Dizzy Gillespie famously said of his work in jazz music, “It’s taken me all my life to learn what notes not to play.” Such is the art of jazz improv, and such is the art in writing copy for marketing materials.
By now you’ve likely read about the negative press Best Buy has been receiving, and you may have even read the CEO’s blog response to the coverage. This response has been receiving the predictable praise and pans from various circles of the blogosphere…and with good reason. There are some things the response managed to achieve very successful, and in my opinion there are some things Best Buy could have done better.
As a PR practitioner, I’ve long recoiled at hearing the term “spin” being applied to my profession. I don’t think of myself as a “spin artist,” nor do I advocate that companies and executives master the art of “spin” when dealing with the media and constituents. Rather, I prefer they speak in plain English. Audiences are people, too, after all.
Keeping up with the Kardashians—how can you not?
This has been even easier to do since Kim announced her divorce after 72 days of marriage. The media spotlight has been the name of the family’s game lately—even more so than usual.
This entire situation further begs questions about the authenticity of this family. From a branding perspective, negative questions like, “Is Kim genuine?”, “Did she marry for love or money?”, “Was the marriage all for the television spotlight?”, have definitely garnered more naysayers. With this post on her website, she tried to explain her actions to fans, but it’s yet to be seen if this stunt will negatively impact her brand of perfumes, diet pills, clothing line or other endorsements. Will her beloved celebrity status fade as a result?
Be prepared in order to avoid mistakes… and be prepared to manage when you make them anyway.
Politics, paparazzi princesses, professional athletes…anyone who is a position to present themselves to their communities needs to be prepared to manage their perception like any company manages a brand.
During last week’s republican debate, Texas Governor Rick Perry initiated a media frenzy with an embarrassing flub of forgetting a major portion of his political platform—an agency he would choose to remove from government.
