Public Relations Today

Recently I interviewed a prospective client who is in the restaurant business. He owns an upscale seafood restaurant that a year ago featured white tablecoths, 12 different sauces for his fish and all the other trappings, such as fancy micro vegetables and ‘towers’ of food presented on plates, that go with an upper-tier operation.  “I saw the writing on the wall a while back,” he says. “I knew that people want to eat more casually and simply. They still want quality, but they want it to be simple and laid back.” 

The restaurateur seized his opportunity for change when he found a larger property in a more-densely populated neighborhood, and he decided to re-locate.  Along with the move, he changed the menu and decor.  The tablecloths gave way to gleaming wood tops, and instead of all the sauces, the top quality fish are prepared in their own juice, and the plate presentation is straight forward.  So you might consider it a “geographic cure,” as they say.  Bottom line:  his business increased 50 percent in the year after the move.

I sometimes think, am I sometimes missing opportunities for change that could benefit my clients?  I ask myself this question every morning before I start making my calls.

Bill

If you’re like me, you may want to do EVERYTHING at the beginning of the year that you didn’t accomplish prior to the holidays.

 

There may be the urgent crush to roll out all the cannons to market both yourself and your product or service in this economic downturn. Leading a dual professional life, half spent in real estate and the other half in marketing, I have been experiencing some interesting challenges in discussing price with prospective clients, whether it be for property or a public relations program.

 

Everything seems to require twice as much effort as pre-crisis days, and there is price resistance all around. (Those of you in real estate need no further comment on that).  My challenge this year will be to focus on my CORE business in each discipline, to keep my sales pitch short and efficient and to have it perceived as highly valued, but reasonably priced. 

 

I have a plan in place to do this, and I’ll share more about it in coming blogs.  Join me as I re-focus and hone in on adapting to new market conditions that keep changing with lightning speed.

 

Bill

 

    In my small hometown, some of the elected officials who serve on our Town Board are being challenged in the courts with various charges of corruption, from bribery and cronyism to harassment and discrimination.  The legal fees to defend these cases are mounting, and taxpayers are nervous about the possibility of long, drawn-out proceedings, not to mention the awards being sought, one of which is $30 million.

 

    As a professional marketing person, I have always relied on communications to pay for my supper, but in “legaleze” speak, it’s the lack of communications that seems to be the first line of defense.  All the defendants in these cases have said either “no comment” or they have referred any questions to their lawyers, who also say nothing. This drives me a little crazy sometimes.

 

    If I were personally accused of even the very least of these offenses, my natural instinct would be to say, “Whoa, are you nuts?  Me?”  But in representing clients, I do say that there is a time to be open and a time to be silent. Lawyers demand that their clients always be silent however.   I called a friend of mine who has served as a state Supreme Court justice and asked him why there’s always a gag rule for clients. He responded simply, “because it’s the fish that opens its mouth that gets caught!”

 

   Yeah, but doesn’t this assume that the clients will get caught only if they’re guilty? What about the innocent ones?  Why can’t they proclaim their innocence with confidence and let others know exactly what the situation is?  Assuming of course, that they’re innocent.  Do we always have to listen to the lawyers? Didn’t Shakespeare say to kill all the lawyers first? 

Welcome, Reader!

As I write my first entry in Public Relations Today, having enjoyed a gratifying career in the industry through both heady and tough times, I feel more positive about the benefits of good public relations strategies than ever before. While getting attention for clients is relatively easy in good times, the discipline requires a completely different approach in a transitional period, such as we’re experiencing in the fall of 2008. 

Never before has it been so important to distinguish who you are and what you do from the chatter, when many businesses are vying for the same customers.  As for service to my clients, I have broached new territory in my field:  public relations for restaurants, food companies, wine companies, and destination locations. I’m encouraging clients (and even friends who are not clients) to break away from the standard means of communications and to venture into appropriate use of the new media for meaningful web and mobile marketing.  Day by day, I will explore different facets of this expansive technology, along with different issues that can be addressed through it.. In the meantime, you can learn more about my firm and its services by visiting:  www.PrimaveraPR.com and www.JanusDirect.net.

Bill