WhipperSnaPR

I thought I’d dig a little deeper than the New York Times on the Delta Zeta issue and came up with a couple of really interesting items.

First, Misblog has been following the issue and has great commentary and a nice background on it.

I also really enjoyed this editorial in The DePauw about how the media has handled the story. I’m, glad the editors at DePauw’s campus newspaper saw this as an opportunity to not only tackle the issue of diversity on college campuses, but also the standards and practices of today’s journalists.

I am a Delta Zeta and my time as an active member is a big part of what defined my college years. That said, I was never one to quietly sit back and let the sorority machine run its course. In college, I was also a student government and political science geek; that means I studied Robert’s Rules of Order and memorized my sorority’s constitution. I was probably one of the least favorite members in the eyes our adviser. I fought her on the validity of several “rules” and questioned her authority to set such “rules.” I was quite the vigilante.

So, I was not surprised to hear that recently the Delta Zeta national officers have gotten themselves into a nice little PR pickle. The background:

On February 25, 2007, The New York Times printed a story titled, “Evictions at Sorority Raise Issue of Bias.” It opens with…

“When a psychology professor at DePauw University here surveyed students. they described one sorority as a group of “daddy’s little princesses” and another as “offbeat hippies.” The sister of Delta Zeta were seen as “socially awkward. … Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house. The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.”

The article continues on quoting infuriated members and using words like disrespect, insensitivity and discrimination. It was followed by a letter to the editor on February 27 by several DePauw students. One of them, Megan Bowker, wrote, “DePauw’s campus had always been ablee to pride itself on having a house where any type of girl could belong. When Delta Zeta’s national officers decided to change the image of the DePauw chapter, they changed our campus dynamic.“

This story, of course, got a lot of attention in college newspapers across the country. Everybody loves a good sorority scandal and, at least at my school, the DZs are not known for their compassion. All the while, most stories claimed that the national president of Delta Zeta or any other national officer declined to comment.

On February 28, 2007, Delta Zeta issued a press release/statement. The headline read, “Statement From the Members of The Delta Zeta Chapter of DePauw University.” My favorite part is the first sentence: “As the active members of Delta Zeta at DePauw University, we feel as though we, the National Organization, and the Delta Zeta chapter at DePauw University have been misrepresented.” I’ll get to my thoughts on this momentarily.

Finally, on March 6, 2007, I received an email from the national office. It reads, in part, “Our members are angry and saddened that our Sorority has been so mischaracterized in the media. As Delta Zetas, we know the true story. You are encouraged to speak out for Delta Zeta on your campus, in your school newspaper, and to the local media.”

Delta Zeta has found itself in crisis management mode and they’ve done very poorly so far. I won’t get into how they got themselves into the mess; what I want to focus on is how they are reacting to the news and managing the media coverage.

1. They should have never declined to comment to The New York Times! Are they crazy! Weeks after the article was printed, they are complaining that nobody is listening to their side of the story. But, when somebody was willing to listen they didn’t want to talk.
2. Who wrote this statement?!?! First of all, don’t try to deceive your readers. Yes, I understand the difference between the active members of Delta Zeta of Depauw University and those that have been forced into alumni status, but don’t try to make it seem this statement is coming from the remaining 6 members of the Depauw chapter. Did they even get a chance to review this statement or comment? This statement reflects the feelings of the national leadership, it should say that. Second - Nobody cares how you feel! You do not release an official statement about how you feel you are being bullied…. never. Finally, don’t try to push the blame on to the “campus climate of DePauw University.” Keep digging your hole ladies, you’re doing a fine job.
3. The email to all members of Delta Zeta doesn’t provide any background; maybe I’m too far out of the loop, but I had to google the story. Furthermore, the message puts far too much faith in Delta Zeta members. “As Delta Zetas, we know the true story.” Umm… not if you won’t tell us! If you’re expecting me to infer your noble intentions based on my own memories as an active sorority member, your wrong. I loved being an active member, but I don’t doubt in the slightest that the national organization is capable of something this appalling.

Finally, I’d like to send some sisterly love to all of the members of the Delta Zeta chapter at Depauw University. I don’t know you; I don’t even know if we would be friends if we had the chance, but I feel for you. Remember, you will always be sisters despite what status the national organization gives you. Cherish that and stick together. As a member of Delta Zeta I am deeply sorry you have to endure the consequences of the poor judgment of our leaders. I think it would do a little good right now for all members of Delta Zeta to reflect on our creed:

To the world,
I promise temperance and insight and courage,
To crusade for justice,
To seek the truth and defend it always:
To those whom my life may touch in slight measure,
May I give graciously of what is mine;
To my friends,
Understanding and appreciation;
To those closer ones,
Love that is ever steadfast;
To my mind,
Growth;
To myself,
Faith
That I may walk truly
In the light of the Flame.

Josh posted last week about our trip to DC for various reasons and our many fun adventures while there. To add my two cents:

My favorite part was meeting Mr. and Mrs. Matthews. Chris Matthews is cool and all (my bosses first question was, “Does he yell like that in normal conversations?” answer: yep!) but I was more impressed with Kathleen Matthews who was just recently hired as the newest PR star for Marriott International.

Playing the part of WhippersnaPR to perfection, I was literally drooling over myself trying to get two words in with her. She’s a very popular woman. Hell, she’s a newscaster, PR star and moviestar Unfortunately, this wasn’t the kind of event where one hands out business cards and my current business cards are actually my boss’ with my name hand written on the back (very appropriate for a whippersnapr, I think). So, sadly, I didn’t get to have any in depth conversations with her where I proved my own potential stardom in 5 words or less.

The sighting was inspiring none-the-less.

By definition, according to my cool dictionary widget, a whippersnapper is:

whippersnapper |ˈ(h)wipərˌsnapər| noun informal

a young and inexperienced person considered to be presumptuous or overconfident.

yep, that’s me! Young, check; inexperienced, mostly; presumptuous, not too often; overconfident, more often than is probably healthy. But, there is an upside… I’m also smart enough to at least recognize my pipsqueak tendencies and I try (for the most part) to keep them in line.

My experiences in my first two weeks at Pod have allowed me to both embrace and manage my inner WhipperSnaPR. First, I LOVE MY JOB and I will tell everybody I meet all about it. I definitely have a youthful energy about this job and my co-workers don’t seem to mind at all. They give me free plenty of room to trot about and stretch my legs like a spring pony.

But, I’ve also come to realize that although they hired me for my specialization in internet communication, they also expect me to do much more than chat online all day. I have much to learn. Fortunately, I have great teachers. First, I have my two bosses, Steve and Liz. They make such a great team both personally and professionally. They are successful and have years of experience, but they are also laid back, relaxed and open minded and they show me respect that I never had the opportunity to enjoy at my previous job.

In addition to my great role models at Pod, I also have the opportunity to work quite closely with the director of marketing, Bobbie, at B*tween Productions (developer of the Beacon Street Girls), one of our clients. I’ve only met her once, so far, but I truly enjoyed our conversation and brainstorm and I can already tell that I can learn a lot from Bobbie. She’s a seasoned PR professional, she has loads of media connections, and she is very level headed when it comes to PR/business strategy. We will be running a PR campaign from August through October and I’m so excited about it!

I hope to write more about this and other cool work activities soon!

This weekend, Ari and I went to one of my favorite bars in Cambridge, Enormous Room. A friend introduced me to “enormous” over a year ago and I’ve been a loyal patron ever since. Although, I as I noticed during my last visit, the qualities that originally drew me to the bar so frequently have all begun to disappear or transform into traits that I don’t find as appealing. So, it got me thinking…

Enormous Room has done very little advertising (if any at all) and has relied on word of mouth to build its clientelle. They don’t even have a sign on the door; but they have earned some positive reviews in the past. Their approach worked out great at first. They were growing in popularity at a very manageable pace and they were attracting all the right people to fit their persona/genre/style. But recently, it seams the clientelle has changed. All of the people I used to see every weekend have stopped coming (and I stopped going every weekend, myself), the music has changed, and the drinks are more expensive. Why the change?

Now that I’m working in word of mouth marketing, these kinds of case studies have been catching my attention. The enormous room could present a very interesting case against word of mouth marketing: when you rely solely on word of mouth, you relinquish a considerable amount of control over the medium and the message. However, any good PR can quickly become bad PR if the buisness is not prepared to manage an increase in interest and attention.

I’d love to hear the perspective and strategy of the Enormous manager and I’m interested in seeing how they react to the recent changes in their business. I may have to continue my regular visits just to see how things progress…. plus, I have to feed my cravings for their pomegranate margaritas

PR can mean many things to a business. For some, PR serves a very low-level role and is only expected to perform traditional media relations duties. For others, the PR Director has direct access to the C-suite and is expected to fulfill a very high-level, strategic role within the business.

At BU, my professors would often lament the fact that PR seemed to be more of an after thought and was rarely given space within the actual business plan. They lectured that it should be a primary goal of any PR professional to gain access to the highest level of managers as possible. They argued this for many reasons. Obviously, earning the respect of the c-suite will prevent you PR department from being the first to go in the event of budget cuts. But, there are additional benefits beyond that for all parties involved.

I believe that good and bad PR can come from any element of a business…. customer relations, payroll, sales, etc., etc. and therefore, PR should be able to play a role in all of those areas. Otherwise, the PR department may find itself in a position where it must manage a crisis that it could have helped prevent.

My friend, Ari, is currently living a great PR case study. His Klipsch amp shorted out about eight weeks ago. It was still under warranty, so he sent it back to Klipsch and was told it would take 3-5 weeks for repairs. So, after the 5th week he started calling in search of his amp and every time he has talked to anyone at repairs all they’ve said is “oh it’ll just be another week (or two).” Well, the needed parts are still not expected in for yet another 2 weeks, and he’s lost all confidence that they will actually arrive at that time, having heard such predictions many times before.

My suggestion for Ari was to get in touch with their PR manager, Sarah, thinking if it were me, I would want to resolve this problem as soon as possible. Ari is a disgruntled customer and he’s been complaining to everybody he meets! The bad PR from word of mouth alone would make me nervous, but imagine if Ari decides to start talking about this online… this has the potential to turn into a Kryptonite case in no time. So, Ari sent Sarah an email explaining his issue, making it clear that he has no qualms about sharing his perceived injustice with friends and co-workers, and asking for her support.

Sarah’s response was more than disappointing to both Ari and me:

I sincerely apologize for your wait and inconvenience. I can understand your frustration as I had a similar situation with my Denon receiver. I was waiting on a part that was out of stock and it seemed like forever before I got my receiver back.

I know that at times our vendors do run behind in production and there is little we can do about it. We are basically at their mercy. But I can understand how you would feel “jerked around” with your system repair getting pushed back farther and farther. And for that I am truly sorry.

I know that our replacement amps are in route as we speak so I am confident they will be able to repair your system very soon. I wish I could personally help you but this is out of my realm. My job is to handle media inquiries and copywriting tasks. I have notified customer service manager Gerry Power (who I know you spoke to) about your extreme dissatisfaction and I am sure he will work to get your repairs expedited as quickly as possible.

I’m curious as to how she expects this to help her situation. Realistically, she probably has very little power to do anything for Ari. It seems that Klipsch is one of those companies that does not hold their PR resources close to the corner office. Do they not expect any business benefits from PR? Do they only see the PR value in media relations? There are relatively easy and cheap ways to keep Ari happy and Klipsch is missing out on an oppotunity to build positive PR. Instead, they have a frustrated customer on their hands, one who is now has no reason to sit back and be patient.