Bankruptcy PR is the Newest Agency Market Niche
You know the boom times are over when it “bankruptcy PR” becomes the newest market niche for PR agencies. PRWeek reports that “retailer Mervyns is working with Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher for communications support during its Chapter 11 filing,” which the company made on Tuesday.
What does a PR agency do for a Chapter 11 [...]
Fox News Sets a Bad Example for Media Relations
When you think of Fox News, you may think of some of its positive attributes, such as its take-no-prisoners style and its obvious commercial success.
Chance are, though, that you do not think of Fox News as one of the world’s premier news organizations. You probably do not think of any Fox News reporters when compiling [...]
How Much Free Work Should Agencies Do To Win New Business?
One of the classic struggles in PR is the courtship process between PR agencies and their potential new clients.
The client, who needs the services and will pay the bills, wants to reduce his/her risk by learning as much about what the agency will do for them before starting to pay. The agency, for its part, wants to [...]
Political Candidates Are Bad Role Models
Every four years, we are treated to the spectacle of journalists and moderators asking tough, pointed questions of presidential candidates, only to have the candidates completely ignore the questions and launching into their pre-planned talking points.
And every four years, corporate spokespeople wonder — is that how I’m supposed to answer questions I don’t like? By [...]
The Building Blocks of Quotable Quotes
If you want to make sure the information you are trying to get across is picked up, you need to make sure it is interesting. Too often, business information is full of fluff words and jargon that makes it impossible for other people to care.
But what are the building blocks of interesting information, or “quotable [...]
The “Chocolate or Vanilla” Rule of Answering Questions
Let’s say a reporter asks you the following question: Do you like chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream? How many possible answers are there? Did you say two?
I’ll tell you how many there are: five.
Chocolate
Vanilla
I like both equally
Neither — I prefer a different flavor
I don’t like ice cream
The point of this illustration (courtesy of [...]
What To Do When a Crisis Hits
Crisis communications experts like to say that every organization is going to have a crisis sooner or later, and that in fact, the underlying reasons for your crisis are probably already festering in your organization.
Larry Smith, president of the Institute for Crisis Management, likes to point to the story of the Firestone tires that started [...]
How to Handle Questions You Don’t Want to Answer
There are really two types of questions that you think you don’t want to answer: questions you don’t have an easy answer to, and truly touchy questions that you’d really rather not answer. Here’s a process for figure out which is which:
Preparation is the key to success:
Brainstorm potential questions
Develop answers (or non-answers) in advance. You’ll [...]