Milwaukee Biz Blog

Companies are announcing layoffs and even plant closings.  Wall Street continues to look increasingly bearish. Oil prices are outrageously high, affecting nearly everything from the price at the pump to the prices at the grocery store. The economy stinks and no end appears in sight.

What does it all mean? Well, for one thing, it means it's time to get timid, right? Time to back away from doing anything significant in a business sense. Time to back off.

No, quite the contrary.

One of the great flaws in American business is the inclination to run and hide, to circle the wagons when things get bad. I submit that if we want things to change for the better, we need to make it happen ourselves. Now is not the time to run and hide … it's the time to be aggressive, assertive, and bold.

Those who will lead the way out of this economic mess are those with the courage and innovative thinking to act "outside the box." And though some might say that sounds like a recipe for failure, I say that nobody ever succeeded by being afraid of their own business.

Business and marketing plans for this time need to be adjusted by asking, "How will we succeed, and even grow, while facing these current market forces?" It's not a matter of how to avoid failure. It's a matter of how to succeed.

You must look at your company's products and services. Do they fit in this economy? If not, how can they be adjusted to take advantage of opportunities, rather than fail in the face of challenge?

Now is not the time to automatically cut back on marketing, advertising, and public relations. If anything, these are vitally important business tools that may need to be given a freer hand to operate boldly. They need to be clearly thought-out, linked together, and aggressively pursued.

One need only look back to the example of Lee Iacocca and Chrysler's "K" cars that were introduced in the 1980s in response to a market devastated by high gas prices, increasing production costs and the consumers' need for smaller, more efficient vehicles. That was bold thinking. That was aggressive pursuit of an opportunity during a very down market. That was success, because even though the cars looked like little boxes, you saw them everywhere. Chrysler could use some of that kind of thinking now, in fact.

Bold, aggressive action is born of a solid assessment of your own strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. Of course, you've done that before, but have you done it in the current economic mess we face?

You may have produced "Product X" for 50 years, but if it isn't selling now, it's time to discover if you can produce a "Product Y" that will.

Merely sitting back and waiting for things to get better will only prolong the problem.  Speaking for myself, I'd rather go down swinging than go out with a whimper because I was afraid to stand up and kick the market forces in the tail with new products, new services, and a renewed commitment to customer service.

America is a great nation. American business is the backbone of who we are and what we stand for. Now it's up to America's business to lead us in this time of economic woe.

Steve Gardner is the director of marketing for the Sleep Wellness Institute in West Allis.

What makes a company a good corporate citizen? Some would say sponsoring free educational programs that benefit the community. Some might point to donating time and money to local non-profit organizations. Others may consider offering the use of their facilities to groups that have no other place to meet.

Actually, it can be all of these and more. But recenty, Steinhafel's Furniture took it one step further, and in so doing, showed us all something about being good citizens as well as good businesses.

When Steinhafel's, a third-generation family-owned company, purchased the assets of Evans Mattress and Furniture Co., also a third-generation locally owned company that was closing its doors, it found the right way to blend solid business decision-making with doing what is right for the community.

Steinhafel's recognized that purchasing machinery means nothing unless you have top notch people to operate it. So Steinhafel's also hired Evans' mattress-crafting staff to lead the way in developing quality products for the company's entry into the factory-direct market.

Jeff Tennyson, a third-generation member of the Evans family who will supervise mattress crafting for Steinhafel's, likes to point out that being part of Steinhafel's will allow his people to continue their passion … building quality mattresses by hand, one at a time, and making them available to a larger audience.

Now, those may seem like only six jobs to you and me, but they are six Milwaukee area jobs that are going to remain Milwaukee area jobs. They represent six families who won't need to worry about where their next meal is coming from or how to pay the mortgage. These jobs represent children who will be able to continue living in this community, getting their education here and, perhaps, working here someday in the future. In short, this isn't a case of one company buying another, and then taking the jobs elsewhere.

And there is more. Since Evans primarily supplied its own single store in the past, Steinhafel's will need to hire dozens more mattress-crafters to work in its New Berlin facility in order to provide mattresses for its own six stores in the area. More jobs for more families. More people with fewer worries about their future.

To be sure, the purchase was a smart move by Steinhafel's. Already Wisconsin's largest mattress retail store, Steinhafel's has now positioned itself to further its market share.   But perhaps the most important point is that the company did it in a way that serves the greater Milwaukee community and greater Milwaukee people. All businesses like to search for "win-win" situations, and Steinhafel's has clearly accomplished just that.

All of our local good corporate citizens deserve a tip of the hat for what they do. In this case, Steinhafel's deserves recognition for caring about people as much as business.

Steve Gardner is the director of marketing for the Sleep Wellness Institute in West Allis.

You just knew it was going to happen. Two of the big guys are butting heads. Our hometown brewery, Miller Brewing Co., and its nemesis, Budweiser, just can't seem to keep focused on selling product.

They're certainly dedicated to entertaining us, but now it looks like they're getting into another one of those you-know-what matches.

To bring you up to speed, Miller struck the first blow with its commercial showing Bud's Dalmatian jumping ship … or at least the beer wagon … to hitch a ride on a Miller truck, ostensibly because Miller Lite is better tasting and has fewer carbs than Bud Light. Cute ad.

In response, Bud is making a big, very public deal about the "negative" ads by making financial donations to animal rescue organizations. Nice idea.

But at the same time, hidden behind the oh-so-secretive Anheuser-Busch board room doors, company execs were shown, time and time again so they could snicker fully I would imagine, the St. Louis brewer's take on Miller's ad. Basically, it's the same ad, except the Budweiser dog takes a dump on a case of Miller Lite. Stupid.

Bud officials assure us that their ad will never see the "lite" of day, which is a good thing. No matter what beer you might drink, offensive is offensive. And spending your shareholders' money to produce a childish little insider joke is certainly offensive.

Wouldn't shareholders prefer that money be spent on an ad that actually sells their product?

For that matter, Bud's action begs the question: why did they wait until now to make donations to animal welfare organizations? I hope they have done so in the past … that it didn't take a poke in the eye from their competitor to make them do something good.

But let's not let Miller off the hook, either. They just can't seem to get it that cute and funny don't sell. Relevancy sells, and here's one consumer who fails to see the relevancy of many of their commercials.

Small wonder that being Miller's ad agency is a revolving door proposition. Just ask the "hottest agency" in the country, Crispin Porter & Bokusky.
So, with a frothy Sprecher in hand, here's a toast to good taste … and the hope that both Budweiser and Miller will soon figure out just exactly what that means!

Steve Gardner is a public relations account executive at Johnson Direct LLC in Brookfield. Additional information is available at http://johnsondirect.wordpress.com.

In the ever changing worlds of marketing and public relations, there are, somehow, certain things that never seem to change.

Take, for instance, our own failure as professionals to address the destruction of young women's and men's psyches and even their lives through the work we enthusiastically perform.

Twenty-five years ago, I handled public relations for the first-ever eating disorders treatment program in Wisconsin. And I did it well. I drew almost constant attention to anorexia nervosa and bulimia, always pointing to the media as one of the major culprits in a sinister campaign to prevent our children from ever developing a solid sense of self-esteem. I pointed to the seemingly unbelievable death of Karen Carpenter, the ridiculous popularity of Twiggy, and the fame of that most idealized of all bulimics, actress and work-out maven Jane Fonda.

Fast forward to 2007. The fashion industry, of all people, complains about overly thin models and even refuses to use them in some instances. Good for them, even though they're probably only bowing to pressure. But, at the same time, visit any basketball arena or football stadium and look at the "cheerleaders." Cars are still sold by ads that boast very thin women. Parents give their daughters liposuction and breast implants as birthday and graduation presents. Paris Hilton becomes an icon to our daughters. Nicole Richie staggers her way through Hollywood, barely a shadow of her former self. “Barbie” has changed a bit, but she still has a figure that is totally unrealistic. The pressure to be thin just keeps on growing, and even little girls are feeling it. And by little, I mean 5-year-olds.  And now, incredibly, researchers report that eating disorders and body image distortion are affecting older women, too.

It's really up to us in marketing and public relations to do something about it. While we are hardly the sole source of the problem, we need to take a stand, do the right thing and lead the way. Those aren't stick figures we're selling to out there … they're real women with real women's bodies and, unfortunately, all too often self-esteem that we contribute to destroying. How jaded can we be? We need to be courageous enough to tell our clients that harming potential customers in the name of sales is wrong. We need to show them alternatives that will work. We need to recognize, ourselves, that ignoring the mental and physical health of America's children isn't worth the business of any client.

Eating disorders are all about control. When you feel you can't control anything else in life, you can control how much (or little) you eat. You numb out. You turn away from life. In all too many cases, you die. It's unbelievable … it's depressing … it's ugly to watch a human being die in the name of trying to live up to someone else's standards of "beauty."

We all can help return that control to where it belongs … to each individual.

Just by being decent and doing the right thing.

Steve Gardner is a public relations account executive at Johnson Direct LLC in Brookfield. Additional information is available at http://johnsondirect.wordpress.com.

Recently, I wrote a blog for my company about how “Milwaukee is My Kind of Town,” basically extolling the virtues of our great and often underrated city.  I was pleased when The Small Business Times decided to run it, as well, even though it was a little on the light-hearted side.

So, imagine my surprise when someone sent not one, but two blistering responses, ripping me apart because, in her opinion, my words about her apparent favorite singer were less than flattering.  She attacked not only my words, but also my personality and, worst of all, my relationship with my wonderful wife of 30 years.  I responded that my comments were made only as a joke, and urged others to write in future blogs what they like about Milwaukee.  I resisted the urge to let her have it in kind for her attack on my family.

My point here is not to defend what I said.  I don’t need to.  That’s the point of blogs … they’re open and honest and fun.  Which means I ask every client I work with who wants to start blogging:  are you sure you really want to do that?

When a company opens a blog, it opens its corporate front door to anyone who wants to enter.  Sometimes, these people don’t like you.  Some of them are cyber-whiners, those odd little folk who just want a forum to blow off steam and spread their message, regardless of whether or not it belongs on your blog.  Sometimes, they really don’t like what your company does or stands for.

So I advise clients to sit back and think, really think about why they should blog.  And I strongly urge them not to make the biggest blog mistake of all:  leaving their blog unattended.  A watched blog can be a successful way of communicating and even selling to your audience.  An unmonitored blog can become either a waste of your message or an open invitation to trouble.  Did you know that the vast majority of blogs are abandoned within 30 days of their inception?

Never open a blog and expect your secretary or receptionist to be in charge of it, unless she or he is the best communicator in your company and fully understands the blogosphere.  Never let untruths posted on your blog go unanswered.  You may want to screen the postings before they are permitted to “go up,” to make sure they don’t violate good taste.

Blogging is fun and interesting.  Just ask anyone who has participated in the Milwaukee Biz Blog.  But don’t be surprised if not everybody who visits your blog isn’t your biggest fan.  By all means, blog!  By all means, be smart about it!

Steve Gardner is a public relations account executive at Johnson Direct LLC in Brookfield. Additional information is available at http://johnsondirect.wordpress.com.

I was startled when doing some blog surfing the other day. There are an astounding number of listings for "Five Things I Hate About Milwaukee."

Being the place of my birth, I just can't let that go unchallenged. I recognize that there are lots of similar blogs about every major city (you should see what people say about Chicago!), but here, in no particular order, are the things I love about Milwaukee:

• Fantastic restaurants … I defy you to find another city of Milwaukee's size that is so jam-packed with marvelous cuisine and astounding diversity. Go ahead. I dare you!
• Wonderful people … Everybody should be as nice as Milwaukeeans. I've never been “taken for a ride” by a cab driver who thought I might be an out of towner, and where else can you find more than 52,000 people who would come out to watch baseball games featuring teams from two other cities?
• Parks … Oh man, have we got beautiful parks. Many have immaculate public golf courses, including one that is even good enough to host an annual PGA tour event. When's the last time you were able to say that you played golf on the same course that hosted Tiger Woods' first round as a professional? You can do that any time if you live in or around Milwaukee.
• Culture … up the wazoo! The theatre district is home to some of America's finest venues for plays, concerts, art shows, etc. The Milwaukee Symphony is a gem … just ask Doc Severinsen!
• Summerfest … The “Big Gig” is going strong after 40 years and is, without a doubt, the world's largest music festival.
• More festivals … Ethnic festivals on the beautiful Lake Michigan lakefront every weekend during the summer ensure that our families have something interesting and fun to do that doesn't involve sitting in front of a TV. Personally, my favorite is Fiesta Mexicana … or Irish Fest … or Festa Italiana … or Indian Summer … or Polish Fest … well, you get the idea!
• Big time sports … From MLB's Milwaukee Brewers to the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and everything in between, Milwaukeeans are blessed with outstanding professional and college sports (We ARE … Marquette!) all-year round. Don't forget, we also have strong ties to the Green Bay Packers, the Wisconsin Badgers, and the UW-Milwaukee Panthers.
• Fantastic restaurants … Oops, covered that already. But they're worth mentioning again!
• Famous people … Besides our professional athletes there are many home-grown actors, singers and major mensa types around here. Even Jesus Christ comes from Milwaukee (well, at least Jim Caviezel, the actor who portrayed Him in "The Passion of the Christ" does … same with Sam Page of "Shark," Daniel Travanti of "Hill Street Blues" fame, Al Jarreau, briefly Frank Lloyd Wright, Orson Welles, Liberace, the BoDeans, and OPRAH!). We used to be able to stare in awe as Halle Berry walked down the street, but her former husband, Eric Benet, screwed that up for us!
• History … Everything from the Civil War underground railroad to Gen. Billy Mitchell and the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald have ties to our town.
• My wife … she was born here, too!
• BEER!!! (And you thought I forgot!)