Additional Thoughts on -- On Thursday the podcast company Stitcher and the University of Chicago are launching a new podcast, "Pandemic Economics," hosted by Eduardo Porter and Tess Vigeland and exec produced by Ellen Horne...

We're living in uncertain times due to a terrifying pandemic that continues to raise questions that healthcare professionals can't answer (like do you develop immunity from it if you've already recovered from COVID-19 -- or could you get sick again from it?) combined with economic chaos that's reshaping our economy while creating huge numbers of unemployed workers. 

Against that backdrop, two questions we've been hearing are: "Should businesses conduct marketing and PR campaigns?" and if so, "What's constitutes an effective campaign now?" 

We recently set to answer those questions in a blog post entitled, "9 Tips and Considerations for Conducting PR When It's Not Business-As-Usual" that appeared in CommPro.Biz.  

But after that article appeared, we came across a couple of additional thoughts we wanted to discuss.

For example, one colleague wrote on LinkedIn: "The biggest challenge for companies, IMO: Being relevant while not appearing predatory." 

We think that's right, that getting the balance right -- between letting their customers know they're open for business while also being sensitive to what we're all going through, and that this is far from business-as-usual -- will be a big challenge.

For example, we've seen a lot of ads that tout the heroism of their employees. But in our article, we advised companies that their marketing messages need to match reality. That may be a problem because some of those companies don't have a great reputation for how they treat their employees, unfortunately. They need to watch out for articles such as this from VOX: “'I did not sign up for the military. I signed up for Walmart.' What grocery store workers say they’re facing during the pandemic." We think there could be more articles that highlight the discrepancy between messaging and reality, and that could be a problem.

And according to CNN's great "Reliable Sources" newsletter, "Kantor Media held a webinar about 'TV & video consumption in 'the new normal.'" One of the findings was there's been "an even more pronounced surge in YouTube consumption than Netflix, and a relatively small decline in 'co-viewing,' or people watching together. That means increased TV/streaming consumption mostly consists of people scattering to watch, as opposed to a major bump in shared or family viewing."



But to our perspective, what's important are the implications for advertising. Kantor's "researchers found that people don't feel that brands should stop marketing during the pandemic, but that companies need to be careful not to appear as if they're exploiting it -- a 'fine line,' as media division CEO Andy Brown put it....But the findings generally reinforced some key points about increased consumption, acceleration of streaming and the hunger to return to some semblance of normalcy whenever that's possible..."

We do think the desire to return to normalcy among consumers is important to keep in mind. Marketing functions should keep that in mind when considering how to approach their marketing efforts.

We also expect there to be long-term changes in how we work (more will continue to work from home afterwards) and live, and how we pursue leisure and entertainment. Companies that can anticipate how this will play out should start developing campaigns to address that.

Let us know if you have additional thoughts about how to navigate this crisis from a marketing perspective. 

9 Tips and Considerations for Conducting PR When It's Not Business-As-Usual

For businesses and nonprofits, as for all of us, the world shifted dramatically with the arrival of COVID-19. 

It's certainly far from business-as-usual. 

Yet business continues, and organizations need to continue to operate and keep in communication with their employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

This article will offer some ideas of steps to take during the crisis. But before we get into that, we want to thank: healthcare workers who are taking care of others, EMTS and other first responders,  along with everyone who work in supermarkets -- those who stock shelves and the cashiers -- and other always-essential stores that remain open, including restaurants -- and everyone in the kitchen -- now offering take-out food. We also want to thanks all those who deliver and transport the things we need as well as cable and phone technicians who are maintaining our Internet capabilities, while we're sheltering in place. 

Here are some ideas:

1. Understand that the media's focus has changed. This is important, especially if you're targeting consumer or national business media (as opposed to trade media): every reporter now also covers how COVID is impacting their regular beat. This is true for trade media, too, since they continue to cover their regular business but they are likely to ask questions about the impact of COVID.
   
2. Recognize that COVID-related layoffs have shrunk a lot of newsrooms. A lot of businesses are suffering -- we're not trying to minimize that. But for PR and marketing functions that work with reporters, it's important to realize that a lot of local and trade media have initiated significant cutbacks on staff. That means that newsrooms may not have the resources to cover your story (even if they did just a few weeks ago).
3. Re-evaluate your communications and marketing objectives, strategies, goals, announcements and product roadmaps. Whatever you planned for 2020 may no longer be relevant, starting with launches and trade shows -- especially launches at trade shows. While we don't know yet when the general economy will reopen, you should like at key themes, plans, announcement and goals and adjust them given current conditions. It will require being more flexible and more sensitive to context than usual. 
4. Stay relevant. Look for ways to support and contribute to your community because they need that support. For a software development client, we suggested offering tips for programmers working from home -- and found some interest among trade reporters. Make sure you and your messaging stays focused on employees and customers (and not on the company itself unless its how the company is taking specific new steps to help employees and customers).
5. Postpone unnecessary announcements. Not all announcements are equally important. Those that aren't should be pushed back or dropped. A potential client asked us about issuing a press release to announce a new CEO for a small, international healthcare product company. We told them to hold off on that press release. While trade media continues to publish, it seems like it would be better to wait. For one thing, the news might get lost or overwhelmed amid the COVID news. Please note: some announcements are absolutely necessary; those should go forward but make sure you understand the context of when and how you issue the release. Also keep in mind: your news may not get the coverage it would have just a few months ago.
6. Don't try to generate coverage because you're doing something about COVID. Every organization has had to shift its operations to adjust to the current crisis. So doing something to fight COVID isn't enough. You need to have something special to stand apart from what everyone else is doing. There's a lot of COVID messaging. ads, content (including this blog entry) and spam so you need to find ways to break through the clutter. Keep in mind:  Jumping on the COVID bandwagon risks making your organization look desperate. 
7. Find a way to stand out by doing something unexpected but that fits with your brand. This won't work for most brands, but Steak-umm's social media experimented has paid off, according to the Wall St. Journal: "Steak-ummEmerges as Unlikely Coronavirus Misinformation Watchdog: Processed-meat maker encourages Twitter followers not to trust everything they read; ‘peak irony’ for a brand builder." 
8. Content remains important. Trade media remains interested in bylined articles; we've been in touch with a couple of editors in different sectors who have been requesting content for May, June and July. They’re thinking ahead but some of the planning is taking place now. For the short-term, you still need content for your blog and social media if only to show that your organization is active and current. 
9. Think long-term. There's still work to be done, even during a crisis. After the dot-com crash and in 2007-8 financial crisis, we used the down time to develop new processes and content for when we came out the other side. We're working with clients to continue to develop relevant content (some of which will be posted after the crisis is over), and we're doing that for ourselves, too. 

We're going through something that requires the sensitivity of the post-9/11 era and the post-financial crash of 2007-08. And it may be weeks, if not months, before we're able to get back to some sort of normalcy. (Unfortunately, our guess is that this will happen later rather than sooner.) And we think that once we're on the other side of the crisis, there will be significant changes to how we live, work, shop, educate, and entertain ourselves. Companies need to start thinking about what that future may look like. In the meantime, it's an opportunity to re-evaluate what your organization does and how it approach and update that.

Five Challenges for Marketing in 2014

After reading "Segal reflects changes" in the last printed edition of BtoBonline, I think it's easy to take for granted the significant changes that have occurred in just the last decade (Rick Segal takes the perspective of 32 years in the business).

I don't agree with the first, entirely, but here are some of the challenges he identified:

• B2B is dead -- "What it comes down to is the way that work is just part of life. Individual people are so extraordinarily empowered by technology and by newly democratized models of management that people make little distinction between their personal and professional exertions and diversions."
•  The new model of marketing is humanity -- In the new model. "Individual men and women are actors in the task of business decision-making, which is one part of people's work lives. B2b, as I have lived it and known it, has always been arithmetic and rational, but humanity is geometric and emotional. I don't think we've begun to scrape the surface of the strategic, creative and tactical transformations required for the new model. I don't think an entirely new model has emerged yet, responsive to the dramatic changes that we're seeing."
• Big challenge is smaller targets -- "The degree to which everything has become smaller and more dispersed. The easy, almost instantaneous replication of value is a principal challenge all marketers face, whether they are in what we'd call b2b or b-to-c. It is very, very difficult to command positions of longstanding market or segment domination as was once the case."
• No more patience for patience --  "Marketing used to be about seeding and planting innovations that would grow into mighty oaks of market domination. Today's world has no such patience for that kind of processed growth."
• Technology has made marketing better and more difficult --  "We have all of these technologies and all of these tools that allow us to be more precise and measured and to reach more people. The fact of the matter is, all these things have made the task of marketing more difficult than ever. The good news is, there is more work to be done in more places, both in time and in geography."

According to Segal, "The opportunity for smart marketers to figure these things out" meaning how technology can be harnessed. That's the real challenge for marketers in 2014.

Marketing Advice from Cadillac -- Yes, Cadillac

There was a good Fast Company article about the reinvention of Cadillac's marketing, "Cadillac Turns To A 28-Year-Old To Reinvent The 'Standard Of The World';To break from its past, Caddy turned to someone who is different in every way" focusing on 28-year-old Veda Partalo, planning director at Minneapolis-based Fallon, the ad agency tasked with completing Cadillac's decade-long makeover.

I know, Cadillac.

The truly worthwhile nugget appeared in the last column in the print edition:

To her, the buyer, not the seller, determines the narrative. It is the buyer who wants ads that reinforce his essential rightness. She only figures out who he is and what he wants to be, then shows him a spot with a Cadillac besting a Ferrari on a windy racetrack.

Partalo began by scrapping the old approach of mini-campaigns for each model. "Sometimes you want to communicate to each buyer based on his individual needs," she says, her pumpkin-colored hair falling in waves around the Recaro bucket seat, a hand-stitched blend of black leather and saffron faux suede. "But the luxury buyer is different. He's more concerned with the brand's overall background, its heritage." If you're still claiming Standard of the World status, you better be able to prove it--especially when you're putting $70,000 of American metal up against Germany's finest. "So we wanted to do two things," she says. "First, bring Caddy back to its original standing. Second, do it through a campaign of substance."

This approach is especially in the social media age.

Fast Company & 8 Tips on the Future of Marketing

Ok, so this is not going to be a Valentine's Day post.

The current issue of Fast Company features a compelling article, "The Future of Advertising" by Danielle Sacks that raises some key points for all marketing-related agencies, including PR:

• Marketing can't just be entertaining. It must be useful.
• Marketing can no longer be just glossy concepts perfected before going to the client to approve.
• Digital is incremental, experimental, continually optimized, in perpetual beta.
• Digital will change how you make money, staff projects, price things.
• Digital isn't just one channel -- it's a medium that blooms thousands of other mediums, leading to fragmented audiences via fragmented access points (search, geotagging, iPad, mobile apps, and social networks.
• While there has never been more to reach consumers, it's never been more ways to connect.
• Creating more work for less money -- which means that agencies of all sorts are paying the know ho of being in an industry that doesn't know to protect its own interests, according to Jean Marie Dru, Chair of TBWA.
• The rules will keep changing.
  

Sacks cites an article Dru wrote in Advertising Age, "Endless Pressure on Price Traps Agencies, Clients in Death Spiral," which is also worth reading.

What will the future of marketing be in 2011? It's clear that marketing will continue to evolve, and quickly. We think it's clear that companies can no longer sit on the sidelines of social media as a fad. For more of what we think, check back soon for our annual list of trends.

Note to Direct Marketers: Ominous Statements Do Not Work

The Small Business division of Verizon really wants my company to upgrade our service with them.

I know this because it seems like not a week goes in which I don't get a letter from Verizon asking me to call them about their new "upgraded service options."

Recently, the envelopes have new language on them:

"Service Update: Second Notice."

Today's was at least the third time I've received such a letter from Verizon.

I keep looking at the envelope, and then tossing the letter without opening it.

Does Verizon truly think that sending letters that look and sound (from the outside) like their dunning me for past-due payment is a good way to entice me to purchase more services for them?

I'm sure the letter promises great improvements on my service options -- whatever those are. And that these new, wonderful and useful service options will provide some sort of benefit to my business.

But just think: I get these letters marked "Second Notice" from Verizon, and I haven't even signed up for more services. If this is what I can expect when they want me to upgrade, what kind of tone and language can I expect if I actually do sign up?

I don't need Verizon to nag me. Especially when I take care of what I would think is more important to them: paying their invoices on time.

Yeah, I may be missing out on new service upgrades that will unlock the key to the universe (which Bruce Springsteen once said he found in the engine of an old parked car).

But in this economy, I think you want to be associated with something positive and aspirational. These repeated letters from Verizon -- which, among other things, shows they can't count, because it's been at least seven notices over all -- are tone deaf and offensive at a time when so many people and businesses face economic difficulties. Would a gym send a letter to customers to get them to increase their membership levels, addressed "Dear Fatty?"

Then why send a letter that basically conveys, "Dear Deadbeat"?

Does Verizon really think that this is a way to get more customers to upgrade? As Don Rickles might say, "Hello, Dummy!"

Book Review: "No Time Marketing" Can Help Startups Start Their PR & Marketing Campaigns

Everyone's looking for signs of a sustained recovery -- and it's certainly not the stock market.

What I've seen is an increase in the confidence among CEOs and COOs of startup companies that I've been meeting. CEOs and founders of startups always have a lot of passion for their companies -- if not, they shouldn't be running the company.

What's different is that these executives aren't just focused on developing their products -- they're also very interested in providing marketing and PR support for their products. We haven't really seen that in a few years.

The challenge, however, is that they still need to budget and staff their marketing and PR functions at a time when their investors and board members may be reluctant, still, to fund PR.

That's where No Time Marketing may be able to help. Written by Alyssa Dver, a former chief marketing officer, No Time Marketing is a short book (just 115 pages) that does a great job of capturing the essentials of marketing for busy executives, providing tips and actionable questions that can help startups develop a marketing plan.

Chapter 2 contains a very good marketing inventory, designed to help companies figure out what they have and what they need in order to make sure they're targeting the right customers with appropriate messages and materials.

In the course of meeting with potential investors and customers, many executives may have already asked themselves some of these marketing-oriented questions, but I bet they haven't thought through all the questions Dver offers or as systematically, looking at prospects and customers, the buying process, marketing channels, competition and market. The No Time Marketing inventory is a good list, but even with 30 questions it doesn't feel overwhelming. That's important because too many questions covering every possibility (such as does the management team for your tech company agree on how to pronounce its mashup-type name) would make the exercise less effective.

In fact, the book is designed so that every step or exercise can be completed in 30 minutes or less. That's really important for a busy startup executive who does not have the time or staff to handle marketing.

The inventory leads to a good chapter on getting to know your customers better followed by a brief chapter on how to position your company. Even if startups have developed a compelling investor presentation about the needs the company seeks to fill, they still may have overlooked how to describe their business. (I recently met a CEO who, when asked for his elevator pitch, realized he didn't have one even though he has angel investors, a beta product and beta customers; it took him five minutes to explain what the company does -- at which time he realized they needed to work on their positioning.)

The rest of the book addresses pricing, acquiring leads and fostering leads. Chapter 6 on acquiring leads provides a good list of lead generation methods that includes

• Advertising
• Direct mail
• Email and newsletters
• PR
• Trade shows, conferences and association meetings
• Face-to-face seminars
• Webinars and teleseminars
• Telemarketing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Customer loyalty programs
• Referral programs
  

She also provides some templates to set goals and measure success -- an important element that can sometimes be overlooked.

The book also includes 10 marketing truths. The most important may be the first:

"Marketing is as much an art as it is a science. Plan, test, execute, and measure, but never be surprised by uncertainty and change."

No Time Marketing can help startups looking for a no-nonsense guide to conducting marketing -- helpful even if they decide to work with an agency.

Readers of this blog can save 15% on the purchase of No Time Marketing. Click here to order and use the coupon: birnbach.

Invisible Banner Ads -- Sure, consumers will like them, but not the companies paying for them

There's a lot of dark out there. Dark matter -- matter in the Universe that physicists can't see. Dark pools -- of liquidity that buy-side traders can't see because it is not displayed on order books. And now, dark ads and dark press release pick-ups. (I could've mentioned the dark side of the force, for Star Wars fans, or Dark Side of the Moon for any Pink Floyd fans, but thought those were dated references. Well, Pink Floyd certainly.)

Dark ads are those that are coded to appear on sub-pages of some websites. The intent is to collect money by selling space that doesn't really exist. According to the Wall St. Journal, "Web Ads Hidden Under Cloak of Invisibility," what happens is that "software code running behind the scenes opened more than 40 Web pages, each including three ads from marketers."

The user doesn't see those ads, but the marketers are charged for them as if users had.

But because of click-through fraud, "Advertisers often buy display ads based on the number of times they are loaded onto a page, rather than the number of clicks they get."

Now, to dark press release (as opposed to dark marketing; check out my blog article on dark marketing). Part of the service you get when you distribute press releases via one of the paid services is a report showing where the press release was picked up. Sometimes the links they provide are from very well known media sites. In the pick-up report, you get the media outlet's logo and a specific URL for that press release.

Clients are often impressed with the media outlets' logos.

But when you click on that media outlet's home page to conduct a search for the client's press release -- well, you can't find it. The press release exists only on that link the distribution service provided and it is not searchable or findable any other way.

So, if you can't see these pick-ups except for when you actually have the specific links -- do they count?

I wouldn't think so -- but, on the other hand, when I searched online for two Wall St. Journal articles I had seen in the print edition, I could not find them using the Journal's search engine. However, I was able to find them using Google. So, do those articles count if they're not easily accessible using the site's search engine?

The answer: of course the articles count. They're just harder to find.

We still have to show what kind of pick-up press releases get, but we now prefer services that have improved their reporting to find pick-ups beyond the dark press release pick-ups.

In a searchable world, you have to be able to find content for it to count. The articles were found by Google, even if the Journal's engine couldn't (and they were from today's paper). The dark press releases can sometimes be found using Google, even if the media site's own search engine couldn't.

My preference: original articles, not just press release pick-ups. But in this age of smaller news staffs, we're seeing a lot more pick-ups than ever before -- albeit slightly edited.

Avoiding Gobbledygook

In "Goodbye, Gobbledygook; PC Makers Are Dropping Sales Pitches Built on Complex Specs," the New York Times reports that the computer sector is finally learning a basic marketing lesson: avoid jargon.

After two decades, PR manufacturers are also learning a lesson from Apple: Consumers don't like tech for tech's sake. They like what tech can do for them.

The article notes that Intel, Dell and others are finally focusing on what the computers can do, not the internal configuration. This is a critical time for the sector -- facing next month's release of Windows 7, the popularity of low-priced, low-margin netbooks, the industry seems to be at something of a crossroads.

The release of Windows 7 should push computer sales, especially of those with dying laptops waiting to skip Vista.

But it will be interesting to see if the non-jargon marketing will be successful.

I hope it will be because that will help PR functions help our clients in product marketing to focus on the benefits of their technologies, not the features or specs.

Marketing & The Importance of Claiming an Attribute

One of the goals of marketing is to get people to care about your product or service -- and to associate a specific attribute with your brand. Even if that attribute might not seem important outside the context of that need.

For example, Charmin. "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" got you thinking about softness of bathroom tissue (as they called it, instead of toilet paper). But did anyone actually squeeze toilet paper like it's a piece of fruit? Doesn't matter. All those annoying ads with Mr. Whipple registered with the public.

How about the need for mountain-grown coffee? For years, Folgers claimed its mountain-grown coffee was the richest, most aromatic kind of coffee. 

What Folgers didn't tell you is that all coffee is mountain grown.

But that's an attribute they made you care about.

Wired recently provided a similar look at beer marketing: "3 Smart Things About Beer Marketing." You should check out their points because there's a lot of beer advertising promoting attributes that are either wrong or common attributes of other beers.

My favorite, which they did not list, is drinkability. Bud Light apparently thinks that all other beers -- including, one must suppose, its non-light beer version -- lack "drinkability." I think that's an absurd attribute to define, defend and associate with a beer. (I bet if you drink too much of Bud Light you might lose the ability to say drinkability.) On the other hand, pour enough money into the ad campaign, and perhaps consumers will start assessing the drinkability-ness of their preferred beverage.

Five Tips for Facebook Marketing -- But in social media, one size does not fit all, and five tips won't work for everyone

I'm a sucker for quick tips, but increasingly, I've found that many of the tips I come across are not necessarily appropriate for our clients.

It's not that the tips are wrong or stupid. Just not right for the way our clients operate, their budgets or their goals. After all, our tips may not be appropriate for other situations and clients, too.

With more than 200 million users, Facebook represents a great opportunity to reach an engaged audience.

So I checked out "5 tips for optimizing your Facebook marketing" in BtoBOnline only to find that the first tip was obvious -- "Have a strong presence."

And yet, many companies do not have a regular strategy posting updates and interesting content. Most companies are not enlisting their employees to sign up as fans of their corp. Facebook page so that their friends and people doing Facebook searches can find your company.

The next two -- "do some advertising" on Facebook and "create an application" -- make sense for consumer companies, but I don't think make as much sense for B2B companies. (I admit I don't really dig widgits.) And, yes, I realize that the article I'm citing is from BtoBOnline.

I think "Throw an Event" works for most B2Bs, though I've got a friend who runs a marketing company that uses Facebook to announce wine-and-cheese events at his office. Since he's half-way across the country, I don't know if these event notices work; I'm sure they do, but you have to pick select markets to make it work.

Of the five tips, I think the most important one is "Syndicate your content." For example, you can use your Notes page to import blog posts or the My Del.icio.us app to imporant bookmarks (if you've saved bookmarks). You can also use Simply RSS to bring all your RSS feeds to your Fan page. By the way use get RSS on Facebook, click here.

So, I'd mark this a 1.5 out of 5, which, scored on a sliding scale basis, is actually quite good.

Are Advertising Agencies Like Cats, PR Agencies Like Dogs?

104 West Partners principal makes the case that ad agencies are like cats, PR agencies are like dogs in an interesting blog post, "Reigning Cats and Dogs."

In the article, he makes the case why, during an economic downturn, marketing should go to the dogs. Here are two key points:

• Traditionally, PR is good value for money, to borrow a phrase from my British friends. The cost of a traditional PR media effort that has even mediocre results can return a 'CPM' (now before we get in a lather, I know it's not a perfect analogy, but it's what I got) of somewhere around 40 cents. And that's pretty conservative. That is only the pure media ROI and doesn't include non-media efforts like speaking engagements or strategic counsel. But we should also look at the non-traditional advantages. PR is essentially the ability to sway opinions. (Some might suggest it's more pedestrian than that; I'm not sure the pedestrian assessment isn't an undervaluation, as much as mine may be an overvaluation, but it's my blog.) And there is an opinion that this economic crisis is very much the result of emotion and opinion. Now I am not downplaying the reality of the credit crisis or the housing slide, but markets are very often driven by emotion. How else would you account for 1000 point swings in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in a matter of minutes?
• In terms of Web 2.0 approaches, Ward says, "The solutions offered by others instead of PR simply don't scale. The complexity of the communications effort needed to justify expenses on goods and services in the coming months will not lend itself to marketing's blunter instruments and even if they did, the cost of making them successful is incongruent with the belt-tightening we are all facing."

Interesting.

How to Market in a Down Economy -- Interesting Entrepreneur Article Has Suggestions

Many companies think about cutting back marketing during a downturn.

According to "Turn It Around: When the economy takes a tumble, don't let your marketing go down with it. Stay standing by retuning your message," companies "can successfully market your way through an economic downturn by implementing a recession-minded strategy. It's essential to adapt and retool to find the smartest routes to increasing market share and ROI."

Among the best suggestions is to better understand customer behavior and market to current customers.

Check out the article for some good ideas.

Entrepreneur Magazine Looks at 21 Ways to Get Noticed -- Not Sophisticated Enough

Entrepreneur Magazine is a good magazine, filled with useful tips. The Oct. issue contained an article that, for novices, provides some good marketing ideas.

But the article, "Get Noticed: Shine a spotlight on your business with our 21 low-cost marketing moves," does not provide information useful for entrepreneurs who have some marketing experience.

For example, no marketing how-to article would be complete without urging readers to blog. But blogging is not a shortcut. It takes time and commitment to do it right. And it can be difficult to measure ROI, much less than to find the time to write a blog.

However, I did like the idea to make employees a sales tool -- too many companies forget to do that.

Still, if you don't have much marketing experience, check out the article.

B2B Marketing and corporate aspirations

There’s an old joke about two grandmothers in Miami Beach – long before it became today’s fabulous Miami Beach, when it was still populated with retirees. The two women hadn’t seen each other in a while. The first said, “My youngest grandson just became a doctor.” “Big deal,” replied the other. “My Howie’s in the medical profession, too. He’s a patient.”

I thought of that joke recently when some friends who served with me on our college newspaper sent around emails commenting on one of our few colleagues still working in journalism. He’s been working for one of the country’s best regarded newspapers, and just published another well regarded book. Big deal, I thought; I’m in the journalism field. As a consumer of too many newspapers and magazines.

But because I work in public relations, I still care about journalism, still try to think like a reporter when advising our clients, still come up with story ideas that I hope will interest reporters and editors, and still stay on top of trends.

Of the editors and writers who served on the college paper, there are three I know who still work as journalists. One works as Pennsylvania State House reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Which is great, if you don’t mind living in Harrisburg (official motto: “Making Cleveland Look Good”).

Another is a freelance reporter, who now writes for national magazines. But her first jobs included writing for a trade publication for yarn manufacturers. She used to talk about the challenges of writing for the Knitting Times included getting industry executives to take the time to be interviewed by her. One day, after placing numerous calls to a reluctant exec, the receptionist misheard my friend, and, thinking she had said she was a reporter for the New York Times, put her right through. The executive was none too pleased when he realized the mistake.

As for our former colleague who writes for one of the country’s best-regarded newspapers, after sophomore year, he decided that college wasn’t going to teach him what he needed to become a reporter, so he quit. He somehow got a job writing for that paper’s suburban weekly section before moving up, ironically enough, to serve as one of the paper’s education reporters. These days, he covers Washington, DC politics, has written books, and appears on political talk shows, providing his opinion.

Somehow, on those lofty programs, no one ever mentions that he never graduated from college.

On the other hand, there’s Harry Bernstein, who at age 93, after years editing a trade magazine for builders, generated tremendous reviews and interest with the publication of what the New York Times said is “a deeply affecting memoir,” a coming-of-age story that “is an eloquent evocation of a particular time and place,” namely a poor mill town in northern England before and during World War I. Though Bernstein had published a number of short stores in the 1930s, he didn’t achieve real literary success until seven decades later. But he kept trying.

The common denominator here may be trite as much as it’s true: you need to figure out your dream and pursue it. The lack of traditional credentials hasn’t prevented my former classmate from succeeding. The lack of full-blown success didn’t frustrate Bernstein from continuing to work on his writing to finally get a book published to enthusiastic reviews.

But from a business perspective, it’s important to remember aspirations. Lots of B2B companies talk about how they solve customer pain points. It’s an important message.

Companies often forget that their B2B customers also have aspirations that are more than eliminating pain…which, after all, is a negative focus. B2B customers also have goals they want to achieve – that include, but are not limited to profitability, expansion, market share, etc. B2B companies have keep their customers’ goals in mind, and find ways to help them succeed. Those companies that can help their customers achieve those positive goals will connect more closely with them, develop stronger relationships, and thrive.