Get To The Grapes

To generate awareness and to support Theo, Merlot will make a generous donation for every “Like” or post to our Facebook wall that includes: “I support Super Theo!”

Thank you to everyone who has and will support Theo this holiday season! Here’s to you – and Super Theo!

Wendy’s has its $0.99 menu! McDonald’s, Taco Bell and almost every other major fast food restaurant has some sort of ‘cheap eats!’ So, what’s so special about Subway’s new $2 Six inch Sub promotion? First, the company talks about “showing a little love” to its customers as a basis for this December promotion, which is brilliant marketing in itself.  During these tough economic times, instead of talking about how they need to boost sales in December since it is typically a very slow month for fast food chains, they instead talk about the benefit to the customer: smart! And, given it’s drastic price reduction, it’s garnering tremendous press coverage.  It’s one thing to offer fries at $0.99, but a sub sandwich has a greater perceived value than your average $2 burger or fries, so the news media is covering it as ‘news!’ In fact, USA Today ran this headline in its “Money” section: “Meal-deal trend: Catch a (6-inch) Subway for only $2″ You can’t ask for better advertising than that!

So the next time you’re preparing to run a promotion, make it not only compelling to your audience (your customers), but to the media as well. Getting a “little love” from the media can go a long way for your promotion and your brand. Read full article here.

There is much talk about the amazing impact social media can have on your brand and business, but equally important is knowing what social media can’t do. Social media can’t:

• Substitute for marketing strategy.
• Succeed without top management buy-in.
• Be viewed as a short-term project.
• Produce meaningful, measurable results quickly.
• Be done in-house by the vast majority of companies.
• Provide a quick fix to the bottom line or a tarnished reputation.
• Be done without a realistic budget.
• Guarantee sales or influence.
• Be done by “kids” who “understand social innately”
• Replace PR

Want more details, read full article here.

Jenny Craig hired Valerie Bertinelli to show off her figure at almost 50 – in a bikini!  Then NutriSystem signed on “Dancing with the Stars” alum, Marie Osmond. Weight Watchers upped the anti with Jennifer Hudson who is now “Feeling Good.”  So, what’s next for Jenny Craig? How do they even compete with Jennifer Hudson and stay relevant as a brand? The answer? Change your name to “Jenny” and sign on…

Yes, it’s Mariah Carey. Check out the new “Jenny” video here.  Click here for full story. 

Social media usage may have reached a tipping point, according to a new report from, The Pew Internet and American Life Project.

It’s true, grandma did create a Facebook account to see her grandchildren.  However, it isn’t just grandma anymore who is frequenting social media sites.  More and more baby boomers are jumping on the social bandwagon-both personally and professionally.  Social media is finally starting to mature…

“The graying of social networking sites continues…said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist, Pew Research Center. “While seniors are testing the waters, many Baby Boomers are beginning to make a trip to the social media pool part of their daily routine.”

Fully 65 percent of adult internet users now say they use a social networking site like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61 percent one year ago. This marks the first time in Pew Internet surveys that 50 percent of all adults use social networking sites.

Among the Boomer-aged segment of internet users ages 50-64, social networking site usage on a typical day grew a significant 60 percent (from 20% to 32%).

Consumer behavior continues to evolve and it’s continuing to evolve at every age range.  So no matter who your target audience or what your selling, social media should be considered an integral part of your media mix.

Source

In college I had a professor that said “if you turn in a press release with a misspelled name, the wrong name, the wrong phone number, etc., just once, you will FAIL this course.  Three people failed.  He said this because we were provided a text book that included the correct spelling and information and he expected us to use it – to cross check and ensure the information was correct. It was a great lesson to learn because when it happens professionally, it can be a serious mistake and if not too serious, an embarrassing one to say the least.

In our business it’s absolutely vital that we  get an editor/reporter/producer’s name right when a news release or other information is sent to them.  Case in point, here is a 2.5 minute video of Ron Lopez, news director at Fox40 outing the CA State Fair’s PR group  with a reminder about how important it is to double check your labels before sending.

This tirade was tweeted by Fox last year:

“CHECK THIS OUT: FOX40′s Ron Lopez has an issue with a letter he received from the CA State Fair – http://bit.ly/9KiVSN”

Featured Friday, October 7, 2011, 3:00am PDT in the Sacramento Business Journal

Customer input, message strength determine campaign effectiveness

Does advertising work? All business owners have asked themselves this question at one point or another. The answer? Yes. And no.

Yes when advertising is done right. No when companies either dabble in it or are not committed to their advertising. For advertising to work, there are a number of important elements that must come into play.

The first is knowing your customer. Have you ever done research to validate the assumptions you have about who your customers are or what they really want? Professional research isn’t cheap, but it’s invaluable to creating a successful marketing program. If budgets are a constraint, you can conduct your own research with easy and cheap online tools such as SurveyMonkey. Your results might not be statistically valid, but at least you can get an idea of where you stand with your clients.

Second, what is it you’re selling? For example, what does Mercedes sell? You might answer “cars.” But, with so many different cars on the market, how could it possibly compete? Beyond its product, it sells a lifestyle choice, service and prestige. Similarly, you must determine the intangibles that set you apart from your competitors. If you don’t know what makes you different from them, then it’s time to carve out a niche of your own.

Third, craft a compelling message. Is it memorable? Does it mean anything? Two great consistent and compelling messages include, “Just Do It” and “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” What makes these so great? I don’t even need to tell you which companies those taglines belong to ­— you already know. Now granted, those companies have spent millions to tell their story, but those messages speak to the brand and resonate with its target audience. Find out what message resonates with your target audience, and then own it!

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Last week we traveled to visit one of our clients, a national brand in the luxury home products category, for a Social Media Training with the executives.  The half-day training session was designed to share with our client an updated report on the landscape of Social Media.  Although the VP of Sales & Marketing understands clearly the significant power of Social Media, we also needed to share examples of how high-end brands are capitalizing on the new “word of mouth on steroids” and how that is relating to sales.  Part of my responsibility within the training was to share case studies and to talk about measurement.  We shared that the return in Social Media is not just direct sales, which the program should drive, the return may be an increase in brand equity, fidelity and loyalty or increased brand perception, as shown in the chart below provided by w3haus.

However, we did share some impressive stats on how companies have directly tied sales to their Social Media efforts and the data was music to the client’s ears.  As reported by blogger Radha Giri, here are some examples of how major brands are harnessing the power of Social Media to drive sales:

• Southwest Airlines @SouthwestAir: Southwest Airlines attributes more than $1 million in additional ticket sales to its presence on Twitter.
• Marriott: Marriott has made more than $5 million in bookings from people who clicked through to the reservation page from Marriott’s blog.
• Dell @DellOutlet: Dell Outlet made more than $6.5M sale through its Twitter presence..
• Naked Pizza @NakedPizza: 68.60% of total dollar sales for Naked Pizza came from customers who said they are “calling from twitter”.
• Blendtec: Increased sales 5x by running the humorous “Will it Blend” Videos on YouTube.

So, how can you apply what these major brands have done successfully? If your products can’t be purchased online, how can you make your sales cycle more social? If you’re not measuring the success of your Social Media efforts, what reason is there for executives to invest socially? Remember that although making true engagement and connections online is the key to social media, your efforts should move the needle!

Is this your worst nightmare? You sit down at your computer to write a press release, letter, etc. only to find that all you can muster is the uninspired “Dear Henry,” or “Today, OUR COMPANY is pleased to announce…” And after wasting a little time perusing a few of your favorite websites, reading a handful of emails and a finally scheduling that dentist appointment you’ve been avoiding, you return to your document to continue writing, only to discover that you’ve come up empty again! You fall to your knees and, pulling at your hair, yell to no one in particular, “WHAT DO I WRITE?!”

Photo source: Rennett Stowe

Was that too melodramatic? Perhaps. It’s writer’s block, and if it’s not your worst nightmare, it’s most certainly a time-consuming annoyance. Writer’s block happens to everyone. The key to overcoming it is to identify the small things that help reset your mind to open the floodgates. How does one break writer’s block? Here are five tips that can help:

Change position. We sit for a majority of our workdays and in that time it’s easy to forget to get up and move around. A couple of laps outside around the block, or a brisk walk through a different part of the office can help to clear your mind. When you return, don’t sit down. Stand up and work for a while. Not only does this burn more calories, but the change in position can help put you in a new frame of mind.

Nix the distractions. Close your office door (if you have one), turn off your email (<gasp!>) and ignore your phone (who would do that?!) to narrow your focus to the task at hand. By no means do I mean that you should lock yourself away and force the writing. Rather by cutting of the distractions, it can help you hone in on those words for which you’ve been searching.

Let those neurons fire. Writing, whether technical or creative, is an art. The crafting together of language to effect an action or communicate a piece of news and tell a story requires us to exercise the creative portion of our brains. Reset your “right brain” by doing something else creative. Grab your note pad and doodle, build a paper clip sculpture or make up a song. Take ten minutes to be creative in another manner and then return to your writing.

Brain dump. Just write. It doesn’t matter what it’s about. Put a stream of consciousness down on paper – or in most cases, on your preferred word-processor. Write out everything you know about the topic you’re trying to write about. I find that by doing this, I’m eventually left with a working outline of the thoughts and points I’m trying to communicate. As I string these together, I find that I’m crafting the piece I intended to write.

Trade Beyonce for Bach. Many of us listen to music while we work. It energizes us and helps with productivity. However, lyrics can be distracting. Tune into something more serene like classical, solo piano or even spa-type music. These tunes can provide the momentum that you need without distracting lyrics. Build a channel on Pandora, tap into AOL Radio or utilize Spotify to stream the right background music on your computer.

Do you have any tried and true cures for writer’s block? Share them in the comments section.

I am frequently asked what the “#” symbol means when proceeding words like Public Relations, Social Media or NY Yankees. The # symbol you see throughout social media sites like Twitter is called a Hashtag.  A Hashtag is a tag (or keyword) embedded in a message posted on Twitter, consisting of a word or phrase prefixed with a hash sign. (i.e #publicrelations, #socialmedia, #NYyankees). Hashtags are used to categorize tweets so that they are seen easily when an end-user enters a Twitter Search.  When clicking on the hashtag you are able to view all of the tweets that include that same tag. This makes searching a specific topic easy! See below for some examples of how public relations and marketing professionals are using hashtags on Twitter.

Hashtags can be placed anywhere in a tweet and can even be used for fun and trending sayings, topics or events. A word to the wise, be careful not to go overboard with hashtags.  I would recommend using no more then 3 hashtags in a single tweet.  You want to avoid your tweet resembling Spam. For additional information and best practices visit the Twitter Fan Wiki on Hastags.