Do you want to sell me your house?

As a marketer and first time home buyer, I recently made a mental list of the Do’s and Don’ts of property marketing. In an effort to be kind, this is a strategically written list of Do’s. Feel free to add on below…

Do post pictures and tons of them at that. Use photos to convince me this house is a must-see.

Do host an open house. Actually, feel free to host several. Last weekend I may have been out of town or busy; please give me another chance to see your house (especially if I am looking without an agent).

Do clean your property before I come to visit. Even though we are all human, it is hard for me to imagine my future in the midst of your morning dishes and last week’s dirty laundry.

Do resist the urge to post multiple “for sale” signs in your yard. People will get the idea you are selling just as effectively with one sign. As a side note, current record=6.

Do use the classified section. Free and paid. I found my last two apartments cruising through Craigslist and KSL. I have seen three houses I found through the classified section of the local paper.

Do spend the time and money to make minor repairs. I may love the house, but if I see a leaky toilet I will assume things under the surface are worse.

Do fool me into thinking you are a pet-less and non smoking homeowner. As a woman with serious allergies, I don’t think this one needs any further explanation.

Do leave the house when you have a showing. Buyers feel awkward opening cupboards and walking in bedrooms if you are lingering close by.

Do use a blog, facebook or twitter to market and harness the power of “your people.” (See great example here)

Do hire a professional. Especially in hard times, you need an experienced agent on your side to get the job done. Plus, I love the MLS listings.

Any others? What have I missed?

Google vs Newspapers: The Battle Rages On

I don’t often find myself agreeing with the acclaimed Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times, Maureen Dowd, but I do find her writing style engaging, even captivating.  However, after reading her column from today, “Dinosaur at the Gate,” I asked myself “what the heck will happen to the newspaper industry if they keep giving away content for free–or at least, if Google keeps giving it away for free?”

Then I asked myself, “well, what’s ‘free’ anyway?” I mean, it’s not really for free. They are selling online ads, but online don’t sell for near as much as the ads that run in the hard copy publications (which I don’t really understand since online ads, in my opinion, have an easier time getting someone to act since the action is merely a click!) so the publications aren’t making near as much as they used to. Coupled with what we know about the current economy, traditional media is losing money hand-over-fist, at least that’s what the reports say.

Enter Google and Craigslist. Google aggregates the news of the day and makes it searchable–from the news outlets that let their news be searched. Craigslist gives away something that newspapers used to make a ton of money off of: classifieds. According to a great story from The Atlantic, titled “When No News is Bad News,” even though “The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune are among those organizations that have spent many millions of dollars covering the Iraq War, with each outlet paying for multiple reporters, translators, full-time drivers, guards, bullet-proof armored cars, year-round office space, office managers, and security consultants with intelligence backgrounds to provide threat assessments. And all of them give that work away for free online.”

Kind of makes you think, doesn’t it? Or at least it should. Again, free is an interesting term, but the newspapers aren’t (usually) charging a subscription fee for the articles the same way they do to deliver it to your house, but they also aren’t paying for printing and distribution.

I can’t help but wonder what IS actually killing the newspaper industry? Classifieds seems like a bigger one than giving the content away online, but then I think they need to charge more for advertising online–a place where measurement is actually easier. And if newspapers can’t figure out how to measure the online viewership they need to look at companies like Omniture, which produces online metrics to see how people get to a site, what they do once there, and where they go after (in the simplest terms possible).

In Dowd’s column Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, says that for newspapers to get out of this mess, they need to “…invent a new product. That’s the way Google thinks. Incumbents very seldom invent the future.” Seems logical, but I see one problem with it: The “incumbents” haven’t invented much new about their service since the first paper was produced.

My solution is two fold. The industry as a whole needs to come together to find a solution that ALL agree on, and then follow it. That, or they need to hire some of the top minds from Google and find a better solution. What say you?

The “Right Story at the Right Time”

I recently came across a great editorial in BusinessWeek by Steve McKee,  president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising, about a marketing tactic commonly referred to as “public relations” (PR). I say that with a little tongue-in-cheek since I happen to work in the profession, and since this blog is contributed to by PR pros, or at least those associated with the field.

So why the sarcasm? Mostly because I love it when folks from the advertising world come down to our level to recognize the true value of PR. Those of us who work in the industry already know that you can’t put a price on an article or mention in a top tier publication, or even a well-targeted publication that suits your clients needs. However, most people completely misunderstand what PR is; how it functions; why do it; and perhaps most importantly, how to gain value for your product/company/service/etc. from using it.

Perhaps the key difference is summed up in this quote taken from the article: “But let’s face it—advertising is expensive. While the current economic situation has brought some temporary relief from relentless media inflation, buying space and time isn’t cheap. You get what you pay for with advertising, but if you want a lot it will cost a lot.”

He then went on to say, “Not so with PR. While it is possible for any publicity campaign to fall flat, the right story told at the right time in the right way can bring powerful and valuable attention to your business far in excess of what you spend to develop it. Especially in light of the second trend forever changing the news business: complexity.” (more…)

Can PR Campaigns Boost Credibility vs. Ad Campaigns? Yes, by as much as 76 Percent, Nielsen IAG Study Suggests

The headline from a recent news release from The Nielsen Company says

“Advertising Builds Confidence for Financial Brands in Crisis, Nielsen IAG Study Finds.”

In a nutshell, 55 percent of the study respondents said they had “complete confidence in the financial health and soundness” of  their banks, insurance companies and investment firms IF “they had seen more advertising for their financial institution” during the previous six months.

This is a very exciting finding! I especially think it’s cool news for those in the advertising and marketing fields, especially since one of the main advantages of advertising is that you can completely control the content, delivery and timing of your messages in an advertising campaign. This is NOT the case with a PR campaign!

In addition, I also found what I consider to be an interesting nugget of information mentioned near the end of the release. Here’s the paragraph in question:

“When asked what factors would increase confidence in the safety and soundness of their financial institution, respondents cited:

• Seeing regular advertising for that institution (25%)
• Receiving regular mail or email offers from that institution (25%)
• Regularly seeing internet offers/advertising from that institution (21%)
• Reading positive stories in the press about that institution (44%)”

Note the last bullet point : 44 percent of the respondents said that “reading positive stories in the press about that institution” would (to quote from the opening sentence) “increase (their) confidence in the safety and soundness of their financial institution.

I’m not a math whiz by any means, but I know that 44 percent is greater than 25 percent. How much greater you ask? Seventy-six percent (76%) greater. [The difference is even greater vs. Internet ads/offers (109% greater), but I'll stick with the advertising comparison for this blog post.]

To me this seems pretty straightforward: PR changes attitudes and perceptions for more people.

Please understand – I am NOT advocating that companies stop advertising. As stated in the third paragraph above,

“. . . one of the main advantages of advertising is that you can completely control the content, delivery and timing of your messages in an advertising campaign.”

Unfortunately, when it comes to public relations (specifically media relations or publicity efforts), companies do NOT have such control — at least not in societies where a free and unfettered press is the norm.

In other words, once you

• get off the phone with a reporter,
• leave a journalist’s office,
• send out a news release,
• deliver a product for a review/evaluation,
• push “send” on your email to an editor,
• etc.

you have absolutely no control whatsoever that any story is going to be published about you, your company, product, service, issue or what-have-you, let alone whether said story will be positive.

You also have zero control over whether or not a story is going to be published at all. Or when or where said story might be published. Or its size/length. Or if it’s going to include artwork. Or anything at all — you have NO CONTROL!

However,

• if/when said story runs, and
• if it’s a positive story,

I believe that such media coverage generates significantly greater credibility than what you can produce through advertising.

How much so? Well . . . the Nielsen IAG study suggests that the difference could be as high as 76 percent greater.

[NOTE: There is no guarantee that the data from this research study can be extrapolated across industries other than the financial world.]

Nevertheless, if your goal is to boost credibility, public relations may be the way to go.

That said, please recognize that PR is not the right discipline for achieving every marketing and/or sales objective. That would be like recommending that the only tool you needed in your garage or toolshed is a hammer.

That’s why we always recommend examining all potential vehicles in the marketing communications mix and choosing the best mixture for the goals and objectives at hand.

Part of what’s got me so psyched about finding this Nielsen IAG study, however, is that I’ve been telling people for years that PR has a higher “credibility factor” than advertising (with a counterbalanced lower “control factor” than advertising). And for the first time, I now have some independent data that appears to support my claims.

Should anyone reading this blog post know of other studies/articles that similarly support such an idea, I’d love to know about them. Thanks.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

DISCLOSURE: SOAR Communications is the PR agency of record for three Nielsen properties: Outdoor Retailer, Interbike, and Health+Fitness Business Expo.

Hispanics and Marketing

Hispanics make 15.1% of the U.S. population, and it’s projected that by 2050 the Hispanic population in the U.S. will grow to 24%. With such numbers, I believe Hispanic marketing and PR could become an even more profitable way of doing business in the near future.

I’m originally from Chile (South American country), thus my opinion might sound a little biased, but during my six years in the U.S. I have come to realize the important role that Hispanics play in the marketplace, as well as the social and political U.S. arena.

Though Hispanics are considered the largest ethnic minority in the U.S., I think there are two main problems when attempting to interact with them: lack of marketing exclusively towards Hispanics, and a lack of marketing from Hispanics.

While living in the U.S. I have noticed that a number of large companies could be doing a better job with Hispanics. Some companies try so hard going after “the one,” they forget about some of other potential publics.

Though the problem mentioned above is a fact, I think the greatest problem lays in marketing and PR being generated from Hispanics.

While walking around town I have seen so many Hispanic restaurants and stores go out of business after two or three months in business, that I wanted to find out more behind this tragedy.

Not too long ago I decided to go to a new Mexican (owned by a Mexican) restaurant in Provo. As some of you may know, Provo is a college town (home of Brigham Young University) thus the whole town is full of college students. While eating and having a good time there, I noticed the owner was close by so I decided to talk to him.

After introducing myself and talking for a while, I asked him how the business was doing so far. After looking at me for a second he went on to confess they were doing fine, but they weren’t getting many new customers. I then went on and asked him if he was trying to target college students or younger publics besides Hispanic families. The owner told me he had tried to but wasn’t willing to spend much money on it. I asked if he had tried social media, I added that it was free, reached a lot of the younger generation, and that his message could be heard by a lot of people in short period of time.

After discussing a couple of good strategies to start with, and some other ideas to generate more customers through Twitter and Facebook, the owner was sitting in our table, exchanging phone numbers, and thanking me for that simple advice. I’m sure that restaurant is not going to generate millions of dollars in revenues because of my advice, but I think the owner has learned a great lesson on how to interact with his publics in a better way.

I sure hope that restaurant does better in the near future, in the meantime I will keep my eyes open for more opportunities and if I’m lucky I might get a free taco out of the whole experience!

Do You Speak Engineer? We Can Help!

I was recently introduced to one of those silly flash sites where i chose a two-digit number, subtracted the first, then second digit from my number, and with the result my virtual magician showed me a page of gift ideas, and then she would magically guess my gift.

I’ll be honest I was amazed, and a little weirded out at first as it seemed every time I guessed a number, went through the formula, she guessed it right — and mind you it changed every time! Now, a little disclaimer here, I am a PR guy. I always tell my friends that my degree is a BA, not a science degree, so math is in no way my forte — much less when it involves more than just basic addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.

So I shared my new found online magic trick with my friends through Facebook and mentioned I didn’t know how it worked, sure enough, my friend, an engineering student and possibly one of the most brilliant people I know, answered with the exact formula.

Here’s what he sent me:

A two digit number could be considered a sum of two integers, x and y. We’ll let x represent the tens digit and y be the ones digit. Thus, x can only have values 1 through 9, since if x is zero, it would be a one digit number. On the other hand, y can be any digit 0 through 9.

Thus, a two digit number can be written algebraically as 10x + y

For example, on the website, she uses the example of 25. So x is 2 and y is 5.

Now subtract the digits.

10x + y - x - y.

Do a little clean up here.

(10x - x) + (y - y) = 9x + 0

Thus the y’s go away and your left with 9x.

Thus it ends up as any multiple of nine.

Now, like I said, math isn’t my thing, when it starts moving away from numbers and including letters it’s Greek to me!

But it provided me a valuable lesson. In the ongoing debate of “what does PR really offer?” herein lies one of the answers (and, I might add, one of our strengths at Politis Communications): while we understand engineering speak and technology, we can translate it into non-geek speak.

To illustrate, here’s my version of how the little math trick works:

Take any two-digit number, let’s use 31. Now, subtract the two digits in that number, so 31-3=28 then 28-1=27, or a multiple of nine. The secret to this trick is that every time you follow this formula you will end up with a multiple of 9.

Make sense? It’s always easy to make it more complicated, but when it comes to communicating, especially in technology and the sciences, we have to remember that not everyone will have a degree in quantum physics. If you need help communicating your highly complex concept, give us a call or shoot us an email.

Don’t give up, there IS help available ;o)

Don’t Apply to Utah State: Do sarcasm and reverse-psychology actually work in marketing?

On October 1, 2008, a viral video hit the Internet urging Americans not to vote. The satirical “5 Friends” video displayed big name influencers and celebrities spewing off facts and reasons why citizens should not vote in the then-upcoming 2008 presidential election. The original video, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, garnered nearly 3.4 million views (combined views of “5 Friends” and “5 Friends uncensored”), while many viewers re-uploaded the video to their own Youtube accounts or created parodies. DiCaprio & Co. were obviously onto something good.

Four weeks later, on  October 29, Appian Way released a second viral video, “5 More Friends” (censored and uncensored). To date, the powerful, comedic and compelling viral videos urging Americans to vote using reverse psychology and sarcasm have received more than 5 million views.

Telling your audience to do the exact opposite of what you really want them to do? Well, apparently it works. The historic 2008 presidential election brought out more than 130 million voters.

Taking a page from Appian Way, the admissions office at Utah State University (admittedly, my Alma mater) put its own spin on that “don’t vote” message in hopes of having a similar effect on perspective students. As part of the university’s 2009 recruitment campaign, students rallied together to film a video explaining to each interested high school senior, college transfer or adult seeking higher education, all the reasons he or she should not apply to Utah State.

So check out the “Don’t Apply to Utah State” viral video below! To say I’m proud of my school for fully understanding and utilizing the power of viral video and trends in marketing is an understatement. It also probably doesn’t hurt that I know a few of the students/alumni in the video