A backwards glance shows seismic shift in the PR world

By Robert Wheatley

It was without a doubt one of the most powerful PR campaigns I’ve ever been associated with. An entirely new product category created from scratch off a compelling, dynamic public relations strategy. Yes, I said PR — not advertising or sales promotion. Over $100 million in sales (and that’s in 1994 dollars) was achieved and an 84% share of market within 16 months of launch. It was the introduction of First Alert brand carbon monoxide alarm products.

Recently we heard from the Wall Street Journal that futurist Richard Dawson believes newspapers will be irrelevant by 2022. The reference point for this incredible shift can be more fully appreciated by briefly looking backwards to a moment in time when conventional print and broadcast media were popular and respected sources of news, information and influence on consumer behavior and public opinion.

Here’s the story of PR campaign media strategies that were built from a full-scale deployment of earned media tactics.

• And the approach is no longer as relevant. New businesses are now developed in an interactive, narrowcast environment without push-button scale-ability

The lesson: the old rules no longer apply. New media protocols, planning processes and program strategies literally demand a transformation of our beliefs about brand building, PR strategies, how PR firms are put together. Thus how we look at messaging, outreach, measurement and evaluation of ideas is different than it was even 10 years ago.

When editorial media ruled!!

It was 1993, the firm I owned at the time, Wheatley Blair, was hired by First Alert, the leading home safety products brand in the US. They had invented the residential smoke alarm category and literally owned the retail market for them. Rich Timmons, now principal and President of Wheatley & Timmons, was the global marketing chief at First Alert – a marketer who had followed conventional paths focused on TV advertising and who was going to do something unprecedented: launch the next biggest thing to come along in his company’s history through PR.

A new category: Carbon Monoxide (CO) Alarms

We were awestruck the moment we learned that CO poisoning was the largest source of accidental poisoning deaths in America.

First Alert had created the first affordable residential detector for this previously unseen and little understood hazard that claimed at least 1,500 lives every year and injured thousands more.

The Silent Killer

How do you convince Americans to protect themselves from a hazard you cannot see, taste, smell or touch? And after all, headaches are common and ubiquitous, right? We created a theme that dramatically defined the threat.
• Poison center physicians, indoor air quality experts, leading fire service officials and others were recruited to help explain the problem and support the solution
• We built the Carbon Monoxide Information Bureau to house the scientific and medical evidence
• Brought together consumers who had lost loved ones in CO accidents to personalize and make the hazard tangible and real

Launching a Media Tsunami

Media tours were conducted with CO survivors and coordinated with local fire department representatives. We booked medical expert appearances on TODAY, Good Morning America and all of the network news programs. Placed in-depth hazard education features in national newspapers and virtually every major daily in the US. Similar treatments on family protection were secured in women’s service, lifestyle and DIY magazines. We assembled an in-house TV news production department that was producing a regular flow of 90-second video news packages.

Our tracking on consumer media impressions within six months topped 700 million and grew to over a billion. There were 6 o’clock news stories in major markets about lines outside stores exclaiming that First Alert alarm products were sold out. A major trade publication featured a quote from a senior buyer at Walmart who described First Alert CO alarms as the “cabbage patch doll of the hardware department.”

A business was created. A category established. First Alert doubled in size. Thousands of lives were saved in the process. Importantly, editorial media in virtually all channels was the instrument of awareness, education and motivation. The decline of traction, audiences and the splintering of media into hundreds if not thousands of platforms of self-interest make this story simply a reflection of a another age in media communication.

The same product launch, repeated today would be wholly different and geared to empower individuals to spread the word as much as media properties are addressed to influence the influencers.

For First Alert we constructed a media machine that hummed and produced and delivered editorial attention. That is no longer the way communication operates. Yet many still attempt to apply the old rules of quantity thresholds to a world now devoted to the quality and personalization of encounters with communication.

Nine years after we began, the agency moved on to represent Kidde, the other leading category brand. We helped them secure the number one market share position. This dramatic video PSA was part of the effort:

How would you launch the CO alarm category today?

New prescription for growth all about burrowing in on your best prospects

By Robert Wheatley

I have a confession to make: I’m a music fan . Big time. And have been almost all of my life. I sang my way through high school. Played guitar in a band. Had a vocal music scholarship when I started college. Ended up as the promoter and producer of all the rock concerts that appeared at my University. Had family and personal acquaintances in the rock concert promotion and band management business (Heart). Even today one of my Chicago friends is now a senior player at LiveNation, one of the largest live music organizations on the planet.

So what is it with me and music? I can’t really answer that. Born that way maybe. I’m also a culinary fan. Wine fan. Antique and art fan. Auto buff. Writer. Fan of parenting (and my daughters) generally. Talk to me, inform me about these things and I’m listening. Intently.

In the last post we explored the sea change in American attitudes about life and what matters, as people now hunger for greater meaning, purpose and belonging more so than consuming. So too, brands and businesses that identify and mine “consumer tribes” coalescing around lifestyle aspirations and interests have a better shot at sustainable growth. Why? Because the value added by these brands is aligned not just with commerce and direct selling but also being a facilitator of activities and experiences the consumer cares about.

• Take for example the DIY home decorating and fixing game. There are tribes of consumers who get significant emotional and personal payback from taking on projects aimed at improving or changing their homes. Brands that become facilitators and advisors in this endeavor can earn a place (relationship) in the consumer’s life by virtue of their unselfish behaviors. And why bother? The relationship precedes the willingness to pay any attention to marketing and brand communication.

Virtually every category has its heavy users, or fan-base of individuals who are more engaged and involved, based on their unique personal interests…Do you know them? Study them? Listen to them?

Get Focused.

Witness the tightly focused business model of Internet site Songkick – a relatively new rising-star brand on the music scene that is quickly putting a differentiated foot-print on the live concert business. They are working hard to listen to and follow their best customers.

Music and sports share something in common: the emotional relevance they retain with their greatest fans. When the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, hundreds of thousands of Hawk enthusiasts lined the Windy Cities’ streets to cheer and celebrate with the team. It was an amazing example of the power of sports to motivate people.

Music holds a similar value proposition. To some it’s an integral expression of their lifestyle interests. Who knows what is exactly at the root of this? Could it be some special gene that resonates to music in a powerful way? Bands and musicians are heroes to be sure. For some concert going is important and a reflection of how they define themselves. I would know. Sure Songkick follows the larger acts, but their unique effort to aggregate information about local bands helps drive their value and relevance to fans.

Go Deep.

Songkick helps facilitate fan devotion and involvement by helping people easily track information, events and news about their favorite artists. And post photos and share experiences they’ve had at concerts. Yes they’re making money from ticket sale commissions. That said the online presentation and interaction is more about the music than the commerce. Thus we see another example of earning a place in the music-centric consumer’s life.

Mine Relevance.

How would you describe a music lover’s lifestyle? How can you add value to it? What other attributes and benefits can be developed for those who see music as more than background ambiance or a date night piece of entertainment? The more relevant you are the more valuable you become. How close can you bring the music lover to the music creators and players? It’s an interesting proposition. Brands that matter to their users will gain greater ground in the long haul than those that currently move ahead on the basis of habit, history/tradition or ubiquity.

DIYers, home cooks, travel buffs, fashionistas – there are people out there who care, who pay attention, who will listen, who are engaged right now because of their personal interests and preferences. What’s the way in? Well that’s the $64,000 question. If you treat customer relationships more like friendships then you start to get the picture. Help them in-order to engage them.

What do you think?

Hyper-consumption falls as new era of meaning and purpose takes hold

By Robert Wheatley

We are sitting at the threshold of a new epoch in brand marketing and communication. One where old voices tempting consumers to look for the thrill in upward mobility and finding the joy in toys is being replaced by a soulful search for things more meaningful, more substantive.

Now more than ever there is a need to align your brand with a new set of consumer-driven values, to chart a different course with a refreshed voice and message, more in sync with this seminal shift in consumer attitudes. Are you ready? Read on…

The economic “thwack” on the side of the head…

Leave it to one of the worst economic disasters America has seen to finally bring some closure on the continual debate between judging one’s life by the things you buy vs. the “softer values” of contentment, happiness and belonging. Hyper- consumption may well be the biggest casualty befalling strategies for marketing and business as the economy searches for a new path to growth.

While the cauldron of behavior change continues to boil…

Sure enough the pocketbook difficulties (owing more but having less) faced by consumers here and around the world remain bitingly fresh. According to a recent report published in Food Business magazine, consumer spending at restaurants declined 2.2% in 2009 from the previous year. While that may not sound like much it is nevertheless quite remarkable. The data just released by the Economic Research Service of the US department of Agriculture indicated it was the first year-to-year decline reported since 1949, and the largest single drop in the restaurant business since the height of the Great Depression in 1938.

Today Mintel research reveals that beverage alcohol sales were off by 4.9% in the on-premise channel (restaurants, bars and clubs) over the same period. As we cut back in restaurant visits, we’re moving our adult beverage consumption to the home front, up 1.2 % over the same period and over 21% since 2004.

Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?

In a Forbes magazine report showcasing a new consumer attitude study from ad agency Euro RSCG , we find that saving rather than splurging is preferred now by 87% of Americans. And that 79% of us have way more respect for people who live relatively simple, debt-free lives than we do the bling-centric luxury lifestyle folk. Says Forbes: “Robin Leach has been sucker punched by Ed Begley Jr.”

Having possessions for their own sake and a sense of a life well lived are being separated from each other. Eight in 10, according to the study, believe that society has become too shallow, focusing on things that don’t matter. In a way you might say the “hyper-consumerist” life didn’t pan out the way consumers thought it would.

So what does this mean?

The data helps us see a new picture emerge:

• 80% of consumers are now shopping more carefully and mindfully.

• 54% are paying attention to the environmental and social impact of the products and brands they buy.

• 57% believe that cause participation matters.

More is less today about accumulation of goods. Instead our focus is on community, simplicity, a sense of purpose and belonging.

Successful brands in the digital age grow because they’re learning to align themselves as enablers, facilitators and supporters of consumer lifestyle interests and concerns. So, too, the message in brand communications and PR must adjust to acknowledge the desire for greater meaning, for personal growth, giving back and cause involvement – living simpler and less cluttered lives.

How can your band and product portfolio help consumers live a more satisfying life? And help them realize their desire for greater meaning? For belonging and sense of community?

What say you?

By Robert Wheatley

There’s not a moment to lose. Your brand, your budget and outcomes are at stake. The world of communications has changed, and your PR strategy and tactics must evolve with it. Or be prepared for little to no bottom line benefits from your spend.

Why does this matter? Being in the presence of a message (PR driven or otherwise) does not mean any useful interaction has actually taken place. Your goal is to impact consumer behavior. But there’s a vast difference between communications that is built correctly to accomplish that vs. messages “out there” in media that perpetually circle the engagement airport — never quite landing.

Here are the key questions you should be asking yourself right now…

1. How does the PR strategy connect and align our brand in a relevant and meaningful way with the lifestyle interests and passions of our core customers?

Relevance is key to securing engagement — so consumer insight and understanding is a precursor to building effective communications. There must be clear and specific linkage between PR programs and the consumer’s self interests that position the brand as an enabler, supporter, educator and facilitator of your consumer’s lifestyle passions. Otherwise she’s not going to pay any attention to what you put out there.

2. What proportion of your budget is dedicated to Web-based communication vs. mainstream media?

We have ample evidence that word of mouth drives business results. And now we know that Internet based communication is increasingly the genesis of influence, conversation and discussion about businesses and brands. Yet old habits (always hard to break) push spending and programming frequently down the well-worn path of conventional print and broadcast media. It’s not that these channels don’t matter, they do. But the poor red headed stepchild in many cases is the very media channel that can activate conversation and buzz. So is it time to re-configure the proportional spending to place more assets in web-based media channels? Yes.

3. Social media may no longer be a tertiary place to participate, but are you creating scale underneath your social media strategy?

Unlike any other media property that has come before it, the unique characteristic of social platforms is quite simple: they ALL begin with an audience of zero. It is your content strategy that can help aggregate an audience over time. How well you do this will impact the overall value and benefit of social media investments. Achieving scale is a combination of building and distributing useful, entertaining and valuable multi-media content (read video) along with special offers and benefits – and then integrating social media through every consumer touch point in your marketing communications toolbox.

4. To what extent are you now investing in creating media that fuels the budding relationship with your core users and brand fans?

“Owned Media” is now the third “core” leg of the media communications stool alongside earned and paid. Brands are now publishers and content producers themselves. The Internet has enabled cost-effective distribution. However PR campaigns have historically been built around enticing and convincing third-party editors and gatekeepers to do a story (earned media). And coverage certainly comes imbued with the associative value and credibility from implied third-party endorsement. Equally important however, brands can now talk directly to consumers through custom editorial content thus assuring the message remains unaltered or diluted. Have you launched your video channel yet?

5. Look before you leap. To what extent have you refined your listening tools to be sure you understand what consumer’s are saying to each other about your business?

Pushing messages at people doesn’t work any longer. Relevance is king. And part of the equation is honing your listening investments to be sure you fully understand the conversation that’s taking place around you. There are online-based tools both quantitative and qualitative that serve this purpose. A full suite of listening platforms should be “always on” with analysis following closely behind to assure you’re aware of what’s being said, by whom and where. You can’t effectively engage without this knowledge.

These five areas are vital to effective PR strategy and tactics, tied to your ability to impact behavior. They act synergistically to make communication effective. In the absence of these tools and approaches, you’re resting outcomes more on hope — and hope is never a strategy.

What do you think?

Connections to key lifestyle interests invoke openness to engagement

By Robert Wheatley

“The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” — George Bernard Shaw

Business growth opportunities abound for brands that fully understand the conditions and events that set in motion openness to communication – as in “I’m listening.” Much of the time consumers are not. The presence of brand communication at any given moment is not nearly as important as the audience’s willingness to pay attention. That may feel a bit like saying water is wet. But hear us out: lifestyle interests and events drive the readiness to listen. There’s an optimal time and place when consumers will be primed to engage.

Our point: brand communication gains a whole lot more traction when it occurs in tandem with relevant consumer behavior than it does randomly. Yet all too often, brand outreach is showered broadly as a form of messaging rain, timed to coincide with retail distribution or promotion period considerations more so than consumer lifestyle connection. In effect, brands remain ever hopeful that consumers will simply collide with the message storm or will be magically lured into engagement through its ubiquity, entertainment value or sheer novelty.

Lifestyle events prime the pump of openness…

Brand communication and PR strategies anchored to a foundation of real insight about the consumer’s relevant lifestyle concerns and passions will help crack open the door to hyper-targeted communication that conveys the right thing at the right time to the right person.

Getting Alignment With Target Audience Interests

Here’s a living example — Nesties – as defined by market research firm OTX and on-line retailer The Knot – are a unique segment of 25 to 32 year old female consumers. They represent the low hanging fruit for an array of household and lifestyle products. When these women become engaged to be married it triggers a period of three to five years devoted to wedding planning, new household creation and starting a family. These events in turn motivate an array of purchases.

It is the events and changing conditions in their lives that activate a behavioral response. Collectively Nesties are long-range “planners” who feel they have primary responsibility in setting up their new households and take responsibility for decorating, cooking, social activities, household chores, caring for children and pets.

This group shows evidence of predictable purchase behavior. And offers brands an audience already receptive to establishing a relationship that could continue beyond these formative years. So investments should be made in carefully crafted dialogue focused on this unique tribe — and grounded in positioning the brand as helpful and involved with her changing lifestyle needs, concerns and aspirations. This will lead to business growth.

Finding The Optimal Moment

Strategic timing and location of communication can also yield added engagement value. Meaning if it occurs when a person is actively doing something germane. A simple example of this is what we call leveraging a food brand’s kitchen footprint or in effect building its “share-of-countertop.” There is increased receptivity to brand messaging when the delivery timing coincides with related consumer’s behavior – in this case when working in the kitchen space. An obvious starter is to provide useful meal ideas, entertaining suggestions, tabletop recommendations, recipe preparation hints and serving suggestion guidance. It is an optimal environment for having a conversation — because the consumer is naturally open to it and their brain is switched on to the subject matter.

Nailing The Best Message

Messaging gains power when it is configured around the consumer’s lifestyle interests. Finding this sweet spot of alignment is what we call identifying a brand’s Higher Purpose. When the brand positions itself as an enabler, facilitator and supporter of a consumer’s personal passion, you’re able to forge powerful outreach tactics from this base. Consider the strategic possibilities that could fall out of sharpening your focus on consumer groups devoted to specific lifestyle interests such as fashion, travel, music, art, pet care, food enjoyment, cooking, child rearing, fitness, sports, home decorating or improvement, self-improvement, gardening, outdoor recreation, entertainment, entertaining, relationships and socializing. We could go on. The point is: the days of the hard sell, transactional style relationship are over and that form of messaging is out the window with it. So you want the consumer to understand some of the unique functional benefits in your product. Ok. And the path to getting their ears switched on springs from your willingness to be generous and unselfish — and thus play a role in their passions. It’s a richer, deeper and more personal relationship you want to construct.

The end result will be increased brand relevance, preference and sales.

Shedding light on the evolution of effective PR in the digital age…

By Bob Wheatley

Every so often this question comes up. Partly because we cast our firm as the “merger of brand strategy guidance and PR.” I mean, aren’t clients really covering that brand strategy thing all on their own? And what does that have to do with PR anyway? Isn’t PR a tactic focused on editorial media communication – code for getting reporters, producers and bloggers to publish something favorable?

• There are so many wrong-headed thoughts and clichés bleeding from the last graph. It’s time to shed some light, shine a beacon on a new understanding of what great PR truly is. And bring a clear rationale to the reason why brand strategy guidance and PR should be, and in our case are, married.

Granted in varying degrees, some companies treat agency resources in more of a silo fashion – essentially keeping the terms of engagement focused on tactics. But here’s the rub: the difference between communicating for awareness’ sake and the kind of communication that helps build brands and open new markets, is firmly attached to how brand strategy and outreach tools feed from one another.

Successful brands now are built on a foundation of relevance and greater meaning to their users. We called this a “higher purpose” or strategic mission. And often in the early stages of an engagement with a new client, we are doing the spadework necessary to unearth the right path to alignment between the brand’s DNA and the lifestyle passions and interests of core customers.

It is in the grist of this strategic mission that we find the unusual coalescing of communication that is sought out and engaged by its prospective audience (the consumer is now in control of engagement, not the other way around), and our ability to construct a meaningful relationship with the brand – one that can withstand the tests of competition and even a bad economy over time.

Sure you can cast PR as an outreach tool that simply translates features and benefits through an “earned” media pipeline that runs alongside paid (ads) media as another message delivery vehicle – albeit one that is understood to be more credible. But that’s not going to result any longer in demonstrable, measurable connections between the deployment of PR strategy and bottom line business growth. Simple awareness or being in the presence of a message is not the same as acting on it.

Any PR is good PR?

Is mention in an article really the main thing? Well certainly it represents an achievement because you can’t buy it. But that’s only going half way to paradise. The real deal here is when your message truly connects with the audience on a consistent basis and in areas that go far beyond product features and benefits. Sure product coverage is important but it can be so much more when done in the context of an over-arching strategy for the brand that is chocked full of greater meaning and intrinsic value to the consumer.

PR is no longer a below the line tool anyway. PR has now merged with “owned” media to become a brand publishing and media platform universe. It combines what’s long been known as editorial outreach, with building online communities and social networks that make brands media players themselves – and in doing so jumps the shark of editorial gatekeepers to message directly to consumers (but in a fashion that’s very, very different from advertising).

• So brand strategy guidance naturally must spring from a deep dive into the brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Combined with a working and thorough understanding of the brand’s competitive set and category behaviors. As well as respectful efforts to fully understand a brand’s historical legacy and cultural fabric.

Most importantly, however, is the requirement to invest in consumer insight so we can know with some measure of confidence what those lifestyle passions and interests look like. This sets in motion a platform for communications and PR strategy that resonates, engages, delights and validates what we hope consumers will believe about a client brands relevance and value to them.

This is our calling. Our path. Our way. Our point of view about PR.

What’s yours?

By Robert Wheatley

Photo Credit: Jonathon Fernstrom

Casting a wide net recipe for shallow customer interaction

1. We have access to over 50,000 sku’s in a typical urban grocery store, yet most people will purchase no more than 100 of them.

2. Recent Pew Research confirms while the choices for online news sources is almost limitless, around 57% of consumers rely on just two to five sites for information.

3. The same is true in television viewing. Despite the hundreds of channel options now available, most viewers stick to a relative handful of re-visited choices. Consumers tend to gravitate to those brands and businesses most relevant and interesting to them, based on how they see their needs and themselves.

Over Choice Favors Narrow-Cast

Consumers can’t possibly keep track of all the possibilities in all of the categories that compete for their attention. Despite this fact, brands continue to labor heavily to get in the consideration set through broad appeals, shot-gunned through vast expanses of media territory hoping to heard more fish into the widest net possible.

More is better, right?

Well if more were really more. What if there’s no “more” there? Increasingly we’re seeing demonstrable, measurable reasons to focus narrowly on audiences of brand fans, heavy users, and potential ambassadors who for personal and lifestyle reasons are already engaged in the category.

The call to go deep with your best customers runs counter to history and legacy behaviors in marketing – a well-worn credo that believes exposure to a message is the same thing as reception, understanding and appreciation.

We don’t see it that way…

Seth Godin has an interesting post today on what he calls “drive by culture” that suggests capturing an eyeball momentarily might constitute success? Well, no. Today’s click-and-go behaviors are the polar opposite of what engagement can truly mean with a consumer who is paying attention — because they find relevance and value in the interaction.

So perhaps consumers who are already plugged in from a lifestyle standpoint are more important and thus warrant more time and investment in relationship building? This is the fundamental principle underneath moving from a transactional view of the consumer relationship to one based on mutual understanding and reciprocity.

The Recipe for Better Relationships

• Time to take a hard look at your brand DNA and value proposition. Combine that with efforts to gain more thorough insight into the lifestyle interests, concerns and aspirations of your core users.

• Based on this insight look for ways of constructing a higher purpose and greater meaning that transcends the product itself and hits squarely on the consumer’s lifestyle interests. Mine those connections more fully so the brand can become an enabler and supporter or teacher in those activities and experiences.

• Surprise and delight your fans in tangible and meaningful ways.

Your best users will become active evangelists for your brand and in doing so reach others less involved by extending their own credibility on your behalf. Sure it’s scary to let go of tactics more closely resembling carpet bomb than precision targeting. Who wants to leave business sitting on the table, right? However, if consumers aren’t listening then the resources spent there isn’t working very hard.

In the end, consumers are congregating now in communities of self-interest. Meaning it’s better to play tennis with someone on the other side of the net. Going deep puts you onto the court, while a strong social media strategy gets the volley flowing back and forth. Your higher purpose is the right ball everyone will pay attention to. It’s the kind of game engaged consumers want to play.

What do you think?

By Bob Wheatley

Photo credit: Sharon Dominik

Forever and a day I’ve seen this concept play out in various categories from beverages to food, travel services to floor care and cleaning products, that 80% of your profits can routinely come from 20% of your customers who constitute the most engaged, heavy users in your business. Call them your best fans.

Yet routinely we focus our efforts, strategies and spending on casting a broad net. We try to be appealing to everyone because we keep telling ourselves that our brand and business not only deserves high household penetration, but “we can’t ignore the volume opportunities.” To be sure, but the 20% that’s mainlining your brand and paying attention to your messaging with a little help and “enabling” can become a more productive core of real-world ambassadors. People who can help spread the word effectively to those who are not as fully invested and who don’t buy as often.

Take cheese and pet food for example. Cheese is one of the most popular food categories in supermarkets. We like cheese, so it’s a big volume business. Yet a closer look reveals that consumers who are more emotionally engaged and devoted to cooking represent a “heavy user” profile that purchases more cheese products, more often and in many cases will go for higher priced items when they feel the value proposition is credible. So paying closer attention to this group of emotionally charged ‘kitchen commanders’ can yield incremental benefits in talk value and word of mouth, once they’re fully embraced, recognized and rewarded by the brands they love.

Or in pet food: a dynamic audience combination we refer to as indulgers and doters consists of a high percentage of higher income households who treat their animals like family members — and will even go as far as cutting back on some of their own discretionary purchases in order to keep Fido in tip top shape by feeding him a super-premium pet food diet. Industry statistics show this group continues to fuel an incredible growth track record in the emerging natural and organic segment – even though the tough economy has weighed in heavily in many segments to compel “trading down” behaviors.

Your call to action…

Think of it this way, your PR communications ROI outcomes will improve when communicating with an audience that’s really, genuinely paying attention. Those who have emotional, personal lifestyle connections to a brand are listening — first at the category level. A brand that works over time to mine relevance with this audience has the opportunity to build a unique relationship and bond. Conversely broad awareness tactics can perform as a “reminder mechanism” for the larger audience segments out there who may buy less often but who have ties to the franchise through their habit behaviors.

1. Consider for a moment the opportunities from investing more fully in courting your heavy users. What would you do differently? What efforts might you undertake to help create a community around these groups and empower them to interact with each other – especially important for home chefs and pet parents who want to share tips, ideas, experiences and insights with each other.

2. What rewards and recognition can you offer to your most devoted followers that surprise and delight – and thus are often the triggers to generating strong, credible and organic word-of-mouth communication.

3. What sponsored experiences can you create and deliver that bring your brand as close as possible to your best fans and allow them to interact with you and each other. In food this could include unique culinary experiences that reward your best customers with an opportunity to learn from the food heroes they respect like celebrity chefs. For pets it could be local dog park events and contests that allow pet parents to engage in shared experiences with their animal and with each other.

But wait there’s more…

Today, excellent blogger and thought leader Sonia Simone has an interesting post at Copyblogger that talks about the personal side of the Pareto Principle and how it impacts you and what you do. Her observations:

“…Which means that 20% of your customers provide 80% of your revenue. 20% of the time you spend behind your computer provides 80% of your best work. And 20% of that great meal you had last night provided 80% of the pleasure. (It was the chocolate mousse cake, wasn’t it?)

Because of the Pareto Principle, there’s always a “20%” you should be spending your time on. And in just about every discipline, it’s known as the fundamentals.”

Have you sat down to think about your day, your activities and to reflect on this idea – that 20% of your efforts will produce 80% of the great results and accomplishments you’re looking for? So what do the fundamentals look like for you? Maybe it’s a good idea to start by putting more energy and investment into courting your biggest fans…

A Stroll Through a Pet Trade Show Can Be Eye Opening
By Kerri Erb

Can you believe I love going to a trade show? At least when it comes to the H.H. Backer Annual Pet Industry Christmas Trade Show and Educational Conference in Chicago. It’s a trade show I look forward to every year, because as a pet parent I am passionate about my beagles, Frankie and Flora, and pretty weak when it comes to spoiling  them with toys and treats.

I’m apparently not the only one, since the pet industry is still growing and set to generate $51.6 billion in sales this year according to a recent report in Petage.

Just When You Think You’ve Seen it All

The show is also a bit of sensory overload, with booth after booth of everything and anything you can think of that could be made for pets: pet food, dog leashes, dog collars, pet beds, pet supplements, pet clothes and even pet shoes! With that also comes the issue of sameness. I kept thinking to myself, how can any pet product stand out among all of these exhibitors? But when it comes to pet accessories I suppose it’s all a matter of finding something that fits with your lifestyle like an eco-friendly dog collar, or cool performance gear for dogs on the go, or even the fashion forward options that are available too.

Paws Down, My Pick for ‘Best in Show’

There’s a new company that stands out to me as my favorite pick of the show, called Yep Yup. It’s a combination of home décor for pets and pet parents so your house doesn’t have to be filled with paw print covered pet beds and dog bowls. I think the founder, Sepi Banibashar, is brilliant for coming up with fun designs that stylishly incorporate your pet’s stuff into your home. I can’t say that I’ve seen something so beautifully designed, so her business really stood out at the show, which is not easy to do.

Photos courtesy of Yep Yup

Some of the pet food and pet treats companies also have a presence at the show too, and that’s where the sameness can make things pretty confusing. It’s one thing for pet leashes to be very similar, because then it’s just a difference in taste and style. When it comes to pet food, it gets more complicated. How are pet food brands supposed to be distinctive when everyone seems to be saying the same thing?

My Nutrition and Ingredients are Better Than Yours

In speaking with the pet food brands at the show, they even agreed that there’s quite a bit of sameness, from similar sounding ingredient stories, to packaging, it’s clear why there’s so much consumer confusion about pet food brands. Not to mention, pet food brands are letting the decision-making process on which food to buy happen at the retail shelf. So when pet parents stand in front of the rows of pet food, they see what seems like the exact same story about the best quality ingredients and countless glossy bags with images of real chicken and fresh vegetables displayed.

There’s a HUGE opportunity to reach consumers and gain their loyalty BEFORE they get to the shelf. I want the best for my beagles, like most pet parents. That means doing my research before I even walk out of my house to make a pet food purchase – that’s when you want the decision to be already made, before a consumer gets confused by the sameness at the shelf. For pet parents like me who are savvy about ingredients, it’s so much more than just the packaging. In fact, it’s long before a pet parent steps into a store that your brand can make a move to become the leader of the pack.

Let me know your thoughts or if you’re a pet food brand looking for some answers on how to break away from the pack, drop me an email at kerb@wheatleytimmons.com or twitter.com/KerriAErb.

Happy couple now resides in Springfield, MO

By Robert Wheatley

From left to right — Andy Hopson, strategist and consultant to our firm and Noble, Bob Noble, CEO of his namesake agency and Rich Timmons, President of W&T standing in front of Noble’s 50-foot fork totem –an iconic nod to their firm’s heritage and expertise in food communications.

Our agency, like many these days, is in a constant state of reinvention as we work to align ourselves with the changing media landscape and resulting client communication needs. Chief among the requirements of effective communications and brand strategy guidance is the overwhelming need for up-to-the-minute insight into trends, consumer attitudes and behaviors.

We’re about to introduce you to CultureWaves…

Just a little background to start: We happen to believe in strategic partnerships, especially when a combination can change math so that 1 + 1 = 3 or more. And so it is that we are embarking on a partnership with Noble, a fascinating advertising, test kitchen, new product creation, Internet media and insight firm run by the visionary Bob Noble and his team of experts from, of all places, Springfield, MO. Yes they have a growing Chicago office, but the nerve center of Bob’s operations flows from his loft building environs on the business end of a shopping mall plaza in the Show Me state.

Bob’s unique take on the changing landscape is to re-think the agency business model. Voila, we had a simpatico going right out of the chute from our first meeting, as we share the same view that old agency business models and tactical capabilities simply won’t cut it in this increasingly social media-driven world.

So Noble has launched a unique, proprietary “human insights engine” called CultureWaves. Key to its functionality is the software underneath that Noble created called Neemee. So what’s it do, you ask? CultureWaves is fueled by hundreds of “farmers” – essentially a large group of intensely curious human observers who contribute articles and ideas to a searchable Thought Bank. So the magic isn’t in algorithms but in thoughts and perspective that flow from real people.

W&T now plugged into Neemee and CultureWaves…

Candidly we’re still in the training mode over here, so we have much to learn about extracting insights. What we can tell you is this — the entire process is much about discovery and the ability to aggregate information in one place in such a way that patterns and trends become noticeable. And that in turn can lead to new ideas and observations around emerging human needs and interests.

The end game is simple. We want to increase our value to clients by helping them see emerging trends and needs on the horizon that they can meet and fulfill. At the end of the day, brand relationships are built on a foundation of relevance and greater meaning. And how can you possibly expect to divine the elements of relevance without firm human understanding of what people are into these days.

Human behavior rules…

Often said that agencies exist to help brands better understand how to influence consumer attitudes and behaviors, and in doing so to earn permission for a relationship – one that hopefully drives brand preference and thus sales. So knowing more about human behavior serves to fulfill our primary mission.

So far the journey proves to be fascinating. In the coming weeks, we’ll reveal more details about the CultureWaves model and share our learning with you.

Stay tuned.