{"id":682,"date":"2009-03-07T17:38:43","date_gmt":"2009-03-07T22:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/?p=682"},"modified":"2009-03-07T17:38:43","modified_gmt":"2009-03-07T22:38:43","slug":"blogger-relations-connect-with-passions-values-not-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2009\/03\/07\/blogger-relations-connect-with-passions-values-not-products\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogger Relations: Connect with passions & values, not products"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"graphic2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My <\/a>posts <\/a>earlier this week about Pepperidge Farm’s Fishful Thinking<\/a> initiative focused on the errors in execution of the blogger outreach. I’m done with analyzing these errors.<\/p>\n

Pepperidge Farm has personally apologized in email to at least some of the affected bloggers, the marketing agency spoke to a number on the phone and via email, and at least one attended today’s symposium in White Plains as an observer. Let’s let things play out.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there is one more important lesson for us, so bide with me a while.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons the situation erupted was because the pitch was perceived as valuable <\/strong>by the mom bloggers. On its face, the Fishful Thinking initiative accomplishes one of the things I regularly preach in blogger relations; it connects with parents over a shared value<\/a><\/strong> – the desire to raise optimistic kids. Especially in this economy, when we are all faced with the necessity of telling our children they can’t have something that in better times we might have been able to give. Throw in the stipend, and it’s no wonder the response was so high.<\/p>\n

But, by their own admission, they didn’t have an entirely clear idea of what sort of mom they were looking for when they started the outreach.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I would have done differently. Yes, I know I am in the comfy chair of an armchair quarterback, but if you know me, you’ll recognize the general approach.<\/p>\n

As I’ve noted above, I believe the Fishful Thinking program would be attractive to quite a few parents simply for its content — without the enticement of the trip to White Plains and the stipend.\u00a0 Since the company is also planning on building a wider network of parents (1000 according to Mr. Youth CEO Matt Britton), my question is: why didn’t they start there?<\/em><\/p>\n

With a broad outreach to parent bloggers about the program on its merits. Perhaps with an offer to send one of the expert’s books. Or offering a conference call with the expert on a specific topic.<\/p>\n

The Fishful Thinking program might not be everyone’s cuppa, but it definitely connects with parents around passions and values, not simply Goldfish. That’s such a good start; it makes all the execution errors even more of a shame.<\/p>\n

I am certain — dead certain — that potential candidates for the “faculty”, really good candidates (and that’s not to say that the 10 they’ve picked are not good) would have self-identified by taking the company up on its simple <\/strong>offer. The women would have written because the information offered intrinsic value to them, their blog, their readership.<\/p>\n

That would have been a far better and more defensible pool of candidates for the influencer program. Execution would still be critical –it always is — but there wouldn’t be so many questions about the criteria.<\/p>\n

That’s what I would have done. Start simple and progress to the complex. YMMV.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Stepping into the circle of shameless self promotion,\u00a0 if you like the general approach and you’re planning a blogger outreach campaign, call <\/a>or email <\/a>me.\u00a0 I’d love to help you develop a program that connects with the passions and values of your <\/strong><\/em>customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My posts earlier this week about Pepperidge Farm’s Fishful Thinking initiative focused on the errors in execution of the blogger outreach. I’m done with analyzing these errors. Pepperidge Farm has personally apologized in email to at least some of the affected bloggers, the marketing agency spoke to a number on the phone and via email, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[36,5],"tags":[51,52],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}