Where Do You Stand?

Thomas Friedman writes today that the selection of Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee has given more of a bump to America’s overseas image than “the entire Bush public diplomacy effort for seven years.”

He talks about how Obama’s nomination demonstrates that people still hunger for “the idea of America,” which he defines as: this open, optimistic, and, indeed, revolutionary, place so radically different from their own societies.

I would argue that this “idea of America” equals the American brand. The War on Terrorism and other political activities have impacted America’s reputation, but the American brand still lives in the hearts and minds of people around the world. Friedman argues Obama’s nomination reminds people of the America they once respected, thus improving our country’s global reputation.

Companies facing reputational attacks can learn from this lesson. With a strong brand that captures the hearts and minds of stakeholders, reputational damage can be repaired. A brand is who you are, while your reputation is current opinion based on recent behavior. If your company is suffering from reputational damage, look to your brand – the core of your organization’s being – and with bold actions make a bold statement that will demonstrate you are better than recent behavior would indicate. As Friedman argues, America has done so with the nomination of an African-American man.

I have become obsessed with watching primary returns on CNN.  Isn’t the “magic map” cool?  Watching last night the commentators pointed out the rural areas Clinton continues to win by a very wide margin. 

By now, everyone is familiar with Clinton’s argument that she is the only Democratic candidate who can secure the vote of white, bluc-collar voters.  And everyone in our industry has followed the Obama campaign as a fascinating case study in social media.

When reading a recent survey by Scarborough Research that analyzed digital savvy consumers and where they live, I began to think about the correlation of Obama’s  success in social media and his seeming inability to reach white, blue-collar voters.  Here are just a few of the headlines from the research:  

The “digital savvy” sound like they could be that nasty e-word, “elite.”  I wonder what  this means for corporate social media campaigns.  What do you think?

This week I have the honor of attending the Forum for Healthcare Strategists annual meeting. Participants largely include the leading healthcare marketers at hospitals and health systems throughout the country. In the opening session, Jay Silverstein, chief imagineer at Revolution Health spoke. He chided the audience’s low participation in social networking and talked about what he perceives as the imperatives for the healthcare industry to change and become more consumer centric. Much of what he talked about has been discussed among product marketers for a few years now, but his company, founded by Steve Case of AOL, is putting these learnings to work in an industry that often believes it is different from any other industry, meaning the innovation happening in the rest of the world doesn’t apply.

I worked briefly in the healthcare industry and found Silverstein’s characterization of the industry to be 100 percent on target. It’s part of the reason I did not stay.

In his talk, Mr. Silverstein offered some tips to the audience. Of those he offered, the most interesting was to “open up your garden.” He asked audience members whose web site linked to somebody else’s in the room. From where I sat, no one raised his or her hand. (Maybe someone sitting behind me did.) He explained how these linkages were so important to search. Again, nothing new to us, but to this industry, it is a pretty big stretch. These hospitals compete with one another for patients. From their perspective, why in the world would they want to promote another hospital? But, as Mr. Silverstein points out, think of the consumer first. If, for example, your child has been diagnosed with a rare disease, why shouldn’t your local children’s hospital direct you to an online community of doctors who specialize in this disease, whether or not they are affiliated with your hospital. As a consumer, you will give your hospital credit for giving you access to the information you’re seeking and probably become very loyal. He even encouraged participants to think of models of partnership that include revenue sharing.

So, for those of you in healthcare, how can you open up your garden to make the healthcare experience better for your patients?

So, maybe I’m a snob, but I truly dislike JCPenney. That is until now. Living in an exurb of St. Louis, JCPenney is the only department store within 15 minutes of my house, so I’ve been forced to go there a time or two. When trying to find a quick replacement to the dress my daughter has outgrown or the shoes that suddenly don’t fit my son, I have wandered through the women’s clothing section. The fact is I have left feeling totally left out.

They have plenty of merchandise for my mother-in-law’s generation and lots of items for the junior set but nothing for me. The good news is that it appears this may be changing. With the introduction of American Living by Ralph Lauren and the introduction of their Simply Green brand, I am eager to explore JCPenney again.

The image of American Living is comfortable, messy and beautiful just like the idealized life of middle America. The American Living launch gave me hope that Ralph Lauren could lead JCPenney through a reinvention that helps middle America redefine itself in a way that is deeper than the promise of Target and better defined than the promise of Kohl’s. If you haven’t seen this, take a look:

Then recently JCPenney announced their Simply Green line. It is an effort by the company to enhance their private label merchandise by adding the Simple Green ingredient brand to those items that meet predetermined green standards. The next time I’m at JCPenney – possibly out of desire rather than necessity – I will take a look at these items.

These new brands and the tagline, or “philosophy” as the company calls it, of “Every Day Matters” gives me reason to believe JCPenney may be at the beginning of a very interesting reinvention.

As an ice breaker in our quarterly retreat last Friday, we helped determine reputation management strategies for personalities in need of some serious help.  For the team who chose Roger Clemens and anybody else who watched Congressional testimony by Clemens, I thought you would enjoy reading this from comedian Andy Borowitz:

Roger Clemens Named New White House Spokesperson

I have had a lot of interesting conversations lately with people about the convergence taking place in the marketing industry.  Standing Partnership’s roots are in one specific marketing discipline:  public relations.  Yet, this firm always has held a much broader view of that word and its meaning than the market affords PR today.   Unfortunately, today’s meaning of the term “public relations” almost exclusively means media relations.  I could use this post to rant about how the industry has spent the last decade dancing on the same dime, but I won’t.  

Instead, I want to float out a theory:  it does not matter which marketing discipline you claim; it matters what ideas, partners and resources you bring to the table; and most importantly, it matters who can facilitate relationships.   Who understands a voice that is conversational?  Who understands how to humanize organizations, so they can have relationships with people (not consumers…just people)?   Who knows how to match resources with internal cultures and aptitudes?  These are the people who will win.  They may be PR people.  They should be PR people.  But, others are equipped to claim this leadership role, leaving PR people simply to pitch traditional media. 

My colleagues recent posts about the mis-steps of PR people make me wonder if our industry is up for the challenge.  What do you think?

David Brooks is one of my favorite columnists.  In today’s article , he talks about the increasing fragmentation of our culture using music as the example.  He explains that cultural phenomenons like the Rolling Stones would not happen in today’s culture, where we each endorse our own individual styles of music.

 While reading this, it struck me why Hannah Montana has been the best-selling concert ticket this year.  My theory:  children are still looking for ways to belong and associate, unlike us adults who want to identify with increasingly narrow niches of likeminded people who live similar lives.

Those whose job it is to market to children surely have challenges to contend with like managing their reputation through lead poisoning scares or the childhood obesity epidemic.  However, unlike other marketers, they still have a fighting chance to experience success at a mass scale.  Kids today may be more discerning than prior generations, but they still will rally behind mega-hits like Hannah Montana or High School Musical.

Tags: Hannah Montana, High School Musical, David Brooks