MortarBlog

Have Mouth, Will Travel

EVERYONE–IS–TALKING.

Just yesterday, I was sitting in Union Square (San Francisco) listening to those around me spreading “the word,” talking up a storm about this and that (blah-blah-blah).

Word of mouth (WOM), a popular PR and marketing strategy has spun out of control making its way through blogs, across websites, into chat rooms and of course back to the daily dish of those out to lunch in Union Square (typical, old fashion lunch gossip - aka- WOM).

The whole world is now involved in PR, but little do they realize (the public) how quickly a buzz can become a “buzz kill.”

How much do we trust what we hear? With so many channels to gather our information and get “the scoop,” how are we measuring what’s real, fake, BS or not? 

The public has taken the concept of WOM (see wikipedia), maximized it via the Internet, and made it a thousand times easier to create a “buzz” (or "buzz kill" for that matter) and deliver it to an unlimited amount of people.

According to many, the public relations industry is taking the heat for the very public campaign of what I like to call: “have mouth, will travel.”  Thanks to this 'virtual' generation, WOM is traveling at a rapid speed.

Glorified Tap Water

The bottled water industry is booming—last year, this rapidly growing sector raked in revenues of an estimated $11 billion.  But as Slate points out, there is a growing conflict between those who want to drink clean, pure water and those who want to breathe clean, pure air.

Several Bay Area restaurants are boosting their environmental street cred by giving away tap water instead of offering marked-up bottled water to customers.  Among the restaurants pioneering this new trend are Chez Panisse, Incanto, Poggio and Nopa.  Kudos to them.  From a PR standpoint, it not only shows that they’re taking into account global warming issues (like environmental costs of bottling and transporting water, and reducing the amount of plastic in our landfills) but also that they’re taking their customer’s values into consideration rather than just how to make a profit.

Certainly this is a stark contrast to the flip side of the spectrum, with some manufacturers offering hyped-up “luxury” water products like Bling H2O, with bottles that come bedazzled in Swarovski crystals and a steep price tag of $35 a pop.

Tony doesn’t pick up the paper anymore

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) released the spring circulation numbers for daily and Sunday newspapers yesterday and apparently things aren’t getting any better for paper and ink suppliers. Overall daily circulation is down 2.1 percent for the six-month period ending March 31, 2007 as compared to the same time a year ago and Sunday circulation dropped 3.1 percent.

Monsieur Soprano’s hometown journal, the Newark Star-Ledger saw its numbers drop 6 percent for its daily edition and 4.3 percent on Sunday. Is it mere coincidence that Tony isn’t picking up the paper in his bathrobe this season? Things aren’t any better on the left coast. The San Jose Mercury News daily circulation is tumbled 4.9 percent and Sunday 4.4. The good news in all these stats is that they don’t include online numbers. The Internets, or tubes if you prefer, will save us all! (Just maybe.)

Are you Doing a Ratner?

Although widely regarded as "tacky," the UK-based Ratners chain of jewelry stores shops was nevertheless extremely popular with the British public. That was until Chairman Gerald Ratner's now famous speech at the UK Institute of Directors in April 1991. During which, Gerry muttered this now-famous phrase:

“We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95.
People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?"
I say, because it's total crap."     

Not content with that remark, he went on to say that some of the earrings were "cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long."

The speech was instantly seized upon by the media leading to an estimated loss of £500m ($1bn) being wiped from the value of the company.  Hardly surprisingly, Mr. Ratner, was given the boot some 18 months later, and in 1994 the Ratner name was expunged from the company, which has since been renamed Signet Group.

Even today, Ratner's gaffe is still famous in the British Retail industry as an example on the value of branding and image over quality. Such gaffes are now sometimes called "Doing a Ratner," and Ratner himself has acquired the sobriquet "The Sultan of Bling."

Ratner has said in his defense that it was a private function which he did not expect to be reported, and his remarks were not made seriously.

Read more on Wikipedia. Thanks to NPR for bringing this to our attention.

Sexy, sexy Martha Stewart?

Does domestic-arts maven Martha Stewart have the power to steam-up the DIY crafts industry?  With her high-profile media businesses feeling the strain of advertisers migrating to the Internet and declining audiences for daytime TV, Martha has launched a new line of more than 650 products for scrapbook enthusiasts. 

While bottles of glitter and colored markers may not bring the dowdy crafts industry the reportedly sexy makeover intended, perhaps she should focus more on breathing new life her icy on-air personality.  For now, she’s facing stiff competition from spunky spitfire Rachael Ray.  (We looked up the status of her current feud with Ray, and pulled up this old gem from TMZ.)

Have you turned 'Green'?

I cannot count how many times I see the word "green" in the media.

Green this. Green that. Green homes, green food, green cooking, green campaigns.

This environmentally conscious topic is a classic example of the power of PR and its ability to initiate and control an entire trend – turning everything (businesses) and everyone (consumers) green. The public relations and marketing industry is the biggest voice behind environmental awareness and is spreading the word any which way it can to reach all sorts of consumers.

Seriously, PR and advertising is the only industry that can take a serious topic like global warming, turn it around, add a twist and make it sexy. Voilà!

Blogger PR Stunt - Money Shot Blown

Bewigged gals from the strangely named SF blog, The Mayor & The Hair evidently decided they weren't getting enough attention (links) and upped the PR ante by pouring drinks over blogger Dean from gavinsucks.com at an SF blogger gathering last night. This entry, along with the umpteen million others, proves that their strategy worked. And also that people in SF don't have a whole lot going on in their lives.

Kiss and Tell

Corporate PR mavens at big tech companies like Google and Apple may enjoy a certain level of power over the press for now, but according to tech gossip blog Valleywag, they should enjoy it while they can.  The favored “media embargo” — which allows companies to give the press sneak previews of new products under the condition that news not be released until a specified date — looks like it’s on its way out. 

Blogs often scoop the news before the embargo date has passed, and how much of a sneak peek is it anyway, when many newspapers are privy to the advanced info and all making the same orchestrated announcement — same day, same time?  Now, the newest generation of newspaper managers are making audible protests against the embargo policy — among them, Marcus Brauchli, The Wall Street Journal’s new managing editor. 

But really, it’s always been a race for the privilege to be the first to break the news.  At issue isn’t so much the media embargo, but that newspapers must now keep pace with the blogs.  Bloggers abide by different rules than journalists, and it’ll be interesting to see how the mainstream media continues to keep pace with this new wave of reporting.

Mortar takes pity, man no longer doing PR for kitties

After two weeks on the job, we feel confident enough in the abilities of our new PR strategist to announce his hiring. Kevin Lewis has been added to the Mortar PR team with the official title of Account Manager – though he answers to “Hey, flack!”

His previous clients include biggies such as the San Francisco Symphony and NBC Universal as well as some more, um, “esoteric” accounts like San Francisco’s infamous Condor Club and the Cat Fanciers’ Association International Cat Show – two years running (running, jumping, clawing and, of course, meowing). Kevin has scored coverage in The New York Times, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle and (this is a no-brainer) Cat Fancy. He can offer clients advice on every aspect of their PR needs. He can also put them in touch with some very reputable pedigreed cat breeders should the need arise.

“To be honest, if we knew he was the kind of person who wears white top hats in public, we might’ve had second thoughts,” said Mortar Co-founder, Mark Williams. “He seemed like a responsible guy, but after we got all the paperwork done we found out he was a vegetarian, too. It’s a damn good thing he’s much smarter than he looks.”

Make way for the TransRats, Taco Bell. (Transfat? Gettit).

Ouch. In a continuing PR nightmare YouTube posts no less than 27 separate videos featuring New Yorks finest TransRats (I love that joke) cavorting through Taco Bell's in the Big A. There is a moral in here somewhere. Thanks Church of the Customer.