Public Relations
Door-to-door sales: timing is everything
It seems that Direct Energy is taking a little bit of heat this week. The retail energy provider is canvassing door-to-door to attract new customers in Con Edison’s service territory. Unfortunately, an urgent public warning was released by the utility last week…urging the public to be aware of scammers. Three types of scams were described in the utility warning. One was related to fraudulent meter readers. The neighborhood watch must have immediately gone on high alert.
It’s easy for the average citizen to fail to distinguish between a fraudulent meter reader and a salesperson who is asking to see their electric bill. And it’s easy to understand why Direct Energy would utilize door-to-door sales… to manage their cost per acquisition while reaching elusive consumers at a place where they have access to their electric bill.
Perhaps suppliers should test the use of door-to-door efforts as an education channel that drives sales, rather than a closing channel. Of course they’d need to weigh higher cost per acquisition vs. lower cost to reputation.
But retail energy providers should definitely suspend any door-to-door campaigns immediately after a utility scares customers out of their socks with threats of imminent home invasion.
Don’t you wonder, though, if this was just a case of unfortunate timing for Direct Energy, or a shrewd move by Con Edison?
How to Avoid PR Missteps: Know Your Audience
The New York Times recently wrote about a PR stunt gone awry. Last month, ConAgra, and their PR firm, Ketchum, hosted a dinner at an NYC restaurant for food and mom bloggers with George Duran, host of TLC’s “Ultimate Cake Off,” and food industry analyst, Phil Lempert. The bloggers were told they were in for a “delicious four-course meal,” Duran’s “one-of-a-kind sangria,” and to learn about food trends…attendees were also promised “an unexpected surprise.”
The event attendees did mingle with Duran and Lempert, but much to their surprise, the food was provided by Marie Callender’s, a frozen line from ConAgra Foods.
The bloggers were not told they were eating Marie Callender’s food at first. Hidden cameras were put in place to capture the reactions of the bloggers when they found out the lasagna and dessert were both from Marie Callender’s.
Events like this have been proven effective in years past. Pizza Hut successfully promoted their Tuscan pasta line by serving consumers the dishes at a high-end restaurant, and following dinner, unveiled the truth that the food was provided by Pizza Hut rather than the restaurant’s chef. If you’re not familiar with the commercial, you can watch it here.
Keeping in mind it was a commercial produced by Pizza Hut, consumers appeared to be genuinely and pleasantly surprised; even entertained by the bait-and-switch. To ConAgra’s surprise, their event didn’t play out as well with some of the bloggers in attendance.
AlphaGraphics Increases Its Reach
Emphasizing its expanded “full solution” approach to marketing services, AlphaGraphics recently unveiled its new brand which will be implemented across its entire network throughout the coming year. It’s a moment that everyone at Alphagraphics has been waiting for, and one that CBD has been working towards.
Having partnered with CBD early on in the planning phase, Alphagraphics underwent our rigorous brand evolution process to expand its product offerings appropriately and relevantly, and create a new brand presence in the marketplace that is sure to resonate with their target audience. Now, each of its 300 business centers are prepared to expand their core services from visual communications and traditional printing services including color, large format, offset and digital printing, to multi-channel, cross media solutions including online, mobile, direct marketing, e-Publishing and email marketing.
This evolution is the perfect example of change management at its best. And Alphagraphics did it right in working each step of the process. From task force implementation to primary and secondary research, internal workshops to business case development, Alphagraphics committed to doing everything necessary to guarantee success.
AlphaGraphics CEO, Kevin Cushing, harnessed the excitement of today’s marketing environment and recognized that technology innovations provide the network’s business owners with new and creative ways to reach existing and prospective customers. This insight, coupled with extensive market research, lead to the development of the new, highly meaningful tagline, Increase Your Reach.
Congratulations to everyone at AlphaGraphics for the hard work that led to this exciting brand re-launch. We wish you every success and are honored to have been a part of this tremendous evolutionary effort.
Trouble in the Barbie Dream House: Greenpeace Launches Social Media Assault Against Mattel
Greenpeace is notorious for launching social media attacks against companies like Nestle for their allegedly environmentally un-friendly corporate practices. Mattel was added to the Greenpeace hit-list last week when a viral video was released featuring the iconic Ken doll. In the video, Ken is asked where Barbie was the previous weekend. ”Top secret” pictures are then revealed depicting Barbie laughing as she is cutting-down a Sumatran rainforest with a chainsaw. The images send Ken into a rage, yelling expletives, and he states he is going to dump Barbie. The Greenpeace video is available on YouTube.
Unfortunately for Mattel, the viral video was just one component of the social media campaign created to attack them for allegedly using paper derived from Sumatran rainforests. The conversation continues on the Greenpeace International Facebook Page where banners appear reading:
“‘Barbie, You’re Dumped – I don’t date girls that are into deforestation.’ – Ken”
“Stop Mattel destroying rainforests for toy packaging.”
And calls to action like:
“Unlike Barbie” and “Act Now! Send an email to Bob Eckert, the CEO of Mattel” Continue reading
How to Make Your Social Media Platforms More Personal? Start with a Person.
The New York Times recently announced it would replace its Twitter “cyborg” with people to provide a more interactive experience. Major news organizations including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal believe a human strategy is an improved strategy…and so should you!
Working in PR and Social Media I’m charged with tweeting and posting on Facebook for some of my clients. I also train them how to use social media platforms to build an audience and engage users. Two of my biggest struggles when training clients (or even speaking to colleagues and peers), are to convince them not to solely rely on a dashboard for posting, and to post current, relevant content.
Don’t get me wrong. Using a dashboard does save time. I am also a big proponent of creating a “content calendar” to plan posts in advance and keep track of company events, conferences, speaking gigs, etc. However, if breaking or pertinent news hits, you have to be comfortable Continue reading
Social Media Lessons from the NBA
We can all learn a lesson from the NBA. No, I don’t mean how to improve our jump shots. Instead, we can learn how to improve our social media strategy from an organization that has embraced the online conversation and sent it into overdrive for the NBA Finals. Those of us who follow pro-basketball tuned into TNT during the playoffs, and are now cheering (or cursing) at our HD screens while watching the Finals on ABC. We tune in to watch the Mavs vs. the Miami Heat “live” at prime time. However, the NBA has its own social media “team” to create conversations on social media for fans to get the play-by-play of the game without needing a ticket or having to turn on a TV. Continue reading
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