25 reasons to keep innovating

Posted At : May 12, 2008 4:35 PM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Commentary

We never write about ourselves in the Beaupre/Checkmate blog, but today we make an exception.

Twenty five years ago today, Karen and I hung out our shingle. We started Beaupre in our first house in a former nursery with murals of Mickey Mouse and Raggedy A & A on the wall. Our view was a metal swing set from Sears on a one-third acre lot.

We had zero capital, no line of credit, one cheap pine desk, a rolodex and an IBM Selectric typewriter. We focused on technology from the start. Our first client was Integral Data Systems, a color dot matrix printer company later acquired by Dataproducts.

We’ve seen a bit of change.

On the competitive front, hundreds of competitors have come and gone, including great agencies like Newsome & Company; Miller Communications; Gray Strayton; Agnew, Carter, McCarthy; Drumbeater; Rourke & Co.; Nigberg PR; Copithorne & Bellows; Clarke & Co.; Fitzgerald & Co.; Ingalls, Quinn & Johnson PR; Creamer Dickson Basford PR; and Regis McKenna.

But survival isn’t an endgame. The passion to continually transform fuels ongoing success. I blogged about this when I paired Bruce Springsteen with technology innovation. We try to remember the ‘Bruce model' at Beaupre. You can never rest.

The transformation of PR is a current case in point. A grassroots online community has emerged and prospered, with customers and consumers talking to each other — and with companies — directly. This is redefining traditional models and practices for the better. It’s an energizing time to be in business.

Here are some highlights for the past 25 years:

Our ‘endgame’ focus helped companies get acquired, go public, increase sales and build successful brands. That’s how clients measure our performance and how we like to be measured.
The people who’ve been with us on our journey. They average nine+ years with our firm, and many have been with us a lot longer.
Beaupre was acquired by Brodeur and Omnicom (NYSE: OMC) in 1999, two world class organizations that made us stronger. Nine years later, we’ve kept our brand, working model and culture, while forging lifelong friendships with smart, fun people like John Brodeur and Andy Coville.
Still having a positive reputation means the most.

Many viewpoints have changed, and so have the views. Karen and I now look out on a salt-water panorama in Portsmouth, a terrific home to build a business. It’s a long way from the Sears swing set and Selectric. Thanks to all who make it possible.

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From slick to primitive: video transforms our world

Posted At : May 9, 2008 4:57 PM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Social Media,Commentary

Isn’t it fascinating how video production quality has changed so radically?

Those of us who’ve been around the communications block awhile remember the days when corporate videos were works-of-art. They were thoughtfully (sometimes painfully) conceived and slickly executed. The more time and money invested, the more powerful the impact, the more positive the perception. That was the operating model for decades.

YouTube turned the world of video upside down.

At first, corporations stayed away. They viewed YouTube as primitive consumer entertainment with no application to their world. They couldn’t see a viable business benefit. Then the early adopters stuck their toes in the waters of social media, posting video content with a business connection.

Over time, YouTube – and other viral video social networks like Veoh, Viddler, Vimo – have become an efficient and highly cost effective way for businesses to create grassroots visibility, interaction and community. An increasing number of companies now understand the positive impact on their brand persona.

Now they’re starting to have fun, just like the kids. They understand how video presents one of the sweetest ways to create and maintain a corporate personality. Instead of going slick, they’re going rudimentary, unsophisticated, guerilla.

Who cares if that video taken on the floor of a trade show is low resolution and the camera is moving around? People have not only grown tolerant of low-end video production quality, they accept it, often like it, and watch it like crazy.

YouTube also did one more thing: it reversed the game of authenticity. Old school video used to be highly regarded; the slicker the more viable. But now the reverse is true. The more rudimentary (with a dose of reason of course), the more credibly it’s viewed. I’m not talking fake authenticity (like Lonelygirl), but true genuineness.

This is such an epic transformation. We’re just beginning to see its impact.

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Business taglines more important than ever

Posted At : April 22, 2008 2:18 PM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Branding,Strategy,Marketing,Commentary

Steve Cone from Advertising Age published an interesting article last week entitled “Help taglines regain lost glory: why creating strong slogans is a marketer’s most important job.”

He says powerful taglines – what he calls “powerlines” are largely missing in action in today’s marketing messages. Cone believes this is a mistake because the right words “have the power to awe, inspire, motivate, alienate, subjugate and, in a marketing context, change the buying habits of consumers.”

He argues most consumer taglines “generally mean nothing or are relegated to small, unreadable type.” Cone also doesn’t like the fact most companies change their taglines every year or two, and sometimes within the same year. “Nothing could be more harmful to your brand and your business.”

The secret to creating a compelling tagline is attitude. Cone says “the brain is wired to seek the unusual phrase … and ignores phrases that seem ordinary and unimportant.” He also makes a compelling case for the power of sound, “Sound trumps sight by a wide margin in forcing the brain to remember something; you can’t turn off hearing.”

A current consumer powerline Cone likes is “Las Vegas: what happens here, stays here.”

Most of his top 10 favorite taglines hark from an earlier era when they were “the epicenter for all promotional executions:”

A diamond is forever (De Beers)
Think small (VW)
Just do it (Nike)
You deserve a break today (McDonald’s)
When it rains it pours (Morton Salt)
You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s rye bread (Levy’s Baking)

Some of my favorite consumer taglines are:

Snap! Crackle! Pop! (Rice Krispies)
It’s the real thing (Coke)
M’m M’m Good (Campbell's Soup)
We try harder (Avis)
We bring good things to life (GE)
King of beers (Budweiser)
For life (Volvo)
It’s everywhere you want to be (Visa)
The ultimate driving machine (BMW)
When banks compete, you win (Lending Tree)

Are taglines equally important in the world of B2B and technology? Is it more difficult to position a product that’s more complicated, or isn’t noticed/used by consumers?

Yes and yes.

I’ve met with hundreds of business people over the past decade to discuss how to create focused messaging. 80 percent expressed a passion for “dumbing it down.” They really, really, really wanted to capture their product benefits in a catchy way. The business taglines they most frequently cited to make their point:

We don’t make a lot of the products you buy, we make a lot of the products you buy better (BASF)
Think different (Apple)
Intel inside
The network is the computer (Sun Microsystems)
When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight (FedEx)
Invent (HP)
Where do you want to go today? (Microsoft)

If you believe taglines aren’t that critical for business, think again. They’ve never been more important.

Google never had a tagline until last year. Some people thought it was “Don’t be evil,” but that was their internal corporate motto. After a lot of introspection, they came up with: “Search, ads and apps.”

Salesforce.com had a pretty good tagline for years, “Experience Success.” But they changed it to “Success on demand.” They obviously care a lot about whether the new one is working because in January ‘08 they posted the following on their corporate blog:

“What do you think about the “success on demand” tagline? Is it memorable? Do you recall it when Salesforce.com is mentioned? Does it reflect who we are? Can it be improved?”

Look no further than Dell to validate the importance of taglines. They’ve created so many taglines it’s tough to keep track. Here’s a list of the ones I remember, most of which, if not all, are from this decade:

Dude, you’ve got a Dell
Easy as Dell
Get more out of it now
Purely You
Yours is here (current tagline)

As Dell relentlessly morphed its tagline, the company’s brand reputation was frequently barraged. The two went hand-in-hand.

Taglines are important because they exist to capture the essence and promise of a brand. When companies consistently struggle to articulate this most critical message, it’s often a symptom they have lost their way.

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Yankees blow Levine's save in buried shirt debacle

Posted At : April 14, 2008 3:55 PM | Posted By : Mike McGrail
Related Categories: Commentary

AP credited photo - David Ortiz jersey in new Yankee Stadium

With the volatile Steinbrenner clan at the helm and enough interpersonal drama in the locker room to dwarf “Project Runway,” the New York Yankees are not generally noted for their sense of humor. But the pinstripes showed one – and pretty good PR game – this weekend when they found out that a Red Sox-leaning construction worker buried a David Ortiz jersey in new Yankee Stadium concrete.

After the offending jersey was jack hammered out of the floor at considerable cost, Yankees President Randy Levine wisely planted tongue in cheek when he talked to the media. He said the team considered leaving the jersey “because it’s never a good thing to be buried in cement when you’re in New York,” and that might not be a bad fate for a symbol of the Yankee-killing Red Sox power hitter. Then Levine deftly wiped the last droplets of yolk off the Yankees’ collective face when he announced the team was donating the shirt to the Boston-based Jimmy Fund to auction off as a donation for research at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The Jimmy Fund is, of course, the Red Sox long-time marquee charity.

As a lifelong Sox fan I wish Big Papi’s shirt was entombed in the Yankee stonework pumping out bad juju for the next 100 years. As a PR professional, I have to admire Levine’s sharp response. If the Yankees had left it at that, the scales would have tilted in their favor, at least from a PR perspective. But the Yankees being the Yankees, couldn’t let it go. COO Lonn Trost has now hinted at legal action against the prankster – who turns out to be a resident of the team’s very own Bronx.

And Village Voice blogger Heather Muse reported that co-owner Hank Steinbrenner threw a hissy fit when he got the news. Steinbrenner was quoted saying “I hope his coworkers kick the !@#$% out of him. It’s a bunch of bull&*^%.” The prankster invited Steinbrenner to try and do the kicking himself, but only if he brought Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. No word yet on whether or not Steinbrenner has accepted the offer.

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Shine a Light: The Stones and technology partnerships

Posted At : April 11, 2008 4:00 PM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Commentary

Rolling Stones - Scorsese - Shine A Light Movie

The right strategic partner makes a brand stronger.

Case in point: Martin Scorcese’s new documentary, “Shine a Light.”

I saw it the other night on an IMAX screen. It captures the grizzled Rolling Stones in concert at New York’s intimate Beacon Theatre.

“Shine a Light” is a brilliant piece of filmmaking because it reinvigorates a 46 year-old brand, around since 1962. While many might agree the Stones are the greatest rock and roll band of all time, some discard them as no longer meaningful.

Scorcese’s film gives you a good boot in the rear; you leave with renewed appreciation.

The Stones/Scorcese partnership goes way back. He recently told The Philadelphia Enquirer: “A lot of their music became part of my DNA.” Their music is featured in many of his greatest films, including Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed.

Shine a Light is engrossingly real. To the Stones’ credit in this age of plastic reinvention, the boys are comfortable in their own skin. Tight close-ups are featured all the way through. Explaining this technique, Scorcese told the Philadelphia Enquirer, “It shows you a life that’s been lived. And a life that’s living still … and it reads on their faces, it reads in their movements, their bodies, their very souls are up there on screen.”

Scorcese brilliantly contrasts the Stones of today with their Rock God years by dipping into obscure footage from the sixties and early seventies. Coming off a wrinkled Mick, you come face-to face with him in 1972 when Dick Cavett asks: “Can you picture yourself at age 60 doing what you’re doing now?” Mick quickly replies with a grin, “Easily. Yeah.”

Mick’s 64 years old, but has the body of a nine year old, beanpole girl. Being a long distance runner serves him well: he never tires on stage. The young talent joining him in Shine a Light – Jack White of the White Stripes and Christina Aguilera – are clearly star-struck. Mick one-ups both of them; not that he’s trying to.

Shine a Light made me think of the technology industry. Name a high tech player and you’re likely to find a plethora of partnerships associated with that company. Partnerships are forged to deploy and distribute tech products and services, support customers, deepen geographical representation; offset weaknesses and maximize strengths.

Partnerships fall into three camps: the ones that hurt or break companies; the ones that positively transform; and the ones with zero impact.

There are plenty of examples of tech partnerships gone bad. In the nineties, Intel had a partnership with Intergraph Corporation, a maker of computer workstations. Intergraph abandoned its own chip technology efforts and killed its fail-safe strategy with Sun Microsystems to go exclusive with Intel. The partnership worked pretty well for four years, then by 1997 the lawyers got involved with charges and countercharges of patent infringement, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets.

It got ugly.

Apple and HP trumpeted “a strategic alliance” in January 2004, whereby HP would sell HP-branded iPods. At CES, Jobs said, “consumers will be reassured in getting unparalleled digital music solutions from both HP and Apple.” Only one year later, HP stopped ordering iPods from Apple’s factory. They didn’t appreciate that fact that Apple hadn’t price-protected each player sold to HP. By July 2005, HP had decided to stop reselling iPods altogether.

There are thousands of examples of partnerships gone wrong in the tech industry.

There aren’t many long-term, unquestionably successful strategic technology partnerships. But a co

uple come to mind.

One of the best is the Microsoft/Intel partnership. These two companies have collaborated for more than 20 years across engineering, sales and services. Another great example is the Microsoft Logo

relationship Dassault Systemes (DS) built with IBM. DS had innovative Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software, but it didn’t have a distribution partner or brand visibility in the U.S. The two forged a strategic partnership that has lasted over 25 years. During that time DS revenue topped the $1 billion mark.

Arguably, the largest “bucket” for technology partnerships is the third category: the ones with zero impact. Technology companies announce partnerships every day of every week of every month of every year. But 80 percent of these go nowhere. Forrester Research cites several reasons, including the failure to define shared market opportunities, a lack of agreement and investment in going-to-market strategies, and an inability to align the whole organization with the partnering commitment.

In an industry filled with “ecosystems,” “partner programs” and “strategic alliances,” it’s important to remember what the Rolling Stones sang in 1969:

“You can’t always get what you want.”

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Will virtual events replace traditional shows?

Posted At : April 4, 2008 2:22 PM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Speaking,Commentary

Today we are pleased to have guest-blogger Kim Orso, a Director of Beaupre’s Speakers Bureau, to discuss virtual vs. in-person trade shows.

There truly is a trade show or conference for everything – The Bead and Button Show, Totally Tools, The Shreveport Hunters Show. Name the industry, chances are there’s some event out there to support it. As a matter of fact, I just learned there are 13,000 events produced annually in the U.S. and Canada. This was reported in “The future of business events: Why trade shows live on” written by Columbia Business School marketing professor and author of Trade Show and Event Marketing, Ruth P. Stevens.

Ruth’s article paints a very rosy picture for the future of live trade shows and conferences. She reports that the leading platform for virtual trade shows, Unisfair, claims to have run more than 300 virtual events on behalf of companies, trade associations and other organizations. Even though that number continues to grow, the virtual event hardly seems to be a threat to the traditional trade show.

Ruth spent a year and a half researching the business event scene in order to write her book. She argues that, historically, communications media (with the exception of the telegraph) have adapted and co-existed as new media channels have been introduced. As an example, television isn’t going away because of the Internet, it’s just changing how it does business. She sees integrated marketing communications as a way to success and says the Internet and live events should work in tandem. She also argues that online interaction can’t replace face-to-face contact.

I completely agree with Ruth on her assessment of the trade show industry. My brother-in-law has been selling paper to book and magazine publishers for more than 20 years now, and he’s frequently been asked how business is faring with the proliferation of the Internet. He responds positively by saying that we will always need paper, because of the three “B’s” – beach, bed and bathroom.

I look at trade shows in the same vein. They won’t ever go away because of the three “P’s” – product, people and productivity. Attendees want to touch, see and experience new products being introduced to market. Exhibiting companies like to meet face-to-face with potential and existing customers and partners. And, as long as companies pick the right events and properly prepare for a trade show, business can be very productive when prospects and partners congregate under one roof.

While the advent of the virtual event is intriguing and many online tradeshows have been successfully launched (see Stratus Technologies’ upcoming Availability Summit), the Internet doesn’t appear to be a real threat to the face-to-face venue. Instead, they can supplement each other and help companies get the most out of their marketing dollars.

- Kim Orso, Director Speakers Bureau

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SolidWorks founder and “21”

Posted At : March 28, 2008 10:16 AM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Commentary

The new movie “21,” starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and Lawrence Fishburne, opens nationwide today. It’s based on the popular book “Bringing Down the House,” which tells the tale of a group of MIT students who beat the house playing blackjack in Vegas.

Jon Hirschtick was one of these students.

Jon first played with cards as a kid, performing mag Jon Hirschtick and Kevin Spacey

ic tricks and making a few bucks along the way. When he landed at MIT years later, he saw a flier on a wall at the student center that said “Earn $2,000 to $6,000 over the next six months playing blackjack with a professional team.”

He made more than $6,000. While some MIT students opted-out from the blackjack scene, Jon opted-in, becoming a prolific player. From 1984 through 1994, he participated in 100+ blackjack trips. He and his team made millions of dollars over the years; Jon made nearly $1 million.

Jon was invited to the world premiere of the movie “21” in Vegas, meeting Bosworth, Sp Jon Hirschtick and Kate Bosworth

acey and Jim Sturgess, the film’s young star. Jon likes the movie, citing the production and acting quality, as first-rate. He explained that the movie’s characters are composite figures and “some truths are mixed up.”

Two epic derivatives spun-out from all Jon’s blackjack playing.

First, he was able to parlay his blackjack kitty into SolidWorks Corporation (a Beaupre client), founding the Massachusetts 3D CAD software company in 1993. Used by engineers to design Trek bikes, Burton snowboards and thousands of other products, SolidWorks is now a $350 million company employing over 500 people. The company was acquired by Dassault Systemes in 1997, a deal Hirschtick helped orchestrate.

Jon’s blackjack experiences were instrumental in teaching him three important lessons that helped him build a highly successful company:

1. You can win even when conventional wisdom says you can't (in other words, trust your instincts, work incredibly hard, believe in yourself). Jon Hirschtick and Jim Sturgess

2. Get the money out when you have to (in other words, there's a time to go for it in business; you can't hold back and be tentative or you won't win big).

3. Even when you're playing perfectly, you don't win every hand (in other words, building a business isn't a straight line, it's a series of curves; expect challenges and disappointments along the way).

Besides the money and life/business lessons, there was yet another benefit: the girlfriend who accompanied him on many of those blackjack excursions years ago – Melissa – became his wife. Jon and Melissa have four children.

All this good fortune couldn’t happen to a nicer guy: 21.

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Mobile World Congress 08: Mobile ramblings from Barcelona

Posted At : March 27, 2008 12:25 PM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Technology,Commentary

“La Rambla” is a one-mile pedestrian walkway that stretches from a famous Barcelona square to the busy waterfront. It’s the place to be and be seen, a congested cacophony of sights, sounds and real-time experiences that define this upbeat, world class city.

Mobile World Congress 08, set in Barcelona, was a lot like “La Rambla.” Mobile Industry News ranked MWC the # 1 annual tech conference any cutting edge cell phone lover should attend. They were right. There aren’t many tech markets more dynamic: one million mobile phones are sold everyday worldwide!

MWC is a four day kick-ass show. It’s the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry; 60,000 people literally flurry among nine different pavilions featuring 1400 exhibitors. I was blown away with the diversity of emerging mobile technologies, the pace and sheer excitement. Even Robert Redford, Isabella Rossellini and Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am made appearances.

It’s nearly impossible to summarize all the buzz, but I’ll give it my best shot: Biking in Barcelona

Mobile apps on the cusp and/or ready to explode include: social networking; search; gaming; mobile advertising (sorry); consumer-created content; mobile TV; mobile movies; mobile theatre sound; and payments.
Some new buzzwords from Barcelona: “V2IP” which stands for interactive two-way real-time multimedia on the phone; “on-device portals,” which capture content via a browser to use less online time; and “3-screens,” which means a large home screen + a desktop screen + phone screen all sharing the same digital content.
Despite Apple not having the impact it had at last year’s GSM , the iPhone has nevertheless shaken the mobile market. In Barcelona, the major handset makers (Nokia, Samsung, Sony) waxed about the need for simpler interfaces and better mobile software. LG and Samsung showed off touch-screen capabilities. The term “tridgets” made their debut in Barcelona, meaning mobile devices that depend 100% on the network for all controls and data. The iPhone is the tridget du jour.
While handsets are increasingly richened (see exceptions below), the real play, of course, is content. The mobile business is focused on giving consumers the experience they want; the content they need, when they want it, how they want it. Nokia’s Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said at MWC: “New services will touch time, place and location.”
Perhaps the hottest technology in Barcelona was mobile satellite, or GPS-enabled phones. “Geo tagging” was a new term bandied about; it refers to snapping a photo with your phone and then GPS receivers tagging it with its actual location on earth. Semiconductor designers – including NXP, SiRF and CSR – have built GPS systems on single, very low cost silicon chips. GPS navigation will be available on mobile phones at less than $3 to consumers. Mind boggling.
With more mobile apps running on Windows Mobile 6, more attention is being paid to security. Samsung and Sony Ericsson handsets, for example, run Windows Mobile 6. McAfee talked this up at MWC. McAfee’s 2008 mobile operator survey revealed that 79 percent of the 3 billion subscribers use unprotected devices. Scary.
Gemalto, the $2.2 billion digital security leader had a very busy booth. OnePin was one of their interesting partner collaborations. These guys market CallerXchange, a peer-to-peer application that enables mobile phone users to automatically send, insert and update contact information in SIM phonebooks with the click of a button. It may sound like a niche app at first glance, but it isn’t. The proliferation of contact information is the heart and soul of phonebook content: the more names and numbers, the more calls. Mobile phone operators like this a lot. The cool part is that it’s simple and universal but also permission-based.
One of the vendors that surprised (or scared in the case of telecom software vendors) people at MWC 08 was Huawei. The Chinese vendor’s software division came out guns-a-blazing with their expansion into the network equipment market. These guys have lots of software in many different flavors and they can low-cost themselves into emerging markets.
Mobile is huge for consumers, sure, but it’s also growing like a weed in the workplace. Mid-sized and large organizations are increasingly arming their people with mobile devices. There’s huge upside here. Just ask companies like RIM which cut its teeth in business first.
Some visionary, yet historically traditional, telco vendors are reinventing themselves, leveraging their rich customer data to get to a new place. At MWC, vendors like Ulticom (a Beaupre client), showcased very cool new capabilities in the area of identity management. By connecting 2 billion subscribers all over the world to telecom networks, Ulticom can enable premium consumer apps like geo-location, mobile TV, video-on-demand, bank authentication and pay-per-view.
Similarly, vendors (think Sun, IBM, Oracle, Alcatel-Lucent) are urging telcos to leverage their data to support customer apps like real-time campaign management, advertising and personalization.
Africa is the next big mobile market, with South America right behind. Mobile marketing is of “particular interest” to companies in South America, according to One Point, a mobile survey company that polled people at MWC.
Despite all the high-end mobile phone hoopla, vendors are also focusing on the massive opportunity in the non mobile rest-of-world. Spice launched the People’s Phone, a stripped-down, $20 product that doesn’t have a screen and only does voice and text (Braille keyboard option available). Remember that 5 billion people don’t use any communication technology; phones like this will be very appealing.
Music and movies are hot emerging apps; some new devices enable music and motion picture downloads in an under $25 phone. Dolby Labs’ “Dolby Mobile,” touted “surround sound on the move,” rivaling theatre quality.
IBM (a Beaupre client) had many announcements and plenty of momentum at MWC 08. They collaborated with Vodafone to demonstrate how social networks can be extended to any mobile device. They showed how mobile phones and “presence” technology – combined with health records – can provide a potential ‘good Samaritan’ with information on how to help people in critical medical situations. And because businesses and consumers are demanding more defense against voice, video and Internet mobile viruses, they demonstrated advanced security that keeps carrier-grade network services free of malicious traffic.
Former Beaupre client (and great guy) Steve Chambers, President of Nuance, talked about “voice dialing,” also called “voice-to-screen,” a capability that enables text messages to be spoken. The auto makers will like this one.
Google’s Android platform was a prevalent buzz topic. It will feature a touch capability in a device rumored to have a 300 Mhz processor – half the iPhone’s current capability. Imagine the kind of mobile apps possible with this kind of efficiency.
Smartphones have been slow to get traction in the U.S. We typically want to take our phones out of the box and start using them without figuring out complex features (or in my case, ever reading the manual). The Touch UI from Symbian has an operating system that’s open source; encouraging momentum for lots of third party applications.

All in all, an amazing place to hang out for a week. I was blown away with the pace, vigor and innovation.

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Obama’s lesson for PR pros

Posted At : March 21, 2008 9:24 AM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Speaking,Public Relations,Commentary

Barack Obama - lessons for PR pros I just read the transcript of Barack Obama’s recent speech on race, prompted by his minister’s fiery sermons. Whatever your politics, it was a refreshingly honest, sophisticated and, consequently, powerful address on a controversial topic.

No one really knows how it will affect his candidacy, and that’s not what this post is about. As CNN analyst David Gergen said, it was just refreshing to hear a candidate speak to the public as thinking adults, not children.

There’s a lesson here for high-tech communications professionals, who are continually skewered for engaging in a galling idiom of press-release-ese (example) and BS that simply disrespects its audience. Sometimes the least common denominator exerts a gravitational pull.

As professional communicators, let’s remind ourselves that it's almost always worth the effort to battle for plain speak and authenticity, expressing respect for our readers, listeners and viewers.

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Is ‘Authenticity’ fake?

Posted At : March 20, 2008 10:15 AM | Posted By : Andy Beaupre
Related Categories: Branding,Commentary,Cause branding

The #7 idea in next week’s Time cover story – “10 ideas that are changing the world” – is Synthetic Authenticity. “Promoting products as ‘authentic’ is serious business these days,” says Time writer John Cloud.

It’s also apparently a hot (or ‘kool?’) concept in some ad campaigns. Stoli Vodka headlines trumpet “Choose Authenticity.” Kool cigarettes urge people to “Be Authentic.” Even the state of Maryland jumped into the fray, Cloud says, with its “Even the fun is authentic” promotion.

One thing’s for sure: you can’t have a true marketing movement without a gospel, a guiding tome, a clever book.

Enter Authenticity by James Gilmore and Joseph Pine. It inspired most of Time’s # 7 world changing notion. Ever read The Experience Economy during the Internet bubble? Gilmore and Pine wrote it. It introduced the notion of consumers being willing to pay a premium for “staged experiences” perceived as having inherent personal value. Think Starbucks.

In Authenticity, the authors believe the current “aura of inauthenticity around some brands is killing them.” The crucial factor dividing success from failure, Time interprets, “will be whether a business is perceived as real or fake, authentic or inauthentic.”

How should a company convey authenticity? Three ways, say the authors.

Approach # 1 involves companies being totally transparent and true to themselves and their claims. Think Chipotle Mexican Grill which only serves non-antibiotic meat. The challenge with Approach # 1, however, is that when you screw up (think Jet Blue stranding passengers for hours) your authentic company’s reputation gets nailed.

Approach # 2 involves openly faking it. Case in point: Verizon paying for product placement on the TV show “30 Rock” and Tina Fey eyeballing the camera when she says, “Can we have our money now?” This strategy is total tongue-in-cheek transparency. It says ‘I’m authentic because I’m openly fake.’

Approach # 3 is to be “fake-real.” In this scenario, the company doesn’t have to be exactly what it says it is. The Canyon Ranch, a famous spa, isn’t really a ranch. The Daily Show isn’t a news show. Uh, okay.

Is this all a pile of crap or is there some nugget of validity?

Tom Asacker, author of A Clear eye for Branding, thinks authenticity is a “hollow cry.” He says “authenticity schmauthenticity!” To Asacker, it “smells of the marketing puffery we chide.” He continues, “What consumers really want is a good act. Like theatre goers, they want to suspend disbelief and ‘get lost’ in a well-crafted and well-executed brand experience – consistency, sincerity, and a perfectly attuned expression of their desires, sensibilities and identities.”

Maybe it’s me, but isn’t Asacker saying the same thing as Gilmore and Pine?

Then again, doesn’t Gilmore and Pine’s new marketing doctrine remind you of their 1999 Experience Economy? Check this out: “Stop saying what your offerings are through advertising and start creating places – permanent or temporary, physical or virtual – where people can experience what those offerings, as well as your enterprise, actually are.” It wouldn’t be the first time a marketing guru re-spins one brilliant idea.

So, here’s the question for you? Does any of this authenticity stuff have validity for B2B technology companies?

If you’re a B2B technology company selling signaling hardware or voice response systems or high performance computers or enterprise software or virtualization solutions, is it important for “users” to feel authenticity from their vendor? Or do they just need a product that works and keeps rolling along, seamlessly delivering value? Should B2B companies create feeling experiences for their customers?

You know what I think (or if you don’t, go here or here or here).

If a B2B company is in a commodity, price-driven market with lots of competitors sounding alike, one way it can differentiate is to invest some time and money making it a socially aligned business. This effort doesn't have to be the sole purpose of the company, but rather one genuine initiative among many.

Time’s John Cloud says, “People want their purchases to elevate them, to transform them. They want products to connect them to history or to a cause.”

Ditto for high level B2B decision makers who are increasingly saying, “Why not spend money with a company that has a great product and also cares about the world in which it competes?"

So allow me to introduce Authenticity Approach # 4: build great products, create trusted, high value partnerships with your customers and spend a little time and money helping others.

Let’s call it “Self-serving, genuine caring, B2B authenticity.”

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