Let me just start by saying, this is the style and type of marketing that I love.

Jiffy Lube International recently launched into their second year of their first nationwide cause-marketing campaign ever.  As  “Maintenance Partners for Life” they first teamed up in 2008 with the American Heart Association to help educate people on smart preventative medicine and maintenance.

Preventative medicine keeps hearts a healthy, preventative maintenance keeps a car healthy – and safe!

They set financial goals, time lines, picked out dates for events…and to execute the campaign in it’s first year Jiffy Lube teamed up with a communications firm (Cone, Inc. based out of B oston and known for their strategic branding) and did what you should do an any successful marketing campaign. They set some objectives.

1. Bolster Jiffy Lube’s reach to female customers, and attract new customer.

2. Enhance Jiffy Lube’s reputation as a good corporate citizen.

3. Build pride in the Jiffy Lube brand among franchisees.

4. Make a significant impact in the fight against heart disease in the local communities where Jiffy Lube operates.

What I like about this campaign is the immediately recognized their competition.

A. The amount of competition for the awareness of the media.

B. the American Heart Assoc. does a big national “Wear Red” day in February and they couldn’t compete with this event (especially since they had a similar time frame).

The solution was the steer away from national attention to the marketing campaign and be successful on a local level in each market that the plan was implemented.  This means extra special attention must be paid to the specific trends, styles, media atmosphere etc of each individual local Jiffy Lube market. (Jiffy Lube has 2,200 server centers where local media was targeted.) Not a small task. To achieve this the professionals at Cone Inc and Jiffy Lube had the following three tasks, which I’ve broken down for you.

1.  ACTIVATE – Arm franchisees in local markets with easy-to-use tools to activate to  campaign in their communities.

2. ENGAGE - Leverage the Web to spread the word and engage consumers; and.

3. CREDIBILITY – Use AHA’s platform and content to build credibility.

They used these tactics to jump start local awareness and catered each media/activation kit (handed out to each local service center) to help build excitement in each individual community. The team then successfully integrated the program’s key elements into literally all of Jiffy Lube’s marketing communications channels. This means the program was seen on their website in special webpages, an additional call to action on the Jiffy Lube website that encouraged customers to come and give there cars a “health check” at local service centers, an audio news release featuring a spokesperson for the AHA and Go Red Campaign,and special events including awareness days and luncheons.  Guess what?? They also used social media. Facebook, and hosted a personal blog through ning.com

The take away:based on their success here are some best practices for effective cause marketing campaigns that PR News gathered from Jiffy Lube’s great example.

-Create a traffic-driving component as part of your campaign.

-Make it easy to active the campaign locally.

-Support the campaign with media outreach.

-Employees are your most important ambassadors so get them excited (and prepare them!)

-Measure the campaign against the objectives you set out to achieve.

All in all I’d say this is a great of a nationwide cause-marketing campaign that a lot can be learned and taken away from. Good job Jiffy Lube.

“If you’re going to invest in a campaign like this, you have to know if it’s working!” – Marc Berlinger (account director at Cone Inc.)

1. Enhance yourself and think productively- If you are constantly considering post ideas while your working away at work, or considering new ideas for a project outside of work, you might stretch your productive thoughts of the day into something that can actually have take away value.  Posting in a way that seeks to encourage and/or teach other people will also stretch your thought process. Always tryign to learn for yourself and teach others sharpens your mind and keeps your intelligence active.  As much as I learn every time I dive into a new idea for a post, or a step by step process I’m wanting to learn more about… I walk away in small but real ways a more experienced and diverse person. There is huge value in that.

2. Teach yourself and learn something – My pretty knowledgeable older brother once told me that the best way to learn something is to create something yourself. Put together an article or a step by step list of how to accomplish something. Once you’ve done some research and put something together you will realize you’ve taught yourself. Blogging is extremely effective for this, and in the process others can learn from your discoveries.

Example? Why is it good to TWEET and MEET? Well.. put together a slide show on the value of connecting w/ your twitter friends, throw in some statistics you find, talk to some people who’ve had  a good experience, and by the end of the slide show, you just might have a compelling argument, and understand the value a little better yourself.

3. Become a better writer – Expand your skill set. Are you a good writer? Would you like to be? The only way to get better, and continue to expand on the comfort level of your writing is to do it more often. Sitting down w/ a blog to lay out your productive thoughts of the day or week is an extremely beneficial exercise and doing this may help you become a better writer for things you need to do at work.

4. Develop your thoughts - Did you ever have a great idea or experience a spark of interest in something, and then forget all about it? A professional blog is a place to expand on that spark rather than forgetting it.

5. Create some credibility- If you’re someone who seeks to be involved in the social media realm, someone who claims to think creatively, or someone who says they have a strong work ethic.. prove those things here (on your blog) and create some credibility for yourself. This is an area where you can push the envelope, reveal your willingness to consider, learn and explore different ideas and discuss current trends in your profession. Whether that means a political discussion, a break down how-to of a real estate agents in today’s economy, discussing the current market conditions and how different businesses are effected, sharing your struggles and frustrations with what the radio advertising industry has become, or exploring ways that new media can effect the PR industry and therefore various clients — write about it, think about it, explore it, and prove that you’re the employee that’s actively thinking about what’s next.  Become credible.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.” – This is a pretty straightforward and accurate description, but let’s break it down a little more…

A successful brand will seek to accomplish the following:

• Deliver their message clearly
• Confirm credibility
• Connect target prospects emotionally
• Motivate the buyer
• Create and maintain user loyalty

Branding is an essential component of Marketing Communications. You can’t (successfully) market anything with out a clear brand vision for your company or product. The AMA also says that a brand is the sum total of  a consumer/client/consumer’s experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.  This is my personal favorite way to explain a brand. Your complete experience with a product and/or company is what that brand is to you.

If you went to an In N Out Burger and the guy threw your animal style double double at you across the counter then you’re probably not going to have the same perception of the In N Out brand – that most people have. That’s just the way it is. It’s all about experiences and perception. The job of a good brand manager is to have the majority of consumers who deal w/ your company and/or product have a consistently positive experience and perception.

Today, it is important to remember that the world of social media – where transparency is become a key to this branding component of PR and Marketing – we HAVE to do this! We have to be transparent, authentic, and real with our consumers. This means that while yes -  it is important to influence consumers and present your brand in a certain light, it’s just as important today to make sure that brand you are presenting is a genuine and authentic one, and you aren’t just “putting on a front” for your company or product that will fall apart if a consumer sees past the surface. It’s harder than you would imagine to convince the corporate world that it is worthwhile to let a little bit of criticism or complaints show – for the sake of being an authentic company or brand that seeks to become more and more successful through improvement and working on weaknesses.

When consumers can see you’ve let them see the bad with the good – they know your honest – and when they know your honest, it is then they can begin to trust you – and you can start to build a solid brand from their trust, confidence and respect.

To see the difference between advertising and public relations it’s important to understand that one thing that advertising doesn’t deliver as well as PR is consumer trust. I think that branding is a huge part of this, and I’ll talk more later about how branding is important to create consumer confident in your company/brand/service….

For now, back to advertising – in a recent PR newsletter I read that TNS (a leading marketing information group) surveyed 1,000 US households on the subject of consumer trust late last year.  In that survey, only 35% showed any level of trust at all in advertising. Also, in a Nielsen Online Global Consumer survey, when asked what sort of advertising they trust more, 78% said they trust customer referrals over any type of advertising.

That is exactly what PR aims to deliver: trust, credibility and word of mouth promotion. The third-party endorsement that comes with appearing as a guest on TV show or the morning news, or to have a story written about you in newspapers and magazines, or even your words and advice quoted is absolutely priceless.  Somethings you can’t put a price tag on. This is what can be achieved with PR and at about one-half to one-fifth of the price of an advertising campaign.

This backs up my personal belief that public relations professionals should focus on branding, positioning and placement as a means for communication with your publics and audience, rather than pushing and selling (advertising).  Depending on what kind of PR environment you work  in – I think in some cases in can be easy to be pushed in with marketing/advertising/media relations. And while there is always an overlap to some extent… it’s important to decipher, and recognize the differences – in results, in effectiveness, in value and level of results etc.  And for PR pro’s it’s important to realize also – what it is that you are doing, what category it falls under, what effect you are having with it, and what you need to learn more about!

Next post will focus on branding, and where that fits into the PR spectrum…

I decided to take a minute to highlight my latest endeavor, joining the team at SocialDreamium. SocialDreamium is a privately-held Milwaukee-based company committed to building strong web-based communities centered around a companies products and services.  Started in October of last year by my brother Ryan Graves, and quickly expanding. I jumped on board a little over a month ago to help author the blog, (Get Audience, Get Going, where you will often see my posts from this site as well), assist with client writing (as we start to build a client base), and editorial assistance to what eventually will be a SocialDreamium book entitled,”The Dream in Action”. (I’ll keep you posted!)

At SocialDreamium, we believe in the power of the collective social web. It’s what we love and have a passion for, and want to help others understand.. and then utilize for their brand.  We also love people and we see the internet as a way to meet more people and create value for these businesses. We work to create two way relationships and conversation between our clients and their customers.  I hav posted before about online communities, and what that means. SocialDreamium dives into this concept and works to first create and then managing these communities. It is so much about listening and contributing to the networks that exist, and we help our companies to do this. We also help companies to develop a successful blog for their brand and build a social web presence that they can stand on.  Through these outlets we allow our clients to grow a relationship with their customers.  We also now have a larger team that allows us to build web based software to help you manage your community.  Currently, the SocialDreamium team is made up of Ryan (in Milwaukee), David Abrahams and Dien Nguyen in Sydney, Australia and myself in San Diego. We’re still growing and looking for great writers and developers to join our ranks…(e-mail taylor@socialdreamium.com)

SocialDreamium currently has a working relationship with SOHO Magazine (out of Milwauke), and our clientel includes of SOHObiztube.com and budgetpulse.com — check ‘em out! It’s all very exciting I know… just wanted to keep you all in the know, and I will keep you posted as this exciting new start up gains speed!

If public relations can save the day by setting up a strong brand image, a big part of this will mean building an online community – which is a great way to converse with your customers.  It all depends on what you want you’re brand to say. Think about it this way if you could lift your logo and have invisible tag-lines/messages underneath what would they be? What do you want your brands image to communicate to the customer who may be hesitant to buy/trust/get on board? Here are some important underlying themes that I believe brands should adopt (right now especially) in order to be successful with their customers in this economy:

- Your brand should care about the customers.
- Your brand should reach out to them online through your network/community.
- Your brand should take the time to listen to it’s customers/users and hear what suggestions and feedback they might have. USE Twitter, Facebook, forums, whatever just GET INTERACTIVE (they are plenty of outlets).

Brand perception is the key to success.  It’s all about whether or not the customer can see value in your product.  Your job is to see that they do see value and can trust you/your brand.  What extra steps do you think can be made to encourage the trust and loyalty of your consumers by improving the overall perception of your personal brand?

An important question to ask ourselves is how do we want to disseminate information? Do we want to send mailings, do we want to allow consumers to talk amongst themselves via message boards and live chats? What modes of communication do you want to introduce and build your community around? Blogging and twitter, or forums, e-blasts and pod-casts? What combination of networking methods will work the best and make the most sense for your brand?

Mega Star Media wisely says that you need to consider if you can run the community by yourself, you need to determine what type of resources it will take to build the on-line community that you want. This is important to recognize from the very beginning. Hosting a web presence and on-line network can definitely be a full time job! This may mean hiring someone more equip to take on the task and manage the on-line branding.  If this is financially an option, get in touch with those who know more about social media than you and bring them on board to become a part of your brand/company.  For example companies like SocialDreamium who offers a  collection of tools and services that help you take full advantage of the social web for your brand. Think of it as outsourced community management. SocialDreamium works to grow your audience, and is built to help brands who may be struggling with the how to’s of social networking.

It’s sometimes difficult to figure out what comes next, but in the world of social media, many of us are learning as we go.  These are the first few steps, a couple of important things to think about as you begin launch your brand on the social web. So get out there, get started, and good luck!