Remain Relevant in Changing Times

Looking for a new agency? Make sure your RFP is relevant

Lately, I've had the opportunity to share lunch, drinks or dinner with several colleagues in the PR industry. We each represent different types of firms of varying sizes. Interestingly (well, to me anyway), a topic that has come up repeatedly has to do with RFPs (Requests for Proposal). These are documents companies and government entities send to start the process of selecting an agency, either as a long term partner or for a specific project.

To the person, we have expressed amazement - and, frankly, irritation - over what is required of agencies just to get in the game. Here are some of the things my friends and I have seen companies require in their RFPs:

> Sample press releases that demonstrate the agency's ability to make an "appropriate announcement of news";

> Several examples of specific pitches. (One RFP required the agency to develop four different angles about an upcoming servicet that was outlined in the RFP summary and write a pitch for consumer media, trade media, the business press and analysts.);

> Actual graphic comps of suggested logos, including applications such as letterhead and business cards;

> Examples of editorial calendars, with specific pitches for X number of potential calendar opportunities.

It is not uncommon for it to take several agency people a week or two to respond to some RFPs. It can cost the agency thousands of dollars to prepare answers to questions just to see if they get selected to present even more ideas. Meanwhile, companies often decide up front to issue RFPs to X number of agencies with the intent of inviting only 3 (or some other arbitrary number) in to do a presentation.

My friends and I have traded stories about situations where we have invested heavily in RFPs and new business pitches, only to see the company stay with their existing agency or decide they want to do everything in-house. That is certainly their perogative and I'm not a sore loser. But the fact is by going through the RFP process they are also now in possession of some great new ideas and even some specific angles and pitches. Some of my friends have even suggested that was the intention all along.

ALL agencies that have been in business more than a couple of years can write a decent press release. Who can't connect the dots between editorial calendars and pitches? Truth is, procurement's due diligence process should be able to ferret out the contenders easily.

So what's the solution? Make the RFP process relevant by asking questions that really matter.

For years I hired agencies when I was on the client side. What I cared about - and still do - is this: how do the people in the agency THINK? What processes do they use? What relationships do they have that will benefit my company? What experience do they have in my industry?
How do they provide complementary services, such as market research, consulting and advertising? How have they been recognized in their industry? In my industry? How long have their clients been with them? In what ways do they contribute to the community? How do they resolve conflict? How accessible are they? What expectations do they have of their clients?

The answers to these questions will tell you what you really need to know about whether the agency is a match for your organization.

Don't get me wrong - good agencies love to be challenged. We look for opportunities to strut our stuff. We want to share great ideas. We welcome tough questions. But we hate to waste time - ours or yours - wallowing in minutia that isn't really meaningful.

So if you're an organization that uses the RFP process to find the companies that service you, give some thought to what it is you really need to know.

Now hear this: school colors,

Now hear this: school colors, funky shapes suddenly make hearing aids relevant to the vain

I couldn't help but smile when I read today's story in the New York Times about the latest trend in designer hearing aids.

It seems the latest rage is hearing aids that come in school colors, or match the wearer's hair color or cause others to think you're wearing cool jewelry. Apparently, many people who need hearing aids are hesitant to wear them simply because they are concerned it marks them as "old" to need assistance with something as ordinary as hearing.

We can hardly blame the makers of hearing aids. They're just trying to remain relevant by finding new ways to make their product more palatable. If offering them in leopard skin or in the God-awful orange favored by many college football teams is what it takes to get people to wear them, well, more power to them.

Personally, I think it's sad that people are so vain they can't bear the thought of wearing a hearing aid. Do they not realize what a nuisance they are to others, who have to repeat themselves all the time? And why is that the same person who's worried about how they'll look in hearing aids will go out of the house dressed head to toe in Tennesee or Florida colors? I'd rather be thought old than seriously fashion-challenged.

I'm glad companies like Oticon are doing what it takes to make hearing devices relevant to those who need them. I just hope that the hard of hearing will take action. It is hard to remain relevant as a business professional if you can't hear what's going on. In fact, a key to remaining relevant is being willing to admit when you can't do something, don't know something, or need to change something in order to fully participate and contribute at work and in life.

I know whereof I speak. I've been wearing two programmable digital hearing aids that fit down in the ear canal since I was in my mid-40's and they've completely changed my life. I wish I had gotten them sooner. God only knows what I missed all those years or what I inadvertently agreed with or unfairly dismissed.

I know my neighbors are glad I bought aids. For almost 5 years I called them (and introduced them to others as) Sam and Carol. It turns out they're really Cam and Meryl.

Here's the takeaway: consider what you're doing (or not) to remain relevant and be honest about the need to assess ALL your skills and make necessary changes.

If you own a company or produce a product, consider whether there are ways to breathe new life into your business by doing something as simple as making an aesthetic change.

It's what you learn after

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts

I recently had the opportunity to conduct a focus group made up of high school seniors who are academically gifted. The purpose of the discussion was to learn what tactics were being used to get them to consider certain colleges. All had received numerous solicitations from schools that ran the gamut from community colleges to prestigious Ivy League schools.

Frankly, I was pretty certain I knew what they would say before I started the conversation. I figured most would say they do practically all of their college searches online. I just knew they would tell me they expected and wanted to receive e-mails from other students. Well, let's just say it's a good thing I didn't place any bets on my assumptions.

Turns out they do so much online and are so connected, they actually respond better to hard copy mail. That's right: they said they wanted "bumpy" packages. More than one said, "It makes me feel special to get a big envelope addressed just to me." You see, they send and receive so much online, the way to get their attention is to do something out of the ordinary, which, in this case, is to do something extremely ordinary. Are you tracking?

I suspect many other boomers like myself would assume they know what's relevant for the Y generation, based on our observation of their seemingly endless connectivity, short attention spans and remarkable talent for multitasking.

There's an important lesson here for all of us: instead of going with what you "know" step back and ASK your clients what they want. People's preferences change based on the particular situation.

What is it that you KNOW that deserves reconsideration? Remember, relevance is dynamic. Just because something worked last year doesn't mean it will work today.

Update on the Facebook fiasco

Update on the Facebook fiasco

Never underestimate the power of a bunch of ticked-off college kids! Wanted to update you on my earlier post today about the boneheaded move to put RSS feeds on Facebook. According to an article in today's USA Today, company executives reversed their earlier decision and decided to give Facebook users more control over the RSS feeds.

At least a half million of Facebook's 9 million users demanded that Facebook "take back" the RSS feeds and started making noise about a protest against the company. Mark Zuckerberg quickly realized how fast this thing could get out of hand, so about 3 a.m. today he issued an apology to Facebook users and explained that Facebook will now give users more control over what, if anything, they want included from their profiles in an RSS feed.

Kudos to Zuckerberg (with a name like that, just imagine what the protest signs would have read!). It's one thing to screw up, but at least Zuckerberg took quick action and owned up to the mistake and did the right thing. He can now officially run for President of the United States. God knows, this country just loves a wounded soul. Whew! What a way to start the weekend!

Random observations about recent events

Random observations about recent events

First, let me say I deserve three lashes with a wet noodle for not blogging over the past few weeks. I've never gone so long without an entry and my excuse is just that - an excuse. I've been traveling a lot (and carrying only my Blackberry), plus we bought and set up a second home (which was quite time consuming), so my blog went on hiatus. Hopefully, it won't happen again. Gosh, I do hope you readers were able to get some work done despite my absence.

Anyway, there has been so much in the news lately that's interesting, instead of focusing on one subject today, I'll take on several.

First, I'm so glad Katie Couric has now taken over the CBS Evening News. We can finally quit speculating about whether a person with ovaries can actually read a teleprompter to criticizing her because she doesn't always do so. Gimme a break. Would you Rather (ha!) she sit stonefaced pretending to be someone other than the perky, cute boomer that she is? Who was really surprised that she came out from behind the anchor desk to do interviews (and show off her gams)? She's Katie Couric. That's what Katie does. It's a marketing strategy, an attempt to make the news relevant to people who might watch morning TV, but not a news show. Let's move on already.

YouTube. Wow. I feel like an Internet neophyte because I haven't posted a video yet. I like to have as much fun as the next nobody, but I just don't understand the appeal of watching total strangers do stupid things, even though I do it too sometimes. It's a guilty pleasure, I suppose. I still marvel at the Coke and Mentos fountains and I've done my share of passing on the dancing comic. But the skeptic in me has a hard time believing my chain isn't being yanked a lot of the times. I guess it's hard to believe that real nobodies actually make some of these videos just to entertain themselves and whoever else comes across them. It won't be long before Youtube becomes a huge playground for marketers hungry to to make their mark. Meanwhile, it's as good a place to waste time as any.

I guess you've heard about how Facebook owners are getting their underwear in a knot over the new RSS feeds that were added. It's another example of solving a problem that didn't exist. I agree with the thousands of college students who yelled "Get the hell off our space!" The very idea of making it possible to proactively send a notice whenever someone's Facebook profile changes is absurd. Essentially, it's mass-e-mailing thousands of people to let them know that Jimmy and Tonia broke up is not only a waste of the technology, it can cause extreme and unnecessary embarrassment. Moreover, how irritating would it be to get several notices a day about things you don't care about? Can you say irrelevant? That's what RSS on Facebook is.

Finally, I'm still chuckling over a conversation I had with a CEO of a small company who wanted to know what I thought about his company name. I won't further embarrass him by citing it here, but the net is this: I had to find a diplomatic way to say, "Are you frickin' crazy?" He thought it was so clever to name his company a word, except he purposely misspelled the word because he thought it would make the name more interesting. Let's say it was LIVE. Only he spelled it LIIIIIIVE because he had the idea that each of the i's stood for something they do. Sometimes, people need saving from themselves. I told him that 1) nobody would ever be able to find his web site; and 2) he'd irritate more people than he'd attract. He'll never have enough marketing dollars to go around knocking on every door in America to explain the name. He didn't get it. He thought he could "PR" his way into fame. I absolutely love PR, but even I wouldn't take on that challenge! Lesson: use some common sense when naming a company or product. It doesn't matter that you love the name if nobody else does.