Are you doing PR for a B2B company that provides a service? Yes, that means you, all lawyers, consultants, financial advisors, asset managers, software developers and search firms. In fact more than half of the US GDP has come from services companies since 1982 , which is why marketing intangibles is a critical skill in our world.
Have we all had this moment? You wake up at some god-awful moment in the middle of the night, like 3:48 a.m., and your finger hurts, and you decide in an instant that it’s bone cancer. You will not see your children grow up, you can’t remember if you paid the most recent premium for your life insurance, and you wonder how your oldest is ever going to learn his multiplication tables without you.
I had the opportunity last week to visit with a friend from college whom I had not seen in 25+ years. We had a nice visit in his Park Avenue office, learned that our companies employ roughly the same number of people, and that we market in very much the same way.
Brian Moynihan is the new CEO of Bank of America. At least for the next few months, eyes will be on him to see what moves he makes as he puts on Ken Lewis’ big shoes.
Moynihan is 50. With a good decade or so in the job, assuming he can keep it that long, he will have an enormous impact. It’s as if 2008-2009 were banking’s “ground zero,” and he has the opportunity to steer not just BofA, but the financial services industry into the post-crisis future. At the moment, it seems like the only way he can go is up.
I wish my grandmother were still alive to see it.
There it was, on the right hand side of the “c” section on Wednesday morning – yes, some of us still read the Wall Street Journal in paper form – an apology of wrongdoing and a commitment of time and funds by Goldman Sachs in an attempt to repair some of the damage.
Trust in financial institutions is at generational lows – of course it is. But one might think that, as the economy starts to lift, so will trust in its institutions. Nope. A November 2009 study by Maritz (client) indicates that the number of people who say they “do not trust” their bank has actually risen in the past six months, from 23% in April of 2009 to 36% this month. It’s getting worse.
Issue Ownership. It’s a great marketing objective for a company – or for any largish organization — that wants to build a reputation that’s bigger than the products or services it offers. As I defined in the last post Thought Leader Versus Issue Owner – What’s the Difference? an issue owner has made a commitment to a particular field/issue/topic and has dedicated significant resources to advance it.
Is there a difference between a thought leader and an issue owner?
I think so. Here’s my hypothesis: a thought leader makes a meaningful contribution in the discussion, analysis and furthering of an idea or topic in the world of public discourse. A thought leader is someone whose experience has led to knowledge, and knowledge to wisdom – and who has the confidence required to go out on a limb and state a case. Given our many years of work in B2B public relations, in most large firms only 5 or 10 percent of the professional staff has ability to become a thought leader – and yet these people are the firm’s make-or-break assets.
