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Pitching news to the average American in an engaging way is a skill that all PR specialists have been perfecting for years. The underlying question that begs to be asked is; do we really know who the average American is? An article from the Los Angeles Times titled “In Search of the Average American” by Breanna Maloney explores this question and offers us a few new and entertaining statistics on the average American.
Did you know… - The average American can name all Three Stooges but not all three branches of the federal government.
- The average American lives within three miles of a McDonalds
- The average American believes nature is sacred or spiritual but spends 95% of his time indoors.
- Sixty percent of Americans eat peanut butter at least once a week, and the average American eats three pounds of it a year.
These indiscriminate statistics, among others, were all compiled by author Kevin O’Keefe in his most recent book The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation’s Most Ordinary Citizen. For his research, O’Keefe criss-crossed the country for more than two years and knocked down “many of the myths about Americans.”
For example, “We have this image that the average American is lacking in smarts,” O’Keefe says, “but in this country, the average IQ scores have increased three points per decade since nationwide IQ testing began in the 1920s.” Additionally, he disproves the age old assumption of the average American as someone who lives on a farm in Middle America. “The last time that most Americans lived in rural areas was about 100 years ago. Most average Americans live in metropolitan areas,” says O’Keefe.
Kevin O’Keefe initially held high-profile jobs in the sports and entertainment industries, designing countless national marketing and public relations campaigns to reach the average American. More of O’Keefe’s notable research and findings are in the article, In search of the average American.
We found O’Keefe’s research on the average American interesting as it is so very important for all firms and businesses to target and intimately know their audiences.
If your business targets women business owners in its marketing, advertising, public relations or business development efforts, then listen up. Business Development Advisors Darrene Hackler, Ellen Harpel and Heike Mayer issued a report for the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy this month that details information and statistics about women business owners..
According to the SBA, “the report, Human Capital and Women’s Business Ownership, shows that self- employed women differ on most human capital variables compared to wage and salary-earning women. Self-employed women have more education and increased their educational attainment at a faster rate compared to other working women. The percentage of self-employed women in managerial occupations consistently exceeded the rate for other working women, and self-employed women participated in different industries than other working women. Self-employed men and women differed little in education, experience and preparedness. Important differences remain when considering occupational and industry experience.
A full copy of this report is available at: http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs323tot.pdf
The research summary can be found at: http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs323.pdf
Information about this report can be obtained by calling Chad Moutray at (202) 205- 6533 or advocacy [at] sba.gov.
To sign up for Advocacy updates via RSS feed, visit http://feeds.feedburner.com/sba/rAIO.
Tom Kane's post, Which is Better: Advertising or Public Relations?, on LegalMarketingBlog.com hits the nail on the head.
I couldn't agree with Tom more when he says, "until a firm has done the basics involving strategic marketing planning, [advertising, public relations,] or both could be a total waste of money."
He is so right.
I regularly encourter law firms who still take an ad hoc approach to their marketing efforts. They advertise in the XYZ magazine supplement because they're getting a "discount" or at least a perceived discount. They hire a consultant or service to "issue a press release" and then don't leverage the value of the news or coverage. They purchase a directory listing upgrade because the sales person said they should. And the list goes on.
The bottom line is that law firms need to approach their communications the same way big businesses have for decades. It's about strategic planning. They need to identify what their trying to accomplish, who they're trying to reach, the messages they want to deliver, the time-frame within which they need to act, the best vehicles for success (advertising, marketing, interactive technologies or public relations) and how they will measure the success of their efforts.
In a CNN video report, Small Business Tips, Jennifer Westhoven of CNN offers tips on how to grow your company and keep employees happy and loyal.
Westhoven explains that competitiveness is key to success for the small business entrepreneur…at first. As time goes on, she explains you must ease your competitive instincts to keep not only yourself sane, but also your employees.
Do you have small business tips of your own? Go to cnn.com/robin and click on the ireport icon on the right-hand side of the toolbar and share your small business tips for success and possibly be shared in future reports.
Great public relations can substantially accelerate business development cycles, increase audience awareness and help promote rapid growth. Harnessing this power can be a terrific boost—if you proceed with clear objectives and remain true to your core business goals. You therefore need to ask yourself, “Will public relations help our firm achieve the goals we have set out in our business plan?” This is a good time to review or articulate your firm’s core business goals. Understanding your business or performance goals is the first step in defining measurable objectives for a public relations program. When you measure the value of your public relations program, you need to substantiate that public relations has furthered your aspirations. So go back and ask yourself: What are my / my firm’s core business goals?
For the next step in your public relations planning, check back next Monday for The PR Lawyer’s Tip #3.
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Excerpt from Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers, Copyright 2007. Furia Rubel Communications, Inc. To purchase book, click here.
Public relations is the art and science of proactive advocacy on the part of acompany, individual or brand. It requires strategic management of your positionstatement and key messages in order to reach your target audiences, andthrough various tactics, establish good will and a mutual understanding. In short, effective use of public relations tools allows us to shape public opinion, attitudes and beliefs. Utilizing public relations is much like crafting an openingstatement for a jury trial: you will painstakingly strategize about which facts youshould initially reveal to the jury, which heartstrings (if any) you want to tug,the tempo and timing of your delivery, and the information you deliver last inorder to achieve a long-term impact.
In the big scheme of legal communications, “marketing” is the overall umbrella term under which many forms of communications fall. The “marketing” of a law firm often entails:
-Advertising
-Business Development
-Client Services
-Marketing (brochures, Web sites, direct mail, etc.)
-Sponsorships
-Public Relations
The public relations portion of your firm’s marketing must be a strategic part of a carefully considered marketing plan so that it complements the branding,advertising, business development, client services, sponsorships and othercommunication initiatives. The role of public relations is to help build thefirm’s brand equity by delivering key messages to target audiences to elicit aparticular response and thus shape public opinion, attitudes and beliefs. Inother words, PR is the method by which we communicate messages about ourselves, our firms, and our understanding of the law and the cases we handle onan everyday basis.
 The practice of public relations differs from marketing andadvertising. PR promotes and builds awareness and acceptance; the immediategoal is often based in the positioning of the firm; you have less control over themedia placements; and the messages tend to be viewed as more credible.
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Excerpt from Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers, Copyright 2007. Furia Rubel Communications, Inc. To purchase book, click here.
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