09/12

I was thinking about Sept. 11, however, and it struck me that major events create their own publics and their own relationships among persons affected.  Sept. 11 already has rituals and processes for remembrance.  It is no different than other memorials of great tragedies. At the battlefield in Gettysburg, PA there are monuments built by Northern soldiers everywhere along the line where the Union held against the Confederates -- the high water mark of the South in its effort to secede.  The Vietnam memorial witnesses ongoing emotion.  Gray-haired veterans weep at the black granite gash set into the earth in Washington, D.C.  So too cemeteries in France from World War I and beaches in Normandy from World War II.  And there is the atom bomb memorial in Hiroshima -- the last remains of the devastation there. 

Sept. 11 added to a long list of publics changed for life by tragedy.  For those of us who did not suffer on Sept. 11, we cannot appreciate the meaning of the site nor can we relate to those who do.  My neighbor lost his brother that day, but I cannot understand what he has endured these past two years -- not to mention what he has had to do to care for his brother's family. 

Memorials are for those who have suffered and only incidentally for those who escaped pain.  We can participate in ceremony and empathize, but we cannot know the terror of office workers fleeing a filthy gray cloud boiling down streets and engulfing all. 

Many participants left personal remembrances yesterday.  These will disappear in time with the wind and rain.  The permanent memorial will remind generations to come of what happened.  Tourists of the future will stroll exhibits and watch films but never understand except through the lens of history.   Meanwhile, those who survived will grow, age and die and the terror of those hours will pass as it does for all life-altering experiences. 

We who watch as outsiders should never criticize those who suffered.  We could have been there.  It was our luck we weren't.
 

09/11

• Warner music chairman Roger Ames warned the RIAA of the potential PR disaster in store for the association and insisted on providing pirates with an alternative and legal downloading site before the RIAA sued to stop illegal downloading.
• Ames insistence forced the other four companies to set aside differences and to set up two "label-owned online services that offered songs from all five companies."
• The attorneys for the RIAA had thought about suing individuals for years but had rejected the idea because they too were aware of a possible public relations disaster.
• The RIAA went ahead with the lawsuits because it felt it had to do so.  The labels were losing so much money to piracy that they felt they had no choice, but they knew they were in for a PR bashing.

This is a substantially different story than the one that I read in news reports, and it raises a question.  Why did legal action fail so badly?  I think the answer to that was that it was never destined to work as a customer-coddling PR campaign.  Niceness was put aside for the blunt ax of the law.  They wanted 12-year-old girls to get served because that was the only way they could wake up parents and others to what was going on in their own homes.  So far, the campaign appears to have done done that.

Do  I agree with what the RIAA did?  No.  I still think it was a bad idea handled badly.  Cease-and-desist letters could have done the trick just as well with a public campaign pointing out that legal downloading services with inexpensive songs are available.  The lawsuits should have been a last resort after a progressive pressure campaign to get the message through to teenagers and their parents.  That way the public would have understood that the RIAA had tried everything and suing was indeed the last resort.

The affair is still a black eye for the RIAA, but the RIAA wears it proudly for the world to see.  Now, it is time for the five labels to get about the business of changing the economics of their business and of finding a way to live with the Web and Web-savvy customers.
 

09/10

Right next to this announcement was news of the Recording Industry Association of America, (RIAA), suing a 12-year-old girl for downloading music over the Internet.   The RIAA filed hundreds of lawsuits against Internet downloaders this week and created a PR black eye for itself.

The worst part of the RIAA's PR stupidity is that Apple has shown the industry the way to go but the industry doesn't like the path.  Apple sells tunes for a flat 99 cents each and one can record the tune on an unlimited number of personal CDs as well as download the song on up to three computers.  Apple is not selling CDs but songs, and the songs are cheap  -- far less expensive than even the newly reduced $10 price for CDs.

Why doesn't the industry travel the Apple route?  I think because the RIAA knows its economics will change forever when it sells songs again instead of albums.

To make matters worse for the RIAA, on Monday,  Real Networks reported that its Real Rhapsody music download service had streamed an average of 500,000 songs a day during August.  A vice president of the firm said the numbers are proof that "legal music services have unquestionably caught the ears of music fans." 

But the RIAA slogs on with  lawsuits and fights economic and technological forces bearing inexorably down upon it.    The association reminds me of a Confederate soldier who knew his cause was doomed but fought on for the ideal.  "The South shall rise again some day."  The RIAA is saying that CDs will surely come back if it can only dam the sea and stop the earth from  turning. 

There is a point when causes are lost and good PR recognizes that.  The RIAA's cause is finished, and it should change.  Recording companies will not earn as much because single songs do not reap as much revenue as albums.  Nor will recording artists earn as much.  The industry and musicians are returning to the days of the 45 rpm when you had two sides to a record.  However, today they will have one side to the record.   That one side needs to be a hit, and they can't afford to pour unlimited amounts of production money into the track if it is to pay off.  

Of course, no one in the RIAA likes this idea.  It would rather sue and destroy the reputation of the industry.  Besides, it feels so good serving papers on 12-year-old girls.
 

09/09

This year, we found ourselves in trouble and our revenues down.  No one knows how bad it is yet, but it isn't good.  It is partially due to the fact that we haven't explained ourselves well to the community.  It is also due to a lousy economy, which has affected everyone.  The community has questions, but we haven't answered them.  I have volunteered to help but efforts have come to nothing.  I don't know if the board is unable to address marketing and PR or if the task is too great and paralyzes anyone who considers it.  However, everyone on the board has multiple jobs.  PR and marketing are tasks on top of what they are doing.  There is a breaking point.

I was happy last night when the board realized it has information to communicate in documents it has been preparing all along.  All it needs to do is to get these documents before the community.  That is a matter of summarizing material and getting it out.  Two of us volunteered to do that, and it looks as if -- at long last -- we might be making a start on a proper PR program.  However, I  am too cynical to believe it will come to pass until I see the first two or three newsletters printed on time and distributed. 

The board seems to have made another break last night as well.  It has long known that it needs to track those who have benefited  from  its services and education, but it has never done so because it could never get a database started.  Last year, we discussed building such a database, but it wasn't done.  I got the job last night because I have built a number of databases in Microsoft Access.  (They are easy to do.)  If we can get the database built and populated, that will be a  major breakthrough. 

It sure would be nice to see these two steps happen this year.  I'm on the board for three years, so if it isn't done this year, my chances of getting it done next year are slim.

O, one other point...  Never propose an idea on a not-for-profit board unless you are prepared to carry it out yourself.
 

09/08

I think the problem with hammering like we do, however, is that we don't know when we have made progress so we end by annoying audiences we are trying to influence.   There is finesse in communications and jackhammering.  For example, if you let the hammer point sink in too far, you can't get it out again.  I did that a couple of times with concrete that I was breaking.  Once, I thought I had stuck the tool for good because I lacked the feel for when to stop

Knowing when to stop is a matter of feel in communications too.  We can test for message awareness.  But awareness is not the same as transmitting a message that leads to action.  A CEO knows  that communication is ultimately action and not just nodding acquaintance with the message the CEO is sending.  PR is no different.  We want target audiences to think and act differently as a result of what we have communicated.   That takes jackhammering, but with finesse so people listen ultimately and not turn off.

That is why operationally oriented CEOs wander the floors of plants and retail stores.  They want to see for themselves whether their messages are resulting in desired behavior.  If not, they apply more communication and more persuasion -- e.g., tying one's compensation to results.  A bigger jackhammer.

Fortunately, I got the job done yesterday in a short time then lugged the concrete and dirt out of the location I am working in.  I learned that one needs to do this often or muscles atrophy.  I'll be moving gingerly today.