It’s not about fine dining (apologies to the disappointed “foodies” out there), but about your message – that unique, compelling shorthand that perfectly communicates why your company is special and desirable.

In our client relations, I’ve seen more interest in the last four years in creating compelling messaging, and the recognition that this exercise is the foundation for all communications tactics going forward. Yet, few subjects are as difficult to tackle as defining who we are.

Fortunately, I found a very “user friendly” messaging process several years ago in “The Marketing Playbook,” by John Zagula and Richard Tong, former leaders of Microsoft Windows and Office Marketing, the folks who won the marketing wars that determined which programs we see on our desktops each morning. I was introduced to this “Yes But So” messaging scenario in a session with John Zagula for a new company funded by his venture capital firm, Ignition Partners. It worked so well in making a complicated, intensive process simple, we now use it with all our new clients.

So what is the “Yes But So?” Simply put, it’s the “current reality,” the gap that exists between the situation now and the desired situation in the future, and how you and your company/product fill that gap – and the call to action. For example, “The Marketing Playbook” takes the classic story of Henry Ford and the Model T 100 years ago, which looks like:

Yes, cars remain the domain of elites and aficionados, not regular people.
But, the underlying auto technology and manufacturing techniques are becoming more efficient.
So, we should now be able to make a reliable car that the mass market can afford.

Fast forward 60 years, and you have the Volkswagen approach:

Yes, there are terrific, German-engineered cars available on the market for driving enthusiasts.
But, they are very expensive and appeal only to those who can afford them.
So, let’s offer a high performance German car for average enthusiasts.

There’s more, of course, which I can explain to you if you’re interested (email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ), as well as speak with you about your own “Yes-but-so” story, or you can get the book, (available on Amazon.com) a highly readable, fast-moving and practical odyssey through the game plan behind one of the most successful marketing sagas of our time. For more insights, check out John Zagula’s blog.

As always you can find this and other interesting PR News at our Scott Public Relations website.

Anyone who works in a business environment these days has no doubt had his or her fill of trendy buzzwords and overused corporate jargon. This annoying “Business Speak” attempts to transform simple language into words designed to impart vast knowledge and business acumen. As we’ve all seen for ourselves, unfortunately, such mumbo jumbo fails to communicate on any meaningful level. True leaders seek to form fresh, new ideas - not simply regurgitate popular phrases.

There’s a new year ahead. Let’s resolve to nix corporate clichés like these* in 2010!

110 percent
360-degree thinking
A high-altitude view
At the end of the day
Big picture
Challenge (the new “problem”)
Circle back
Feedback
From the get-go
Going forward
Incentivize
It is what it is
Leverage
Low-hanging fruit
Not enough bandwidth
On the radar
Out of the loop
Phoning it in
Pushback
Reach out
Think outside the box
Tipping point
Touch base about that offline
Value-added
Vast majority

*Adapted from “20 Annoying Corporate Buzzwords and Clichés” by Dave Caruso (www.ezinearticles.com), with additional contributions from SPR staff.

Visit us at Scott Public Relations for additional insight on this and other PR related topics.

For the first time in our nation’s history, one in three Americans are over the age of 50. Moreover, by 2010, the 50+ population will grow by 41 percent while the -50 population will grow by a mere 1 percent. This presents new challenges for companies that want to target this market.

This recent shift in demographics forces companies to promote the awareness, development and deployment of innovative, consumer-friendly products and technology-leveraged services which cater to the unique needs of our expanding senior population. They must also provide independence, mobility and quality of lifestyle within safe, comfortable and familiar home environments.

A recent presentation by Don Marsh (www.MatureMarketplace.com) for the Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Association (HPRMA), addresses the search of products and services – especially in health care, financial planning, retirement living and leisure time by the senior population - that can enhance their lives. To capture and retain the loyalty of those in search, Don observes four fundamental rules of relationship marketing:

Requires individual knowledge of your consumer
Must be interactive
Does not need to be high-tech
Must be based on perceived value and personal service

While he briefly addresses some of the physical challenges for this population such as deteriorating eyesight, hearing and cognitive changes which force companies to consider elements such as glare sensitivity, clarity and volume of speech, and use of photos vs. testimonial letters, respectively, in their marketing strategy, the most effective way to reach this base, by far, is by appealing to their values. When observing such rules of relationship marketing, consumer perception of your products and services will improve and consumers will focus on value rather than price.

According to Marsh, three ways to influence human behavior are by addressing human needs, addressing human wants and addressing human values. Addressing human values remains the most important of all. Why are values most important? The exchange of “values” creates an environment of trust and confidence. When consumers talk about their values, it leads to understanding what makes their lives unique.

So for companies out there who are trying to wrap their arms around what the senior population “needs” or “wants” – it’s about getting a grasp of who they are and how they live. Scott Public Relations agrees and has offered our unique insights and perspectives to business professionals and companies in this space. Our experience teaches us that the longevity of a company’s services and products are dependent upon their ability to know and understand the way their consumers live and how they think. The appropriate “ground up” approach ensures that seniors and consumers alike can easily incorporate such products/services into their lives - which is highly considered as a value add.

Visit us at Scott Public Relations for more insight on related topics.

Recently, I attended a PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) Media Breakfast, where healthcare public relations professionals in the Los Angeles area “skipped out” of the daily office grind to meet with a panel of healthcare reporters and producers from both print and broadcast media: Los Angeles Daily News, KNBC-TV Channel 4 and California Broker.

For 90 minutes, the PR professionals in the room sat with pens (and Blackberries) poised to hear these healthcare journalists answer the million dollar questions: what types of healthcare stories are they looking for? How do they decide what healthcare issues take priority during an epidemic of national healthcare coverage?

So what did we find out?

To everyone’s surprise, the entire panel agreed on one subject: no more healthcare reform and universal coverage stories. These topics are over-exposed; people just want something to be done about them - now. Instead, the panel wanted to hear about what people and/or companies are doing to prepare for healthcare reform and how businesses plan to survive in the new environment.

So what gets these journalists’ attention?

Here is the magic formula:

Universal impact. The story MUST impact the public. It can’t just affect a small exclusive group. Instead, the issue or trend must apply to a broad segment of the population, and ideally – to everyone.
Promotes action. Readers not only learn about an issue but they can immediately put this information to use in their lives.
A complete story package. Stories need to have the full “package” where every pitch and news release should pertain to each publication’s target audience. And it must, of course, be newsworthy and timely, including trends, statistics and the human element.
Do your research. Make sure the reporter is still covering healthcare and find out what types of healthcare stories they cover.

What changes in the media can PR professionals foresee in the next few years?

It is even more important now for PR professionals to recognize how the economy, the growing healthcare issues and the many potential budget proposals for healthcare reform are reflecting the type of news journalists choose to cover. Healthcare reporters are scrambling to cover stories on short deadlines as well as report on several different beats not associated with healthcare. This will only get worse with the growing number of cutbacks on staff in newsrooms. More than ever before, media outlets are depending on more “wire” stories and less original reporting.

Consequently, PR staff need to do their research to confirm which reporters are still writing on healthcare. Second, in order to stand out to journalists, it is beneficial to create a relationship. Find out what reporters cover and what they’re currently writing about, and offer information and access that will help them. Finally, there are more opportunities at understaffed newsrooms, especially at magazines, to contribute content such as company and/or expert authored articles.

Visit us at Scott Public Relations for additional insight on related topics.

The news media has taken a hard hit in today’s faltering economy. For almost a decade, traditional print media has been losing readership to online news sources that can provide up-to-the-minute information, often at no charge. Those of us who work closely with the media see first-hand the impact of fewer and fewer reporters struggling to cover the news. More than ever, they rely on wire sources and focus only on breaking news and the most mainstream stories of the day. This is especially true for “niche” journalists, such as those covering the healthcare industry.

But there’s a new game in town. One that could be the next breakthrough concept in healthcare journalism, a development as potentially disruptive as CNN’s audacious debut as the first all-news TV channel.

It’s called “foundation-supported journalism,” and its mission is to provide quality, in-depth coverage of important health policy issues. Consider Kaiser Health News, an independent news service funded by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Stories produced by KHN will be provided free to newspapers around the country and will also be posted on a KHN website, which is scheduled to go live later this spring. Services such as KHN are becoming increasingly attractive to top tier journalists, many of whom are leaving their print media careers to embark upon this new media venture.

The California HealthCare Foundation also funded a six-month pilot news service covering healthcare in California. The Center for California Health Care Journalism, as it’s known, is currently overseen by Michael Parks, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California and a former editor of The Los Angeles Times. There’s also a venture funded by the Sandler Foundation, ProPublica, which was established in 2007 and is dedicated to quality investigative journalism of stories with moral force.

For more information about foundation-supported journalism, follow this link.

Will foundations be the vehicle to preserve quality journalism in the future? It appears that they will be a welcome addition to the evolving news environment.

Visit us at Scott Public Relations for additional insight on related topics.

An interesting post from blogger Danny Brown at Press Release PR makes the case for the boutique agency.

In today’s volatile economic climate, companies weigh every expenditure against the value they receive. Here’s where a value of the boutique public relations agency comes into play. Boutiques are coming into their own as companies are more interested in value and results than the image factor and “big budgets” of choosing larger companies. Most boutiques are started by people with outstanding corporate and/or large agency experience who prefer the smaller operational model and the ability to really deliver on their promises to clients in terms of outstanding work, leadership from truly senior people, and personalized attention and focus. Consequently, the boutique model gives clients the extraordinary value of senior counselors and strategists without the high prices of larger firms.

Technology capabilities are a major win for boutique agencies. In the climate of Web 2.0, the boutique agency’s strength lies in the fact that they are lean and dynamic and have the ability to craft a campaign to leverage the power of digital communications. They can keep up with the continuously fragmented media market that calls for increasingly tailored expertise and outreach.

Early adaptors of the boutique model are at an advantage because – like SPR – they have worked out the systems that are most effective and gained the benefits of efficiency and experience. Thus, they are in a position to offer a welcome solution to firms that want the true value of innovative PR services.

For more interesting insights on Healthcare and Public Relations, visit us at Scott Public Relations.

In her best selling book, Rubies in the Orchard, marketing guru Lynda Resnick discusses the challenges her company faced in bringing POM, their natural, all-juice pomegranate drink to market – namely, how could they stand out on a supermarket shelf crammed with dozens upon dozens of competing bottled waters and fizzy sugar-laden sodas?

“Many of these products benefit from marketing budgets in the tens of millions. How could we compete with them and distinguish our product from theirs if we all looked alike and they had all the advertising money? We couldn’t.

We had come this far by focusing on the fundamentals, going deeper and deeper inside our product to understand its intrinsic value. Everything we needed to know was there inside the pomegranate. We had to resist the temptation to “think outside the box.”

I know that’s become a fashionable cliché in recent years, but it’s just about always wrong. The answers are not outside the box – they’re inside. They’re inherent in whatever task you’ve undertaken, whatever product you want to market.

When I walked in to review the bottle designs, the answer was immediately apparent. It was so obvious, in fact, that I would have had the same instant response if [they] had offered me 10,000 designs to choose from. The solution, of course, was fundamental, intrinsic to the pomegranate itself, inherent in the product we were bringing to market. Among the many choices was a shape that resembled one pomegranate on top of another. The bottle was derived from the juice’s natural container. How perfect.”

Resnick goes on to reference the “Unique Selling Proposition,” or USP. This was pioneered in the 1940s by Rosser Reeves, who was the chairman of Ted Bates & Company, one of the most successful firms in advertising history. In a nutshell, Resnick says she uses this handy gauge of whether or not an attribute or marketing claim rises to the standard of a USP:

Is it true? The honesty factor is essential.
Is it clear, concise, and easy to understand? Keep it simple.
Does its unique quality answer a need in the marketplace, whether consumers know it or not? That is your success barometer, because if consumers need it, chances are that you will succeed.

Wise words to keep in mind, even after more than 60 years!

Visit us at Scott Public Relations for additional insight on related topics.

What’s the biggest problem facing business communications today? The overwhelming desire among many people to make things more complicated than they are, or need to be. But simple does not mean “dumb.” And clear does not mean “basic.” Use these four questions to help improve your skills as an effective communicator:

Big Question #1: “What are we trying to do?”

We¹ve all sat in meetings with people who drone on and on with jargon-laden “corporate speak.” Honestly, no matter how complicated something is, it’s not necessary to use a lot of fancy terms to talk about it. In fact, the simpler the better. If you can¹t sum up a marketing strategy or a corporate business plan in a concise sentence or two, there¹s trouble ahead…and not just because your colleagues’ eyes are glazing over with boredom and incomprehension.

Here¹s the problem: Few people ever ask “What are we trying to do?” because they don¹t want to admit they don¹t get it, and because the question itself sounds kind of dumb. But in reality, it’s often a very smart question. If you can¹t get a simple answer to this simple question there’s something inherently wrong with whatever it is that’s being considered.

So next time things aren’t completely clear, go ahead and ask “What are we trying to do?” And keep asking it until everyone reaches a point of clarity that lets them move on to the next step.

Big Question No. 2: “Who are we trying to reach?”

Always consider your audience. Every organization has an audience or multiple audiences that it’s trying to target. For example, internal audiences might include:

- Administrative staff
- Managers and supervisors
- Executives and top leadership

Communication to each of these groups should be tailored to what they need to know and what¹s most important to them. External audiences are the same way. You might have:

- Patients
- Providers
- Payers

Before you do anything, stop to consider exactly who needs to get your message, and what¹s the clearest and simplest way to get it to them?

Big Question No. 3: “What¹s the best way to get there?”

OK. So you know what you want to do, who you want to reach, and what each audience needs to know. Now what’s the best way to get there? There are so many channels of communication available to us these days – print, online, broadcast, face to face, social networking, etc. How does your target audience prefer to get its information? What¹s the most appropriate channel? What about using multiple channels?

We often see print publications with stories that should never be in print. Print is about explanation and context; it¹s not about timeliness. Online media is about speed, action and choice, so stories must be formatted so they can be read quickly. Give readers actions to take now. Allow them to choose if they want to read more. Face-to-face communication is best for things that are immediate and emotional. It¹s about conversation. Too many managers and executives hold meetings and then don¹t let anyone ask questions.

You get the picture.

Big Question No. 4: “Why should anyone care?”

The most important question of all, and one that is too infrequently asked: “Why should anyone care?” Perhaps we are afraid of what the answer might be. If you can¹t explain why people should care about your company, product, or service, then why bother promoting it? Once you can figure out why people should care about your message, you¹ll be much better able to formulate and communicate a compelling message.

Adapted from a workshop and webinar presented by journalist Jim Ylisela.

Visit us at Scott Public Relations for additional insight on related topics.

Medical Wiki’s
By Danielle Rice

In a medical wiki, authorship is limited to physicians who share knowledge about health, medicine and the body among other medical professionals and the general public. Currently, there are 70 active medical wikis on the web to cater to the growing number of people looking for health information and advice in real-time.

A medical wiki is managed and designed similar to any traditional wiki found on the web. A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to be an open, collaborative community website that enables anyone (anonymously) with access to create, add, remove or modify content.

It’s no wonder that medical wikis are growing in popularity. Many Americans are personally experiencing the impact of a shortage of primary care physicians, the usual resource for medical information. These physician-authored wikis also benefit the 47 million uninsured who lack access to care and who often seek medical advice from online news resources.

Most Americans are already online looking for health information. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, three-quarters of all Internet users look for health information online. In addition, 75 percent of online patients with a chronic problem reported that their last health search online affected their final decision on how to treat their illness or condition, according to another Pew Report, “The Engaged E-Patient Population.”

But these aren’t the only reasons medical wikis are becoming popular. Physicians are seeing medical wikis as a modern way to gain thought leadership and additional visibility in their area of expertise. Many physicians are seeing the value in providing their own medical research as a source of information for the general public through these medical wikis. For example, some medical wikis are now including links to the author’s bio and contact information with every physician article.

In addition, it is even possible that medical wikis may play a huge role in becoming the future of medical education, just as long as they maintain good editorial polices and reliable contributors. In fact, according to American Medical News, the medical wiki is the textbook of the future – providing and creating a more vibrant, accessible, up-to-date conversation and library of knowledge than can be found in a textbook or an established medical journal.

Since there are still some medical wikis that don’t require contributors to be credited medical professionals, other recent medical wikis have evolved into a social networking tool to include community discussion groups and message boards.

But how factual is this information online? Who decides which physician or healthcare expert is allowed to edit/add/contribute to the content online? Do these medial wikis create an online forum for experts, professionals and the general public to contribute and educate advanced healthcare knowledge and research?

For more information, check out “Medical wiki blends social networking with research”.

Visit us at Scott Public Relations for additional insight on related topics.

Getting the attention of your prospects and customers is a Herculean task in today’s world of 24/7 communication bombardment. In the new digital world, content is king and PR — by virtue of its ability to educate and inform — is the most versatile tactic to create and leverage content via multiple communication channels. AND get it read.

As proof, here’s how One Call Medical , the nation’s largest diagnostic radiology management company, did just that:

Scott Public Relations (SPR) had an opportunity to write a bylined article on a topic that was relatively new in the workers’ compensation sector: the skyrocketing cost of diagnostic radiology tests, and what solutions companies could employ to better manage these procedures to reduce costs and improve quality. SPR worked with One Call to write the article, negotiated with the online publication for the rights to distribute the article, and created an e-mail to One Call’s customers and prospects introducing the piece and inviting them to read it.

One Call’s goal was to reach a broad range of personnel within its client companies, which included third party administrators and insurance carriers. Their e-mail went out to more than 11,000 people. With the help of a special software program, we know that:

42% opened the e-mail (the industry average = 21.5%). The subject line clearly indicated the topic and the sender, One Call Medical.

10% read the teaser and navigated to the entire article (the industry average response = 3.6%).

Within one company, the article was forwarded 19 times. In another, 25 times. A third company forwarded the email 48 times, further extending the article’s reach and the number of impressions.

By providing relevant educational content, along with the added credibility of having been published in a respected industry publication, One Call Medical captured the attention of its very busy audience in numbers significantly above national averages.

We love these examples showing proof of theories! Let us know about and share your stories, too.

Visit us at Scott Public Relations for additional insight on related topics.