Weblog

This is the final post in our explanation of the process that we use to meet the strategic challenges of our clients. Planning is complete, now we have to earn our fee, achieving effect through our outreach and demonstrating that effect to our clients.

Stage 5: Multi-Channel Outreach

Our planning has identified who we must speak to, the effect we want to have on them, what we are going to say and how we are going to make sure they hear us. It has also revealed the multiple channels we must use to achieve the consistency and repetition of message – crucial to achieving our effect on our target audiences.

We speak to traditional media, placing news and opinion pieces, arranging interviews, reaching out to trade press and special interest publications and putting spokespeople on TV and radio. We harness the power of the web, building in social media outreach into every one of our programs. We might mobilize supporters through grassroots, grasstops and third-party programs, as well as by leveraging satisfied customers. We might speak to business or financial analysts and investors, think-tanks, community groups, trade associations and business groups.

Phase 6: Measures of Effect

All of our clients rightly demand that we demonstrate program value over time, so we build in measures of effect at the planning stage against which we gauge success. This means we do not simply hand over a wedge of clippings and pat ourselves on the back. We make realistic assessments and weigh them against planned influence or marketing effect.

It is a no-nonsense procedure that allows us to recalibrate where necessary and show our clients that our process works. It also allows us to optimize programs over time.

So, that’s our methodology. I am planning a post that will go into more detail on effects-based planning and another that will illustrate this process in action through real life case studies. I hope you all get something out of them. Comments are welcome. (SK)

With a clear idea of the nature of our client and its target audiences, we move into the meat of the planning process – stages 3 and 4 which often run concurrently. This is the point at which we decide what we must say, and work out how we get people to listen:

Stage 3: Effects Based Planning

Effects-based planning is the rock upon which we build our temple. We take our defined audiences and plan what marketing or influence effect our communications must have. The effect is the switch that must be flicked in the minds of individuals to achieve our aims and objectives. To use a simple example, if our strategic challenge is to sell more in an existing market, our communications must have the effect of convincing potential buyers that our product is a better option for them than the products of our competitors. Once we have identified the effect we must have, we can then work backwards to tie down the ways in which we can achieve it. We add a creative element to devise a narrative around our client’s strengths into which we can embed our key messages. We also pare down the communications channels (media, digital, third parties, grassroots etc.) to our audiences that are likely to be most effective.

Stage 4: Message Development and Testing

Message development is one of our two core functions at Keymer, the other being media relations. Message development must be rigorous, utilizing the findings of phase one research, with a clear understanding of our planned effect. We also have the option to test our messages, through informal or formal polling. We end up with a usable message platform upon which all communications are based.

To take stock, at this stage in the process, we have:

- Identified our strategic challenge

- Developed a clear understanding of our client’s strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations

- Identified and fully researched the nature of our target audiences

- Clearly identified the effect our communications must have on target audiences to achieve our aim and manage our strategic challenge

- Developed a creative narrative and developed clear, effective messaging

- Identified optimal communications channels in to our target audiences

With the planning complete, it is time to begin our outreach. Part 5 of the process will be posted tomorrow, detailing multi-channel outreach and what comes after that…

Tackling strategic business challenges is what we are all about. We help businesses enter new markets; cope with significant change; launch new products; prepare themselves for sale; or find a competitive edge in a commoditized marketplace. We help trade associations and other interest groups manage the political, regulatory and social issues that worry them. We help clients of all kinds deal with damaging crises.

Whatever the strategic challenge, the way we build and execute a public relations program to address it remains broadly the same. This is the first of three posts which briefly outlines our unique 6-stage process. I hope it gives you a glimpse inside our minds, underscores the solid foundations upon which our programs are built, and goes some way to demystifying the process by which we bring value our clients….

Stage 1: Research and Investigation

Upon beginning a new project, we start with C-Suite meetings to identify and define the strategic business challenge or challenges. We support this as needed with communications audits, brand positioning studies, issues analysis, competitor comparisons and customer polling. Only when we have a thorough understanding of our clients, their history, their bugbears and their aspirations, can we begin the process of enabling their success.

Stage 2: Target Audience Analysis (TAA)

We take time to identify and define the groups and individuals that we must affect to achieve our aims, and then we chart the potential communications channels to them. We assess human and group factors to ensure we have a thorough understanding of each client’s stakeholders. We move to the next stage knowing who we must speak to, how to reach them and a basic understanding of what we might say.

The graphic below illustrates the entire process. Look out for Part 2, on Monday, in which we build on our research to develop the strategies and messaging needed to run a successful campaign.

I am over the moon to finally release the news that Laurie Fink has joined the Keymer team to provide creative branding, marketing and interactive design services. She is a respected graphic designer and brand strategist with whom we have worked often in the past as our designer-of-choice. The list of brands she has served is long and distinguished and includes American Express, Xerox, Air France, Parke-Davis, Merck and Arthur Anderson. She gained solid agency experience at Young & Rubicam in New York and was creative director at QRS Corporation.

Bringing Laurie on board means we can fully integrate brand marketing and design into our programs where previously we engaged third parties. This will benefit our clients and gel better with our long-held philosophy of holistic communication strategies. Laurie will be based in New York, but we expect to see her at client meetings and new business pitches in Jacksonville and Washington DC on a regular basis.

Welcome aboard Laurie! You are an old friend of ours and an outstanding addition to our team. (SK)

Good news. Let joy be unconfined. On April 27, 2010, mere hours after her due date, Kristen (our media relations goddess) safely delivered a baby girl of 7lbs 10 ozs. Peyton Potter is Kristen and Ryan’s first child and is doing extremely well.

The real news, however, according to my various (female) sources, is that Kristen looks like she was never pregnant. A couple of people have told me through gritted teeth that she already “looks like a super model….”!

Well, the MS Mud Run was a great success! The Keymud team made it through without any major injuries and managed to raise some money for the North Florida chapter of the MS Society. Simon said it was miserable, but by the looks of the photos, it seems like he enjoyed swimming through the mud. Click on the following link to view a whole album of photos from the race: http://bit.ly/c45l9a !

Keymer, Inc. is excited to be sponsoring a team in Jacksonville’s MS Mud Run to benefit the North Florida Chapter of the National MS Society. The Mud Run is a 10K race with boot camp style obstacles that have been surrounded by or consist entirely of mud! The race will be held on Saturday March 20, 2010 at Cecil Field.

Our entry into the race is none other than “Team Keymud.” Team members include: owner of Keymer, Inc. Simon Keymer and his wife Tannahill Keymer as well as friends Todd Johnson, Gina Bradley and Joe Smith. All the members of Keymud will be raising funds to benefit the MS Society. You can donate on Simon’s personal giving page: http://bit.ly/abmF1d.

Todd and Simon were a part of Keymer, Inc.’s charitable work last year as well when they drove across the country in a $500 clunker car for the Big Apple to Big Easy Rally (BABE Rally). During the Babe Rally, Simon and Todd raised money for Jacksonville’s daniel kids charity. Last year the BABE Rally, and this year the Mud Run- what will they think of next?

To support the team please visit the link above and join our Facebook group (http://bit.ly/a9M8GU) for all updates on the team.

I once had a long conversation over lunch with Frank Luntz on the subject of influence. He is smart – very smart, so I was not surprised to learn that he had been hired to feed into the debate around financial regulatory reform. His memorandum on how the financial services industry should push back against the prospect of wholesale regulatory reform – particularly the establishment of the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Agency (a well-intentioned but potentially disastrous new government bureaucracy) – was shared with the world on the Huffington Post. The memorandum gives an interesting glimpse into the workings of the message development process – with which, in one form or other, we are involved every single day. Check it out at The Luntz Memorandum

We are in the process of branding a tech firm that provides integrated payment processing services for merchants through channels sales distribution within software vendors and web developers. In English, the company innovates, markets and services software solutions that allow businesses of all kinds to manage electronic payments – in stores and offices or through web-based e-commerce.

We need an awesome new name and want creative types in the Twitterverse to feed in! Some of the concepts we have been exploring, include:

• The comprehensive, ‘soup to nuts’ nature of the firm’s offer
• The outstanding security the firm gives to its merchants
• The idea of movement – the movement of funds or the enabling of commerce

These are concepts only. We strongly advise you to think outside the box. This is a tech firm, but it serves traditional businesses.

To enter:

• follow @keymerpr
• tweet your suggested name along with a justification for it
• add the hashtag #namingnewco.

You can enter as many times as you like. Deadline is Wednesday, January 20 at 5pm PST.

If you come up with the name that is chosen, we’ll be in touch to arrange the delivery of a seriously sweet Kindle http://bit.ly/8Hh2t1!

A few weeks ago, Simon was interviewed by Jacksonville’s Small Business Advantage magazine for their After Hours section. The story is now live on their website and will be in January’s print edition. Many thanks to Brian Barquilla (Founder & Publisher) and Linda Segall (Editor) for their interest in the story and for the great piece. If you would like to view the article on their website, you can link to it here.

The BABE Rally continues to interest people, and we are thankful to all those who supported us in our endeavor!