Your PR Architect

Now and then, I have the privilege of leveraging the craft of public relations to do some real-world good. In a few weeks, that opportunity comes around again with our "PR Apprentice" competition -- where we'll ask college students to dive in to the deep end of the PR pool. It's a sink or swim event. This year's program (Oct. 2-3) involves members of the PRSA chapter in Rochester, NY and local media representatives serving as coaches and judges of teams from several colleges and universities in Western New York. Over a 36-hour period, the teams of students will strategize and pitch their best plans to promote a dual-language awareness campaign for Ibero American Action League's Early Childhood Center . View a video and full details on PRSA Rochester's website. Engaging undergraduates in this competition gives them both exposure to a real-world PR challenge, and helps them demonstrate their skills to agency, not-for-profit, and corporate practiti

Kmart talks "asset light" and "member-centric" while removing services I stopped in at Kmart to buy a shirt. And I discovered  they'd removed the walk-up electronic price scanners that helped shoppers verify item prices and discounts. I now needed to wander the floor, hoping to uncover an employee with a pricing gun. Good luck with finding floor personnel at any Kmart. Really? At a time when retailers should be doing everything to build engagement with consumers, Kmart is removing most of its ways to deliver value to customers. Seems counter-intuitive to a retailer that touts a "Shop Your Way" connection with customers.  No store generates more paper at the register than Kmart. (c) DKassnoff At the checkout, the cashier announced to a fellow clerk, "I'm clocking out at five," before handing me a wad of auto-printed coupons and promotions. Five slips of junk for products I'd never buy. If there's a PR strateg

Two companies recently took steps to change how they approach the female demographic. Target took a step forward. BIC took a step backward. Target announced it would remove in-store signs that categorize products as gender-specific. Good move; it should be up to the parents and their kids to determine which toys sons and daughters prefer. While a minor issue -- no one had filed a lawsuit over the "girls' building sets" signs -- it's a simple change that shows the big retailer's listening to its customers. The company earned positive media coverage for it. BIC's faux pas was a hastily launched and withdrawn online ad tied to Women's Day in South Africa. You can read about it here.  Bad form, BIC. Objectifying women and telling them to "think like a man" insults every woman who's ever had her suggestions batted down by a lame-brained male executive.  BIC, you'll recall, launched a line of pink and purple "BIC for Her

PR.com houses a wealth of executive-written news releases. If you're a CEO with a do-it-yourself gene, you'll find plenty of friends here. Their writing's not brilliant, but someone at PR.com appears to edit them. The weakest element of the writing? Most rely on passive voice, or over-dependence on “to be” verb phrases. Unless you're auditioning for Hamlet, I'd excise any use of the "to be" verb phrase. A simple example: By Stephan Czuratis (Jazz-face) (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons Passive Voice:  “It was announced today that a new ergonomic drum stick is being launched by Chicken Percussion, Inc.” Active Voice:  “Chicken Percussion today launched a new line of ergonomic drum sticks.” A reliance on weak to-be verbs kills any energy in your news story. “It was announced…” and “is being launched” sounds as if everything’s after-the-fact. Remember, news releases should deliver  news – and in today’s 24/7 news cycle, immediacy (or conveying

I was feeling a little blue the other day. So I looked online for something to amuse me. A news release with poor prose usually brings a smile to my face. I didn't need to look far. At MyPRGenie.com, I found sentences like these: "The advancement in science and technology has escalated the living standard of the people to far greater heights."  "Thousands of customers have already made it the integral part of their life and many more are on the verge of getting it soon." "Why is the reason that this USB Adjust Angle has received such a substantial response within a short period of time? Well, many people still wonder; however, the users have already got the answers." These aren't the observations of a drunken platinum futures salesperson in Des Moines. They are all direct excerpts from a news release for a "Conveniently Adjustable Mini USB Adjust Angle for Night Book Reading." The product is a run-of-the-mill USB-powered lamp