Public Relations Practices

Managerial Case Studies and

Problems Eighth Edition

Allen H. Center • Patrick Jackson Stacey Smith • Frank R. Stansberry

Chapter 6 • Consumer Relations 129

Case 6-4 Marriott On the Move Cultivates Customer Relationships

During a flight home from Europe in 2007, Bill

Marriott sat next to his new executive vice­

president and chief global communications and

public affairs officer, Kathleen Matthews. She

explained to him that the company needed to find

a powerful way to communicate with customers

in today's message-saturated environment.

Her solution: Create a CEO blog that would

be a personal way for Marriott to engage cus­

tomers who sought a deep connection with the

company and wanted to join the company in

conversations.

A CEO or corporate blog is just one tool in a toolbox filled with ways to reach stakeholder audi­ences. Selecting the right tool to reach an audience means evaluating the way the audience natu­rally receives information now. If it is a very connected audience, used to accessing and reading online content, then a blog is likely a good choice. Initial research helps determine current behav­iors around medium use. Finding a natural fit for each audience is imperative as is·not expecting people to change their behavior to fit your preferred communication style. Like a stream in the woods, follow the natural bank and do not force nature to bend to your will.

Deciding Whether to Dive into the Blogosphere

"The first consideration is to have something

to say that will interest people," explained

Jay Hamilton, who directs digital corpo­

rate relations for Marriott. If the CEO has an

abundance of engaging content to share, a

communications team can then consider the

benefits and drawbacks of creating a blog.

Some of the potential benefits of having a

CEO blog for customers include:

• Humanizing the company by helping

customers to get to know the CEO

• Building the company's brand by edu­

cating customers about the company's

history and culture

• Providing key updates about the organi­

zation's activities and plans

• Serving as a direct channel for con­

versations between the CEO and

customers

These benefits can enhance customer loyalty.

Potential drawbacks, however, include:

• Amplifying critical comments by host­

ing them on an official blog that high­

value customers would read

• Monopolizing significant CEO time

over a sustained period

• Needing to supply fresh content over a

sustained period that would engage readers

• Taking the risk of possibly making a

misstatement that could result in nega­

tive reactions

"The CEO has to want to blog," explained

Hamilton. "In this world of transparency,

you need to be ready to talk about things.

Spin doesn't work. It's about authenticity

and transparency. You need to have a CEO

who understands what he or she is getting

into, wants to do it, and understands that it

won't be all positive."

( Continued)

Contributed by Tiffany Derville Gallicano, Ph.D., University of Maryland

130 Chapter 6 • Consumer Relations

Hamilton also explained that with the myriad ways that people can express their views online, it is at a company's own peril to not be a part of that conversation. By having a blog, a CEO can host the discussion, listen to blog readers, and share his or her views in a venue that is more extensive than microblogs or social networking sites, which can be used to engage in short conversations and encour­age people to read the blog.

Earning Buy-In from HR, Legal Counselors, and Executives

Human resources and legal counselors expressed concern about employees posting comments that could cause problems. They also discussed potential problems that could arise from the mention of employees' names in comments. The communications team alle­viated these concerns by explaining that:

• All comments would be moderated• A terms-of-use policy would be created to

describe the kinds of comments that theblog editor would approve and the kindsof comments that would not be accepted

• As described in the terms-of-use policy,the blog would be positioned as a com­munication tool for external audiencesonly; employees would be directedto report concerns to their managers,human resources, or the Marriott businessintegrity line (five years later, Marriottlaunched an internal blog through thecompany's intranet)

• The last names of Marriott employeeswould be deleted from comments to pro­tect employees' privacy

Both positive and negative comments would be welcome; however, the terms of use would explain that feedback about a hotel stay should be reported to the Marriott customer care group (and a link to a form was given) rather than posted on the blog. Comments would need to be relevant to the conversation.

The communications team earned execu­

tive support by forming a blog advisory board

of senior-level executives, to make them part of the process. As the communications team developed components of the blog, such as the editorial policy and terms of use, it shared reg­ular reports with the advisory board. Setting a launch date was important. The internal dead­line helped the team propel the project forward in a timely fashion, which can be a challenge in a global corporation.

Orienting the CEO to the Blogosphere

The communications team talked with execu­tives from other organizations, such as Boeing and IBM, who had blogs, to find out what they thought made a successful blog. The team presented what they learned to Marriott and showed him the blog of Randy_ Tinseth, the vice-president for marketing for Boeing in Seattle, and the blog of the first CEO blogger, Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems.

The communications team also needed to overcome the barrier to technology. The CEO, who was 75, did not use computers. Marriott and his team wanted the blog to be truly authored by Marriott, rather than having someone ghostwrite his blog posts. "That's not the way it works," explained Hamilton. "You can't fudge these things; you can't pretend you're Bill Marriott."

Marriott decided he would dictate his posts to an audio recorder or a member of the com­munications team who would then transcribe what he said. An audio recording would be published with each blog post. All comments would be printed and delivered to Marriott for his review. He would decide which comments to respond to and would dictate his responses. To be transparent about the process, Marriott presented these details in a section of the blog titled About Marriott Blog.

To handle the challenge of generating a steady stream of varied content, the commu­nications team decided to meet each month to discuss ideas and establish a month-long edi­torial calendar. The team considers Marriott's travel calendar and encourages him to write

blog posts about the places he visits. They also encourage Marriott to tell stories each month about the company 's culture. For example , the company 's philo sophy is to take care of employee s, they ' ll take care of the guests, and the guests will keep coming back. Highlighting an event designed to honor top employee s is one vehicle for discu ssing the company 's philosophy.

The team also encourage s Marriott to dis­cuss the company 's recent inno vation s and global growth . For example , a recent blog post describe s Marriott ' s partner ship with Conservation International and a local provin­cial Chinese government to support a producer of honey that follows sustainable practice s. The blog announced that with Marriott ' s addi­tion of its 1 OOth hotel in China , it has worked out an agreement with its juice vendor to bottle the honey, serve it in Chinese Marriott hotels, and donate a portion of the profits to the sus­tainability program.

In addition , Marriott has various topics he want s to address each month . The monthly editorial calendar help s the team ensure that there is a robust pipeline of stories to share on the blog .

Chapter 6 • Consumer Relations 131

When considering story ideas, Hamilton advises, "The best blog s aren ' t promotional , they 're individual , and they' re from the heart. You don ' t sell product s-people don ' t want to see that."

Marriott introduced his blog on January 15, 2007, by discussing why he decided to start a blog, how he felt about entering the blogosphere, and the kinds of topics he planned to cover.

Profiting from the Results

The communications team hoped to get 5,000 visits in the first two weeks; however, the blog received 20,000 visits and numerous comment s. The launch received coverage in online media , as well as The Washington Post and USA Today . The blog has a steady reader­ship of travel journali sts and blogger s who go to the blog for story ideas.

Today, the blog receives approximately 30,000 visits a month , and during a big news month , the number of visits tends to escalate to about 60,000 a month. The year 2012 is its fifth anniversary. Because Marriott is one of the few octogenarian blogger s and one of the few top executive s to blog , The Huffin gton

MARRIOTT ON THE MOVE

UNCHARTED TERRITORY January 15, 2007

I'm venturing into uncharted territory as I launch this blog. A year ago, I didn't even know what a blog was -- unti l my Communications team began tell ing me about all the blog traffic on trave l and tourism. Now I know this is where the act ion is if you want to talk to your customers directly -- and hear back from them . Soon we'll add an audio version of the blog. That's how I'm most comfortable: telling stories and listening .

I've checked out Jonathan Schwartz 's blog at Sun Microsyste ms and "RandY.'s Journal " at Boeing. I've listened to Senator Barack Oba ma's blog podcasts . I know biogs will be a hot communicat ions tool in the 2008 Presidential campaign .

Truth be told, I'm not very good with computers, although I cou ldn' t do business in today's fast-paced economy without my cell phone, and my grandchildren have gotten me hooked on my iPod.

I know our guests expect the very latest technology when they check-in to our hotel rooms and we're moving quickly to

( Continued)

132 Chapter 6 • Consumer Relation s

Post announced that Marriott is now a Huff­ington Post contributing blogger.

Research About Ghost Blogging

Ghost blogging occurs when a public relations practitio ner without disclosure writes a blog post on behalf of the stated author of the blog ; this practice is controversial.

A recent survey of public relations practi­tioners by Gallicano, Brett , and Hopp (2012) found that most respondents thought it was permissible to engage in ghost blogging , pro­vided that the stated author provided the ideas for the content and gave final content approval. The results also showed that approximately 41 percent of the respondents had at least one executive blog, and slightly more tha n half of these respondents acknowledged that their executive blogs were ghostwritten.

This study generated wide discussion and disagreement at the International Public Relations Research Conference. Among those disagreeing was social media measurement specialist and thought leader Katie Paine , who termed the study "Most Disturbing to Bloggers" in her summary of the conference.

Although most respondents in the survey approved of ghost blogging, opinions might shift as people learn the results of a subse­quent survey of 507 readers of corporate biogs, 510 readers of politicians' blogs, and 501 readers of nonprofit blogs , which was con­ducted by Gallicano, Cho , and Bivins (2012). Regardless of the work setting, readers did not widely approve of the practice of having ' a communications person draft a blog post for

the stated author , even if the blog post ideas came from the stated author and the stated author gave final content approval.

Questions for Discussion

1. Visit www.blogs.marriott.com/marriott ­on-the-move and read at least five blog posts . What do you think about the blog?

2. Explain the distinctive benefits and drawbacks of a blog , as compared with other social media channels, such as microblogs and social networking sites.

3. If your CEO expressed an interest in starting a blog, what would you need to discuss before deciding to move forward?

4. Marriott rejected ghost blogging . Explain and justify your position about whether a blog's stated author should delegate the writing of the blog posts to a public relations practitioner .

Sources

Gallicano, Tiffany. D. , Brett, Kevin. , and Hopp , Toby . "Is Ghost Blogging Like Speechwriting? A Survey of Practitioners About the Ethics of Ghost Blogging." Paper presented at the meeting of the International Public Relations Research Conference, Miami, FL (March 2012).

Gallicano, Tiffany D. , Cho , Yoon. Y., and Bivins , Thomas . H. "What Do Blog Readers Think ? A survey to Assess Ghost Blogging and Ghost Commenting." Paper prese nted at the meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago, IL (August 2012).