| CHAPTER 4 |

SURPRISE PARTY: HOW PR CAN HELP CAPTURE NEW CUSTOMERS

And Why You Should Love Them

“A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is—full of surprises.”

—Isaac Bashevis Singer

There’s an effective “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” commercial for Las Vegas—funny and memorable. A sexy, beautiful woman gets into a limo for a ride to the airport. She’s dressed provocatively and flirts (at least, I suppose you could call it that) with the limo driver until he tells her they’re minutes from McCarran International Airport. Suddenly, the window between them goes up and we don’t see her again until they arrive and she steps out of the car . . .

Wait a minute—is that the same woman? Yes, but she’s changed. Her hair is pulled back in a demure bun, and she’s wearing black-framed glasses, a knee-length skirt, sweater, white shirt, and a neck scarf. In short, she looks like a librarian (albeit a pretty one). She’s also speaking in an English accent, which she didn’t have earlier.

Which one is the “real” woman? Both are, of course. Two narratives, equally authentic, told appropriately for different audiences. We all have to understand that who we think isn’t paying attention to us might well be there all along, listening nonetheless and wanting to join our party. It often works to invite them in.

EVOLVE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

Customers change over time, as all things do; if you’re not willing to go with the flow, you’ll be left behind. The clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, founded in 1982 by David Abercrombie, has grown from a high-quality sporting goods store targeting an elite segment of the sporting market to a cutting-edge youth brand focused on casual clothing, jeans, and sex. The brand is “Abercrombie,” and targets customers ages 12 to 25. The company speaks the language of this demographic: instead of using only conventional advertising, it also takes advantage of social media, word-of-mouth buzz, and manufactured controversy.

As a result, the retailer has taken some heat from critics for its unorthodox, push-the-envelope methods and its provocative products. Young people, however, can’t seem to get enough of the brand. This is the company that brought you thong underwear for adolescent girls. More recently, it introduced a line of colorful, padded, push-up bikini tops for eight-year-olds. The free PR and advertising the company won for featuring that daring (some would say offensive and inappropriate) item in its spring 2011 fashion lineup was worth a fortune. News and talk shows were discussing it for at least two or three days—the catalog itself acted as a press release. Some of us may not like the way the Abercrombie audience is shifting, or how the company affects its young audience, but I can’t say it’s not impressive. Your prepubescent daughters are probably impressed, too. They are building customers into the future: perhaps the eight-year-old won’t want the top right now (or she may, and her parents will refuse to buy it for her), but when she turns twelve she’ll take her allowance money over to Abercrombie to shop. The company has left a powerful and lasting impression on the little girl—that is effective PR. And it works for them—the company has seen healthy growth even during the recent economic downturn, and plans to spend about $300 million to expand its presence in Europe and Asia.

The $950 Haircut Meets Target Customers

Our client Ted Gibson is one of the most prominent hair stylists and hair icons in America, and he’s also created a beauty brand that has been able to develop without alienating its base constituents—upscale women. Gibson’s salon gives one of the most expensive haircuts in America, at $950 per session. Stars like Anne Hathaway and Angelina Jolie covet an appointment with Gibson, as do Park Avenue socialites and corporate leaders. He has done a tremendous job building a brand as a high-end stylist. But he has also managed to launch hair-care lines for the likes of Target and Home Shopping Network (HSN), while keeping his core salon business as a luxury-market hairdresser intact.

Gibson speaks to both demographics flawlessly and adapts his message to fit the crowd. The Gibson in-person clientele expect and receive fabulous service and excellent hair styling and color in a gorgeous environment. Women are offered a glass of wine and a relaxing hand massage when they sit down in the stylist’s chair; they are pampered from start to finish. The minimalist vibe of the New York salon, with its gleaming hardwood floors, large picture windows, and contemporary furnishings is relaxing and sophisticated. It definitely speaks the language of a chic, urban woman. Magazines they read while waiting in the salon—Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar—reinforce the high-style, luxury image when they see the cover celebrities and models he styles, or when they read about Gibson’s work inside the magazines.

Gibson spoke a similar language to Target and HSN customers when he created hair-care packages for the two corporate giants, the very same products you can buy in Gibson’s upscale salons. “We lowered the price point across the board so customers were paying the same price whether they bought it from me or Target,” says Gibson. The Target/HSN shopper could now afford his reasonable luxuries—price points are around $20—without offending the woman in the salon. “I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to have attainable luxury and be a part of the Ted Gibson brand, whether she lives in Oregon or Los Angeles, Oklahoma or New York City.”

  Gibson’s PR is centered on the message that when it comes to beauty, all women want luxury—and he can supply it to different women at different levels, either through expensive in-person services or fabulous products sold at reasonable prices. Everyone’s happy.

“My salon clients loved the idea—no one objected to it at all,” he says. His role on the TV hit What Not to Wear (which we helped secure) helps solidify his brand among Target shoppers (Gibson realizes that not every woman can afford a $950 haircut, but most can afford a $20 bottle of shampoo), and as long as we create unique, strong PR messages that welcome both groups of women on their own terms, he can succeed at both ends of the market, without either diluting the salon experience or talking down to Target customers.

According to Quantcast, a media measurement service, 53 percent of Twitter followers are female, 47 percent are between 18 and 34, and 50 percent earn between $30,000 and $100,000 a year. This happens to sync with HSN’s core demographic, which is 75 percent to 80 percent women, ages 25 to 54, with a household income of about $60,000. That’s why, during an appearance on HSN, Gibson hosted a “Tweet Up” in his New York salon, where beauty bloggers drank champagne and tweeted about the products Gibson was pitching on the shopping network. “We sold 3,000 pieces in 12 minutes,” said Gibson.

As a result, Gibson was featured in the cover story of WWD Beauty Biz on how social media helps build businesses. “Celebrity hairstylist Ted Gibson has proven himself a master marketer of translating behind-the-scenes into product sales and service bookings,” wrote WWD Beauty Biz. Gibson’s PR is centered on the message that when it comes to beauty, all women want luxury—and he can supply it to different women at different levels, either through expensive in-person services or fabulous products sold at reasonable prices. Everyone’s happy.

From Niche to Mainstream: The Language of Hip-Hop

The urban and hip-hop market has evolved its music and its PR language as its audience has changed and broadened. I’ve seen this shift firsthand, via representation of dozens of hip-hop artists, including Lil’ Kim, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Kelis, and Young Jeezy. When we started working with these clients, few PR agencies would—there was a perception that hip-hop artists were thugs and criminals who were only concerned with shooting one another and were a constant source of trouble. Nothing could be further from reality for these entrepreneurial hustlers who wanted to make money and create a “new America.”

A resonant language that hip-hop and rap artists speak—and this is among the reasons why I think it has resonated in American culture beyond urban areas—is the language of the entrepreneur. Makes sense, doesn’t it? America is a country of entrepreneurs. Kids today don’t want to be lawyers and doctors like they did when I was growing up. They want to be entrepreneurs. These guys are up front about wanting to make it, to become wealthy, and to enjoy the good things in life. The urban language of hip-hop is here to stay.

Today, the music is mainstream in the United States and throughout the world and has penetrated all sorts of other avenues of culture. Andrew Quady of the Quady Winery told The Wall Street Journal in 2011 that the shout-out to Italian moscato in the anthem “I Invented Sex” by R&B crooner Trey Songz and the rapper Drake could account for strong sales of the wine. So strong, in fact, growers are planting new vineyards to keep up with demand. The song includes the line, “Lobster and shrimp and a glass of moscato.” New vineyards in Italy because of a line in a song? Wow.

Very few PR agencies, marketers, or businesses in general recognized that the rap and hip-hop generation would be such a huge business. I felt differently. I grew up in the Bronx and have listened to hip-hop for a long time. These days, kids in Beverly Hills, California, and Scarsdale, New York, listen to the same music as kids in the inner city. After the fame and notoriety of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, artists such as 50 Cent, Sean Combs, and Eminem were able to penetrate Middle America—and kids in Middle America were eager to embrace rap music and the hip-hop culture. Rappers were smart enough to understand what popularity meant in terms of their PR—more fans, more sales, and more brand extensions. Many of them built and promoted successful clothing lines and extended themselves past music into lifestyle categories, in part by aggressively promoting their products to suburban “mainstream” customers. The language has changed. Combs, Jay-Z, and others understand that to be successful you have to talk to broad swaths of American consumers. Music and fashion are also international languages; when celebrities start to wear certain brands, it gives those items a certain power, a coolness that speaks to people around the world.

Watch Your Language

As a watch collector, I’m tuned in to the world of watches. The languages of two different exclusive watch retailers, Tourneau and Wempe, are especially interesting. Both retailers sell more or less the same product, but one embraces a variety of customers—whether they intentionally go after them with PR or not—and the other doesn’t. Walk into the stores and you’ll “hear” two different voices; both voices convey a public relations message that customers take with them and spread when they leave the shop. The salespeople at Tourneau will show you any watch in the place; they’ll let you try on as many as you want, chat with you, and answer every question you have. The company speaks to the watch enthusiast. Whether you walk out wearing a watch or not, Tourneau always treats you well.

Since it is such a major retailer, it has a lot of pull with big brands and as a result is known for getting exclusive watches available only at its shops. Tourneau gets excited about that, too. One such watch, a limited edition (they reportedly made just 50) black-and-white, three-hand version of Franck Muller’s Conquistador Grand Prix timepiece, was available at the New York store to anyone who wanted to see it.

However, walk into Wempe, an international retailer with one store in New York City and others across Europe and the United Kingdom, and it’s a very different story. If you don’t pass Wempe’s snob test, you’ll get an attitude that’s far from friendly. One weekend day, I strolled into Wempe without a watch on and wearing a sweat suit. The place was empty, but still, I had to wait for a salesperson to come over to see what I wanted. I asked to see an expensive watch, and the clerk asked me, with a straight face, if I was a construction worker before he took the piece out of the case. That “language” certainly sent me a message: dress to our specifications and show you belong if you want to receive good customer service. It also sent me away, thank you very much. Different language for different folks. Maybe Wempe doesn’t need my business and feels comfortable losing a sale because of the way I dress on rainy weekends.

THE ATTRACTIVE POWER OF LANGUAGE (OR, ALL MONEY IS GREEN)

Louis Vuitton is one of the greatest luxury brands in the world, famous for world-class leather goods and other products. It has mastered the art of public relations and is able to speak several “languages” simultaneously, which is precisely why both the Wall Street financier and the hip-hop artist use leather goods from the company, and the Park Avenue matron and downtown diva alike both carry the same LV satchel with ease (albeit they wear them quite differently). It’s how the company gets away with embracing Kanye West, allowing him to host his birthday party at its flagship New York City store in what was clearly a fantastic PR coup, while simultaneously using iconic and international political figure Mikhail Gorbachev in an advertisement (an ad, might I add, that created tremendous PR buzz). At the Kanye West party, we watched as dancers dressed in Vuitton bathing suits and sandals performed in the store’s display cases while celebrity guests danced among display racks and cases of Vuitton goodies. This obviously generated a good deal of media.

From Keith Richards and Madonna to Mikhail Gorbachev and Andre Agassi, the brand reaches quite far in its celebrity endorsements—and it works. While some would see a disconnect between the firm’s diverse audiences and its luxurious and established history, Louis Vuitton is seemingly happy to learn to speak the languages of its various customers—its foremost luxury. That’s an intense brand, able to speak many languages all over the world—and to be profitable around the world. LVMH, Louis Vuitton’s parent company, recorded revenue of $5.2 billion in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 17%. In 2010 the revenue for LVMH rose to the highest price in nearly 10 years in Paris trading after the luxury-goods maker reported first-quarter sales that beat analysts’ estimates.

The company probably didn’t intend to be embraced by an urban, hip-hop audience—Kanye West in his song “Stronger” deemed himself the “Louis Vuitton Don” (and has referred to his mother as the official “Louis Vuitton Mom”). In its first-ever TV ad, Louis Vuitton teamed up with hip-hop star Pharrell Williams. The company seems to do an excellent job of controlling goods and messaging, while maintaining its iconic avant-garde luxury style. The brand welcomes and celebrates its crossover appeal. Perhaps that’s why it thrived during the recent world economic downturn—it communicates quality and exclusivity so effectively it doesn’t deter people from dropping thousands of dollars on clothing and accessories. Urban legend has it Louis Vuitton burns goods it doesn’t sell in order to avoid discounting them—true or not, the idea of this adds allure to the LV narrative.

One of the company’s effective PR initiatives is the one surrounding its campaign against counterfeiting. The luxury industry is particularly hard hit by counterfeit goods, and as part of its brand-protection policy, LVMH takes anticounterfeiting measures seriously. Some 60 people at various levels of responsibility work full-time on anticounterfeiting, in collaboration with a wide network of outside investigators and a team of lawyers. Over the last several years, counterfeits of Louis Vuitton have been seized at production sites, and legal action has been taken against the counterfeiters. The company also let the fashion and business press know about these initiatives, as well as alerting retailers and resellers to the work they are doing to combat “brand terrorism.”

Moreover, LV engages in a lot of positive educational efforts, letting fashion and style writers and bloggers know how to spot counterfeits (for example, the “o” in Vuitton is very round in genuine articles and looks more like an oval in counterfeits; the LV monogram printed on bags is usually, with the exception of some vintage pieces, symmetrical from side to side on all bag styles; and so on). These “guidelines” are, in turn, published on sites like YouTube, eBay, and About.com—PR for the company that also serves an important purpose. The company is saying to its loyal fans, we value your business so much we will not let your investment in our brand be devalued by cheap imitations flooding the market. Powerful—and profitable.

Is Ignoring Better Than Ignorance?

Hip-hop and Vuitton’s attitudes toward diverse customers are completely opposite from that of Cristal, a champagne produced by another French-owned luxury brand. You may never have the good fortune to have a rapper as a fan, but there are times when unexpected or surprising people may reach out. How do you plan to respond when it happens? Are you open to them? Is your staff trained to deal with unusual requests? Is your definition of your customer so rigid that you’ll be blind when something that looks different from that definition walks through your door (or appears in your e-mail inbox)?

Cristal, produced by Louis Roederer, became infamous in the entertainment community because its management made ill-advised, unnecessary comments about not being pleased with the attention its champagne was getting from rappers. It alienated consumers unnecessarily, and didn’t score itself points with any constituency by doing so. In 2006, The Economist asked the company’s new managing director, Frederic Rouzaud, whether associations with rap stars could affect the brand negatively. “That’s a good question, but what can we do?” he said. “We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Dom Perignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business.” This not-too-subtle dig was well understood in the hip-hop world and other communities. He may as well have told the reporter that the company wished hip-hop consumers would go to hell.

When rapper Jay-Z heard the comments, he initiated a boycott of the champagne, saying, “It has come to my attention that the managing director of Cristal, Rouzaud, views the hip-hop culture as ‘unwelcome attention.’ I view his comments as racist and will no longer support any of his products through any of my various brands, including the 40/40 Club, nor in my personal life.” And with that Rouzard got his wish, along with the prestige this consumer base can bring to a brand.

Rappers were giving Cristal a lot of free PR and promotion in videos highlighting wealth and power, making them synonymous with the product because they genuinely enjoyed it. Why alienate celebrities who make hit music and have huge followings? I’d venture the company’s long-standing, more traditional consumer wasn’t seeing these folks anyway.

If there is a genuine risk that your core consumer will be alienated by a “pop-up” customer who is different from him or her, then I do think you have to be careful. For instance, the “21” Club, a restaurant in the heart of Manhattan, doesn’t want the business of anyone who doesn’t wear a suit jacket and is clear about it, an unusual statement today given the lack of formality in America. However, someone without a suit jacket might alienate more formal diners who have gone out of their way to get dressed up for lunch—even if the jacketless guy had impeccable manners. While the restaurant has recently relaxed its suit-and-tie policy in favor of a suit jacket requirement, the suit-and-tie crowd is an integral part of the “21” Club brand, and the restaurant clearly communicates that message.

On the flip side of the suit story, we represented Philippe Chow, the New York, Los Angeles, and Miami hot-spot restaurant for a number of years. The owner, Stratis Morfogen, is an outspoken, amiable fellow. He has told the story many times of a food journalist for a major publication who came in to cover the restaurant, and was upset when he was seated next to a group dressed in jeans and sweat suits (which included Kanye West). The journalist walked out because he felt an expensive restaurant shouldn’t seat people wearing jeans and sweat suits next to customers wearing three-piece suits. Morfogen didn’t agree—and is clear that while people in three-piece suits are welcome in his place (he seated the guy after all), so is everyone else—and this reporter’s tantrum isn’t going to change that. Different strokes for different folks.

MEETING CUSTOMERS YOU MAY NEVER CROSS PATHS WITH: POWER IN NUMBERS

You can talk more powerfully to consumers when you join forces with related brands and sometimes even competitors, if the situation is right. When two businesses align with one another to promote a specific product in which they both benefit, magic can happen. When brands make the right partnerships, whether for a long-term business strategy or short-term events, it is a great way of gathering even more people together in a community of shared interests and passions. Partnerships that offer the consumer something valuable like perks (discounts, access to information, etc.) that make their lives easier or more interesting are even better because they say to consumers, “We care, we want to be a part of your life.” As I described earlier in Chapter 2, the Buckingham Hotel and Carnegie Deli accomplished this when they partnered to offer departing travelers a sandwich for the long and inhospitable airplane trip home from New York.

Foursquare is a location-based mobile platform that allows users to easily explore cities, as well as share their physical location and “insider” tips with friends and other users via a smartphone app. Founded in 2007, Foursquare had more than 10 million users worldwide by mid-2011, according to Adweek. So far, the start-up has inked several partnerships with big, established brands. It partnered with Bravo to integrate show personalities and their city tips into the app. Deals with restaurant review guide Zagat, Warner Brothers, HBO, and newspapers followed.

These kinds of strategic joint ventures are good for the businesses involved, but they also build loyalty and a sense of involvement with Foursquare users. In turn, users create spontaneous positive PR when they use the app and “check in” (post their whereabouts on social media) at vendor locations. It’s allowed fledgling foursquare to explode as a brand.

Booking Ahead

Microbusinesses and brands can benefit from similar partnerships in similar ways. When Cindy Ratzlaff, whom Forbes named as one of the “Top 30 Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter,” launched her book, Queen of Your Own Life, she and coauthor Kathy Kinney offered a webinar—an author chat where participants could log on, watch a slide show, and listen to the authors talk—similar to a bookstore reading. As authors in a low-margin business, they used creative “market partnering” to help them reach a much larger audience than traditional book marketing.

“We talked about why we wrote the book, read, and answered questions, just as if it was a live event,” says Ratzlaff. Before the event, the women recruited affiliates who might be interested in partnering with them, and I think in many ways provided a personal hook for the many women who also dream of writing a book.

“We went to the top Internet marketers to ask if they would like to help promote the webinar, and in exchange our 17,000 fans would become aware of them,” explains Ratzlaff. More than that, the authors were able to offer webinar guests the chance to win free consultations with gurus, software, and Internet marketing reports from partners. “All of our promotions and e-mails about the webinar reminded guests to stay tuned to access these gifts and specials,” says Ratzlaff. In turn, the authors’ partners told their fans about the book and webinar.

Once winners were chosen, they had to go to the partners’ websites and sign in. Now these partners also had the names and e-mail addresses of participants. “We encouraged all our guests to sign up with our partners so we were able to increase our sponsors’ e-mail lists, expose our fans to their products, and introduce our partners’ fans to our book,” says Ratzlaff, in what turned out to be a win-win for everyone involved. “We had a great turnout—about a thousand people. That many people would never turn out at a brick-and-mortar bookstore,” she says. The questions that came from participants allowed the authors to create multiple blog, Twitter, and Facebook posts—content that organically helped drive more traffic to the book’s website and online bookstores.

Ultimately, the webinar created personal contact with Ratzlaff’s and Kinney’s fans. They began a conversation with them and made it last through partnerships that engaged their audience and made them feel special. Think about brands and vendors that you may share common values with—and who may expand your customer base. How can you work together to cross-promote and cross-pollinate customers?

The Ride of Fame

Hollywood may have its Walk of Fame, but New York now has its own mobile monument to immortalize New Yorkers. Gray Line New York, New York City’s iconic double-decker tour bus company, has been a proud staple of the New York City tourism industry since 1926, bringing visitors to the must-see stops on its signature red buses. While there is a strong association and solid brand awareness, the company wanted to raise its profile even further and attract new customers, via strategic partnerships with a celebrity campaign.

Together with the company, we created and implemented a monthly celebrity partnership series, aligning Gray Line New York with some of New York’s most press-worthy celebrities, while continuing to position the brand as a travel authority. Our Gray Line New York’s Ride of Fame monthly campaigns recognize and honor leading New Yorkers by outfitting a bus in its fleet to each dedicatee. We secure celebrities and manage a ribbon-cutting ceremony where a celebrity’s very own Gray Line New York double-decker bus is unveiled to the public and dozens of media outlets. Since the inception of the program in mid-2010, Ride of Fame celebrities have included Donald Trump, Rachael Ray, Whoopi Goldberg, Liza Minnelli, Richard Dreyfus, Cyndi Lauper, and Reggie Jackson.

With more than a billion impressions so far, we were able to secure Ride of Fame feature stories and broadcast segments from The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, New York Daily News, Fox News, Fox & Friends, NY1, Perez Hilton, E! Entertainment News, ABC, NBC’s LXTV, USA Today, The Insider, Entertainment Tonight, and others. To further Gray Line New York’s celebrity fan base, we secured additional opportunities for the company, such as being included in the opening titles for Kourtney & Kim Take New York, one of the Kardashians’ reality shows on E! The title sequence features the women atop one of Gray Line’s iconic buses, now included in every episode of the popular series.

What’s great about this is that Gray Line has attracted a new group of customers, and the bus is now part of a fun itinerary enjoyed by actual New Yorkers—not just tourists—who love the Ride of Fame, too!

Pretty Perfect Partners

Carita Paris, a luxurious French skin-care line owned by Shiseido, a major international cosmetic company, hired 5WPR as PR firm of record to raise awareness of the brand. Celebrity seeding, featuring the product at exclusive parties, aligning the brand with high-profile events, and launching new product collections are all crucial in accomplishing this task. Partnering with trendsetters and market movers allows brands to achieve a heightened profile and “posh” status.

One of these was accomplished when we partnered Carita’s newest hair care line, Haute Beaute Cheveu, with celebrity hair stylist Ashley Javier, who allowed the media into his salon for the first time to exclusively launch the collection to top-tier editors, including Vogue’s beauty director, as well as editors from O, The Oprah Magazine, InStyle, Marie Claire, and Allure.

Ashley Javier works with celebrities like Chloe Sevigny and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, celebrities typical of the chic, high-end consumers who are often difficult to reach. So it was important for us to establish a connection between Javier and the Carita product for a variety of reasons. In the minds of high-end beauty consumers, affiliating with this crowd was akin to getting an independent seal of approval for the Haute Beaute Cheveu, a line with which they were not yet familiar. It was also an amazing opportunity for Javier—the publicity he received from the partnership raised his profile and resulted in tremendous press for the salon.

To further align the brand with a fashion and celebrity audience, and further raise the allure, 5WPR partnered the Carita brand with designers Reem Acra, a high-end bridal and evening wear designer, and Carmen Marc Valvo, a New York-based women’s couture fashion designer, during Fashion Week. I’m not sure that we would have been able to speak to consumers as powerfully or get as much press without these partnerships.

Next time you think about PR, remember:

1. New and “pop-up” customers can often be considered a gift to a business. It means the language you are speaking is reaching beyond the boundaries of what you thought possible. Embrace these people and include them in your conversation. Their money is green, too.
2. If you must . . . ignoring is better than insulting. It’s okay to ignore certain people if you don’t think they’ll bring any positive “buzz” to your business, but why go out of your way to alienate them? Say no to some customers if you like, but it’s best to do so consciously, strategically, and inconspicuously.
3. Brands and companies also have to think about what they could be losing by purposely discouraging certain kinds of business. Is the upside worth it?
4. PR can be an organic and natural result of customer loyalty and affection. When you speak to a customer with products and in a language they love, they’ll lay the PR groundwork for you.
5. Partnerships can give you a double-barreled gun, making it that much easier to hit your target audience and multiply one PR effort into many simultaneous ones.