Meet Rachel Tabakin

Rachel Tabakin recently joined the Sinclair & Co. team as office manager.

In her new role, Rachel uses her experience to support account managers with research and special projects for the agency’s clients. She provides operational support for bookkeeping, human-resources programs and general office management. She also is responsible for organizing Sinclair & Co.’s volunteer initiatives and company events.

Rachel is a native of Virginia Beach, Va., and earned her bachelor’s degree in arts administration from George Mason University.  A devoted, season-ticket-holding Carolina Hurricanes fan, Rachel spends some of her free time taking ice skating lessons.

Struggling to Remain Relevant

The other day, I visited a small electronics store. It’s part of a national chain that one major newspaper recently described as “struggling to remain relevant.” I’m shopping for a portable DVD player.

The store had four models on display behind the cash register. When I described my need to the clerk sitting on a stool, playing with his Blackberry, he casually pointed over his shoulder.

“We’re out of the Sony so you’ll have to buy that one, the floor model,” he said, his eyes firmly affixed on his Blackberry.

Suddenly he looked up and added, “No matter which model you get, you need an extended warranty.” And he proceeded to lecture me on the notorious unreliability of portable DVD players. Their batteries fail. Their screens quit working.

“And if you lose the power cord, forget it,” he said. “Good luck replacing that.”

Now, I know that (a) most extended warranties are a complete waste of money and (b) they represent pure profit, which is why retailers are so eager to sell them. But to try to make a sale by describing how bad the actual product is before I’ve bought the product? That’s nutty.

Good service means understanding your customer’s needs and doing your best to meet them. In this situation, the clerk made no effort to find the best portable DVD player for my family. It’s why I walked out the door without buying anything.

Companies that don’t grasp the concept of good service will find themselves –like this retailer – “struggling to remain relevant.”

Google Trends and Current Events

I couldn’t resist sharing this Google Trends line graph for one of this week’s big news stories.  Any guesses what the search term is?

(The answer in the comments.)

In the Spirit of Transparency

Transparency is one of those words that has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people. It’s been showing up in unexpected places this year.

Its use at a panel discussion on social media last week caught my attention.  In a response to a question about using social media outlets for consumer marketing, the panel urged transparency in social media campaigns.  They encourage you to be clear to the audience about who you are and your intentions.

Isn’t that the transparency we seek in all the other ways the term is currently being used?

I used Google’s Trends tool to see how the term’s search pattern in the United States has trended, which you can view here: http://www.google.com/trends?q=transparency&geo=usa&sa=N

Its search volume has increased slightly so far this year over last year.  But what I found most interesting is that occurrences of the word “transparency” in news articles for 2009 are up significantly and steadily over last year.

Google Trends is a tool that we use in our interactive planning. And it’s also cool to check out for cultural trends like this.

Crisis Communications 101

Former N.C. First Lady Mary Easley’s brief employment at N.C State University recently resulted in four involuntary departures – hers, the chancellor’s, the provost’s and the chairman of the board of trustees. Read more about the details about this story.

While the feds explore whether Mary Easley’s husband, former N.C. Gov. Mike Easley, violated any campaign rules as they relate to her hiring, I feel confident saying some of the folks involved violated three basic rules about communicating with the media.

These are rules we at Sinclair & Co. cover during media training with clients and they are pretty fundamental:

• Never lie. This seems like a no brainer, but time and time again people fail to heed this simple admonition. (Remember Richard Nixon? Bill Clinton?) Lying only makes your problem worse – and lies will always come to light.
• When you have bad news to share, share it early and quickly. Bad news is just like a stuck-on Band-Aid® – you must address it quickly. Sure, it’ll hurt like heck and you may even scream, but then the pain is gone. As N.C. State officials learned the hard way, taking off a bad-news bandage bit by painful bit prolongs the agony for everyone involved.
• Admit your mistakes – then move on. Martha Stewart is an excellent example of this. Sentenced to time in prison for insider training, Stewart came out ready to put the past behind her and move her career forward. Her prison time has become a mere mention in most articles; it’s no longer the primary focus.

The fundamentals of strong media relations really are the fundamentals of life – don’t lie, do the right thing and don’t dwell in the past.