The Greatest Stories Never Told

North American manufacturing is a lost cause, right?

At least that’s what I was expecting to find during a major research project we conducted for a client recently on the state of the industry. But it turns out that the dark and dreary picture painted in most media isn’t all that accurate. There are, in fact, many North American manufacturers who are doing well.

They’re employing the latest in equipment and technologies and using Lean manufacturing to control costs. They’re diversifying with new offers such as product design and project management for overseas sourcing. At the same time, they’re developing market niches ranging from product specialization (miniaturization, high tolerance) to market specialization (medical, packaging). These differentiating moves exponentially increase their value to customers.

So why aren’t we all aware of this good news? Because most manufacturers—even those who are enjoying success—aren’t telling their story. There’s some truth to the old adage, “If you don’t tell your story, no one else will.” Perhaps more accurate is, “If you don’t tell your story, no one else will tell it the way you want it told.”

If you’re a manufacturer, what’s the story being told about you? Have you identified your value proposition? And are you communicating it? Brand-based marketing communications can help you tell the story of what your business does better than the rest. Time after time, you have to tell it to employees. To customers and prospects. To the media. Don’t miss the opportunity to exploit your value proposition … and to dispel the myth that North American manufacturing is on its way out.

1 Million Ways to Succeed

I recently took the opportunity at the Wisconsin Business & Technology Expo (sponsored by the Small Business Times) to hear Matthew May, senior advisor to the University of Toyota, offer insights from his new book, The Elegant Solution: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation.

As Toyota surpasses GM as the #1 U.S. automaker, we should all take note that Toyota implements one million new ideas a year. I’ll repeat: 1,000,000 new ideas! That’s an average of about 2,740 innovations every day!

There are a couple of key factors behind this astonishing success that are worth repeating:

• Toyota’s people – every day, everywhere, throughout the organization – are looking for problems they can solve. Management doesn’t block them, but actively encourages these efforts. By recognizing that perfection is a pursuit and not a goal, they accept the fact that small failures (or skinning your knees as we call it at SH) are a natural part of the process.

• Innovation The Toyota Way focuses on smaller, easy-to-implement ideas that, believe it or not, “respect the box.” In fact, “swinging for the fences” is something Toyota avoids like the plague. They reason that they can’t afford high strikeout rates in today’s highly competitive market. They also know that working within the system is important until it’s time for a new box. There’s a rhythm to change and innovation that has to fit.

May challenges business leaders to understand that innovation is not as much about new technologies as it is about opportunity and impact. We not only should expect good ideas to come from anywhere in our organization, we should also demand and reward it. In doing so, we’ll unleash the full potential of our organizations. In not doing so, we can expect the Toyotas of this world to pass us by.

3 Media Myths We Need To Get Over

Recently, I attended a webinar that set out to bust the media myths we’ve all come to believe. Ketchum and the USC Annenberg Strategic PR Center presented survey results from a media study including 500 communications and marketing industry professionals and 1,490 adult Americans in seven major cities.

I’d like to share a few lessons from this seminar with anyone looking to get their message out in the B-to-B landscape.

Myth #1 – Traditional media is dead. After all, I’m speaking to you through a blog, right? The dominating Baby Boomer demographic still relies heavily on traditional media. Even 18-34-year-old consumers have one foot in new media and one in traditional, meaning your marketing communications plan must include a media mix for the most impact and best results.

Myth #2 – All you need is a good web site. If you build it, they will come. That may work in baseball fantasy movies, but not in corporate communications. It’s important to keep corporate sites up to date, but the amount customers rely on your site has more to do with the information they are seeking.

According to the research, a company web site ranks very high when searching for reputation/recommendation information or stock information. However, it’s ranked low among other forms of media for corporate announcements or crisis response.

Myth #3 – Fiscal calendar timing is important. Too many companies coordinate communications around their schedules, such as the end of a quarter or fiscal year. But customers want information when they want it.

Remember to speak when your customers are listening, not just when you have something to say. Placing customer needs first will help you communicate with them when they’re open to hearing you … whether it’s a holiday season, industry event or a political debate.

Jargon be gone!

Today begins my battle against banal business-speak.

Hi, I’m Tom. I’m the new kid on the blog. It’s good to join the discussion as your copy-focused contributor. I’m looking forward to exploring what makes effective writing.

You’re meeting me while I’m in an unusually positive frame of mind, partly because it’s good to be a copywriter in general right now. Nevertheless, I’ll start things off with a bit of constructive criticism, in the form of listing a few business marketing clichés I never want to see or hear again. What’s wrong with these hackneyed bits? Their overuse bores readers. They add no meaning, only extra words. And they annoy me. So please, don’t test your audiences’ patience. Avoid:

• Moving forward: That’s what I’m doing past any sentence with this phrase.

• At the end of the day: The sun goes down. Get a new metaphor.

• Think outside the box: You knew this had lost its impact when the Taco Bell folks tweaked it for their tagline.

• Built from the ground up: Please tell me in which other order you would build it.

With all the information competing for attention these days, it’s hard enough to differentiate a company, even without getting bogged down in these same-old phrases. That’s why I’m keeping a running list of clichés to stay away from. This list to be continued …

Sorry Karl, There’s Evidence that Bad Publicity Does Exist in Hollywood

In case you missed last night’s episode of The Office on NBC, Dunder Mifflin office supply company was in crisis mode. A disgruntled paper mill employee inserted an obscene watermark into over 500 reams of paper delivered to customers. Responding to the controversy, Michael the manager decided to take charge of the situation by calling his own press conference…

The episode quickly becomes a case study into what not to do in a public relations crisis. This led me to recall Karl’s post from last week. Turns out there is such a thing as bad publicity in Hollywood—at least as far as fictional characters created there are concerned.

At a fictional company and in the real business world as well, anytime an unforeseen publicity problem pops up, there’s an urge to respond swiftly that can lead to further gaffes. It’s certainly a good idea to get right out there and control the message, contact important customers and share reliable information. But in the rush to respond, your organization’s overarching goals and strategies can be obscured.

Rather than trying to handle the pressure and confusion all on your own, it’ll always pay off to contact a professional who can provide expert, objective advice on how to proceed.

“No Such Thing As Bad Publicity” Applies Only In Hollywood

Anyone remember the Atkins diet craze and what happened when Dr. Atkins died? Since his death four years ago this month, the Atkins diet and its related consumer products have fallen into disfavor as if the diet guru had died of heart failure connected to his protein-heavy, fat-laced Atkins plan.

Media reports swirled linking his death to a heart attack. But, in fact, head trauma from a fall caused his demise. One could argue media scrutiny brought the diet approach to its knees. A statement released to the media by his wife suggests that there is such a thing as bad publicity for consumer products.

We counsel our clients that the adage “there is no such thing as bad publicity” applies only in Hollywood. Movies and TV programs may benefit from whatever coverage they or their stars can get—good or bad. Products and services sold in the B2B domain, however, rarely suffer the sensational publicity garnered by the rich and famous.

But B2B media efforts do frequently suffer from being off-strategy and off-message, and these misguided media efforts amount to “bad publicity.” In B2B-wood, not just any publicity, but publicity designed to reinforce overall brand positioning is the way to support blockbuster results at the home office and achieve a star on the B2B walk of fame.

How Strategic Is Your Media Coverage?

There’s media coverage and there’s strategic media coverage. Strategic coverage supports your brand. Staying on message and remaining mindful of the desired outcome of each interview differentiates successful coverage from a mere mention.

Consider a recent feature on D-M-E Company, one of our manufacturing clients, in Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies. Granted, D-M-E is a client, so I acknowledge this might smack of professional bias. But this is an excellent illustration of artfully weaving key messages into an interview to support brand positioning in the marketplace.

D-M-E President Dave Lawrence masterfully recites “every step of the way” and “essential resource” messages, resulting in page-one coverage in the feature. Market research conducted to strategically position the company for growth led to those messages and countless others, such as “speed-to-market,” which also are included in the article.

When you know what to say based on what drives the market and how to say it in ways not offensive to reporters’ sensibilities about including marketing speak in their stories, you are well on your way to producing strategic media coverage for your company.