TMCA

Success breeds success…and a heap of ad equivalency dollars.

This locution has never been more appropriate than in the world of public relations. In this blog post, I’d like to share a recent example where the virtuous cycle played out and Con-way wound up with the kind of air time and public accolades that money can’t buy.

While many companies shy away from PR or it’s slightly smaller counterpart, media relations, I content that those companies who do, will be left behind. In studies from universities and in books from marketing thought leaders, media relations is widely believed to be at least as effective as advertising.

There are two fundamental differences. First, you have less control over your message in the media relations world. While you can issue press releases until the cows come home, you’re going to have to give up some control and place a subject matter expert on the phone in an open-ended question and answer session with the media if you really want to get ink. And, while there are rare occasions when editors will misquote, more often than not, the preponderance of the blame is due to a lack of coaching and preparation.

Drive the Vote

 OK, so maybe it’s a shameless rip-off of MTV, but those are the copywriting skills of a Truck Marketer.  As the end to an brutally fascinating primary and Presidential election campaign draw to a close next week, I encourage all TMCA members to get out and vote. 

This one really maters.  In years past, some including me would have argued that one vote would not have mattered.  Or, that the outcome of the election would not have made a difference, because the lobbyists or the filibusterers would have offset the apathy or the poor voting decisions.  Not this year.

The next President will come into an economic headwind  and a global anti-American sentiment that most of us have never experienced (OK well maybe Denny Grim has been around long enough to remember it, but he doesn’t read this blog anyway).  This president will directly affect the legislation on critical initiatives that will directly impact the viability of the freight economy and our livelihoods. 

Above Average!

As many of you many know, each year the renowned executive search firm, SpencerStuart studies the tenure of CMO’s.  In the most recent published study the average tenure has improved and climbed to a whopping 26.3 months.  This past week, I am pleased to report that I am now officially, above average.  While many would debate this point with me, I am limiting my self-assessment to the math of my tenure.

In this posting, I’d like to discuss two items; what causes the short tenure and what can be done about it.

Member Barb Wirth From Houston: "We Survived!"

Thank you so much for your concern about our safety during Hurricane Ike. Although this event blanketed the upper Texas Gulf coast with stories of loss and tragedy, it is also an event that had several little miracles. 

Our home, which was in the mandatory evacuation zone, was supposed to have been obliterated by the forecasted 22 – 27’ storm surge. Miraculously, the storm surge did not exceed 15’ which spared at least 50,000 homes from the same fate suffered by our neighbors in Galveston and Boliver Peninsula.

Going green when you burn millions of gallons of diesel every day

As we head toward the elections with oil still well north of $100 per barrel, sustainability remains a hot topic.  Our industry is faced with an unfortunate reality.  That reality is that our number one cost is to buy the thing that the public has come to hate; fuel.  We are between a rock and a hard place in that no one has produced a viable technology to diesel fuel and yet freight has to move. 

Sustainability is timely, it’s topical, it will get you ink in our favorite trade and national media, but that’s not why we should all do it.  We should do it, because environmental sustainability equates to business sustainability.  So, while we do not yet have a solution that will produce a viable alternative to burning millions of gallons each day, we all have a solid array of initiatives that make business sense.  They cut our costs and they make us better neighbors, better employers and better suppliers. 

Finding brand affinity in the strangest places

Brands are the sum of all the promises a company makes. That’s one of a thousand or more definitions that I have seen and used throughout my career. It’s concise, it’s simple, and it’s one of my favorite definitions. Defining every possible interaction with a brand is a lot harder and predicting which of those interactions creates affinity for a brand is nearly impossible. But if it was easy, they wouldn’t call it work.

In this posting, I’d like to cite one of the most visceral brand interactions of late and the affinity that it created for me. Bear with me on this one, it will be worth it…

Recession-proof yourself and your company

[Adapted from On The Move, Edition 1, 2008]

I’m certain that most of us are concerned about the economy and what it will mean to our business. The transportation economy relies on the global economy and vice versa.

But closer to home, we rely on the transportation economy to put food on our tables and roofs over our heads. So how do you make yourself and your company recession-proof?  In uncertain times like we now face, marketers will face increasing scrutiny over their budgets and increasing accountability over their return on marketing’s investment. This level of accountability may feel a bit invasive at first, but undoubtedly, it will help us all become better marketers and, in turn, better stewards of our company’s resources.

Marketing and Fuel Prices

In the last few weeks, I’ve had some time to reflect on Jevic going out of business.  It’s unfortunate and saddening when a respected competitor exits the industry. Jevic surely had good people, good equipment and good systems.  So what caused their demise?