R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find Out What It Means To Media

admin
November 30th, 2011

Robert Fulghum got it right in his famous book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” Share, be kind to one another, and respect each other.

We respect each other at work, in business partnerships, in dealing with customers, and when communicating with media. But, these days the media environment requires some new rules of respect.
Once upon a time journalists and public relations executives would gather in local watering holes to forge relationships over highballs and unfiltered cigarettes. Reporters needed to cultivate good sources. Companies needed good publicity. Although news was far from a gentleman’s sport, this was an era when embargoes were honored and exclusives were earned.
 
Disrupted by social media, journalism is today experiencing a renaissance marked by a different level of accessibility between reporters and news makers. We can now follow and converse with our favorite reporters on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Their ideas flow freely, liberated from copy editors, untethered by producers’ deadlines and distanced from legal eyes.
 
However, there are signs the familiarity is breeding contempt.
 
The Rules 
 
For example, although reporters want more visuals for their stories, as more content is placed on the Web, they consider it disrespectful for a PR practitioner to attach a large file to an email without requesting permission first. Such an inconvenience may be forgiven if there’s a genuinely newsworthy pitch involved. However, clemency may not be granted when certain lines are crossed.

Media furor erupted in June 2011 over the publicity surrounding the much anticipated release of the Duke Nukem Forever video game by publisher 2K Games. The title had been in development for nearly 15 years and the long wait by the Duke Nukem franchise’s fans contributed to the massive hype surrounding the launch. When the game failed to impress reviewers, the angry publicist took to Twitter in apparent retaliation to announce that the harshest critics would be blacklisted from future title releases. “Bad scores are fine. Venom filled reviews…that’s completely different,” one tweet read.

The gaming press lashed out in print, on blogs and social networks. Eventually the publicist apologized but ultimately parted ways with 2K Games because the damage to the client relationship had been done.

Ben Kuchera, a reporter for Ars Technica website, observed: “A large part of my job is dealing with people who work in public relations. The vast majority of those whose do PR for video game companies are polite, well-intentioned, and extremely professional. They need us to get their games coverage, and we need them for access to the developers and early code toreview games in a timely manner. The press and PR relationship may sometimes be strained, but it’s rarely adversarial.”
 
(This post is an excerpt from an article originally published in the G&S Insight newsletter. Read the entire article.)
 

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The Boldness of a Simple Thank You in Business

mbuhay
October 26th, 2011

It’s a safe bet that TV barfly Norm Peterson kept returning to the place where “everybody knows your name” for a host of reasons besides the warm way in which he was greeted by the crowd upon each arrival.

Norm’s legendary bar tab – which owner Sam Malone jokingly referred to as his future retirement fund that was hidden away in a safe – would likely qualify as one of the most generous examples of a form of customer appreciation: the “buyback.”

As Norm’s buddy and human encyclopedia Cliff Clavin might intone, according to Urban Dictionary a buyback is “when a bartender gives a patron a drink ‘on the house.’ This usually occurs after the patron purchases three or more drinks.” Evidently, Sam had granted Norm one in perpetuity.

A buyback is the sort of folksy, personal gesture of thanks that one tends to encounter in smaller establishments. Sadly, we are encountering fewer of these courtesies. Can you remember the last time a cashier rounded down the price charged rather than trouble you for change? Or how about discovering that 13th pastry or roll slipped in with your purchase to make a baker’s dozen? These expressions may even seem rather quaint, as though you have stumbled upon an artifact from a bygone era and cannot determine its purpose.

Lavished with Attention

Today’s consumers could hardly claim to feel unloved. They are lavished with attention from marketing offers of free shipping and returns, buy-one-get-one-free, or loyalty programs where points can earn free upgrades.

A 2011 Smart Money article reported that the average U.S. household holds memberships in 18 consumer rewards programs. The article also suggests that participation doesn’t necessarily signify loyalty. Rockwell Clancy, vice president of financial services at J.D. Power & Associates, describes the schemes as “hostage programs” because points-hungry consumers won’t readily drop out even though they end up paying higher prices or experience inadequate service.

What’s missing? Emotion, pure and simple.

Where is the merchant’s desire to convey appreciation by quietly delighting the customer? How can a relationship based on what amounts to a contract for transactions be expected to outlast the program’s expiration date? Amid all the wheeling and dealing, the surprise of an unadulterated “thank you” might instead be met with suspicion or bemusement.

In this complex world, it may seem impossible for marketers to restore simple acts of kindness in a customer relationship strategy.

Lagniappe

Stan Phelps, author of the forthcoming book, “What’s Your Purple Goldfish?”, believes the biggest marketing challenge facing businesses is that most conventional efforts are centered on the acquisition of future customers. This myopic approach by businesses “preoccupied with getting new customers through the purchase funnel” ignores current customers – the very influencers whose advocacy can help companies promote their market differentiators.

“Retention is now more important than ever before as a new customer costs 10 times the amount of retaining a current one,” says Phelps. “Today’s businesses need to find ways to stand out from the competition through differentiation via added value. Giving little unexpected extras (‘purple goldfish’) helps you retain customers and more importantly gives them something to talk, tweet, blog and Facebook about.”

Phelps posits that businesses would be better served by investing their efforts into a concept he calls “marketing lagniappe.” Based on the Creole word meaning gift, the idea is that businesses can shape memorable customer experiences by doing unexpected things like giving away a bonus or extra quantity of an item at the time of purchase or interaction with the brand.

Among the 12 types of bonuses outlined in Phelps’ book are those which engage customers by communicating appreciation, acknowledging mistakes or inconvenience, or offering product samples.

For instance, guests receive free candy bars upon check-in and more chocolate treats on their pillows at night at Hershey Lodge and Hotel properties. Many Lexus dealerships provide car washes at no charge to owners after service is completed on their vehicles. Ikea offers free breakfast promotions as well as a play area called Smaland with complimentary supervision for children, initiatives which the New York Times reports may have contributed to increased sales when other home furnishings competitors were struggling. According to the article, Natalie Berg, a senior analyst with London-based consulting group Planet Retail, observes: “At a time when families are cutting back on vacations and restaurant visits, an outing to Ikea suddenly sounds quite attractive – especially when you throw in free baby-sitting and cheap food.”

Treasured Gift

The word “thanks” shares its origins with those for “think” and “feel,” which may explain why the simple generosity of sharing small tokens of appreciation with customers can have a profound emotional impact.

Writer David Kramer recounts for the New York Times a split-second decision he made to jump into his very first bar fight because he wanted to avoid being alienated for his cowardice: “… every free drink that I had ever had, and the potential of that ending forever flashed before my eyes. No more special treatment. No more buybacks … The thought was staggering. I just had to do something.”

Incentives may coax a customer toward more purchases or cause a change in thinking, but it’s the more intimate gestures of kindness that inspire passionate customers to bestow on a business the most treasured gift of all: their trust.

(This post is an excerpt from an article written by Mary C. Buhay, vice president at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations, and originally published in the G&S Insight newsletter. Read the entire article.)

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Channeling Your Inner Reality Stars

admin
September 26th, 2011

Whether you love it or hate it, the majority of communicators could learn a thing or two from the popular MTV series “Jersey Shore.”

It’s a simple formula, really. TV networks pump out shows like “Jersey Shore,” “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” “Swamp People” and “The Voice” because they use regular people and b-list celebrities in everyday situations or contests to deliver two critical things: compelling content and low cost programming. On this playing field, smaller outlets like E!, History Channel and Food Network can be just as successful – if not more – than giants like CBS, NBC and Fox. Big or small, all are cashing in big-time on the reality TV phenomenon.

Whether you lead communications for an organization that is a smaller player or a behemoth, isn’t addictive content that keeps your audience talking and coming back for more the name of the game? With today’s continued economic challenges, we know communications that deliver more but cost less are certainly more popular than, say, “Dancing with the Stars.”

Yet very few communicators – especially in B2B – are really tapping into the power, simplicity and excitement of the reality-style programming concept. Are your company’s versions of reality stars working quietly in their cubicles, laboratories or sites just waiting for you to discover them – ready for their chance to be the next big thing that captures your audience’s imagination? And how much easier would your life be if, instead of diligently working every day to uncover the “hidden gem” stories in your organization, you had a constant stream of fresh, captivating and usable content flooding your in-box?

Still think you can’t learn anything from Snooki and The Situation?

Alternative Reality

As professional communicators it is our job, of course, to provide guidelines and forums to ensure our efforts are less “Jersey Shore” and “Celebrity Rehab” and more “The Voice” or “Deadliest Catch” – content that taps into the compelling nature of reality programming without being “cheesy,” exploitive or over the top. We also have to remember that communicators are not the only professionals who are overwhelmed with too much information and workload. We must also make being a business-reality star fun and – most importantly – easy.

This is a concept well understood by the communicators at telecommunications technology provider Neustar, which wanted to better equip its employees to tell the company story to external audiences. Yet its own research showed many employees didn’t really understand all the services the company offered. Rather than simply delivering standard messaging documents or boring online training sessions, the communicators at Neustar engaged the internal audience with an “American Idol” style contest – asking its 1,000+ employees to submit video recordings of their best 60-second Neustar pitches and offering the winning entrant a free trip to the Caribbean. Submissions were posted on the Neustar intranet where employees voted on their favorites. The company hosted presentations by the five finalists at its regular “all hands” meeting, complete with a Ryan Seacrest-like emcee.

The company earned standing-room-only attendance at the in-person event, and hit capacity on its own phone lines for call-ins. In all, more than 60 percent of its employees participated in the meeting – easily a company record. In a post-event survey, 87 percent agreed or strongly agreed the Idol contest increased their understanding of what Neustar does; 84 percent agreed or strongly agreed the campaign was engaging. What the survey won’t tell you is that Neustar most likely got the added benefit of much higher employee morale and productivity because they created an environment that was both informative and fun.

Lest you think your company’s employees are too conservative, too nerdy or too technical to create compelling content, we submit an example from accounting giant Deloitte. Its “What’s Your Deloitte” video contest generated more than 400 submissions – many of which are now on its Deloitte Film Fest YouTube channel. Think you are going to find a bunch of stodgy, dry or boring content? It’ll take only a few seconds into a video – when you hear an accountant exclaim “It’s the food!” as he eats a typical Friday bagel – to get a sense of the personality, wit and fun-loving nature these videos convey. The episodes are hilarious to almost any professional. Certainly they appeal to Deloitte’s primary audience – top college recruits weighing offers from multiple firms. The reality stars at Deloitte certainly give the firm an edge over the competition in that regard.

Citizen Business Media

Tapping into your organization’s reality stars need not be a point-in-time campaign. You can also do it every day for a much more sustained effort by making employees the stars, the producers and even the broadcasters of your content.

In fact, empowering all employees to share your message is perhaps the most obvious missed opportunity by many communicators. Most organizations have a corporate or brand presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media forums. They typically gather a relatively limited number of direct friends, followers and connections and do their best to spark dialogue with those audiences. Meanwhile, hundreds or thousands of their own employees are using those very same forums to share updates and stories each day with their own personal and professional contacts – many of whom are the very same people the company or brand is trying to reach!

So why not empower the employees to better spread the word on your behalf? This can be as simple as providing them with copy and links they can cut-and-paste into their own status updates, news feeds and Tweets. In five minutes a week you could more effectively spread your social media messaging far beyond what can be accomplished from the main corporate sites. And you can do so at almost no cost or perceived risk to the organization.

Those organizations that are willing to be a little more aggressive can even empower, train and guide key employees to get more involved in spreading the word via social media. Getting key employees actively – and appropriately – engaged in LinkedIn groups, for example, can be a powerful way for B2B organizations to showcase their thought leadership and expertise in a way that also builds strong connections with partners and prospective customers.

The possibilities of business citizen media go well beyond social media. Today’s audiences demand fresh, dynamic online content that gives them an inside look at what’s really happening inside an organization. What they seek sounds a lot like reality TV, doesn’t it? Delivering it can be as easy and cost-effective as shipping a few inexpensive handheld video cameras and telling your best employees to have fun – within reason, of course.

What you get just might make your show the next big thing. It could make you a hero from a financial perspective. And it just might give you enough content that you can stop digging for it and head home in time to catch an episode of “The Bachelor” once in a while.

 (This post was originally published in the G&S Insight newsletter and was written by Brian Hall, vice president at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations.)

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Customer Service: Rewriting the Rules of Engagement

admin
July 26th, 2011

The customer is always right. It’s a mantra that many consumers still firmly believe. But for far too many, it’s also become a battle cry in their struggle to be heard by service and product providers.

Customer service has evolved much like military warfare. What started as a face-to-face activity has shifted more to an indirect entanglement made possible by modern technology. With customer engagement taking on less personal forms of communication, ranging from automated telephone systems to avatars offering virtual assistance, many consumers are yearning for the days when complaint department visits were still possible.

With their dissatisfaction manifesting as annoyance, helplessness or rage, customers may be invoking a very different mantra: I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!

Isolation

To make matters worse, in many organizations the customer service function is isolated from other public facing communications activities, such as public relations, marketing and sales. By splintering these critical touch points, the full brand experience is disrupted. For example, the disenchantment resulting from a customer’s unhappy encounter with a call center representative may linger despite subsequent news coverage of the company’s planned increase in jobs for the local community.

According to Brian Solis, author of the book Engage and principal at research-based advisers Altimeter Group, “Over the next decade, customer service will fuse with marketing to become a holistic inbound, outbound campaign of listening and engaging with customers that will rewrite the rules of the game.”

Properly handled, customer service is good public relations. It is not necessarily about just accepting returns or giving refunds, but more about developing and nurturing relationships with current customers to keep them, and through positive word of mouth to their friends and family, generating new customers because of the good experience and goodwill.

“Outbound customer and community relations are among the most important campaigns any company can integrate in its immediate future initiatives,” said Solis.

Communication Drives Customer Trust

Long-lasting customer relationships are critical to business success, and trust is a driving factor. Digital technologies and social media help companies reach their customers directly in an environment where customers also exchange opinions about products, services, and brands.

A June 2011 study by Pitney Bowes finds that customer communications drive 20 percent of overall trust in a company. Trust, in turn, determines 22 percent to 44 percent of customer loyalty. Additional findings include:

  • Customer satisfaction with interactive platforms is often determined by trust that involves direct communications from the provider (15 percent to 20 percent) and immediate results via transactions with self-service channels (10 percent to 20 percent).
  • Consumers recommended several ways for companies to strengthen trust by focusing on improving communications (quality and clarity), increasing transparency, and providing advance information for better deals and problem solving.
  • Respondents claimed they look for companies that provide high-quality customer care, ensure a sense of being “looked after,” and demonstrate a high level of competency and conduct from employees.

In the study, researchers found trust is based on the evaluation of three complementary dimensions: competence or credibility; integrity or honesty; and empathy or benevolence.

The first complementary dimension is ‘rational trust’ and the second and third could be interpreted as being more ‘emotional trust.’

“Trusted brands build upon each interaction to enable lifetime customer relationships,” said David Newberry, chief marketing officer of Pitney Bowes Business Insight. “Every customer interaction – in person, on a website, with direct mail, or with a call center – is an opportunity to build or break trust. This study validates how crucial customer communications management programs are for positively managing customer interactions and, therefore, for also improving the value and profitability of every customer relationship.”

Customer Service and Social Media

Digital media are gradually supplementing the telephone for customer service. With digital media, customers have a variety of ways to voice their thoughts and ideas. Many online forums encourage venting and complaining. With one click, someone with a grudge can tell a negative story about your company or product. If it goes viral, this could have a negative impact on your business.

“Don’t underestimate the power of a disgruntled customer,” says Rebecca Morgan, customer service expert and author of Calming Upset Customers. “They wreak havoc in your organization because (complaints) upset everybody and, with these tools of Twitter and Facebook and Yelp, they can get the word out quickly.”

While he was at cable giant (and frequent customer punching bag) Comcast, Customer Service Manager Frank Eliason developed a unique digital customer service program that started with the creation of a corporate Twitter handle @ComcastCares. Spotting disaffected customers and starting conversations with “Can I help?” were the hallmarks of Eliason’s approach: handling the complaint quickly and showing empathy. Take care of the problem fast, apologize (even though it’s not your fault) and reassure the customer that the problem will be resolved efficiently.

Social media as a starting point for Eliason was an obvious choice to help his team track, understand and help customers better, defining the next generation of customer service.

“Social media represents an entirely new way to reach customers and connect with them directly,” notes Solis. “It adds an outbound channel that complements inbound customer service and traditional PR, direct marketing and advertising, placing companies and their customers on a level playing field to discuss things as peers. More important, it transcends the process of simply answering questions to creating a community of enthusiasts and evangelists.”

The Right Mix

A customer complaint sometimes presents an opportunity to turn an adversary into an ally. Consider that effective customer service is not only solving the customers’ problems, but also providing value. By making customer service part of your larger communications and PR plan, you will ensure that consistent, effective messages are communicated to your customer, who is always right.

(This post was originally published in the G&S Insight newsletter and was written by Robert Stovall, business development director at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations.)

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Frenemies with Benefits: Engaging Your Critics

Ron Loch
June 6th, 2011
“Like clockwork.” It’s a phrase used to describe a smooth operation, consistency, reliability. But look inside a timepiece and you’ll find that for the hands to move forward they must engage a gear that moves in the opposite direction. For businesses, a similar connection with contrarian forces can help make for smoother operations and greater success. Making “frenemies” can have its benefits.

For most public relations professionals, negative clips and comments historically have been viewed as fires to be put out, often with the overwhelming force of reach and frequency. However, with the dominant role social media play in society today, disgruntled customers or concerned citizens can match the reach and frequency of even the largest Fortune 100 company as long as they have a compelling story to tell. More than ever, a new mindset of engagement is needed – one that embraces contrarians as key stakeholders.

That’s what Domino’s Pizza did in 2009. Despite being the world’s largest pizza delivery chain, it decided to embrace its critics to help improve its product. Convening focus groups of dissatisfied customers, the company’s leadership was subjected to criticisms of its product ranging from the most common, “tastes like cardboard,” to the sublime “there’s no love in Domino’s pizza.” As the market leader, the company really didn’t have an immediate need to change. Being the leader in convenience and price was more than enough to make it successful. But rather than ignore the criticism or combat it with positioning, the company changed its signature pizza recipe, from crust to toppings.

(This post is an excerpt from “Frenemies with Benefits: Engaging Your Critics,” a G&S Insight newsletter article written by Ron Loch, senior vice president at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations. He leads the firm’s Greentech & Sustainability Practice, collaborating with G&S colleagues specializing in advanced manufacturing and energy, agribusiness and food, consumer lifestyle and building solutions, professional services, and technology and general science.)

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Global, Shmobal

Jeff Altheide
March 16th, 2011

Despite all the talk of a “global economy” and the “globalization of markets” the world is not – and never will be – one homogenous mass.

Those with marketing or communications responsibilities across multiple countries realize that true success is based on understanding and addressing the unique interests and needs of dozens, sometimes hundreds, of sub-markets. 

Markets may divide by geography, language, culture, regulation, economic value, competition or countless other factors.  The more finitely you understand your customers and communicate on their terms, the more effectively you’ll build lasting relationships with them.

Gibbs & Soell is an active member of Public Relations Organisation International (PROI) , a tight-knit collection of more than 50 independent public relations agencies in nearly 40 countries.  PROI’s tagline is “Local Intelligence Delivering Global Impact.”  The very premise of PROI is that “global” communications programs are best built from the ground up under a common strategy, not standardized in a big vanilla blanket.

In a panel discussion at a recent PROI meeting, we addressed many strategic aspects of client service across geographic regions. 

One outcome of that discussion was an article  just published in India’s Business Standard newspaper, which I co-authored with Sharif Rangnekar, Director and CEO of Integral PR  in New Delhi, on the rapidly splintering digital communications universe. 

Yes, even the online world – which some promised would provide universal access to everyone you’d ever want to reach – is becoming an ever-more-fragmented domain, driven by overlapping technological, economic and social influences. 

Whether you’re approaching an Indian population devouring 4,000 daily newspapers, a product market spanning several countries, or even a splintered online community, the bottom line is to understand exactly who you are trying to communicate with and then speak to them in their own language – both literally and figuratively.

(Contributor Jeff Altheide is a senior vice president at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations and oversees growth strategy and innovation for the firm.)

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Go East, Young Man

Jeff Altheide
November 15th, 2010

Sure, we’ve all read about it in business magazines.  But attending the PR & Media China Congress in Hong Kong recently, sponsored by the Asia Business Forum, showed me first-hand the rapidly evolving state of our profession in this dynamic business environment.

Two days of presentations from corporate PR leaders, agencies, NGOs and researchers (coupled with my meetings with Gibbs & Soell agency partners in Hong Kong and Beijing the balance of the week) left me in awe of the complexity, diversity and light-speed change inherent in the region.

Just a few highlights:

Media Relations?  Changing.  While “pay to play” still rules with some media, journalistic professionalism is increasing and reporters are open to bigger stories that explore market trends and research or business development perspectives from corporate leaders.  They’re interested in stories about large scale businesses and how multinationals have grown.   

Social Media?  Changing.  Media coverage in the U.S. has emphasized the Chinese “Great Firewall” and restrictions and blockages of foreign social media sites in the country.  But there were multiple examples discussed of Chinese citizens fighting or supporting companies and organizations through online communities.  One story had 200 Smart cars being sold on Taobao (a prominent retail site) in just over three hours via a Groupon-type discount promotion.  Many Chinese citizens are active and opinionated posters on QQ and other popular channels.

Investor Relations?  Changing.  According to Gibbs & Soell partner Strategic Public Relations Group, 2010 saw the first-ever listings on the Hong Kong stock exchange for companies from Russia, Canada, France, Germany and Mongolia.  The Chinese government is expected to eventually remove or reduce restrictions on citizens owning foreign stocks.  More investments and more investors… more need for dynamic investor relations services.

Corporate Social Responsibility?  Changing.  While many companies still see CSR as philanthropic photo ops with oversized checks, the dedication to and sophistication of corporate programs is improving.  Oxfam Hong Kong reported the number of Hang Seng Index companies voluntarily responding to its CSR Survey doubled from 34 percent in 2008 to a 74 percent response rate in 2009.  While much work remains, Chinese companies are taking broader CSR initiatives more seriously and the local media are increasingly holding them accountable. 

Speaker after speaker, example after example, I couldn’t help but think of the exciting time ahead for PR professionals and businesses in China.  I’m glad G&S, our partners and our clients will be a part of it.

(Guest contributor Jeff Altheide is a senior vice president at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations and oversees growth strategy and innovation for the firm.)

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PowerPoint Makes Us Stupid

Brian Hall
May 4th, 2010

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read recently in the New York Times that PowerPoint was causing huge productivity and communication issues for the U.S. military.

“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” declared Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps.

However, senior military officers did see a value for the slides when the intended goal is to obscure information. “The news media sessions often last 25 minutes, with 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone still awake,” is how the article described some press briefings. 

Of course we all know these same issues hold true in the corporate world as well.

How many times have you sat through a 30-minute presentation in which the slides contained all text and bullets that allowed the speaker to go on auto-pilot?

Or a show and tell from techies who want their work deliberately shrouded in mystery in order to maintain their hero status?

As communications pros, we all know all too well the faults of PowerPoint – or perhaps more accurately how most executives are using it. But, how do we overcome this when it is so ingrained in most corporate cultures?

One answer was served up over drinks with a few folks after work one night. Actually, it was underneath the drinks.

One colleague pointed me in the direction of a really fun article about great ideas (and some folk lore) that originated through drawings or notes on cocktail napkins, among other things.

And while we laughed at first, the more we thought about it, the more the “cocktail napkin” concept makes sense for PowerPoint.

We thought of two basic rules:

  1. For images, graphics, etc., they should be simple enough that you could have drawn them on a cocktail napkin yourself (or at least sketched them out).
  2. For text, never put more on a slide than you could write legibly on a cocktail napkin.

Here’s an example of the idea at work.

Remember Tim Russert’s “Florida! Florida! Florida!” whiteboard from the 2000 Presidential Election? It’s now housed at the Smithsonian Institution.

So maybe there’s something to the cocktail napkin strategy.

Or are we just spending too many nights enjoying Happy Hour a little too much?

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A Blooming Good Launch Strategy

Ron Loch
February 28th, 2010

Last week, Bloom Energy Corporation officially introduced its much anticipated “Bloom Box” fuel cell technology.  We got a preview of the technology on Sunday when Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes ran a story about K.R. Sridhar, the CEO of Bloom Energy and his promising technology. 

In it, Stahl calls Sridhar an “idealist” because he believes that his technology will be in every home in America, to which he responds, “It’s about seeing the world as what it can be, not what it is.” 

That forest-for-the -trees thinking is not only refreshing, but also necessary for innovation to thrive.  However, from a communications standpoint, it often has a very short shelf-life.  It captures attention and inspires hope, but then it can quickly expire to be replaced by skepticism which may even turn to derision. 

Forget “what have you done for me lately,” we have become a “what are you doing for me now society.”  This makes launching new technology extremely difficult.  Launch too soon and you risk inviting an avalanche of skepticism about price, scalability and performance.  Launch too late and you risk losing financing or a competitive advantage.

Bloom seems to have taken a good approach.  Their official coming out party featured a list of impressive customers including eBay, Google, Bank of America, Fed-Ex.  Too often new technology companies, particularly in the greentech arena, launch at the concept or prototype stage to great fanfare only to find that their technology isn’t commercially scalable.  Maybe Bloom’s financial backer, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, learned an important lesson from the launch of Segway, which it also funded. 

Segway garnered nearly the same amount of media interest as Bloom at launch, but had no customers, was seen as an “expensive high-tech scooter” and was relying on communities to change their pedestrian laws to ensure market penetration.  Subsequently, Segway is looked at as an interesting niche technology that never lived up to the hype.  Bloom’s fuel cell is also expensive and high tech, but by keeping quiet until it proved its concept with major brand owners before launch, it hits the stage with a level of credibility that can blunt skepticism that typically accompanies major technology launches. 

The inspiration for the Bloom fuel cell technology was an oxygen-producing device Sridhar invented for NASA to help future astronauts breathe on Mars.  That proposed Mars mission involved a layover on the Moon.  It appears Bloom is taking a similar layover strategy by having first established a base with large businesses before venturing on to the consumer market. That too will be a long expensive and perilous journey, but at least they’ve had a successful launch.  I think it’s a model other greentech startups should consider.

(Guest contributor Ron Loch is a senior vice president at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations.)

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Hold the Popcorn. Where’s My Epiphany?

Brian Hall
January 26th, 2010

My wife and I recently went to see a movie that’s generating hype, hype and more hype as “the defining movie of our time.” Expecting some sort of religious experience, we were both really excited to see it.

My review? I liked it. It was fine. But absent was the choir of angels to herald the arrival of my eureka moment.

Denied my life-altering epiphany, I felt compelled to tell everyone not to expect too much from this movie. And right in my hand was my iPhone with its arsenal of apps beckoning to have me do just that.

I resisted the urge, just barely.

A week later we set some sort of “married-couples-with-young-kids” record by seeing another non-animated movie. This time it was a comedy that had received its fair share of publicity, positive reviews and award nominations, but had not been promoted in such grandiose terms.

We loved it. Once again, I really wanted to share that experience with friends. My wife did too – heck, she was on Facebook before we even left the theatre.

If businesses learned anything over the past year, it’s that people are more skeptical than ever and cranky enough to do something about promises going undelivered.

Over-hype may pay off initially with a few extra sales (and maybe even a few Golden Globes), but the masses will surely slap you back to reality — and are empowered to do so — if you don’t meet their expectations and even if your product is pretty darn good.

Set the appropriate expectations, and you’ll win fans that will happily advocate on your behalf.

Earning advocacy still happens over time, but gains momentum as interactions speed up with the use of technology and the lowering of thresholds to share information. Many of your customers are becoming more willing to share experiences – personal and professional – with their community of family, friends and business contacts.

This time, they might be telling others to hold the popcorn. Disappoint them again, and they’ll be telling others to hold a boycott, rally, referendum, emergency shareholders meeting, etc.

You get it. It’s a dangerous, butter-flavored slippery slope.

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