renowned Canlis restaurant, summed up his establishment’s marketing strategy. The Canlis brothers, Mark and Brian, spoke at February’s Puget Sound chapter of the American Marketing Association (PSAMA) lunch, covering their experiences in marketing, public relations, and brand management strategy.
The restaurant has a lengthy history in Seattle. The family-operated business was started by the brothers’ great-grandfather, who swam from Greece to Turkey during an economic downturn, walked to Cairo, and then started his career in hospitality at a hotel. His son, Peter Canlis, eventually journeyed to Hawaii, where he is credited with popularizing the famed Officer’s Club.
With the coinciding passage of a new Washington state law allowing liquor in restaurants, and a direct Hawaii-to-Seattle flight, Peter left for the “Emerald City” and started Canlis. The restaurant, taking advantage of the new legislation, became the first to serve liquor in the entire city. Peter is described as a visionary, who was committed to being the industry best.
Peter’s son, Chris, and his wife Alice, ran the restaurant for 30 years, and focused on fine tuning the hospitality side of the business. Now Chris and Alice’s sons – Mark and Brian – find themselves running a 61-year-old brand as young men. The two are attempting to combine the legacies of both their grandfather and father, attempting to be the industry best while still placing a high value on hospitality.
Canlis does not have a marketing team, a public relations firm, or a social media strategist. Mark and Brian are in charge of all publicity, and they have a limited marketing expense budget. The two do not look to traditional marketing strategies, but instead are focused on the following:
- Changing Perceptions. The duo believes that perception is reality. At the lunch, they requested that each table come up with an adjective to describe Canlis. Some of the descriptions offered were: excellent, elite, and hoity-toity. The brothers emphasized the importance of perception and explained that their job is to alter perceptions of the Canlis brand to fit their vision. They’re doing do this by changing the dining experience and communication around it.
- Establishing Canlis Values. The Canlis brothers came up with three values that represent their ideal business image: trustworthiness, generosity, and other-centricity. Other-centricity is the antithesis of self-centeredness. The values serve as a framework for decision making and brand building.
- Knowing What They Sell. People are not drawn to Canlis just for the food, but visit the restaurant in part for the experience. Canlis works to ensure that people’s experience is special and memorable. They want to create an irreplaceable evening for their guests.
- Hiring the Right People. Mark and Brian are extremely committed to their hiring process. From the valets to waitresses, the service staff at Canlis give the restaurant’s first impression to a consumer, and play an important role in their dining experience. The Canlis interview process is designed to get past surface level information by asking questions about how the interviewee’s goals align with Canlis’ values.
- Committing to Social Media. Despite claiming not to believe in marketing, the brothers are committed to social media. They compared social media to a grade school crush: if you want the cute girl in class to notice you, you need to study her and have something to offer her. This is what social media allows you to do with your consumer base. The brothers recently experimented with a Facebook campaign to gain votes for their head chef. The campaign was creative, and offered a secret prize to customers paying close enough attention, which leads to the brothers’ next point…
- Offering Rewards During Social Media Campaigns. Marketing is relational, and relationships are built on trust. One of the brand values established by Canlis is trustworthiness, and they integrate this into their social media campaigns by ensuring that their campaigns are always rewarding to their consumers. This type of streamlined thinking around brand values is exactly what Mark and Brian’s main point was:
- Aligning every aspect of your business with your values. Every campaign the restaurant engages in is based on their three established values: trustworthiness, generosity, and other-centricity. For example, the restaurant hosted a scavenger hunt that recently garnered media attention. The final challenge of the scavenger hunt required the community to unite and search for clues that would lead to an unknown “special prize.” All that was known about the prize was that, once found, it would need to be given away. The idea of giving away the prize aligned with Canlis’ values of being generous and focused on others, while the community-driven activity contributed to Canlis’ trustworthiness. The project did not just help achieve publicity for the restaurant, but continued to build their brand.
The Canlis brothers offered insight into the common challenges experienced in the public relations and marketing fields. They are responsible for an older brand, and need to find ways to negotiate keeping their brand current while maintaining and staying consistent with its historical reputation. Mark and Brian Canlis have found ways to be creative, efficient, and consistent with their marketing strategy—or lack thereof, according to them. Their advice boils down to one main point: determine your brand’s values, and streamline your thinking around them. For Canlis, this means centering the dining experience, and all communication around trustworthiness, generosity, and other-centricity.
LinkedIn recently announced the addition of a new “Follow Company” button to its social networking site. I’m a big fan of LinkedIn and, in fact, a few of us at Communiqué PR have written about it over the last several months. With 150 million members and greater than two million member companies, it’s evident that LinkedIn is increasing in value as a brand marketing tool. According to LinkedIn, companies including American Express, AT&T and Starbucks, have already committed to adding the button to their sites
The new “Follow Company” button enables brands to embed a new link on their homepages. The idea is akin to “liking” a brand on Facebook or following them on Twitter. Users will receive automatic updates on company news directly from the brands they choose in their LinkedIn feeds.
Not only does this feature allow LinkedIn to move beyond just being a great networking tool, but it also compels its member companies to be heads-up: It’s contingent on the brands that use the tool to add news items or links to their blog. After all, people sign up for a reason: They want information. It’s also important for company’s who commit to the service to remember what LinkedIn is all about.
First and foremost, LinkedIn is primarily a professional networking site. Sharing company news and information, until now at least, has been secondary. Brands need to consider who is using LinkedIn and for what purpose when they’re deciding what to post. The news feeds that their followers will be interested in are those that help them connect with their peers and enhance their professional network. News feeds, job postings, and industry trends are reasons why users will want to follow a brand on LinkedIn.
From a brand perspective, including the “Follow Company” button can help to generate brand awareness for a company and increase the number of brand loyalists. It’s the best kind of cheap – free! – and is an easy way to grow your presence on LinkedIn to engage your target audience and potential employees.
Ready to get started? Just head over to LinkedIn’s developer website to get the button and add it to your website.
There seemed to be a recurring theme during the recent Academy Awards: get people back in movie theater seats.
The annual awards show highlighted the magic of the movie-going experience and attempted to reinvigorate excitement in the audience around movie-theater attendance. This was no coincidence for the Academy, as it seemed to be a direct response to movie theater ticket sales from 2011 and overall industry trends from the past two decades. In 2011, the industry experienced a 16-year low at the box office. Ticket sales were the lowest they had been since 1996 and theater attendance had fallen 10 percent since 1999 (more when this percentage is measured with the growth of the population). To top it off, streaming and DVD rental services, such as Netflix and Redbox, as well as online piracy have driven people out of theaters and away from high ticket prices.
To revamp the experience of movie-going and address the continuing problems the industry faces, Sunday’s broadcast employed a number of strategic techniques during its almost four-hour airing:
- It created a compelling story: In their book Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR, Communiqué PR’s Jennifer Gehrt and Colleen Moffitt outline the importance of crafting a compelling story. One of the most crucial aspects is arousing the audience’s emotions, not just the intellect. Arousing emotions draws the audience in and has the power to shift perceptions. In the case of last Sunday’s Academy Awards, the show was filled with monologues from famous actors and actresses recounting their movie-theater experiences as youth. The storytelling was extremely impactful because it came from prominent names in the movie industry and instantly made viewers look back on their own movie-going experiences. Furthermore, the actors and actresses discussed their favorite movies and what aspects of those movies inspired them to do their work today. This all allowed viewers to connect and relate with the actors and actresses on a more personal level and receive the message in a unique way.
- It gave a salute to tradition: The Academy Awards did a great job of heralding yesteryear as a means to capture the audience’s attention toward the beauty of film. Nothing drew more connection to the past than numerous nominations and wins for movies such as The Artist and Midnight in Paris. It is clear that the industry attempted to invoke the incredible history of cinema as a way to stimulate movie interest in viewers. Other approaches to tradition included a performance by Esperanza Spalding of Louis Armstrong’s jazz jewel, “What a Wonderful World,” which wowed audience members as a slideshow of movie-industry members who had passed in 2011 played on the big screen. Furthermore, Cirque du Soleil performed what looked like an ode to the theater with a 1920s twist. Overall, the Oscars this year went all out to bring back the traditional values connected to the movie-going experience and implant them in the minds of present-day audiences.
- It reignited the premium of something already in place: Movie-going is not a new activity and does not need to be established in society – it just needs to be reintroduced and reinvigorated. Although new and exciting tactics are indeed highly strategic when creating a message or revamping an image of any company or organization, it is often important to reflect on what you know best and what you know is effective. In the past, the Academy Awards show has received marginal television ratings and responses. This year, the Academy took an approach to recapture a formula that has worked best for them in the past. The show featured well-known and respected comedian Billy Crystal as host for the ninth time. The salute to tradition, as stated earlier, also reflected the recapturing of a successful formula. Combined, these things heralded the classic days of the Academy Awards and connected well with the main viewing audience.
Overall, ratings for the 84th Academy Awards increased from the past few years – but it still garnered mixed reactions and reviews from around the web. What did you think about the Academy Awards message and approach? Do you think it was successful in reinvigorating the “magic of the movies?”
Our vision at Communiqué is to provide compelling, effective and results-driven public relations services that succeed on multiple levels for our clients. Guiding us in our work is a set of simple yet dynamic core values. These values provide a beacon by which we live and conduct our business, a basis for our actions, and a framework for our team:
- Deliver Superior Results – We are dedicated to producing stellar work at every turn, driven by our commitment to developing strong ideas, executing well-integrated programs, and delivering superior results for our clients.
- Embrace Client Service and Partnership – We operate with a strong set of client-service ethics that put our clients first. That means establishing clear, shared expectations, meeting deadlines with consistency, adding value in every interaction, and demonstrating every step of the way that we truly care.
- Collaborate and Work as a Team – We value highly collaborative and supportive relationships in all areas: with co-workers, vendors, and clients who appreciate having an agency at their side to help them meet company objectives. We embrace a spirit of mutually supportive teamwork to help us accomplish more than we would be able to do on our own. We also actively look for ways to leverage individual strengths.
- Nurture a Proactive, Positive Spirit – We show a decided willingness to take action and do so in an enthusiastic, passionate and energetic manner. This means through our good humor and can-do attitude, we inspire, empower and encourage one another.
- Think Strategically – We think through problems to determine the best solution and strategies. It is a distinct approach that allows us to see around the next corner to choose the best path on our journey to deliver meaningful results.
- Foster Creativity – We strive to foster creativity with the understanding that the creative idea needs to be both original and useful. To do this, we encourage brainstorming, reading, learning and curiosity, and keep an open mind when new ideas are shared.
- Take Time to Celebrate and Create Fun – We set goals and work with focus to achieve them, and when we accomplish a big milestone – or help our clients hit one – we think it’s a good idea to celebrate the achievement. We believe the best teams are ones in which people have work-life balance and genuine bonds with each other.
- Act With Integrity – We adhere to a consistent set of actions, methods, principles and expectations. Our outcomes, and ultimately our successes, are driven by honesty and transparency with each other and our clients and partners.
- Be Respectful – There is tremendous honor and self-esteem in showing respect – for our clients, our colleagues, our company, and ourselves. We treat others as we wish to be treated. It is an ideal for which we strive in all facets of our professional and personal lives.
- Embrace Growth and Change – The world of public relations has changed tremendously in the past five to ten years and we expect it to continue to change as new trends and technologies emerge. In addition to these external changes, Communiqué PR is growing. These shifts in the landscape, coupled with our firm’s growth, means we are adding new people, investing in professional development, partnering with new clients, and solving new problems. All of this presents new challenges and opportunities, requiring that we prepare for and embrace change.
This just in! U.S. News & World Report recently released its “Best Jobs of 2012” list, which is based on the Labor Department’s employment projections surrounding professions that should be abundantly hiring over the next several years. Given this forecast, I made a stellar choice in my career path as “public relations specialist” tops the list for best creative services job in 2012 and is ranked 41st overall.
The advent and increased eruption of social media has created a whole new ball game for companies to engage. In today’s social media dominated world, employing a traditional media relations program is no longer enough to gain thought leadership and increase visibility. Now, companies must push the PR envelope and embrace a truly integrated communication approach which may include reputation management, crisis communication strategies, social media engagement, branding and more. With no signs of social media innovations slowing down, this large piece of the communication pie is largely being assigned to PR departments and agencies, leading to more robust scopes of work for PR professionals.
According to Gerard Corbett, chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), it’s the “onset of social infrastructure such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest, combined with the versatility of Web tools” that has created a boom in public relations jobs. In addition, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects public relations positions to grow 22.5 percent between 2010 and 2020, which means an additional 58,200 job openings.
Corbett notes a public relations specialist position requires writing skills, critical thinking ability, fast turnaround, patience, a thick-skin mentality, and creativity. He also adds “wallflowers need not apply—public relations specialists must have an outgoing, self-confident, and friendly personality,” and we at Communiqué PR completely agree!
So, speaking of growth, Communiqué PR is looking for an experienced Account Manager. If you, or someone you know, values creativity, highly collaborative relationships and delivering quality work, please visit our careers page.
Over the past several months, communication professionals and practitioners in the public relations industry have been buzzing about a new campaign designed to redefine a specific industry: our very own. In November 2011, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the PR industry’s largest organization, launched in international campaign called “Public Relations Defined” to modernize the definition of public relations. Why?
The PRSA’s existing definition, which was last updated by the organization in 1982, defines public relations as “helping an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” Needless to say, it’s an ill-defined definition that does not reflect the changes in our industry that have fundamentally changed how we communicate and engage with customers, consumers and the general public. Before social media, public relations was focused on identifying, communicating and managing a company’s message to different audiences. It was very much a one-way dialogue. Today, our role has evolved to initiating and facilitating an ongoing conversation with various audiences, utilizing content developed not only by us and our clients, but also others to influence opinions and decisions.
Gerard F. Corbett, PRSA chair and CEO, accurately articulated how our profession has evolved in his op-ed piece in The Drum on Feb. 6, 2012 by stating “public relations has evolved from a largely media relations-based discipline to a modern profession steeped in a complex mix of stakeholder engagement, reputation management and services that blend paid, earned and owned media (i.e., advertising, PR and marketing).” Given this, it is only fitting PRSA’s campaign to develop a new industry definition uses a crowd-sourcing model.
For a two-week period beginning November 20, 2011, PRSA enabled members and non-members to submit suggestions via their website by completing the following form: “they [do what] with/for [whom] to [do what] for [what purpose].” According to PRSA’s analysis, “more than 927 definitions were submitted, comprising 15,688 words; and more than 80 comments, many of which offered ‘free-form’ definitions.” Once the submission period was closed, PRSA shared this word cloud to provide a snapshot of the key words submitted.
PRSA and the 12 other professional partners involved in this campaign reviewed the submissions and drafted three finalists that were posted to the website for public voting. The “task force” once again tallied the votes, reviewed industry articles, blogs and comments made by readers on the campaign, debated further and revised the final three candidate definitions. They were posted once again on PRSA’s website for the public to vote on which definition best defines public relations. They are:
- Public relations is the management function of researching, communicating and collaborating with publics to build mutually beneficial relationships.
- Public relations is the strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.
- Public relations is the strategic process of engagement between organizations and publics to achieve mutual understanding and realize goals.
As you can imagine, these definitions have continued to fuel conversation and debate about our profession, which is not surprising. Our role as communication professionals is complex and diverse. Everyone in this industry – whether you are an individual or an agency – has a different role, different set of responsibilities and a different approach. Developing a single definition that summarizes our profession collectively is a major endeavor, and one that will most likely not please everyone. Which is why it is important to remember the goal of PRSA’s initiative, (and note the underlined words are ones I have specifically highlighted of importance): “to devise a baseline definition that captures the core essence of what it is public relations professionals do; one that every professional could reference, use and improve upon by adding context specific to what they do, and how they do it.”
While we wait for the final definition to be unveiled by PRSA, our team at Communiqué PR continues to remain grounded in the belief that through a strategic approach our efforts help our clients accomplish their toughest business objectives. Whether it is building a brand or maintaining its reputation, recruiting talent, driving sales or gaining market share, we take great pride in engaging in conversations across the various communication landscapes to share our client’s stories in a clear and compelling manner to shape the public’s perception.