Marketing and public relations people expose themselves to problems when their positioning strays from the truth. Fanciful thinking, wishfulness and outsized aspirations afflict most of us from time to time, but when they co-opt the positioning process or an organization’s message, credibility can quickly erode. This takes many forms, from mild exaggerations to unsubstantiated claims to laughable distortions. With some executives there is an arrogant belief that if you simply state something, it is therefore true, regardless of the facts.  This practice often goes unchallenged, but sometimes it backfires.

I learned this the hard way early in my career when a company owner told me they were the oldest winery in their region.  I dutifully incorporated this nugget into my pitch to a major publication and was delighted when the story ran in the business section. Then the trouble started. The true oldest winery in the region contacted the reporter to complain about the error. The reporter in turn called me to check on the discrepancy. When I asked my client about his claim and explained what had happened with the story, he dismissed the other winery as not being family owned or continuously operating or some other such parsing. I relayed this to the reporter, but it did little more than confirm the mistake, and he was forced to run a correction. My attempt to build a relationship with that reporter ended abruptly, to my dismay (as I recall, that reporter soon went into PR, and I got a second chance to build a relationship with his replacement). I learned an important lesson, though, about verifying claims.

While this episode could have been little more than carelessness on the part of the company owner, it illustrates the importance of precision and accuracy in a company’s positioning.  A more common occurrence involves fanciful messages that are unsupported by facts. In wine public relations we see this from time to time with wineries that claim their wines are “artisanal” or “hand-crafted.” Part of the problem lies with the fact that these terms don’t have precise definitions, but when a winery ties its positioning to artisanal winemaking, it must have some grounding in truth. Do you use small-lot fermentation? Do you hand-pick and hand-sort your grapes? Do you at least age your wines in French oak barrels?  If a winery cannot point to a couple of generally accepted artisanal winemaking practices, it might be better to consider different positioning. Otherwise it’s an empty promise, and some wag might well call them on it.

Then again, maybe I’ve got it all wrong. The ultimate gauge of success is how a product sells, and if enough people buy it because they think it’s artisanal, who cares what the media say? I was stuck in traffic recently and noticed a beer ad on the back of a delivery truck that proclaimed Miller – The Champagne of Beers. Who in their right mind, I thought, would consider Miller the Champagne of Beers? I know a thing or two about Champagne, and I could think of no basis whatsoever for that statement. Yet Miller is one of the most successful brands in the world. Pretty savvy marketing, I guess; I’d just hate to have to use the Champagne angle in a media campaign for Miller.

Folsom + Associates: Refinery29 launched its San Francisco edition in May, 2011. What about SF made it a good candidate to be the next featured city?

Katie Hintz-Zambrano: We always knew we had a really strong fan base in San Francisco and I think the more style-inclined residents of the city have been super-excited to see their city through the unique lens of Refinery29, which many knew very well through the global edition. This localized edition just makes the coverage so much more personal to our Bay Area readers. And there is such amazing culture here to draw on—from really interesting things happening on the food scene (which I think leads the rest of the country) and also an emerging fashion scene.

F + A: Can you elaborate a little on the trend toward hyperlocal lifestyle sites and what makes them so popular?

K H-Z: I think while everything has gone really big and global, there’s a real yearning to know what’s happening in your own backyard. For a big site like Refinery29 to start spreading out locally, it really rewards all of our readers in their respective cities with hyper-personalized coverage that feels very in-the-know and specific to them.

F + A: Describe the type of growth that Refinery29 has had since launch.

K H-Z: Our San Francisco readers have responded really, really well to the site. There’s nothing out there in the city like Refinery29′s San Francisco edition and I think people were really hungry for this sort of curated lifestyle coverage with a strong fashion bent.

F + A: What are your areas of interest in your writing for Refinery29?

K H-Z: Everything the city has to offer! I love helping our readers discover new designers, amazing boutiques, and going deeper with some of the characters in town, whether they are chefs, artists…whomever!

F + A: What is it about Refinery29 that resonates with its readers?

K H-Z: Again, I don’t think there are any other fashion-driven lifestyle sites that focuses solely on the Bay Area. So, it’s been something that longtime Refinery29 fans have been waiting for and something that new fans have been really enthusiastic about! The mission of the site is to distill all of the information that is out there and our readers really trust us to cherry pick the restaurants they should be going to, the boutiques they should be visiting, the weekend events they should be hitting, and so forth.

F + A: As recent transplant from New York, what are your resources for staying current with local food and wine trends in San Francisco?

K H-Z: The city has a lot of great food blogs that I follow, and I also get fun tips from friends, PR folks, people within the industry, and myself! There’s a lot I learn by keeping my own eyes and ears open and I get a lot of scoops by talking to chefs and restaurant owners and just noticing what’s happening when I’m walking around town. Restaurant openings and closings, and interesting trends developing, are really out there for everyone to see. You just have to be paying attention.

F + A: What are some of your favorite things to do and see in San Francisco?

K H-Z: Within the city, I love checking out new shops, restaurants, and bars, and also talking to all of the people behind these ventures!  It’s always inspiring to hear how someone’s passion pushed them to launch a business. And this city seems to be an especially great place to start a small business. I also love taking little day trips and weekend trips North, South and East of the city. It’s amazing how different things can feel just an hour outside of town and I love a good roadtrip adventure!

Not surprisingly, the answer can depend on the personalities involved and the ingredients at your disposal.  While that might make a lot of sense in determining a wine style, it will probably strike some wineries as a little wishy-washy when it comes to wine PR.  And we don’t like wishy-washy.

In wine public relations, we advocate a balanced approach.  That doesn’t necessarily mean “not too hot, not too cold”; rather, it refers to a public relations campaign that covers multiple channels and media platforms.  Like a wine made in a style to appeal to a particular critic, a narrowly concentrated public relations program leaves few other options if the target is uninterested.

A balanced winery public relations program should consider a number of important channels, including social media, events, direct communications (e.g. website) and of course media relations.  The emphasis a winery places on each of these areas will vary depending on the winery size, positioning, marketing priorities and price of its wines, but whether you are large or small, your public relations program must have balance to be successful.

In the area of media relations, much is made in the wine business of scores by the leading wine publications.  There’s no question that high scores carry substantial weight with many in the trade, but in my experience this can be insufficient to meet broader public relations objectives.  I remember talking to a client a few years ago who had been a winemaker at a winery that received scores in the mid 90s from two of the top wine magazines.  “It didn’t move the needle,” he recalled, in reference to subsequent awareness and sales of the wine.  I’m not saying that scores are not important to the trade; my point is that scores alone often are not enough to make a significant increase in sales and awareness.

A winery public relations program that targets only wine publications misses tremendous opportunities with wine media for other outlets (blogs, newspapers, magazines), not to mention lifestyle, food, travel and business media.  If a winery aspires to attract a younger customer base, consider that in 2010 the internet became the leading source of news for people under 30.  Sure the wine magazines continue to have a strong following, and some have developed robust online channels, but younger wine consumers are increasingly turning to blogs and mobile apps for information on wine.  And that’s for people with a strong interest in wine.  Many average consumers probably don’t follow wine closely enough to read wine magazines, wine blogs or wine columns.  They get their information from more general interest lifestyle media or other outlets not strictly devoted to wine.

A winery public relations program should certainly have a strategy and plan in place for working with the wine magazines, including the submission of samples for review and proactive outreach on topics unrelated to samples such as winery news and areas of expertise.  But a balanced, well-rounded PR program should contain story lines and initiatives that appeal to lifestyle and other non-wine media, it should incorporate social media and it should have an event presence that puts its people in touch with consumers and other audiences.

Many wineries strive for balance in their wines.  They should consider balance in their public relations as well.

Press conference gone wrong

I recently got a call from a company looking to hire a PR agency for a press conference.  ‘Must be big news,’ I thought…a major corporate acquisition, a new reality show, a partnership with an A-list celebrity.  I asked for a few details and soon realized we were not speaking the same language.  He was about to release a new wine and wanted to generate some press coverage; I expected something a little more significant.  It’s not that his new wine had no news value or that I wasn’t interested – far from it.  It’s just that the term “press conference” held a different meaning for me than it did for him.

My native tongue, public relations, has its share of jargon, idioms and cryptic phrases.  But the conversation got me to thinking about public relations terms that are misleading in their simplicity, starting with “public relations” itself.  I suppose there is an element of relating to the public, but that does not begin to capture the practice of professional PR.  I’ll leave the discussion of what public relations means for another time.  In the interest of clearer communication between companies and their PR practitioners, I thought I’d elaborate on some of the terms that often get confused.

• Press Conference.  Also known as a news conference, this is a staged event for the press (news media) where a company, organization or individual invites reporters to hear major news and ask questions.  It’s commonly used by political figures to make policy announcements (or respond to scandals!) and large companies to release news of unusual importance.  But think about it: if you’re asking the media to drop what they are doing to participate in a press conference, it better be some pretty big news.  The introduction of a new product or even the launch of a new brand might not warrant a press conference unless it’s an automobile or an Apple device. Story pitches, media tours, launch events and press releases serve as more appropriate PR tools for that kind of news.  And for truly big news, the gravity and urgency of which cannot possibly be conveyed in writing, we’d probably suggest any number of online tools, such as a virtual press briefing via Ustream. Of course if your news rivals game-changing technology or reframes the world of food and wine, we’ll gladly organize a press conference for you.
• Press Release.  A frequently invoked term that sometimes gets garbled.  I’ve had executives talk about wanting to see more press releases.  “Fair enough…whatcha got that needs announcing?” I say.  Come to find out they want to see more press coverage, as in stories written about them. In some circles it seems the term “press release” has taken on a generic use to refer to press coverage or even a public relations campaign.  A press release is a document that announces news.  It should convey the important facts behind a story, and it should be written as news, capturing the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.  Before writing a press release, care should be given to answering the question “Is this really news?”  More than a few journalists bemoan the cascade of press releases they receive, and releases without real news provoke a special kind of ire.  To get a sense of the daily volume of company press releases, check out Business Wire early in the news day.  It’ll give you a headache.
• Press Kit.  A collection of documents that tell different parts of a company’s story, for use as background by the media.  Common contents include biographies, company backgrounders, fact sheets and images.  A press kit for use with the media should not be confused with a sales kit.  A sales kit adorned with accolades, reviews, selling points, slogans and ad copy should not be used with the media, even if you call it a press kit.  Some of the contents might be similar, but using the same kit for press and sales would be a mistake. In fairness to sales, using the PR department’s press kit for sales purposes misses a huge opportunity to tout reviews and accolades and hammer home selling points.  And yes, we’d be happy to advise you on whether your press kit should be put online, sent on a USB drive or printed and mailed.
• Off the Record/No Comment.  It’s not so much that these terms are misused, it’s that executives often view them as some sort of magic PR wand that will make problems go away.  Please don’t believe that; you’ll only make it worse.  There’s a place for “off the record” (although I usually tell clients if it’s not on the record, don’t say it), but that place is not after a statement has been made.  If something is off the record, it needs to be agreed to beforehand, not minutes, hours or days later when statement regret sets in.  “No comment” is easy to remember and a frequent refrain of professional sports figures and other celebrities, so it’s no surprise that many people see it as an authoritative response to a difficult question.  Careful.  Unless you claim celebrity status and truly don’t care what people say, you should reconsider a “no comment” reply.  Like it or not, “no comment” arouses suspicions, and it leaves the telling of your story to someone else.
• Astroturfing. OK, I admit I had never heard this term until recently.  Apparently it refers to the practice of setting up an advocacy group for a particular cause or campaign and disguising it as a grassroots effort, just as AstroTurf is designed to look like real grass. We’ll leave that one to others.

Any other PR terms that get misused or are misunderstood?

Here are some of our thoughts on social media for those still scratching their heads over what it all means and how it applies to them.

Social media encompasses a wide variety of online and mobile channels through which users exchange content (information, news, opinions, images, videos, web links).  Some of the best known channels are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but others include YouTube, Flickr and FourSquare, as well as blogs and their comment sections, wikis, podcasts and news sharing tools such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious and Reddit.  In short, social media is user-generated content.  It is a rich avenue for communication in many forms, but it differs from marketing in the traditional sense, which focuses on push tactics such as advertising, email promotions, newsletters, brochures, flyers, etc.  With social media, communication is no longer one-way; social media is about dialog, exchange and engaging users, including customers, directly.  When applied to business, social media enables customers and potential customers to become part of the conversation.  This has tremendous applications for companies, not just for brand awareness and customer acquisition, but for customer service, customer retention and building a stronger bond with customers.  Furthermore, social media can help companies understand their customers better, gather ideas for marketing and new products, increase web site traffic and improve search rankings.

Some companies dismiss social media as a fad or discount its relevance to them based on a misperception of social media users.  Consider this:
-    Last year the Internet surpassed TV as the main source of news for people under 30
-    4 of the top 7 most visited web sites are social media (Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and Blogger)
-    Facebook has more than 500 million active users and half of all users log in to Facebook every day
-    Twitter has over 145 million registered users and is adding 300,000 per day
-    There is a mass consumer migration to social media communities.  Companies that ignore or delay engaging customers through social media risk being left behind by customers and competitors alike.

It is important to understand the requirements and limitations of social media.  To be successful, a social media program must be genuine, personal and consistent with the company’s values.  Although many social media tools are free, a social media program still requires an investment in time and money.  And social media is not a magic wand.  In addition to a quality product and a compelling story, a company must also be able to adapt its message, content and manner of communicating to the social media environments, which are unlike traditional marketing and communications channels. The company must also embrace social media tools and technology, and it must be prepared to evolve as new tools are introduced and the landscape changes, as it does almost daily.  A social media program, like any relationship, takes time to develop.

For example, we were once approached by a winemaker for a small winery who was having trouble getting the trade and media to pay attention to him.  He thought a wine PR firm might help get his story out.  As we talked, it emerged that the story he was telling (and his primary selling point) centered on his home winemaking accomplishments as his reason for launching a commercial wine brand.

After digging deeper into his story, we decided to focus on a different angle.  The winemaker had his own small vineyard around his home, which was located in a prestigious grape growing appellation.  We recast his story to highlight his own vineyard, which was unique to him, and the surrounding appellation, which added credibility and broader appeal to his story.

Ultimately the story must be genuine and it must speak to some of the core truths about the company.  But it’s just as important to have a story that speaks to the interests of its audience.  That’s a nuance of public relations story telling that often gets overlooked.