Hi, Marketing! I’m Public Relations, your next-door neighbor. Unfortunately, we’ve never met, even though we’ve lived here for a while. I live in this silo:
OK, I don’t live in that groovy silo house. But I’ve seen companies hire separate agencies and drop them in silos, where they churned out completely different communications strategies. The resulting material doesn’t look like it’s from the same place. The look is diluted; the copy is all over the place. Customers aren’t getting a consistent message, so it doesn’t register that they’re looking at that brand/product/company they like.
Especially in a challenging economy, companies try to cut corners on marketing and communications by consolidating departments. Someone from marketing may be asked to lead direct mail and a PR person might be expected to build the marketing component in the business plan.
If we’re not acquainted, we’re going to end up with big holes in the communications strategy. I’ve been locked in the silo before. Now that my partner and I have our own company, we make sure everyone shows up in the barn for the big hoedown.
Anyone who touches PR, marketing, advertising, direct mail, social media, etc. not only needs to know what the other team is doing, they need to have a seat at the table during planning to ensure the marcomm plan components are complementary, and ultimately feed into the company’s overall business goals.
At a recent meeting of the Public Relations Society of America – Detroit Chapter, Mark O. Benner, APR, shot down the silos. Mark, principal of Mark O. Benner LLC, is the former SVP and Director of Corporate Communications at Campbell-Ewald, where he was responsible for making sure the PR folks were talking to the ad folks, and vice versa.
Mark referenced a 2010 Vocus integrated communications survey of nearly 1,000 PR practitioners that found marketing and PR are talking, but data suggests the relationship isn’t necessarily functional. While 77 percent say they have formal working relationships, 67 percent say they get together only “sometimes.”
Social media in particular is a battlefield: Forty-three percent of PR professionals feel they should own social media, while 34 percent of marketers make the same claim.
Further, Mark called out industry stereotypes that we’ve all heard before:
· Only PR talks with journalists
· Direct mail belongs to advertising
· Only creatives have big ideas
How do we get everyone to play nice?
Begin by embracing the objective and respecting the expertise that your team brings to the table. “You win this battle with collaboration from everyone on a ‘one voice’ creative strategy at the very start,” Mark says. “This means everyone agrees on the theme, tagline, logo, colors, tone; every piece. Is making the team bigger going to mean complications? Yes. But the payoffs are significant.”
The new team will …
· Build trust for subsequent projects
· Earn kudos for effectiveness and efficiency
· Recognize the critical linkage of relationships to transactions and brand loyalty
· Keep consumer’s needs in focus with the organization’s objectives
You don’t have the resources to build that collaborative team? Why not, on your next project, find someone with different thinking? “Set up an advisory committee,” Mark suggests. “Hire a consultant. Go pick the brain of a friend or colleague outside your business.
“Respect the expertise of PR, or relationships, and marketing, the transactions, and find a way to bring them in.”
Are you breaking down the silos at your company? Or are you stuck inside? Tell us your stories.
Guest blog by Jennifer Marsik Friess, partner/owner of Volare Public Relations. Connect with her:
248-974-3880
jennifer.marsikfriess@volarepr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermarsikfriess
http://twitter.com/jenmarsikfriess
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it seems so common-sense to make sure your professional communicators are actually communicating with each other; but it’s amazing how common the silo effect is. jennifer, your point about the PR team being involved from the beginning on the corporate identity package is so critical! i definitely agree that without that type of partnership, one group’s work will often handcuff the other group before they can even get started.
can you explain a little more about how you see the role of PR, and the role of marketing/advertising, in direct mail?
Hadi, thanks for the comment.
With so many companies that specialize in direct mail, it’s easy for your client to go that route for a turnkey project. The DM company would have templates to make its production very efficient. That’s good for your client to keep costs down, but templates mean branding can take a hit.
One of the first things your un-siloed marcomm team should do is create an approval process company-wide, so marcomm knows about anything going into production. The folks that did the latest ad campaign can suggest graphics consistent with all the ads that are out right now, and PR can make sure the messaging made its way into the copy.
We met with a potential client who was very proud of his direct mail pieces, which looked nothing like his website and brochures. It’s our job to rein that in, so that his customers/potential customers can develop brand recognition that starts to stick.
Let me know if you want to talk more!