JCOM 2300: A Crash Course in Painfully bad PR

I won't lie, my first few posts have been painful to complete. I didn't end up typing and publishing much, most of my time was spent staring at the computer screen with not much going on upstairs.

Good News, I found something to write about, Carlos Boozer. The Utah Jazz forward defines bad PR, every week without fail I can get onto the Internet do a search and find something he has said that has ticked somebody off. If excelling on the court is something that comes easily to Boozer than inserting foot in mouth comments is a trait that he was inherently born with. People are fairly understanding when you let something slip because you're having a bad day, week, or even month. You get into the years and years of saying self-centered things and you begin to run out of fans. 

In July 2004 Boozer signed a 68 million dollar contract with the Jazz. The life changing contract didn't come without controversy. Before signing with the Jazz Boozer played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had terminated the last year of his contract on the impression that Boozer would sign a long term deal with the Cavs in a price range they could afford. Upon release from his contract Boozer signed a big deal with the Jazz that the Cavs couldn't match. Boozer instantly became a villain in Cleveland earning the reputation of "money chaser". Obviously there was a miscommunication of some sort with Booze and the Cavs, a mistake. He  could of been having a bad day, so I forgave him. 

The "mistakes" continued when arriving in Utah. During the next five seasons Boozer missed about a third of Utah's games due to injury. When it comes to injuries obviously you don't have a lot of control over it. My problem was never with Boozer being hurt it was the way that he handled being injured. When one of your stars gets injured you want him back as soon as possible. Boozer seemed to take his time rehabbing, opted not to travel with the team on road trips, and spent most of his time at his homes in L.A. or Miami to recover. The Jazz play in Utah! Shouldn't he be with his team supporting them in whatever way he can? He oozed this horrible vibe of its all about me. 

In Dec 2008 while injured and traveling with the Jazz (a miracle) Boozer told an ESPN reporter that he would opt out of the final year of his contract with the Jazz his reasoning, "No matter what I'm going to get a raise regardless," Boozer said this after missing the previous 15 games with a knee injury. Most of us don't have the luxury of seeking a raise after missing a third of our work days, after that kind of performance we would be lucky to even have a job. This guy was demanding a raise from the 12.7 million . All I have to say about that is WOW, but it could have been a bad week or month I'll cut him some slack. 

Opting out didn't quite work out for the big guy in the end. After nobody wanted to pay him more than 12.7 mil for his services Boozer opted to stay with the Jazz for his final season. After opting in Boozer immediately began shopping himself around the league as a great trade option. Boozer held radio interviews with Miami and Chicago sports stations in which he announced that the Jazz had expressed a desire to trade him and both of those towns would be his top destinations. Boozer mentioned a conversation with Jazz owner, Greg Miller in which Miller indicated that Boozer was not in the team's long term plans. Miller denies ever having this conversation with Boozer. Among other things, Boozer cited Miami as a top destination because there is no state income tax in Florida, he wouldn't have to pay taxes on his wimpy salary 12.7 million! To pour a little salt into the wound Boozer mentioned that it was tough economic times for everyone and not paying income tax would greatly benefit him. 

Like I said earlier this guy doesn't have to try to say selfish slimy things they just flow out of him naturally. His fairy tale story with Utah isn't over yet. Boozer didn't get traded this summer and is back with the Jazz. On media day when asked about all the dumb things he said Boozer said simply, "Sometimes you put your foot in your mouth." 

And sometimes things are understated a little bit.

Sources: sltrib.com/jazz, ESPN.com 

JCOM 2300 Siemens gets into position

Siemens has recently launched its largest US marketing campaign in history. The German company hopes to position itself where they will be asked to answer some of the nation's biggest problems (health care reform, infrastructure, energy). 

The campaign is simply titled "answers" and is in many ways a continuation of a global campaign launched in 2007. Siemens PR rep Bill Stabile noted that competition has heated up as the recession has hit with competitors aggressively positioning themselves for some BIG TIME contracts that will come from the US hot topic problems. 

Whoever gets the primary responsibility to transfer medical records to an electronic database is going to make billions and billions of dollars. Watching GE, IBM and Siemens as well as others go after these contracts should be fun. Siemens has made a good decision putting emphasis on the US. The economy is down, but that has caused business leaders and politicians to focus on what needs to be fixed, If Siemens can effectively build a spread solid reputation they might be the lucky souls that get asked to fix the problems. 

Source: PR Week prweekus.com

JCOM 2300 Yahoo's new strategy

This week Yahoo! unveiled their new ad campaign. The campaign is essentially a brand campaign which hopes to build Yahoo's reputation with its customers as being user friendly. Taglines like "the Internet is under new management, YOURS," and "It's Y!ou," highlight Yahoo's aim to build credibility with new and future customers. 

The total cost of the brand campaign will be 100 million dollars and it will last approximately 15 months. There are critics of the campaign, which I agree with. Why would you spend so much money trying to get your brand name recognized when you are already the third most frequented website in the world? People know about Yahoo, the reason that people don't use it deals with how user friendly the features are. If Yahoo spent 100 million developing new features and improving their current content then I would be interested in checking their website out. If you have the best product you will naturally attract and keep customers. If you produce a good product, especially when you are one of the biggest names on the Internet word will get around. 

There is one other thing that makes me skeptical of Yahoo's new campaign, timing. Yahoo just hired a new CEO and reported its first loses in a quarterly report since 2002. In a competitive online marketplace Yahoo has struggled to stay ahead of the pack. This campaign looks like a re engineering effort to me. In order to stay in the mix they are looking to change their image, often times plans like this are too late. Companies that have surged ahead like Google will continue to innovate and grow, and the gap between them and Yahoo might follow suit. Yahoo's focus shouldn't be on brand recognition it should be on innovation. 

Source: PR week,  www.prweekus.com 

JCOM 2160 Reading Assignment Two

Google not Protected

Whenever a person logs onto a search engine and performs a search that information is recorded into a giant data base. Search engine companies like Google opt to keep this data rather than delete because its inexpensive to store, and it helps them refine and improve searches.
Because the Telecommunications Act that was created to protect individual citizens privacy is extremely dated(1986), things like search engines are not protected as private material giving attorneys and the government the right to request this information when litigating a  law case.
I don't like it. Not one bit. You could argue that when search history data is used to solve criminal or civil cases that it is useful and promotes the discovery of the truth, but we have a right to privacy, which is essential and needs to be protected. Almost everything we, say or do is and tracked. We should have a right to our own lives free from constant monitoring. When someone commits a crime they leave a trail in many different ways. If you could use search engine history as a way to incriminate you would probably be able to find other evidence that can serve the same purpose. If you need search history as your cornerstone of evidence you don't have a very good case.

Tug of War& Your Personal Brand

Certain companies that dominate the use of bandwidth on Internet networks(Google, Apple, Yahoo, etc) want network neutrality to be enforced. This would mean that all Internet sites would have equal access to bandwidth without having to pay additional cost for more use.

I see both sides of the argument on this one. I understand that the providers like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon need to make money. If a handful of sites are using the majority of available bandwidth it makes sense that they would have to pay more. On the other side of that argument if you have to pay additional costs based on use only the big time players would be able to afford to be innovative and create new technology. We would also lose competition which drives down prices for consumers and keeps companies honest. 

When it comes to making your personal mark there is one point in the article agree that I really liked. Create a blog and follow and write about something you are particularly interested in. By following a certain field closely then adding your opinion you can come to be known as an expert in that field. That reputation could open many doors including jobs, and other valuable opportunities. 

JCOM 2300: Airborne Mobile and NFL extend contract

When it comes to PR news I definitely have my interests and favorites. Eventually I would like to be involved in sports management in some capacity so most of my posts will be on PR events and moves in the sports world. 

Airborne Mobile announced today that the contract they signed with the NFL(National Football League) has been extended for one more year. Airborne Mobile provides all the personal touches for cell phones ex: ringtones, wallpaper, messaging features. Airborne's features allows NFL fans to express big team spirit on the small screen. 

I noticed a few PR techniques in this release that I wanted to point out. Airborne really stressed that all of their products and also their philosophy  are extremely innovative. That is a big trend in business today. Companies are stressing innovation and creativity and the leaders in this field companies like Apple, GE, and Google are admired for their performance. Airborne showed that they would like that same reputation by using words like fresh, innovative, and pioneer to describe itself. A second technique I noticed was the use of positive quotes from both sides of the party. Airborne used a quote from their President and CMO as well as a quote from the NFL's vice president of media strategy and development. Both quotes expressed enthusiasm for the new contract and the opportunity to work together. This gives you that win-win feel. The contract extension is a one year deal. Airborne's other clients include Food Network(TM), Mark Ecko Enterprises(TM), and Family Guy(TM).

Source: prnewswire.com, Airborne Mobile: airbornemobile.com 

JCOM 2160 Reading One: Netiquette and E-mail

The two articles that I was assigned to read dealt with what is acceptable behavior when using email or communicating in general online. There of course were some common sense rules like use proper spelling and grammar, but there were a few rules that I thought were very useful.

When looking at the etiquette for email I found a something I could personally work on. When you have sent several messages back and forth to a person it is important to not delete the message thread. I usually click the reply button then delete the previous text and type my response. I figure that it is easier for a person to read when there isn't a bunch of additional text in the way. Wrong, some people get so busy with other things that they often forget many of the details of an email conversation. Message threads act as a refresher reminding people what has been said and in what context it was said in. Removing the thread can be confusing a lot of time can be wasted sending messages back and forth asking for clarifcation. That is something I can incorporate into my emails, you learn something new everyday.

There are also general rules for conducting yourself in cyberspace. One of which is especially frustrating to me. The first and most basic rule of cyberspace etiquette is: Remember the Human. I read the newspaper everyday online and I have to tell you by the time I sign off I'm pretty ticked. Online newspapers allow anyone to post a comment on an article they have read. Practically everyone that posts a comment is angry and uses the comment section as a way to either attack the journalist, or attack someone else that has made a comment that they don't agree with. Before you publish anything use this rule to guide what you write, would I say this to this person's face? Because we only see a computer screen when we communicate in cyberspace it is very easy to forget that we are speaking to real people. They have feelings, like we all do, and they can be hurt by saying something shallow and cheap. It is not impressive to insult people while hiding behind a screen name. Basically all other netiquette rules stem from the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would want to be treated. A little respect goes a long way.