Wilkinson Group

Opportunities/Challenges 2012 #2: ‘The State of The Media Report 2012, Evolving and Merging’

Peter Wilkinson — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:41:20 +0000

Earlier this year we made the following observations of the challenges and opportunities facing CEOs in 2012 for the benefit of people in public relations and corporate affairs:

Some CEOs will become more stressed with information overload and confusion
Traditional newspapers will become less relevant to business
Social media will become more relevant to business
Newspapers will normalise the paywall
The cloud will become an accepted location to store data
Video streaming/integration of vision into written content/blogging will start in earnest
Blogs will remain relevant in the new media
The concept of ‘communities’ will become more defined
Traditional PR networks like the PRIA, the IABC, and IPREX will be challenged

Below are extracts from ‘The State of The Media Report 2012, Evolving and Merging’ by Vocus (like Media Monitors only bigger), which lend support to those 9 points:

Newspapers

♥ In 2011, 111 newspapers folded with an additional 41 papers lost in newspaper mergers. At a total of 152, the number of newspapers closing was almost even with 2010’s 151 newspaper folds.

♥ The focus in newspapers, both online and print, is about local news, but that doesn’t mean smaller operations in smaller areas are necessarily going to survive,”

♥ Paywalls also helped to shape 2011 as newspaper publishers continued to experiment with the model in hopes of making money from websites. This included the New York Times, Commercial Appeal and Richmond TimesDispatch, to name a few.

♥ Newspaper staffs are getting leaner and younger these days. The ink-stained wretch has been replaced by the digital savvy geek. We are seeing more and more editors in their 20s and 30s who have a grasp of the importance of digital and social media.

Television

♥ TV is using the Internet to serve the role newspapers once served.

♥ Although new media practices are definitely on the rise, the television industry also returned to its roots in 2011 with a resurgence in investigative journalism. In Washington, D.C., NBC-owned station WRC-TV announced in October that it would be putting together an investigative reporting team. Meanwhile, Scripps Television sent staff members to training and hired new employees to add more investigative journalism to its local stations.

Social Media

♥ Aside from some of the challenges social media has posed to the traditional industry, many journalists and outlets have fully embraced the benefits of social media and are enthusiastically putting it to use

♥ There is no doubt the New York Times is one of, if not the, most influential newspapers in the country and its staff understands that. Everyone seems to tweet – editors, reporters, specific sections. Andrew Ross Sorkin, business reporter and columnist, has over 360,000 followers, Paul Krugman, op-ed columnist, has over 670,000 followers and op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof has just over a million. The most-followed New York Times staffer is technology columnist David Pogue with over 1.3 million.

The impact for Public Relations and Corporate Affairs (Public Affairs) Pros

♥ Know that social media is a means to an end and not the end in itself. This is how the media are thinking of it – a platform, not a product. Social media is one of many platforms of communications and establishing relationships.

♥ Despite the fabulous changes in technology, all the old rules of being a human should still apply. Treat people as individuals, which is what editors and reporters are. Be polite: introduce yourself first and ask questions later.

♥ Invest in an iPhone or iPad or both. It’s hard to promote your clients on a platform you don’t know firsthand. And please, please do not send pitches out over social media platforms.

♥ Although a journalist’s medium preference for receiving pitches varies, several polls and surveys have found that the majority of reporters still favor email. Social media is a good way to get to know reporters, but it is not the most preferred way to pitch.

♥ Although journalists often use social media to gather sources or story ideas, the typical news release is still valuable.

♥ But social media has also upped the ante, so there is no way around it: if you’re not using social media, you should be. …you must become part of the community and the conversation. Do this by following reporters and commenting on their stories. Get to know their coverage area. Also, be sure you are interacting online with the people who you want to receive your message.

Innovation #3: Are you a ‘Filer’ or a ‘Searcher’? This Article Suggests Unorganised is Better.

Peter Wilkinson — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:41:34 +0000

Note: unorganised, not disorganised!

This small posting might be interesting to many public relations and corporate affairs (public affairs) practitioners who struggle with filing emails and other documents. According to the below article, IBM researchers found email users who “searched” rather than set up files and folders found what they were looking for faster. Time spent creating and managing email folders was wasted.

For more click here, but Michael Schrage in the Harvard Business Review blog writes:

“By combining threading with search, technology makes an economic virtue of virtual disorganization. The personal productivity issue knowledge workers and effective executives need to ponder is whether habits of efficiency that once improved performance have decayed into mindless ruts that delay or undermine desired outcomes. Are folders and filing systems worth fifteen to twenty-five minutes a day of contemplative classification and sort for serious managers?

“Obsessive Type As might insist hands-on organizational design is essential to getting a firm grasp on essential correspondence. More measured assessment argues that this is exactly the sort of administrivia where the energy literally isn’t worth the effort. To frame the productivity issue more starkly: what would really prove more personally productive — folders that sort 15% faster? Or key phrase search capabilities that were 20% better?”

Innovation in 2012 #2: The Rise of Groupthink

Peter Wilkinson — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:10:34 +0000

Here is an alternative view, published in the NYT, on our earlier blog, ‘Is Small Beautiful, Again?’. Its thesis is that creativity occurs more often in isolation. It’s relevant to many public relations and corporate affairs (public affairs) practitioners who work in open plan offices. I’ve always been concerned with open plan; the decision for it is often more about saving costs (not to be ignored) rather than about productivity.

The article is thought provoking. If you go to the NYT article you will see that judgement has been passed by many angry critics, as well as passionate supporters.

The Rise of the New Groupthink

By SUSAN CAIN Published in NYT: January 13, 2012

SOLITUDE is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place. Most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.

But there’s a problem with this view. Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They’re not joiners by nature.

One explanation for these findings is that introverts are comfortable working alone — and solitude is a catalyst to innovation. As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck observed, introversion fosters creativity by “concentrating the mind on the tasks in hand, and preventing the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.” In other words, a person sitting quietly under a tree in the backyard, while everyone else is clinking glasses on the patio, is more likely to have an apple land on his head. (Newton was one of the world’s great introverts: William Wordsworth described him as “A mind for ever/ Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.”)

Solitude has long been associated with creativity and transcendence. “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible,” Picasso said. A central narrative of many religions is the seeker — Moses, Jesus, Buddha — who goes off by himself and brings profound insights back to the community.

Culturally, we’re often so dazzled by charisma that we overlook the quiet part of the creative process. Consider Apple. In the wake of Steve Jobs’s death, we’ve seen a profusion of myths about the company’s success. Most focus on Mr. Jobs’s supernatural magnetism and tend to ignore the other crucial figure in Apple’s creation: a kindly, introverted engineering wizard, Steve Wozniak, who toiled alone on a beloved invention, the personal computer.

Rewind to March 1975: Mr. Wozniak believes the world would be a better place if everyone had a user-friendly computer. This seems a distant dream — most computers are still the size of minivans, and many times as pricey. But Mr. Wozniak meets a simpatico band of engineers that call themselves the Homebrew Computer Club. The Homebrewers are excited about a primitive new machine called the Altair 8800. Mr. Wozniak is inspired, and immediately begins work on his own magical version of a computer. Three months later, he unveils his amazing creation for his friend, Steve Jobs. Mr. Wozniak wants to give his invention away free, but Mr. Jobs persuades him to co-found Apple Computer.

The story of Apple’s origin speaks to the power of collaboration. Mr. Wozniak wouldn’t have been catalyzed by the Altair but for the kindred spirits of Homebrew. And he’d never have started Apple without Mr. Jobs.

But it’s also a story of solo spirit. If you look at how Mr. Wozniak got the work done — the sheer hard work of creating something from nothing — he did it alone. Late at night, all by himself.

Intentionally so. In his memoir, Mr. Wozniak offers this guidance to aspiring inventors:

“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me … they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone …. I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone… Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

Susan Cain is the author of the forthcoming book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.”

Opportunities/Challenges in 2012: an era of greater innovation

Peter Wilkinson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:52:54 +0000

This is how we see it at the Wilkinson Group for public relations and corporate affairs practitioners: our working environment will evolve at a yet greater pace than last year, and the opportunities will be in identifying the change-areas.

Some CEOs will become more stressed or frustrated by the yet greater speed of change, some will be more intimidated. This will require us to become better interpreters, and navigators.
Traditional newspapers will become less relevant to business. The surveys are already indicating this trend. In short the big companies will still consider traditional media the most reliable source of business news; but if you are reaching out to SMEs or you work in small to medium businesses, newspapers are not the place to be seen.
Social media will become more relevant to business as more leaders decided it cannot be ignored. So public relations practitioners will be asked for more help in this sector – work loads will increase. We’ll see the rise-and-rise of smartphones, tablets and Apps. If you haven’t got an iPad then put it on your birthday present request list.
Newspapers will normalise the paywall, and the public will get used to pay-as-you-use. We’ve already seen this start at the end of 2011 (SMH, AFR, NYT, FT, etc).
The cloud will become an accepted location to store data, aided by the war between Apple and Google.
Video streaming/integration of vision into written content/blogging will start in earnest (later in the year or 2013) and replace blogs and e-newsletters as the latest growth area. Cisco says that >90% of internet content will be visual by 2015. Those of us with some television experience will be beneficiaries – others might want to start revising their media training skills/handbooks.
Blogs will remain relevant in the new media, with celebrity bloggers increasingly taking the stage, with many others tiring of the time commitment and stopping. The quality of writing of some blogging will creep up as celebs emerge, and we will start relying on some bloggers for reliable information. There will be increased demand for good, quick writers.
The concept of ‘communities’ will become more defined, integrating online and offline. Our advice will be needed here. Consumers (including us at home) will be encouraged to adopt a trusted community newspaper (witness the way News Ltd and the SMH are competing for this space, and also your suburban paper, and the NYT and the FT, and more); then there will be brand communities – the brands that consumers choose to trust will become ‘favourites’; retailers will learn and start down the process of ‘catchup’ with this, and some won’t make it; coffee shops, etc., will increasingly offer Wi-Fi so that they can be a part of your community; membership offers will become more frequent. All of this in an attempt to make this complex information revolution slightly simpler and more defined. The opportunity for us public relations practitioners is to be involved personally and professionally.
Traditional PR networks like the PRIA, the IABC, and IPREX will be challenged if they don’t keep up – the competition to provide us with friendship, networking and information sharing will be increasingly intense. The opportunity for us is at a personal level and the challenge is to choose cleverly.

Innovation in 2012 #1: Is small beautiful, again?

Peter Wilkinson — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:03:29 +0000

Does this relate to creativity in public relations or corporate affairs? Any experiences to contribute? Below is an article from the Harvard Business Review in which the author observes small teams are more innovative.

Says Michael Schrage, a research fellow at Massachusetts Inst of Tech, “Innovation initiatives that were once handled by dozens a decade ago are now run by only handfuls. The median size of the core innovation group has dropped from a football/soccer eleven to a basketball five. Less apparently enables more.”

The most creative corporate affairs (public affairs) team I work with has seven members, all from different but complimentary skills. With seven we have enough brainpower for real innovation but not so much that we get bogged down with knit-picking, or egos.

Harvard Business Review Blog: Smart Innovators Value Smaller Teams Over Better Processes

1:36 PM Tuesday December 13, 2011 | Comments (12)

Quiet but unsubtle innovation insurgencies are emerging in global enterprise. Instead of investing more in innovation process or cultural transformation, I’m observing more large organizations giving greater resources and responsibilities to ever-smaller teams. Innovation initiatives that were once handled by dozens a decade ago are now run by only handfuls. The median size of the core innovation group has dropped from a football/soccer eleven to a basketball five. Less apparently enables more.

<More.>

Believe it or Not? – PR is now the seventh-most stressful job in America

Peter Wilkinson — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:19:27 +0000

We post this simply because someone is claiming it. Not because we think it is true. As we say, there are statistics and then there are statistics. Suddenly a PR person’s job is more stressful than his/her employer – as Professor Julius Sumner Miller used to say “Why is it so?”.

We hope reading this isn’t stressful. (Note to Ed: We’re prepared to accept that the only job more dangerous than being an Event Coordinator involves being shot at, or burnt.)

PR is now the seventh-most stressful job in America: By Michael Sebastian | Posted: January 5, 2012 (Credit to PR Daily)

Do you work in PR and feel less stressed-out than you did one year ago? If so, it makes sense. The annual study from CareerCast that ranks the nation’s most-stressful jobs downgraded PR executive to No. 7 this year. In 2011, PR was No. 2 on the list.

Here’s how CareerCast describes the work of a PR professional:

“Public Relations Officers are responsible for creating and maintaining a positive image with the public for companies, non-profits and government agencies. They typically are responsible for giving presentations and making speeches, often in front of large crowds. This very competitive field, which often includes highly visible, tight deadlines, keeps stress at high-levels for specialists. Some PR executives are required to interact with potentially hostile members of the media, especially after a disaster.”

According to CareerCast, the average annual salary for a PR exec is $91,810, an increase of nearly $2,000 from 2011.

CareerCast ranks the most-stressful jobs based on 11 factors (which you can read here), including travel, growth potential, working in the public eye, deadlines, hazards, own life at risk, and more.

Last year, CareerCast took some flak (on PR Daily and elsewhere online) for ranking public relations executive so high on the list, above careers in the military and law enforcement. Based on the 2012 list of stressful jobs, it appears CareerCast listened to its audience.

Here are the 10 most-stressful jobs in America in 2012:

1. Enlisted military soldier
2. Firefighter
3. Airline pilot
4. Military general
5. Police officer
6. Event coordinator
7. Public relations executive
8. Corporate executive (CEO)
9. Photojournalist
10. Taxi driver

Last year, airline pilot ranked No. 1. Enlisted military soldier, military general, firefighter, and police officer didn’t make the top 10. You can view last year’s list here.

Still, the question remains: Are you feeling less stressed-out in 2012 than you did in 2011?

One year on: The life and times of an agency dweller

Cameron Blair — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 05:39:03 +0000

As my first year at Wilkinson Group comes to a close, I look back and reflect on what I consider to be the six most important attributes when working for an agency.

Nothing will prepare you for this kind of environment, but hopefully these tips will help. Agency work is unlike any other. Be on your toes at all times, communicate frequently, stay organised, never tell a lie, be an ideas man and get yourself a large coffee cup and make sure it’s filled at all times.

That’s the crux of it really. The rest is pure survival. Hope these tips help.

Have a safe and happy holidays.

1. Organisation

So you decided to work for an agency? Good luck, you’ll need it. First thing, hit up the stationery cabinet (in our case it’s a draw) and get stocked up. Your notepad will become your best friend, because your friends outside of work are about to become strangers. Welcome to your new life.

If you use Outlook, great. If not, buy a planner and use it. You’ll be working across a plethora of clients and be expected to remember a lot of different things. The more you’re organized, the easier life will be. Trust me, easy is good.

2. Communication

Yes nodding and smiling is a form of communication, but it won’t get you far around here if that’s all you do. Confirmation and affirmation is what’s expected.

There’s nothing worse than asking someone if they’ve done something when they turn around and say, “I couldn’t figure it out”. If you can’t figure something out, ask. Nothing wrong with asking questions. My boss asks me a dozen questions a day. It’s normal, so do it. However, that being said, before you ask a question remember, at your fingertips, lives the world’s biggest resource. I’m talking about Google of course.

3. Proactive

A complementary word for this is anticipation. It takes a bit of time to get use to, but once you’ve settled in, try to spot things that people have missed. If you overhear someone talking about their client on the 6 o’clock news, ask them if they need you to call the T.V. station to get the clip.

Make yourself more than useful. This is your chance to shine. A good boss loves nothing more than knowing he can rely on you to go the extra mile. It also shows that this is more than just a regular old job to you and that you enjoy being in the office. But more importantly, it shows that you care.

4. Time Management

When you’re juggling multiple accounts, managing your time is very important. Spend too much time on a project and you’ll get in trouble, spend too little time on another project and you’ll find yourself explaining why you didn’t hit the mark. And using the excuse ‘I got overwhelmed with another job’ won’t get you off the hook when your client calls up and asks why their media release went out 3 hours behind schedule.

This is what agency work is all about, a fine balance of equality (and quality) across all client work. No client is the lesser nor greater. Each pay the bills and are equally important. If you’re swamped ask for help.

5. Honesty

This is pretty straight forward so I’m going to keep it short and blunt. Never lie. Never make up bullshit. Be as articulate as possible. When you muck up, admit it. Mistakes happen, and declaring them will have you cleaning the toilets for a week, but it’s better than getting flicked. If you don’t agree with these simple rules, then perhaps you should join a political party.

6. Creativity

This is your chance to shine. All of the above are the basic five attributes of a solid PR practitioner. This last one is what separates the normal from the gifted. This can only be achieved by mastering the basics and truly loving what your clients do. I can’t advise on how to be creative, that only comes naturally, but these tips may help.

Immerse yourself in what your client does. Live and breathe their work – sit for a moment on their side of the desk. You can’t create unless you know the colors in your palette
Research what other people have done. What made that campaign successful? What was the point of difference that made it stand out?
Establish a good personal relationship with your clients. You don’t have to be best friends, but being comfortable talking to them allows you to muster up the courage to pitch ideas to them.
Don’t be afraid to fail or live in fear of having your idea rejected. It happens – a lot. So get used to it. People love that you tried.

8 Tips for Young Public Relations Job Applicants

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:36:51 +0000

Yesterday we interviewed a student finishing university who wants to work for us. She’s good. Towards the end of the interview I asked her what she thought were the important qualities in an applicant. She rattled off a series of thoughts, and for the first time in the interview missed the mark.

It’s interesting that she’s smart (ripping through Uni with an accelerated degree), has all the qualities – and doesn’t know what they are.

1. Develop your values: Most people hire for attitude and train for skills, so separate them in your mind.

2. Be a hard worker: Be prepared to work harder than everyone else around you.

3. Be loyal: and be prepared to stay in the job for a substantial period. Ask your interviewer how long he/she likes people to stay. I think two years is a good period – three years better. One year can be a waste of an employer’s time.

4. Have great ideas: throughout your career – public relations bosses want people who are thinkers, with an enthusiastic stream of ideas. So bring some to the interview.

5. Have good insights about the company and the boss you are wanting to work with.

6. Ask questions: Have a short (or long) list of intelligent questions about the job you are applying for. And ask them.

7. Be honest: A good interviewer knows when you are exaggerating and has a nose for the whiff of b/s.

8. Later, when you think it is time to ask for a pay-rise, ask first for an increase in responsibility. Your boss will be calculating what the increased responsibility is worth anyway – but his/her impression of you will be entirely different.

Be aware that an employer may be looking for others skills as well. The above are simply mine. Below is another employer’s insights:

9 pieces of career advice for young PR pros

What would you tell newcomers to help them succeed and avoid the mistakes you made?

By Arik Hanson | Posted: December 9, 2011

1. Stay humble. I don’t think I need to elaborate here. But, I will. Here’s a little insight—when times are at their best, that’s when you should be the most humble. If you’ve achieved a great deal of success, chances are that came as a result of hard work, luck/timing and help from others. I’m not discounting hard work, but those other two have an awful lot to do with it, too. Remember that and act accordingly.

2. Don’t tell people how great you are. Let others do it for you.Too often, I hear younger counselors listing their accomplishments, telling me how many great job offers they’re getting, or how many awards they’ve won. Instead, heed tip #1 and let your peers do the talking. If you’re really as great and coveted as you say you are, your friends and colleagues will sing your praises every chance they get.

3. Ask a lot of questions. Any counselor will tell you the secret to consulting is asking the right questions. Guess what happens when you ask questions? You listen.

4. Be a joiner. One of the best decisions I made in my career was joining PRSA. That led me to join a committee, which led to me to join an APR study group, which eventually led me to join the MN PRSA board. All of that led to many, many friendships, a few jobs, and my current role as a small business owner. You get the idea. Be a serial joiner—the benefits will be many.

5. Patience young grasshopper. The most common topic I hear about when chatting with my younger colleagues is about getting that next job. We all want to climb the ladder and get a better job. But, there’s a reason they say patience is a virtue. Patience means battling through difficult situations, instead of running and looking for a new job (I’m guilty of this one). Patience means staying put, even when you think opportunities may be few and far between with your current employer. Patience means staying in one job for more than six months when you don’t get that quick promotion. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. Don’t make the same mistakes I made.

6. Be careful what you wish for. Are you sure you want that VP role? Those senior roles come with a hefty cost—namely, a lack of personal time and high degree of stress. Have you really monitored what your boss’s boss does each evening? Chances are, it’s not hitting the bars. Just be careful what you’re aspiring to do. Once you get there, you might not like the harsh reality.

7. Don’t be a boss—be a leader. There is a difference. Bosses use language like “me, my, mine, yours.” Leaders speak in terms of “ours, teams and us.” Don’t be the kind of manager who tells people what to do—be the kind of manager who inspires, motivates, and who employees want to emulate.

8. Remember, all you have is your reputation. After all the titles, money, cool events, parties and campaigns, all you have is your good name. Make sure you take that very seriously. Jobs, campaigns and awards will come and go. No one will remember most of that stuff by the time you decide to hang it up. But, they will remember your name, what you stood for and your passions. Manage your own reputation every bit as diligently as you would your clients.

9. Don’t believe the hype. I know some people who have some pretty cool jobs. And, they have a lot of people telling them how great they are and how much they want to work with them. Don’t fall prey to maybe the biggest gaffe I see happening (especially with younger pros): Don’t believe the hype about yourself. Stay humble (tip #1 above). Stay curious. Always keep learning. And, most of all, remember where you’ve been and stay true to who you are.

Those are my tips for today’s younger PR counselor. What about you? What’s your advice for the next generation? Arik Hanson is principal of ACH Communications, where a version of this post first appeared.

A Rosy Future for Australian Public Relations #3 – 2012 is the Year of the Dragon

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:48:24 +0000

In Australia we are expecting a good year for public relations practitioners in 2012, and we are relying on forecasters like Treasury Secretary Martin Ferguson and the Holmes Report (see A rosy future of Australian Public Relations? and A rosy future of Australian Public Relations #2 ?).

Now Bloomberg gives us another bullish indicator – 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, a year that the Chinese zodiac calendar associates with wealth and power. Below… well, are we anticipating that 2012 is even better for young public relations practitioners who are planning a family?

Year of the Dragon May Give China’s Economy a Lift

Companies bet on rising births in a year linked to power and wealth. The every-12-year event “will boost the demand for infant products”

Anticipated growth rate for China’s baby food market in 2012: 22%

By Vinicy Chan

Smart executives know how to read business cycles. In China, some businesses also play close attention to demographic ones—especially the traditional spike in births associated with the Year of the Dragon, which starts on Jan. 23. More women in the world’s most populous nation are expected to try to time their pregnancies to fall in a year that the Chinese zodiac calendar associates with wealth and power. And the trend could be more pronounced this time, given the Chinese government’s more relaxed policies on family size. That may mean higher demand for infant and toddler products in the years ahead. Explains Michele Mak, a consumer sector analyst at BNP Paribas: “The dragon year baby boom is almost a sure thing, which will boost the demand for infant products such as baby formula, diapers, and clothes.”

Five percent more babies are typically born in a dragon year—the last one was in 2000—because many parents want their progeny to be associated with the icon of China’s emperors, says Tak-Hong Cheung, who runs the obstetrics and gynecology department at Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. That baby bump will add fuel to population growth that’s already expected to reach 1.388 billion by 2020, up from 1.334 billion in 2009, according to the United Nations.

China set a one-child policy in 1979 to curb population growth and drive prosperity. Now, facing an aging labor force, Beijing is allowing couples who are both only children to have two kids of their own. Rural couples whose first child is a girl over four years old also are allowed a second. As incomes rise, Chinese parents have more to spend on children. Per capita disposable income for households in towns and cities rose 8 percent last year, to 19,109 yuan ($3,003), almost doubling from 2005.

Liu Tongyou, chief financial officer of Goodbaby International Holdings, a Shanghai-based maker of strollers, tricycles, and baby chairs, foresees a pickup in sales in China next year from the predicted baby boom. The company’s China sales could grow “twice as fast” as those in the U.S. market in 2012, he says. About 28 percent of the company’s revenue of HK$1.97 billion ($253.5 million) in the first half of 2011 came from China, although Liu won’t make a specific forecast for next year.

Michael Qi, an investor relations consultant at formula maker Yashili International Holdings, which had 2010 sales of 2.95 billion yuan, also expects “the baby boom to boost the sales of our products,” he says. “The outlook is very promising.” Qi says the company will be able to meet any surge in demand since it is currently using only 70 percent of its manufacturing capacity.

Diaper sales will grow, from 24.3 billion yuan in 2011 to 28.4 billion yuan in 2012, researcher Euromonitor International estimates. And China’s baby food market will grow about 22 percent, to more than 68 billion yuan, in 2011 and almost double, to 136 billion yuan, by 2015, Euromonitor estimates.

Investors in stocks of Chinese dairy companies got hammered three years ago after tainted formula killed at least six infants, but they’re buying again. Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group shares dropped 67 percent in 2008 after reports that 22 companies sold products containing melamine. Since then, the stock has jumped more than fivefold. Milk producer China Mengniu Dairy lost 65 percent of its market value in 2008, but has since seen it more than double.

Still, Chinese makers of baby products face tough competition from overseas manufacturers because consumers continue to view local brands “as less trustworthy,” says James Roy, a consultant at China Market Research Group. Foreign companies already dominate in baby food. Illinois-based Mead Johnson Nutrition Group (MJN) had the biggest market share in infant formula in China last year with 11.7 percent, followed by France’s Danone at 9.8 percent. China’s Beingmate Group had 9.2 percent, and Yili 7.9 percent. Says Roy: “For those who can afford it, they will definitely go for imported foreign brands.”

The bottom line: A 5 percent baby bump is expected during China’s upcoming Year of the Dragon, which may power increased demand for baby goods.

An Effective Apology: Not Cost Free, Just Less Costly

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:24:09 +0000

The Bull Dog Reporter’s Blog of the Week is by our IPREX colleague and friend Ken Makovsky, from his blog site ‘My Three Cents‘. It’s an important read for anyone interested in public relations and particularly Crisis PR. And the blog makes wonderful reading.

Besides Ken’s thoughts it includes the wisdom of John Kador, author of ‘Effective Apology’. In part Kador says the following are essential for an effective apology:

•Recognize and specify the offense.
•Take complete responsibility.
•Remorse is required — you must say “I am sorry” or “I apologize.”
•Never use conditional words or the passive voice (e.g., “sorry if I offended you,” “missteps were made”).
•Offer restitution for the offense (e.g., “I will only practice and sanction ethical behavior”).
•Finally, live up to the promise. If you violate it again, you are dead meat.

We heartily agree with Makovsky when he adds: In conclusion, an effective apology is not

cost-free; it’s just less costly.

When Is An Apology Effective?

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 01, 2011

What weight hath an apology?

Ken Makovsky

It depends on whether it is an effective apology or an ineffective one. How would we rate Tiger Woods or Joe Paterno and the many others who have issued statements of regret? Do they qualify as effective?

Not as effective as they could have been.

Misstatements are made frequently, not only by celebrities, but by captains of industry and leaders of firms. As public relations counselors, we advise clients on how to apologize with impact, gradually converting potential enemies into friends.