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.
After two African American men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks for asking to use the restroom without purchasing something, the nation wondered how the giant conglomerate would handle such a polarizing crisis. Not long after the video of the confrontation with police and hashtags to boycott the coffeeshop went viral, Starbucks rolled out an impressive crisis management plan. Here are three lessons that businesses can learn from Starbucks’ quick and effective response.
1. Validate the public’s concerns quickly
When a crisis such as this (or any crisis for that matter) occurs, it is most important to validate the public’s concerns before acting further. When the video went viral, the public needed to know first and foremost that Starbucks recognized that there was a problem in its racial profiling of the two African American men. In order to validate concerns that Starbucks employees could be racist, CEO Kevin Johnson issued a memo asserting that, “Starbucks stands firmly against discrimination or racial profiling. … The video shot by customers is very hard to watch and the actions in it are not representative of our Starbucks Mission and Values.” Even though the company was still working to establish the facts of the incident, accepting responsibility and showing empathy served Starbucks well as it continued its efforts to address the crisis.
2. Take concrete action
In a racially charged crisis such as this, an apology posted from the company Twitter handle is simply not enough. First, Kevin Johnson, Howard Schultz and other executive members immediately flew to Philadelphia to meet the two men and personally apologize and speak to employees at the Philadelphia store. Additionally, Starbucks proved that actions speak louder than words when it announced that 8,000 stores nationwide would close on May 29 for racial bias training, saying, “Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities.” The training for over 175,000 employees is projected to cost Starbucks over $7 million in lost revenue, not to mention the actual cost and implementation of the training program into Starbucks’ onboarding process. These concrete actions enabled Starbucks to insert its own dialogue rather than letting the media take control of the narrative.
3. Coverage-tracking is key
Although apologies and plans for further action have been made, the internet can reinvigorate the issue in a split second. Starbucks demonstrated how important it is to diligently monitor the situation when it got its own taste of fake news. When fake coupons began to circulate online promising a free beverage to any person of color, Starbucks was effective in preventing the internet trolls from deepening the hurt that the crisis caused and even using the coupons to its advantage. After a spokesperson for Starbucks denied any connection to the fake coupons, Starbucks noticed a positive response on social media to the coupons and decided to make them a reality:“We here at Starbucks are very sorry to hear about people being tricked into believing a hoax … we’ve decided to make it a reality.” What could have been an entirely new and dangerous facet to the public-bathroom crisis became a way for Starbucks to facilitate dialogue and rectify its wrongdoings.
As a result of its crisis response, could Starbucks come out on top? Will the May 29 racial bias training be considered effective? Time will tell – stay tuned!
Every brand wants customers to be their brand ambassadors on social media, and what better way to do this than creating an engaging pop-up activation that followers can visit and post about.
Instagram is one of the most public channels that consumers use to discover and learn more about brands, as well as share branded experiences such as visiting their favorite pop-up shop or event. For your next pop-up, leverage the power of social media and create Instagrammable moments. Here are some ideas you can implement at your next activation:
1. Catchy Phrases
A simple way to promote social-sharing at your pop-up is by creating signs with unique phrases. Figure out, depending on your brand, event and attendees, what will appeal most to them, such as humor, aiming to inspire, or showing off your brand personality in a different way.
There are several ways you can pull this off, such as:
• Chalkboards
• Framed pictures with text
• Visual displays
• Lights on walls or floors
• Neon light signs (like the Kate Spade Saturday Pop-Up Shop)
2. Unique Design Features
Fun Walls
Incorporating fun visuals on your walls serves as the perfect selfie backdrop. In some cases, it can even be the focal point of an image shared on Instagram or other social channels.
When it comes to the walls of your pop-up, get creative. Use patterned wallpaper, scenic backdrops or interactivity to create a moment that’s worth sharing. Frankie + Jo’s Plant Based Ice Cream has successfully knocked this out of the park with their palm wallpaper that takes this little ice cream shop from a tasty treat to a photo-worthy destination.
Funky Floors
Much like walls, floors can also set the stage for a visually appealing Instagram shot. Rather than the “traditional” selfie, unique flooring is the perfect backdrop for the foot selfie. If you’re a footwear brand, you may want to pay extra attention to the floors — this is a great way to get your product featured on social media.
Fancy Fixtures
Unique fixtures such as lighting or door knobs/handles can also create buzz on social media. Use themed fixtures to match your event, enhance your brand image, or add to the customer experience.
3. Leverage Pop Culture
Your brand doesn’t have to be front-and-center of every aspect of your pop-up. Instead, focus on your audience and what interests them. Pop culture trends can be a great source of inspiration to create Instagram-worthy shots.
Google tapped into the popularity of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” series with its New York City pop-up. They recreated the visually iconic living room with letters and lights on the wall. Shots of the living room are all over Instagram.
4. Shareable Experiences
We all hear about the importance of meaningful brand experiences. This is no different when it comes to social sharing. Create memorable, shareable experiences through your pop-up to organically encourage posting to Instagram and other social channels.
Here’s an example: Brit + Co hosted the #CreateGood pop-up to establish a physical experience of the online community they’ve cultivated. The pop-up was all about empowering women, and it was widely shared on Instagram.
5. Social-Sharing Prompts
One of the most effective ways to create social sharing is to prompt your guests to do so. One way to do this is to create a hashtag and include it on all visuals (such as signage, programs, etc.). Including your social handles is another way to gain more followers through the pop-up experience, too.
Recently, I stumbled across an article in The New York Times that I thought would be helpful to those of us with a commitment to continuous improvement. The article is titled, “How to Spot and Overcome Your Hidden Weaknesses,” and focuses on how challenging it is for people to truly assess their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to skill and abilities.
Surprisingly, the less experienced people are at something, the greater the probability that they will overestimate their abilities. This is because when you are not skilled at something, you don’t see your shortcomings and mistakes. 
Consider my endeavor to write a novel. I’m a novice at creative writing, and when I wrote my first chapter I thought it was good. However, my classmates at the Hugo House have had plenty of feedback for me. They’ve had suggestions around the balance between in-scene action and summarized information, thoughts about dialogue, and suggestions about how to increase the stakes for my protagonist – and these are just a few of the examples.
I’ve been working on my book for 18 months and the more I learn, the more I realize how hard the process can be. Apparently, this is not uncommon. The more skills and knowledge people develop, the more likely they are to underestimate their abilities and talent.
Worse yet, when you’re skilled at something, it is often easy to assume that others also are skilled at it too. For instance, maybe you’re an expert skier and find yourself skiing with a friend who is less experienced who you end up taking on a double-black diamond run. You’re not showing off, you’ve simply assumed your friend can do it as well. No problem, right?
Wrong. Not everyone shares the same skill level. Fortunately, in his article Tim Herrera points out that there are two steps we can take to obtain more accurate perceptions of our abilities.
Tim writes, “First, ask for feedback. It’s not easy, and it can sometimes be tough to hear, but outside input is crucial to shining a light on your blind spots.” In his article he includes a link for tips to getting and giving better feedback.
His second suggestion is to keep learning and building skills. The more experience you have doing something, the better you’ll be at assessing problem areas. For more on learning, I’d encourage you to read these posts about learning how to learn as well.
• Learning How to Learn: The Chunking Puzzle
• Master Your Mental Toolbox 2018
I found Tim’s article to be inspiring and helpful. I am going to continue to apply these best practices in both my professional and personal lives.
Last week at our Communiqué PR brownbag, Melissa Cafiero, a past Communiqué employee and current senior communications manager at Projectline for Microsoft Windows NEXT, took time out of her week to share insight about her experience managing internal communications. As an experienced PR and corporate communications executive, Melissa is passionate about helping organizations uncover the most meaningful way to interact with its audiences.
It was great to have Melissa in our office and learn about the types of situations she navigates as a senior consult and especially the differences (and similarities) she sees between public relations and internal communications. We all had an “aha” moment when she shared that one of the biggest nuances of internal communications is that you are developing messages for an audience to which you belong.
Internal 
To provide a quick refresher, internal, or often referred to as corporate, communications takes place when the members of an organization communicate with each other. These messages can range from company announcements, staffing updates, emergency alerts, or other internal matters that directly impact members of the team. Typically only larger organizations (more than 100 employees) will have dedicated corporate communications teams or representatives.
External
External communications, which we exercise in public relations, is the exchange of messages to an outside audience such as the media, customers, potential employees and customers, competitors and more. These messages vary, but are often similar to the updates shared in internal communications (i.e., company announcements, executive changes, etc.), but are tailored specifically to an external audience.
Somewhere in the middle
In addition to the receiver, a large differentiator between internal and external communications is the cadence and medium in which messages are shared. Mastering these two elements (both in external and internal communications) is critical to have success with these efforts. For example, employees’ preferences for receiving updates will vary, just as the different types of news journalists want to receive.
Cadence
Melissa shared the example of some employees preferring updates from a CEO once a year, while others would opt to receive an update every month. Finding the happy middle and rhythm can be difficult. For internal communications, the answer can usually be found in understanding company culture; whereas for external, it’s especially important to determine the objectives of your audience (i.e., whether or not a reporter or their readers will care about the news, etc.), which can be difficult to decipher if you are not a member of the audience. In addition, pitching a journalist or sending employees emails too often or not often enough can be distracting, ineffective and even take away from their perception of yourself or your company’s brand.
Medium
In public relations, the communication medium is pretty standard and does not change too frequently. We interact with media via email, phone and through company messages (i.e., press releases, blogs, social media, etc.).
However, for corporate communications the way the executive team decides to communicate with its employees can change drastically and will vary depending on the subject of the news. The answer to selecting the correct medium for a specific message again boils down to understanding company culture. Take for example a crisis situation or prominent executive announcement: Most employees would prefer to hear about this news before it is released to the public. To make matters more complicated, not all employees will agree on how the message is shared (i.e., email, text or via a company’s private intranet page, etc.).
Corporate communications teams have to strategically navigate employees’ preferences, taking into account their own inclinations and direction from upper management. One way corporate communications teams can find this balance is through issuing corporate surveys to determine shared preferences and dislikes among the employees.
Our time with Melissa was limited, but we could have gone on for hours asking questions about how her experience in PR has shaped her strategy and perspective in her new corporate communications role. One last tip she left us with is to always consider how an employee may react to a specific piece of news or headline. Applying this level of detail and putting ourselves in the employees’ shoes will help build and enforce a strong company culture for our clients, as well as allow us to practice and inform more strategic council.
We’re thankful for the insight Melissa shared and look forward to applying it into our work.
One of my professional goals for 2018 is to hone my business-development skills, and multiple people have recommended the book, “The New Strategic Selling,” by Robert B. Miller and Stephen E. Heiman, as an excellent foundation with which to begin.
As I read the book in the weeks ahead, I’ll share some of my key takeaways in a three-part blog series. This post will address part one, which focuses on selling strategically.
At its highest level, The New Strategic Selling focuses on how to manage sales processes in a “complex sales cycle,” which is defined as “one in which several people must give th
eir approval before the sale can take place.” This seems straightforward enough, but it was valuable for me to understand the various elements involved with that complex sales cycle, including:
• The buying organization has multiple options;
• The selling organization has multiple options;
• In both organizations, numerous levels of responsibility are involved;
• The buying organizations decision-making process is complex – meaning, it is seldom self-evident to an outsider.
The reality is that there is never a single way to enter into a complex sales or buying process, and there is never a single decision-maker when it comes to complex sales situations. Recognizing that the process is multi-faceted and complex is the first step in determining how you then build out your sales strategy.
Miller and Heiman then lay out the key roles involved with a complex sale: 1) the economic buyer, 2) the user buyer, 3) the technical buyer, and 4) the coach.
In order for a sales campaign to be effective, it has to resonate with every one of these buyers – not just one – and connect with their motivations and responsibilities. The economic buyer, for example, will likely be focused on the return-on-investment and overall value provided by the seller. In comparison, the user buyer will be more involved with the product on a day-to-day basis and will likely care more about its ease-of-use and performance, or its ability to help them in their current role.
What’s enjoyable about this book is that its lessons apply not just directly to sales and business development, but to how we as PR and communications professionals counsel our clients about their businesses. In our case, when an organization decides to bring on a PR and communications agency, there are often several stakeholders involved with the decision-making process. These can range from the CEO, CFO, marketing and PR managers and other business unit managers.
Recognizing that our clients have multiple stakeholders involved as they sell and promote their products has also been valuable for me to understand, in that the PR and communications programs and tactics that I recommend need to align with the needs and priorities of my clients’ stakeholders (my colleague Colleen Moffitt recently posted about ways to secure stakeholder buy-in here).
The New Strategic Selling also lays out multiple premises of strategic selling, including this: “In the complex sale, a good tactical plan is only as good as the strategy that led up to it.” This echoes much of the business model we employ at Communiqué PR, in that all of our activities – every press release, every media pitch, and so on – must align with our clients’ business and communications objectives. At the end of the day, our activities must help our clients to move their businesses forward. Which is similar to the messages in The New Strategic Selling: “Strategy is a pre-requisite for tactical success. … Strategy is, in fact, the single most neglected element in selling today.”
Too often PR becomes associated with simply pushing out the next press release versus taking the time to pause and evaluate how the news (if there is, indeed, a hard news element) will impact the business on a strategic level. Do the activities being recommended address the needs of all the key stakeholders involved?
Beginning to think in this way will have far-reaching benefits not just for business development purposes but for client counsel and account management.
I look forward to continuing this book, and to sharing my findings in my next blog post. The next portion I’ll be discussing will be around how to “Lay the Foundation of Strategic Analysis” and creating uncommon solutions to common solutions.
One of the many tasks that public relations (PR) agencies perform on a regular basis is tracking editorial coverage. In most cases, we track coverage that is expected, such as a story based on a press release, or a by-lined article placement. On other occasions, we may be looking for unexpected coverage, for instance from a crisis. Whatever the scenario, coverage tracking is important and can take significant time.
Luckily, there are quite are a few tips and tools to make coverage tracking and analysis more manageable. For those starting out in PR, here are some of my tips:
- Set up Google Alerts. Google alerts are a terrific way to track coverage. To set these up, I recommend brainstorming key words on the topic you want to track. For instance, say you are interested in following breakthroughs around treatments for Glioblastomas. In this case, in addition to setting up alerts for “Glioblastoma-Treatment,” you may want to create an alert for the name of the doctors or institutions working on finding a cure.
The next step is to consider how frequently you want to the receive the alert. Google allows you the option of choosing when to receive the alerts: as they happen or at a specific time. When following a breaking news story or crisis, it may be best to have them delivered as they happen. For less serious matters, having all coverage appear in your inbox at a specific time may be more convenient. Google allows you to choose how many times you receive the alert as well: at least once a day or at least once a week.
- Create a coverage tracker. Once you have flagged the coverage, you’ll want to keep track of it in an Excel workbook or Smartsheet. I recommend when you set this up that you consider the information you’ll want to review and analyze over time. For instance, I like to track the article headline, date, the name of the journalist who wrote it and the publication’s domain authority. According to Moz, domain authority is “a
search engine ranking score that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs).” I like tracking domain authority because it provides me with a way to easily evaluate the strength of the publication relative to other news outlets. I can then see, for instance, if my client is receiving coverage in news outlets with the higher domain authorities. It’s always nice when we can show a client that they’re securing positive coverage in tier-one publications. - Double check your links. When sharing coverage with others on your team or with clients, it is important to double check that all links are accurate and working. The client expects us to do the work in a timely and accurate fashion. Any inconsistences in accuracy may hurt our credibility and diminish a client’s trust in us. Taking the extra step to double, and even triple check work before it is sent out is a safety net that eliminates most mistakes.
- Identify themes. While tracking editorial coverage is good, you also will want to review each article to ensure it is accurate and to gain an understanding of the information contained in it. Some questions to ask yourself as you read the articles include: What information is presented? Are there any biases around the presentation of the information? If so, what are they? Finally, if multiple news outlets have covered the same announcement or event, you may want to describe the range of narrative themes explored across all the news outlets.
Being aware of coverage is important to a client on many levels. A lack of awareness of editorial coverage could catch a company and its spokespeople off guard. Being ahead of the media storm can potentially make or break the public perception in a crisis. Tracking coverage for clients can be a very helpful task, which allows them to focus on other internal activity. Feel free to drop a comment and let us know how you and your team tracks/monitors editorial coverage.