Archive for the ‘Branding & Positioning’ Category

>What Would Ryan Lochte Do… For Money?

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

Apparently he would let someone tell him that he is destined to be a reality TV star, when in actual reality, he has become a punch line. This elite athlete who speaks without consonants (or thinking) has let himself be talked out of the realm of Olympic Gold Medalists and into the land of Kardashian.

E! Network has launched a reality series, built around the celebrity swimmer, called What Would Ryan Lochte Do? I first became aware of this when reading a column on Salon.com that highlighted 10 good things about a horrifying week. As a former news anchor, I was reeled in by number 10, and it hooked me bad. I had to watch it several times. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was, indeed, a break from a horrifying week. From a PR perspective, however, it’s just as funny, but I thought, “Thank heaven that’s someone else’s train wreck.”

Was it unprofessional of the anchors to mock their guest? Well, yes, cathartic though it may have been, technically, it’s not nice to publicly bust someone for being an inarticulate buffoon. Was it ridiculous to have booked that guest in the first place? It’s a morning program, which, these days is more entertainment than news, so if he had to be booked, the morning show was the place to put him. And honestly, if a producer is approached with the chance to book an Olympic gold medalist, I think most would bite.

But let’s look further up the food chain to the people who are advising and “handling” Ryan Lochte. I can’t imagine it takes too many conversations with this ambitious young man to figure out that there are some things he does better than others. Speaking intelligently and coherently isn’t one of them. So by all means, give him an unscripted, reality television show.

Reading about his self-proclaimed desire to emulate Kim Kardashian in the fame game, it’s clear that no one is forcing Lochte to dip his big toe into this particular cesspool. It’s also clear he’s not satisfied with the millions he earns in endorsement deals with Gatorade, Speedo, Gillette, Mutual of Omaha, or from his own fashion line. He’s an adult. He knows what he wants, and he wants fame and fortune—beyond those that come with the prestige of being an elite Olympian.

Still. Is anyone advising Lochte to look at the long game? Did any of his handlers have a conversation with him about his own strengths and weaknesses? About his image? About how long and hard he’s worked to attain the luster of Olympic gold? About how it would be a shame to go from Olympic hero to laughing stock?

A Google search of “news anchors” and “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?” reveals 63-million hits. Read through just the first two pages and you’ll get the drift. No one’s laughing with Ryan. The reviews for the show itself are even less kind, with Variety answering the question: “Not be caught dead watching this kind of TV show.”

Ryan Lochte, the young man, may take all this in stride. He is part of a generation used to living out loud. Intimacies once reserved for diaries and best friends are now displayed for public review. But Ryan Lochte, the brand, may find all this a little harder to deal with. Will major corporations still want him fronting their brands?

He may find that his reality TV debut was a honey of a boo boo.

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC

Image by nrc photos

>There’s Fumbling, and Then There’s Piling On

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

Sorry, but I have to call unnecessary roughness here. And now I’m done with football metaphors because they’re not as interesting as, say, the infield-fly rule.

This post on Marketwatch calls out Poland Spring for not making the most of its social media moment in the wake of Sen. Marco Rubio’s sip slip.

(As a former Senate staffer, may I say, the Senator, however much he may have choked on his big moment, was also the victim of sloppy staff work. You don’t leave a bottle of water walking distance away from your boss. You put a glass of water within easy reach. Drinking during the speech still would have been awkward, but it wouldn’t have been Chevy Chase-as-Gerald Ford awkward.)

Comparing Poland Spring to Oreo is not valid. This is apples and orange juice. The Oreo folks bought time in the Super Bowl, an event watched by 111 million people. Oreo had a plan in place with a whole PR team on alert waiting for a “moment” within the space where it had already invested $4 million.

How was Poland Spring supposed to know that during a speech no one was watching (until this one went viral) the speaker was going to practically swallow his tongue and spend precious seconds grasping, not just for water, but for identifiable Poland Spring water? Riddle me that Bat Girl.

One could argue, it shouldn’t have taken until noon the next day for Poland Spring to reflect on its cameo, but to dress the company down for “fumbling its Rubio moment” strikes me as just piling on.

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC

Image by sskennel

>What Fresh Hell is This? The Death of One Brand at the Expense of Another

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

While much of the Facebook and Twitter traffic last week was revving over the colossal miscalculations of Susan G. Komen for the Cure; regarding Planned Parenthood, another textbook case of brand destruction was unfolding, albeit to a smaller, but no less passionate audience.

A small item in the Wall Street Journal announced that the Oak Room at the august Algonquin Hotel in New York City is closing.

Several years ago, the Algonquin became a “Marriott Autograph Hotel,” a top tier property with a signature identity and brand all its own. People stay at the Algonquin, not because the rooms are more spacious or the view is better than what they’d find at, say, the Marriott Marquis several blocks away. I’ve never had a room at the Algonquin where I could have both my suitcase and the bathroom door open at the same time. More often than not, the view from my small window is of other windows from across the HVAC shaft.

No, people book into the Algonquin because they enjoy seeing Matilda the cat lounging at the check-in desk. Because as they make way for another passing guest in the narrow hallways, they like to think of who else may have squeezed through that passage decades before. People stay at the Algonquin because it has history and character, not because they want the same color scheme and bed linens they could get at a Marriott anywhere from Portland to Paducah.

The Algonquin Hotel will soon transform its storied Oak Room, the room that hosted “The Vicious Circle” of literary giants such as Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woolcott, and Robert Benchley until it moved to a larger, round table in the Rose Room, into a lounge for “Marriott Reward Elite guests.” Mrs. Parker was fond of saying, “What fresh hell is this?” Indeed.

In later years, the dark paneled Oak Room helped launch the careers of Diana Krall and Harry Connick Jr. It gave Michael Feinstein a home before he built his own. It let us grow up and older with Karen Akers and Andrea Marcovicci. Soon it will be filled not with music lovers but with business travelers delighting in their free wi-fi and complimentary crackers and cheese.

I don’t begrudge business travelers a few amenities on the road. God knows, as just such a traveler, I’m eager to find any quiet port in the traveling storm that offers me a few moments of calm, a glass of wine—and free wi-fi. But there are maybe two other places in New York to hear first-rate cabaret artists. There are at least eight other Marriott Hotels in New York City alone. Why not upgrade one of those lounges? Why rip the heart out of a piece of Manhattan culture and history?

To a young aspiring actress who once sat in the Algonquin Hotel nursing a $9 cocktail (they were much cheaper in those days) imagining her starring role in the one-woman play she would write about Dorothy Parker (which remains unwritten), this is distressing news. For a middle-aged business owner enrolled in the Marriott Rewards program, this is depressing news.

On his blog, author, playwright, librettist, and critic Terry Teachout called it an act of “cultural vandalism.”
The Algonquin’s own Facebook page is wallpapered with comments denouncing Marriott and declaring to withhold their business. “NEVER again at a Marriott,” wrote one producer who has the power to book multiple rooms. Even loyal Marriott customers are dismayed, with one vowing to move her business to Hilton. One post called the closure of the Oak Room “soulless.”

With this one decision, Marriott damaged its own brand and extinguished the Algonquin’s. And for what? Will Marriott’s elite guests find more satisfaction in yet another generic traveler’s lounge than they would listening to incomparable jazz and vocalists? Talk about being tone deaf.

Dorothy Parker once mused that her tombstone should read: “Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.” Amen.

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC

Image by aoifemac

>Marilyn: Some Like It Online

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

Many of us who remember when Broadway musicals were an important contributor to pop culture are delighted that NBC has taken the risky step of placing Smash on it’s prime time schedule. Smash follows the fates of Broadway singers, songwriters, producers, directors, and dancers as they attempt to birth a musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe.

Given Fox’s success with Glee, NBC probably has a better than even chance that Smash will resonate with its target audience; presumably the sweet-spot demographic of women 25-49. Still, NBC’s version of “let’s put on a show” is not a sure thing, seeing that its primetime schedule occasionally places behind some basic-cable networks in the overnight Nielsen ratings, and that even Glee is having trouble maintaining the outsized success of its opening season.

With Steven Spielberg and a dream cast of Broadway veterans behind the series, NBC isn’t taking any chances in making sure that viewers know about Smash. Articles in New York magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, and other print journals have reached the traditional viewers—those who still read newspapers and magazines—while a promotional campaign that links it with the year’s most-watched sporting event (“Smash debuts Monday after the Super Bowl.”) will resonate with those who get their information primarily from the Web and from television.

But the brilliant part of NBC’s marketing is that the network, a dinosaur of old media, has embraced new media by posting the entire pilot episode online. You can watch the episode before it airs nationally and then (per NBC’s plan), tell your friends about it.

I was told about it in a text. After I watched it, I posted the link on Facebook for other likeminded friends.

This is the network’s new version of an old-fashioned Hollywood tool: the movie sneak preview. Except that instead of having to sit through an iffy Jennifer Aniston rom-com, you get to see two outstanding female singers (Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty) vie for the role of Monroe, an engaging Debra Messing as the co-writer of the musical, and a formidable Anjelica Huston as the money behind the production.

The multi-platforming doesn’t stop there, however. The television show itself may ultimately be an hour of weekly publicity and promotion for a real Broadway production of Marilyn: the Musical, should that part of the plan (see the New York magazine article) come to fruition. If Smash builds an audience, then so does Marilyn: the Musical.

If you don’t know Marilyn, if a white dress flapping over a subway grate means nothing to you, if the phrase “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” doesn’t cause a smile to creep into your memory, or if you don’t know what she and Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio have in common, then you’re unlikely to enjoy a mash-up lyric like “baseball diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” If that’s the case, then maybe Smash isn’t your cup of TV.

We’ll see.

In the meantime, kudos to NBC for embracing the Web, for giving us theatre geeks a chance to spread the word about an exciting new series, and for proving that old- and new-fashioned marketing hasn’t gone the way of Broadway’s influence on pop culture.

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC

Image by NBC

>Knight Vision International Featured on Smart Girls Way

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Watch Felicia Knight’s video at Smart Girls Way.

>Paula Deen’s Credibility and Calorie Crisis

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Hey y’all! It’s my turn to weigh in on Paula Deen. And let me begin with full disclosure: I luv Paouler Deen. I watch Food Network—and like it. I also know that cigarettes will kill you and so will texting and driving.

These days, people are upset that the woman who sends love and best dishes, preferably rolled in bacon, deep fried, and buried in butter sauce, has for three years kept hidden her diagnosis of type-2 diabetes, coming clean only after she’d signed a contract with pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk. With indignation worthy of Captain Renault, they are tripping over themselves to throw grease on the fire, calling her “greedy” and “a hypocrite,” and they accuse her of being the incarnation of that ultimate ne’er do well, “The Devil.”

Let’s look at some of the issues:

1. Paula, whose multi million-dollar empire was borne of her exposure on Food Network, neglected to tell Food Network of her diagnosis.
2. Paula, whose recipes are a cardiologist’s nightmare (or dream, depending on the cardiologist), swears she’s “always stressed moderation.”
3. Paula disclosed her diagnosis only after signing with Novo Nordisk.
4. Paula says she kept her diabetes a secret because she “had nothing to bring to the table,” until she had the Novo Nordisk deal.

Where to start? There are enough public relations missteps here to create a syllabus on crisis communications not to mention sheer ineptitude. The Paula Deen, Food Network, and Novo Nordisk brands are all taking hits here.

Food Network could play the “we’ve been lied to, too” card, but it’s hard for the Network that also brings you Cupcake Wars and Diners Drive-ins and Dives to escape the now energized microscopes of the food police. Paula is also one of its biggest moneymakers. Should Paula have told Food Network before now? Oh yeah. Three years ago.

I don’t know who approached whom about the Novo Nordisk deal, but the company, whose credibility with its customers, namely diabetics, is on the line, should have told Paula to “disclose, clean up your recipes, start turning around your image, and then we’ll talk to you.” The company should have let her establish some credibility in having “seen the light” before hitching its brand to the woman who also has endorsement deals with Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Smithfield Ham.

And Paula, Paula, Paula. Until the type-2 tsunami, Paula’s biggest PR problem was being insulted by Anthony Bourdain. That didn’t exactly make her unique and in fact, made her more sympathetic to her fans. While Bourdain has been among the first and loudest to pile on, this latest crisis is all her own doing. Her failure to act may have been out of fear, naïveté, or maybe, in fact, greed. Regardless, she handled it poorly and will need to do a lot more in the cause of healthier eating and living to acknowledge the seriousness of her diagnosis, that she should have disclosed sooner, and to truly bring something to the table in her new role as role model.

Now, to the charge of hypocrisy. Both detractors and fans alike have leveled this charge. I get it (sort of) coming from people who’ve always thought her recipes irresponsible in the face of America’s obesity epidemic. Still, it’s not as if she ever promoted her food as good for you. Her forkfuls of deep-fried everything are always taken with a nod toward the decadence, if not the danger, of it all. But since she did promote it, fine.

Her fans, however, are another story. The people who hang on Paula’s every cup of heavy cream, who salivate over buttermilk marinades and bacon wrapped mac-and-cheese, who delight at brunch buffets of sticky buns and chocolate chip pancakes with cinnamon cream—how, exactly, were they “betrayed” by Paula not telling them she has diabetes? Do they really think these recipes are tickets to immortality? Do they truly think overweight, wheezing Paula Deen is a nutritionist? Are these same people surprised that Amy Winehouse won’t be getting a shout out from Willard Scott? Or that David Crosby needed a liver transplant? If they think by her very existence Paula Deen is validation for a high daily intake of saturated fat-laden calories, then after a bowl of cheese grits, why don’t we all grab a cigarette and go texting and driving?

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC

Image by lifescript

>No Longer Flogging The Blogging

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

While I’m a huge fan of good comedy, stinging satire, and rapier wit, I’ve never been a fan of Bill Maher. (Note, I said, good comedy.) So, I find it ironic that as I shamefully revel in schadenfreude over his latest attempt to outrage the masses, it is a quote of his from about a decade ago that inspires my first blog of the New Year.

“If I cared what you thought,” he once quipped to the camera, “I’d read your blog.” I remember laughing and thinking, “Exactly! Blogs! Feh! What do I care what some pale pajama-wearing cellar dweller who’s still eating his mamma’s Coco Puffs thinks about anything? Puhlease.”

Well, now I blog and Tweet and now so does Bill Maher. My opinions, however, have not caused national boycotts nor have they forced me from network television onto cable. No, my opinions establish me as a thought leader and public relations sage and drive potential clients to my Website. Especially, if I salt them with search terms such as crisis communications, strategic media consulting, and branding.

Bill’s blogs and Tweets establish him as a highly paid provocateur who says outrageous things for the sake of being outrageous while those who are outraged because others are outraged bleat about free speech. Bill, meanwhile just cashes the checks, washes his hands, and says, “My work here is done.” (I think he learned it from Rush Limbaugh.)

Blogging and Tweeting as well as using Facebook or Google+ or Tumblr, are like being First Lady: it’s really up to you to make of it what you will. Yes, for three years, I’ve now engaged in this activity that I once derided as the purview of sequestered nerds, many of whom are now filthy rich and who’ve bought their mammas new condos in Boca. Yes, I now read multiple blogs daily because I find them informative, thought provoking, or entertaining – and with any luck, all three. I read blogs about politics, arts, sports, literature, Hollywood, PR, medicine, and food to name a few – many of which have the luxury of covering topics the mainstream media can’t or won’t.

Most people blog because they believe they have something to say that other people may find worth their time. Most of what I blog about is applicable, in some way, to my profession. Sometimes it’s a stretch. I often want to write about a topic that may not readily have a PR angle. That’s when I have to ask myself, “Who cares what you think? If they cared, they’d read your blog.”

Thanks for reading. I’ll try to make sure it’s still worth your time.

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC

Image by Maria Reyes-McDavis

>Play to Win or Don’t Play at All: What I Learned from the 2011 Boston Red Sox

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Here in Red Sox Nation, most people have dried their tears, put away their beer koozies, swapped out their red and white for their yellow and black, and told their seven-year-old children to buck up; they don’t know what real suffering is.

To the post-2004 generation, “Wait ’til next year” isn’t a phrase fraught with generational despair and chronic disappointment. It’s now something we say if the Pats should lose in the playoffs or the Bruins fail to bring home the Stanley Cup. We’ve so recently drunk the champagne, it’s no big deal. (The Celtics, meanwhile, are AWOL with the rest of the NBA.)

Still, the September slide of 2011, presided over by the same management team and some of the same players who brought us a World Championship in 2004 (while also coming from a 3-0 ALCS deficit to sweep the next four games from the Yankees) and another in 2007, was painful to watch. What the heck happened?

In an excellent piece of reporting, the Boston Globe’s Bob Hohler connects the dots that led to the downward trajectory.

To sum up, hubris, laziness, indifference, lost focus, lack of leadership, and too much beer and fried chicken. (While beer and chicken may have been rocket fuel for Wade Boggs, they apparently were more like Sterno for Lackey, Lester, and Beckett.) All this and a $161 million payroll to boot.

Sweet.

It’s easy, not to mention fun, to hurl insults at a group of grown men being paid fairy tale money to play a game they are expected to play better than most anyone. It’s easy, and even more fun, to deride their arrogant disrespect for the game and us, the fans.

Not so fun, is to turn the questions back on ourselves and our own professional practices.
> Do we get cocky?
> Do we get lazy?
> Do we ever lose focus?
> Do we always provide the leadership necessary to inspire our best work and that of colleagues?
> Do we ever bring in beer and fried chicken when crudités and iced tea would have been more appropriate?

If you’re lucky enough to be signed to an $82.5 million contract, you’re probably not reading this blog looking for tips on best business practices (If you are, can I interest you in hiring a PR firm?), but you probably are in the business world. People are always applying sports metaphors to life and I admit it’s depressing to listen to some facilitator with markers and flip charts drone on about “playing to win” and giving “110%.” It’s more depressing, however, to lose a contract or a job because of complacency, indifference, or laziness.

So, let the 2011 Red Sox be a wakeup call. Step away from the fried chicken, put down the beer, look in the mirror and ask, “Is it next year?”

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC

Image by Andrew Malone

>Are You Ready For Your Close Up? – How to Enhance Your Broadcast Media Image

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Richard Nixon’s sweaty upper lip, John Kerry’s penchant for (monotone) pedantry, Tony Hayward’s cavalier handling of PR during the BP oil spill, LeBron James blaming those rooting for him to fail – for every Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Steve Jobs, a thousand more public figures, corporate CEOs, and PR “specialists” prove they were born under the sign of no charisma with clueless rising.

When your poorly executed PR message or the charmless face of your company generate more buzz than your cure for tattoo addiction or your plan to raise free-range celebutantes, it’s time to reassess your company’s media image.

Here are some ways to get started:

Step 1: Watch yourself on camera. Have someone in your company, or a friend, record your performance. Read a short news release, have the person behind the camera ask you some questions about your business. Ad-lib a sentence or two about your company. During playback, note how you rate on the scale of “Aurora, Illinois Cable Access host” to “NBC’s Brian Williams.” If you’re closer to Wayne’s World than you are to Grand Master Williams, you need media training.

Step 2: Get media training. Charisma and on-camera naturalness are often simply character traits. As Mama Rose memorably sang, “You’ve either got it, or you’ve had it.” If you don’t want to look like you’ve had it, then seek a teacher who’s got it, one who will mine the nuggets of your personality and shine them up for the camera. Generally, an instructor with on-camera experience will get you farther faster than someone whose TV time is theoretical. (Look, even King George VI knew he needed a coach—and that’s back when the King of England ruled an actual empire.)

Step 3: Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Whether it’s your company’s “30-second elevator pitch,” a response to your business’s falling stock price, or the fact that your employees just won the Nobel Prize in Sick Days, you need to have a smooth, coherent message that will play well over the air (and read well in print).

Step 4: If you just can’t acquire the skills, if you honestly feel you do yourself more harm than good by stepping in front of a camera, then do it as little as possible. Be smart and hire a professional company spokesperson who has those skills. There’s nothing wrong with having the face of your company look and sound competent. Not every business leader has the on-camera “charm” of Donald Trump. After all, it’s about making a difference in your industry, earning a decent profit, and treating your employees with respect, not about becoming a household face – right? Right?

Other than better lighting and not having to share screen space with the LOL Cats, there’s not a lot of difference between appearing in a viral YouTube video and a formal interview with 60 Minutes. After all, both use selective editing. But being ready for your close up will go a long way towards making you and your message resonate with your customers, your shareholders, your employees, and maybe even with LeBron.

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC: www.KnightVisionInternational.com

Image: Wind of Change

>Five Tips to Avoid Bad Media Coverage

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Even if you never find yourself Tweeting suggestive photos, spending $500,000 at Tiffany’s, or starting a second family with your housekeeper, there are times when seemingly minor missteps can blossom into bad press for you or your company. Here are five suggestions to proactively stay out of trouble.

1. Run an honest business. By treating your clients and your employees fairly, and by operating as transparent an organization as possible, the chances of you stumbling in the public arena are greatly reduced.

2. Promote your good work. Yes, the ostensible reason Mark Zuckerberg pledged $100 million of his Facebook stock to Newark, New Jersey’s school system was to mute potential bad publicity from the film The Social Network. But Zuckerberg received an oil tanker-full of positive PR. So, bank some goodwill by using all means (Web, print, broadcast, email) to let the world know about your charitable work, your sponsorship of the local Little League team, and how you and your employees spent last Sunday scrubbing graffiti off Charlie Sheen’s Gulfstream.

3. Think before you leap. Assess proposed actions from all angles. If there’s a bad side to the story, minimize bad publicity by either getting out ahead of the issue (use your reporter contacts and public relations specialists to accomplish this) or by modifying that piece of the initiative.

4. Media training. Great actors, news anchors, and stand-up comedians make what they do look easy. But not everyone is naturally gifted in the art of persuasion, with an easy rapport, or in instilling trust. If you’re uncomfortable being on camera or being interviewed, media training should be able to help you become more poised and, by extension, more authentic.

5. Develop media contacts. Yes, I know, you don’t have time to get to know reporters. That means you need to figure out how to make time. A solid, sincere relationship with key journalists, bloggers, and editors can mean the difference between a sympathetic ear if you ever do get in trouble and a PR mess that not even Oprah could fix.

Felicia Knight is President of Knight Vision International, LLC: www.KnightVisionInternational.com

Image: Passive Income Dream