Who Will Win It All?

by Sam Sova 

Today is the start of the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament. Do you have your bracket in? I heard on ESPN this morning that 27% of office workers are in an office pool and companies in the US will lose $10 billion in the span of the tournament due to lost productivity. Are you one of these people losing big money for your company? Do you feel guilty about it? 

If you have been reading the news you will also see that CBS is streaming all of the games live on the Web. This is the first accessible on-demand broadcast of an event this caliber, which has attracted over 20 sponsors. Take a look at the article.

The coolest thing about this is an application called the “boss button.” If your boss is walking by, you click the button and a spreadsheet pops up!

So people in the office now have access to all of the games and, of course, many will be watching it. Being in a marketing/communications discipline this is the opportunity to figure out how your company can embrace the biggest sports event of the year. How can you take this event and turn it into an office experience in the future. Maybe a culture builder? Yes, it may be too late this year, but it’s never too early to start for the next year. Could you have an office-wide bracket with prizes like an extra vacation day, parking spot in the executive row for a week, etc.?

With video becoming so easily accessible on the Web, it is evident that the workforce has access to a lot more distracting things. In the future, it may be an opportunity for you to make a difference in the culture of your office.

A “Uniform” for Public Apology?

by Kim Nielsen 

I came across this article yesterday. It’s an interesting commentary on the message that dress can send during public appearances, but I’m not sure that the specified clothing combination can really be considered “the uniform for the modern public apology.” 

For one, the combination of a dark suit, white shirt and a red diagonally striped tie (I’m surprised the flag lapel pin wasn’t mentioned) is shown in two cases of public apology over the course of four years – a period in which hundreds of public apologies were probably issued. 

On a second note, this look is not all that uncommon – it could be considered a uniform for public appearances in general. I am pretty sure that, in the past six months, I have seen a majority of the male presidential candidates wearing some variation of this “uniform” in a debate or other public appearance. I am equally sure that nearly every man I know of a certain age or status has at one time or another worn something similar. 

The men at the focus of the article – Governors Eliot Spitzer and James McGreevey (of New York and New Jersey respectively) – clearly made good choices in maintaining conservative appearances as they issued public apologies. I’m not sure that wearing an orange shirt or purple tie would have provided an appropriate back drop for their serious messages. But did this particular clothing combination (as opposed to any other conservative combination) really add anything to their apologies? Either way, I believe that there is a lesson here….While a professional appearance can make a person look better, it won’t mask other flaws.

Oklahoma Representative’s Hate Speech

by Sarah Nohr

This is Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern’s ugly anti-gay speech that was recently made wildly public on the Internet. 750,000 views on YouTube in just six days.

At one point, Kern is quoted, “If you have cancer in your little toe, do you just say that I’m going to forget about it since the rest of you is fine? It spreads! This stuff is deadly and it is spreading. It will destroy our young people and it will destroy this nation.” What an appalling and irrational analogy!

And talk about a positioning statement. I’m very surprised that someone of this political caliper would speak so strongly. I’m not sure what her image was locally prior to this, but this is not one of those situations where “any press is good press.” I can’t even begin to speak as an expert in political PR – but this makes me wonder what her reps are thinking now …

Please share this with others. I think this is outrageous.

Bringing Closure Part II – Does a Few Days of Not Bringing Closure Hurt the Brand?

by Sam Sova

Going back to the previous post on bringing closure to a relationship, yesterday the brand – Brett Favre – had his press conference to bring closure to his relationship with his fans, the Packers, and football in general. Take a look at the first part of it. 

  

I think that he did a great job addressing all of the issues that he needed to in order to bring closure. And you can tell that he was brutally honest, and that the decision did not come easy. The big question is, could his timing have been too late? If you were to end a relationship with a vendor, employer, or client, would it hurt your brand by bringing closure days after the relationship has ended? Comment below and let us know what you think. 

Bringing Closure to the End of a Relationship

by Sam Sova

For most of us in Wisconsin, March 4^th was an extremely dark day after hearing the announcement of Brett Favre’s retirement. After 17 seasons, arguably the best quarterback in NFL history has called it quits finally.

Brett Favre is a brand. We are all our own brand, with the brand name of course being our name. Impressions of you from others are tied back to your brand. You build your brand by reading blogs like this and networking at our events. The actions that you do either help or hurt your brand. In the case of the Brett Favre brand, the value has dropped dramatically after yesterday.

The Favre brand has not dropped because he retired, but rather how he went about retiring. For those of you that don’t know the story of Favre, he has played his entire career with the Packers with the fans supporting him through everything from having the most interceptions in the league, to going to rehab, to supporting his wife through breast canceer. He is the icon of the Packers, and has helped re-establish the organization as a top tier team.

Take a look at the press conference announcing his retirement. See anything odd?

 

 

What’s wrong with the announcement? No Favre. Instead of him announcing his retirement, we hear from the head coach and GM that Favre has decided to hand up the cleats. There is a big problem with this picture. With hundreds of thousands of devoted Favre fans, the least that he could do to end the relationship is bring closure. 

All that he would have had to done is had a press conference, announce his retirement and why he was doing it, then thank the fans for their following and support throughout the last 17 years. Anything to get that closure that something great has ended – and that your fans mattered to you – because he did to them.

Because this was not done by Favre I have lost my devotion in the brand. It is not only unprofessional, but an extreme copout to have someone else end a relationship. The Favre brand is something that I have loved and hated growing up and has now been extremely hurt from this action. 

So think about this when you end a relationship with an employer, vendor, or even a client. There has to be the correct closure to the relationship – otherwise not only will your company’s brand be affected, but more importantly yours will.