Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
Earlier this month, Uber – a revolutionary ride-share program connecting riders to drivers through its apps, now servicing over 70 cities – announced dramatic prices cuts in dozen of its U.S. markets, causing quite the stir. The New York market has seen a 20 percent price cut for the company’s UberX services and the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets have seen an even larger price cut for service, amounting up to 25 percent.
With such a dramatic drop in prices, there was obviously going to be some concerns for UberX drivers. Uber, however, calmed these worries with a guarantee that even with these price cuts, drivers would still make a minimum of $1,000 per week, as long as they are online for 40 hours a week and accepted a minimum of 90 percent of trip requests, according to Business Insider.
With these price cuts, Uber is taking a loss on each transaction, according to the New York Times. So why did Uber decide to take this plunge?
By cutting prices, Uber believes they will capture more of the demand because the prices are now cheaper than most taxi and ridesharing services. Therefore, Uber’s revenues will increase, making it possible for Uber to pay drivers $1,000 per week even with a price cut.
Essentially, this all boils down to the elasticity of demand, which is how consumers react to a change in price. For example, a high elasticity of demand means that for a small change in price, a large shift in demand will occur. This is what Uber hopes to do as the company drops its prices and then, in return, be able to capture a larger share of demand.
Despite the economics, Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick, told the New York Times that there is a bigger picture in mind. Kalanick stated, “The whole point of price cuts is to get UberX pricing below the cost of owning a car.”
Uber’s dynamic pricing is more than just staying competitive with taxis and other ridesharing options. It is about reinventing transportation, about redefining how people get from point A to point B. Uber is trying to differentiate itself from taxis by making itself an option for all transportation needs and even replacing the traditional car. Clearly, Uber is onto something here, as we have seen recent shifts transportation trends.
The company is facing a great deal of scrutiny from the taxi industry, though, getting push-back with lawsuits in various cities. Regardless, Uber is not letting that stop its quest for alternative modes of transportation at fair prices.
From a PR standpoint, Uber has an advantage from the long-standing distrust and dislike for taxis, particularly when it comes to pricing. Uber’s price cuts have also given the company easy and positive coverage, as well as positive responses from consumers. However, some question whether this will last for Uber, wondering if this is simply a short-term PR stunt. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how other ridesharing companies react, how the taxi industry rebuts, and whether Uber will be able to keep its current customer base.
Some say the pace of work and productivity moves a bit slower during the summer months. That is definitely not the case in our office, where deadlines know no season, but amid the busyness, the vibe seems a little more relaxed. In the Pacific Northwest, where everyone wants to take advantage of every moment of sun, “work hard, play hard” becomes our daily mantra between June and September.
It takes more than switching from your usual steamed latte to iced coffee to maintain your productivity through the summer. Here are three tips to help you keep your cool and get more done at the office:
- Tackle your most important tasks early in the day. Many productivity experts advise getting your most important, brain-heavy tasks done by late morning or early afternoon. I’m definitely at my sharpest before 4 p.m., but particularly during the summer, the prospect of leaving the office a little early to join friends for an al fresco happy hour or to go kayaking with my Communiqué PR colleagues motivates me to plow through my to-do list and complete high-priority tasks early in the day.
- Plan ahead and around. With more people out of the office for extended periods of time, forecasting your project timelines and staffing becomes even more critical. In our firm, we maintain a vacation calendar in Smartsheet which enables us to see who is out and when so that we can plan staffing on projects accordingly. Knowing when your clients and key business partners will be out of the office is also key to planning ahead and determining the timing for deliverables that require their participation or input.
- Give others more lead time for deadlines. This is akin to tip no. 2, but working in a few extra days for deadlines can save you from stress-induced headaches down the road. If you normally allot three days for feedback on a plan, allot five days. This may mean kicking off projects earlier, but in the end this will keep your schedule on track.
While these tips are relevant anytime of the year, employing these in particular can make the difference between working late chasing down approvals on a proposal or hitting the water for some stand-up paddle boarding before sunset. Our team has also found that taking breaks together outside of the office to grab a scoop of Molly Moon’s ice cream or to take a quick walk around the block to enjoy the sun gives us the extra boost to power through the rest of the day.
Enjoy the rest of the summer!
What are your tips for staying productive and getting work done?
If you have been practicing public relations for longer than a decade, you are more than aware that the industry and how we practice the craft have evolved in response to new digital tools. From email and social media, to branded digital content and SEO tactics, we have been provided with such an abundance of tools that, frankly, it can be challenging to ensure that we keep up with advances in technology. It can be additionally challenging to determine whether a new tool will truly impact the success of our clients’ campaigns.
If you’ve ever wondered how your practice compares to your peers and whether that latest, greatest digital tool you recently read about will be just another passing trend or something truly disruptive, you are not alone. Last month, Vocus released the State of Public Relations 2014 report—based on a national poll of 325 mid- and senior-level marketing and PR professionals—which provides insight and busts myths around how we are using digital media technologies.
Following are the report’s findings around four widely held myths:
Myth 1: Virtually Everyone Has a Content Marketing Strategy
While many PR professionals are creating owned content—market research, blogs, infographics, etc.—for their clients, the Vocus study shows that only 60 percent of respondents (marketing and PR combined) have an actual content marketing strategy in place. Only 53 percent of PR professionals say they use branded content in their campaigns.
Myth 2: PR Practitioners are Adapting to All the New Digital Tactics
These tactics include social media, owned content, native advertising, SEO and more. According to the poll, a significant group of PR professionals do not use these online tools. More specifically:
- 53 percent of PR professionals use content marketing
- 49 percent use search engine marketing
- Only 34 percent of PR practitioners have a mobile engagement strategy
Myth 3: Social Media Pros Don’t Care About ROI
According to the research, social media professionals care more about increased revenue per customer than their marketing and PR colleagues:
- 32 percent of social media professionals care about return-on-investment
- 22 percent of traditional marketers measure ROI
- 21 percent of PR professionals say ROI is a key metric
Myth 4: Blogging is Essential
Of the many distribution channels noted by poll respondents, blogging was considered the least effective, with only 35 percent of respondents giving it the highest rating in terms of successful distribution. Further, the report states that unless a brand has a streamlined blog and can own relevant keywords, its blog posts are less likely to create a big impact for news and information dissemination and brands should therefore focus efforts elsewhere. Following are the distribution channels rated in order of most successful by respondents:
- Website
- Events
- Social Media
- Media Pitching & Relations
- Press Release Distribution Service
- Employee Advocates
- Blog
The State of Public Relations 2014 report concludes that while the PR industry is moving toward “acceptance of digital as part of its fundamental definition,” as a whole, the industry is less converged than expected.
How does your agency or practice compare? Are you optimizing your client’s campaigns through digital tools?
For more detail around the State of Public Relations 2014 findings, download the free report from Vocus. In addition to busting myths, the report shares findings around trends that impact PR including integrating social into media relations, strategic aspirations and tactical concerns, resource challenges and changing distribution models.
In early July my Communiqué PR cohort Jaymelina Esmele and I traveled to Brescia, Italy, to participate in the semi-annual meeting of the PRN, a worldwide network of boutique PR firms. Our firm joined the network at the start of 2014 after working with two member agencies, Proof Communication and Sympra, on joint projects, and we were honored to be invited to join PRN as the exclusive U.S. partner.
Jaymelina and I had a wonderful time meeting with the partner agencies, learning about how execution of PR strategies within the various countries differs and sharing successes. These in-person meetings are important to Communiqué PR, as the partner agencies are an extension of our firm. When our clients are looking for in-country support – whether it is “feet on the ground” to manage and facilitate press meetings, or pitching to local media – we know the partner agencies have shared expectations on the level of counsel, service and support that is provided.
While the world is more accessible than ever before, there are times when it makes sense to invest in in-country PR. Take for instance the results of a survey conducted by Ascendant in 2013 that show that Europe, “… remains from a sales and marketing perspective a region of over 25 separate states, many with their own distinct languages and culture, that require on the ground local language PR experts, and local news and content that will interest a parochial and inward looking media. The net of this is that often several PR teams are needed across Europe, where the cost is higher than for a single regional agency as in the US, and the cultural interface needed is more prosaic than just an English language format.”
The PRN meeting and ongoing conversations with our international colleagues confirm that the observations from the Ascendant survey are accurate. For instance, in discussions with our PRN partners we found:
- Press conferences are still fairly common in France, while not so in other countries
- There remains skepticism across Europe about the value of social media
- Variation around the world with the acceptability and etiquette in paying travel expenses for reporters, and
- Differences by country in what is considered newsworthy.
Because of each country’s subtle and not so subtle business and cultural nuances, engaging an in-country agency can be the key to the success of a multi-national PR campaign. Ultimately, the members of PRN are united in the importance of taking a strategic approach to PR and that it is important to have a long-term view when considering PR activities. For our clients, that means when they are ready to extend their PR activities beyond the U.S., they can be confident that PRN agencies will extend their strategies in-country with the same quality and professionalism they have come to expect with Communiqué PR.
Below are some additional articles about the differences in PR when working internationally:
Valant Medical Solutions recently enlisted our help to assist with an announcement of $11 million in private equity investment. Valant is a leading provider of cloud-based, electronic health records (EHR) and e-billing software for behavioral health practices. This funding will enable Vālant to fund future growth in the behavioral health market segment and to broaden its EHR and e-billing suite capabilities for public behavioral health practices.
“This investment validates our vision of transforming the quality of behavioral health services through clinician-focused software tools,” said David Lischner, M.D., CEO and founder of Vālant. “As we look toward future growth, this additional funding better positions Vālant to help behavioral health practitioners objectively evaluate the results of their treatments with the goal of providing a higher quality-of-care for its patients.”
We have truly enjoyed working with Vālant thus far and are very excited about the coverage they received. Below we have included links to the articles highlighting details about the significance of this funding.
