Tag Archives: nonprofit PR firms Los Angeles

The Labor-Management Cooperation Committee: A recipe for success

For more than three decades, Farr Marketing has represented Labor-Management Cooperation Committees (LMCC) in several industries. Our longest relationship is with the IBEW Local 11 and NECA Los Angeles Chapter LMCC.

For those not familiar with the LMCC structure, it is a Committee composed of precisely what it says: Labor and Management. Why have so many industries adopted the LMCC? The LMCC structure provides the optimum vehicle to promote their industry. After all, after the collective bargaining agreement has been negotiated, there needs to be a means to promote their industry so work flows to contractors who in turn employ skilled labor.

For the IBEW/NECA LMCC, we promote the union electrical industry to a range of audiences which include:

Business — Corporations who design and build the largest, most high-tech projects in Los Angeles. Union electrical contractors and electricians have worked on many of the most high-profile projects in Southern California.

Political leaders — Political leaders are an important target audience for several reasons including the approval process needed for large-scale projects. They are an equally important audience for Project Labor Agreements (PLA) when large public projects are created.

General public — Visibility among the public is always important. The public elects politicians and local neighborhoods and homeowners associations are very vocal about projects that are planned in their backyard. In addition, recruiting new workers is always an important objective, although currently the business environment is strong and there are as many jobs as there are trained apprentices and journeymen electricians to fill those jobs.

Media — Media have different views on unions and projects. Nurturing and maintaining good media relations is critical. Unions have many great stories to tell about how they are providing great jobs to a trained workforce (that they train). Those stories need to be told as it sets the tone for development growth.

Our marketing and public relations campaigns are geared to these three audiences. The strategy is to convey how our LMCC clients benefit the economy, workers and the public at large.

We do this in a number of ways. We produce materials that show the finished product that our client, in this case union electrical contractors and electricians, have produced. We do this photographically. Being the electrical industry, we are afforded the opportunity to show dramatic lighting in large, complex venues.

We also promote the training that is afforded young men and women who are seeking a skilled career. Publicity on projects is also a vehicle when a high-profile project is being built and especially when it is completed.

The same can be done for all construction industries. Each trade makes a significant contribution to a high-rise office building, stadium, housing complex and more. Whatever the construction trade, promoting the skills and knowledge of union workers benefits everybody.

Loughlin and Litigation PR

Word is spreading that Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli, who are accused of paying bribes to get their daughter into USC, now are shopping for a crisis litigation PR expert to resurrect her image.

We are not among the firms contacted, and Loughlin’s publicist denies the report.  However, two crisis PR firms, who chose to remain anonymous, told CNN they were called to discuss public relations strategies because Loughlin is quite upset that all the news about her is about the scandal and not her career.

Whether this is real or fake news, both firms said they turned down working for Loughlin.  And for good reason.  When someone is faced with criminal charged – charges that could result in jail time – a career should take second place to beating the case.  It won’t do much good to have a great image while in prison.

The example that is commonly cited for a celebrity image resurrection is Martha Stewart.  Stewart was convicted of a stock fraud scheme and served time in prison.  She did her time, her company continued without her, and when she was released she picked up where she left off.  Today, few remember or care that she is a convicted felon.

Since Loughlin pleaded not guilty, rather than guilty as the others did, the government added charges of money laundering and hence potentially more time in prison if convicted.  This could be legal maneuvering or maybe denial, but in any event, it doesn’t look good for Loughlin and Giannulli.

So let’s take a look into the future.  Suppose she does prison time (unlikely as it is) and after a year or so gets released.  Can she pick up the pieces of her acting career?  Already since the indictment she has lost her Hallmark contract and other acting jobs.  She is essentially “Hollywood toxic” as of now.  Her daughter, Olivia Jade lost most if not all of her sponsors for her YouTube channel.  But she is young and Loughlin claims she didn’t know of the scam.  Time will tell.

If Loughlin goes to prison, her first task will be to write a book.  It will be a tell all book about “doing the right thing” and how to succeed after a major setback.  This, if she admits wrongdoing, and that’s a big question.  Then, the release of her book will be timed with her release from prison so she can make the talk circuit rounds.  She’ll do The View, Colbert, 60 Minutes.  The usual round.  She will talk about what she has learned and how it made her a stronger person.

For those of us in the crisis PR business, there is a template for re-creating an image.  There are limits, such as heinous crimes that can’t be forgiven, but most celebrities are the white collar sort of criminals.  People forgive and forget, especially if they were not hurt personally.

There is no doubt Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman will land on their feet, sooner or later.  Fortunately for them they have the financial means to stick it out, buy the best lawyers and pay the bills.  The lasting mark will be on the internet, on their Wikipedia pages that will note their transgressions but it is more likely than not that if they do time, they will resume their lives with the help of professional crisis PR experts.

The Marketing and PR Plan for Nonprofits

When we launch a marketing and PR campaign for a nonprofit, clients often ask us, “where do we start?” Unless the client is brand new, they already have done marketing. They usually have social media, issued some news releases, maybe put on a special event or two. and more. Usually with minimal success.

What we virtually always recommend is basic. Create a marketing and PR plan. Anybody in business finds this obvious. How can you build a building without blueprints? How can you get from point A to point B without a map or GPS?

So the first thing we do is the plan. And the plan starts with us getting to know the client. If we are to be an nonprofit’s PR strategist, we need to know everything about them. We need to know their strengths and weaknesses. What they have done and what they plan to do.

After we become oriented, we conduct interviews with key personnel to get internal perspectives on their vision for the organization. One would be surprised to learn how people who work at the same entity can have different views of how they are perceived by customers and those they serve.

We put all our research together, give it some thought, conduct additional outside research and create a plan. Often this plan contains an Action Item list of activities and in many instances it also included a crisis communication plan.

Why don’t organizations, nonprofits, create their own plan? Many do. But it often takes an outsider, someone with fresh eyes, to come in and see what they take for granted or assume everybody already knows.

If your nonprofit organization doesn’t have a current marketing and PR plan, or if your plan needs updating, consider creating one or at least a fresh approach. The world changes rapidly, donors come and go, opportunities arise unannounced. Remember, if you are not keeping ahead, or at least keeping up, you are falling behind.

Does Trump’s PR style trump all others?

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump finally made official what he has been flirting with for years.  He declared himself a candidate for president.  And to nobody’s surprise.

It’s also no surprise how he made the announcement and what he said.  To lots of fanfare — as all candidates have at the ready — Trump spoke about the U.S. presidency as if it were a corporation.  He spoke as if he wasn’t running for president of the U.S., but for emperor; in no need of a vice president, cabinet, congress or advisors.

But that’s who he is, and if he changed now it would be kind of a let down, don’t you think?  What we expect of Donald Trump is someone who speaks his mind, is egocentric and a bit of a bully.  Quite a sharp contrast to the presidents we are accustomed to.

The question I would like to raise is whether this style that has been so successful in the boardroom will resonate with the American people.  Are we ready for a president who says he is ready to go eye-to-eye with every other country so we can finally get the U.S. out of debt and in the black?

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Few people are taking Trump’s candidacy seriously.  It is great fodder for late night TV hosts.  But some say whether he is a serious candidate or not, he will undoubtedly raise issues nobody else wants to talk about such as the trade imbalance, domestic jobs and so forth.  The other candidates don’t want to talk about the economy because there are no easy answers and no easy solutions.  Slapping a tax on everything coming into the U.S. is not a new idea.  It was done in the 1980s when Congress limited the number of Japanese manufactured cars into the U.S.  The import quota actually worked because it forced Japanese automakers to build U.S. plants.  Today most of the Japanese cars sold in the U.S. are made in the U.S.

What I am talking about is not substance but style. One reason few are taking Trump seriously is not his message but how he delivers it.  If I were his PR advisor (and I am not) I would encourage him to focus on his ideas and check his ego, bullying, and brashness at the door.   If he truly wants his ideas heard, debated and considered, and if he truly cares about making America “great” again, he needs to make his campaign about issues not himself.  Everything in his announcement speech related to his business and himself.  He needs to talk about the rest of America, not only his net worth and who he is competing with in his hotel and golf course business.

Tone down the rhetoric and up the focus on the issues, Mr. Trump.  If you do, perhaps you’ll be taken seriously and even more important, maybe you will force the other candidates to think about these issues and come up with some ideas (and solutions) of their own. Please follow us for more info and tips on having the quickest lending option for you.

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