Clarity Blog

It’s not every day we get a call from an organization like the California State Military Reserve (CSMR) asking for branding advice, the reserves aren’t our typical client, but as the man on the other end of the phone so eloquently put it, “Branding is branding.” I got him in contact with Laer for a heart-to-heart, which you can read all about in the summer edition of the CSMR newsletter, Warrior Words.

Whether you’re a large homebuilder or a state military unit, the steps to develop a brand are much the same. First, you need to ascertain what your current brand is. Your brand isn’t the slogan you put on the top of your website; it is the way the consumer sees you. CSMR has no brand established in the public’s perception, which turns out to be a benefit. By starting from scratch, they won’t need to change perceptions, so they have a completely blank slate.

The California State Military Reserve is in an identity crisis—or a lack of identity crisis. State reserves have faded into the background in the face of successful branding and public relations campaigns from other, bigger and sexier branches of the military. The CSMR needed advice on how to start the process of developing its own brand.

Once you know where your brand stands, you can find the emotional connection it has with the public and build your brand off of what you learn. It could be the benefits your product, agency or project will bring your stakeholders, or a long history of being a good corporate citizen, or, for the CSMR, the amazing volunteerism and personal sacrifices the soldiers make to serve California.

Believe it, they are heroes, and they work for you without seeking praise or recognition. That’s why Laer was more than happy to suggest the slogan “The heroes you’ve never heard of” as a first step toward building a CSMR brand. Feel free to give LP&A a call to see what Laer can do for your branding.

–Lauren Pearce

(Ed. Note: This post summarizes commentary written by Laer for the June 2010 issue of Builder News Magazine. You can read the full version here.)

The filing date for city council candidates across Southern California is fast approaching and campaign contribution requests will come just as fast.

As a public affairs consultant who has been involved in the approval of more than 400,000 homes, I’ve participated in many strategy sessions during election seasons, and have identified four fundamental ways our clients approach corporate campaign contributions:

• The pragmatists, who contribute to those considered most likely to get elected, so only “winning” investments are made
• The idealists, who contribute only to those who are likely to support building, even if it’s unlikely they’ll win
• The navel-gazers, who balance electability against support for the industry, and make highly nuanced contributions
• The deniers, who don’t make any campaign contributions at all, ever.

We’ve had clients take each of these approaches and subsequently get projects approved.  So which approach is best?  You can click here to read our full story on this topic featured in Builder News.

But the bottom line is campaign contributions are just a form of communications.  You are communicating through your money, and you are hoping your money will lead to access – the opportunity to communicate – after the election.  Consequently, the same rules apply to contributions as apply to all communications:

• Prepare your messages, and update them as circumstances change
• Seek to listen, not just to talk
• Act only after you’re fully prepared to respond to negative questions.

Lastly, be sure to make a contribution to the building industry PAC – even if you’re contributing separately, because the industry’s voice needs to be heard, too.

Panel poses with Laer's (center) scientific model to project the future of the industry... a smiley face

Today we take a break from the goings on with issues that matter to you – water, over-regulation, land use policy – and address the state of our industry, public relations.

A study was recently conducted by the Orange County chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (with a helping hand from Laer Pearce & Associates) that looked at the state of the PR industry in Orange County. Like all industries, PR has been hit by The Great Recession, and the survey’s findings confirmed it:

• Decision-makers are relying more heavily on PR, which often happens during downturns as more expensive communications tools like advertising get cut
• Still, budgets and staff for PR are being cut
• Hiring is still a concern. Most are not planning on hiring new staff
• Social media has had the highest increase in use, followed by Web site and email communications
• Community relations and direct engagement is also on the rise
• Advertising and printed collateral saw the greatest decline in use
• PR Professionals are cautiously optimistic, with at least half forecasting moderate growth in 2010.

Laer is recognized as a thought-leader in the local PR community, so he was invited to speak on a panel to discuss these results and the future of PR. A few of his key points were:

“Don’t try to make the case that PR is necessary. That’s a losing proposition.  Instead, create a scope that fits the client’s specific needs and make a case for why it meets the client’s strategic objectives at a price that brings value.”

“Everything is getting faster and more complicated, so there will always be a need for good public relations professionals who can help sort through the clutter and help your message be heard and understood.”

The conclusion of the study and panel discussion was clear: PR pros need to do more with less. We actually find this very comforting, because that’s the way we’ve always done it. We pride ourselves on being good stewards of our clients’ resources, adding value through our knowledge of the industries we serve, our relationships within these sectors, and a history of completing campaigns on time and under budget. Recession or not, it’s been our model for nearly 28 years and we have no plans on changing!

We recently attended the Southern California Water Committee board of directors meeting and were very pleased by that group’s early and unanimous support of the $11 billion water bond that will be on this November’s ballot.

Laer Pearce & Associates played a small but important part in getting the comprehensive water legislation passed last November, pulling together a coalition of important local business organizations and taking their pro-water message to Orange County’s Sacramento delegation. We’re proud that an OC senator, Tom Harmon, was the deciding vote in favor of the bond.
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Laer Pearce & Associates helped its client, Tejon Mountain Village, win unanimous approval from the Kern County Board of Supervisors after a five-year entitlement effort. One County supervisor called the plan, “the best…most responsible development that’s ever occurred in Kern County, the state and perhaps the nation.” Congrats to Tejon for their major milestone. We were honored to be part of this terrific team.

80 percent of TMV's land will remain open.

That was our campaign theme for S&S homes, when we turned back an anti-growth initiative and got their Yorba Linda new home development approved, all based on the promise that S&S would provide land for a Yorba Linda High School, YLHS. It was exciting to win that one for S&S, but it’s even more exciting to the school finally become reality. Go YLHS Mustangs!

We know of at least one land developer whose due diligence questions include, “Is the property in the Coastal Zone.” If the answer is “yes,” forget it; no acquisition.

Two new Coastal Commission appointments by Assembly leader Karen Bass have made that approach seem even more justified, as two open-minded and reasonable Commission members have been replaced by two who raise red … make that green … flags. Let’s let the head of San Diego Coastkeeper frame it up for us:

“I think we have a chance to have the ‘greenest’ commission that we have had
in a long time.”

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Let’s say … and I’m just hypothesizing here … that the state legislature decided to raid a water districts’ coffers in an attempt to bail itself out from ballooning deficits. Or that a group of ratepayers placed an initiative on a local ballot that would rescind a water rate increase. Could you, as a public agency, actively campaign against these moves?

Thanks to a recent court decision, Vargas v. City of Salinas, the answer is yes … but only if you define “actively campaign” correctly.

“Express Advocacy” is still out, so what’s in?

In the Salinas case, a few Salinas residents placed an initiative on the ballot,  Measure O, that would have repealed the city’s utility users tax. The city   launched a communications effort to let citizens know the devastating   effect Measure O would have on city finances. The voters voted down the   measure,  and the citizens group sued, claiming the city unlawfully  interfered and used public funds for political purposes. They sought $250,000 from the city.

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If America’s greenest metro areas are in California, why do environmentalists make it so hard to build here?

The answer may benefit your project.

It may come as a surprise to you, but you’ve probably been indoctrinated by the environmental movement. Don’t think so? Well, just answer this question: Is LA – sprawling, smoggy, freeway crisscrossed LA – a “green” city or a “brown” city?

If you answered “brown,” you’re wrong. It turns out that Los Angeles is the fourth greenest metropolitan area in the country. Why’s that? Because the climate here is temperate, so LA’s carbon footprint for air conditioning is less than Atlanta’s or Houston’s, and its footprint for heating is smaller than that of Minneapolis or Chicago. So says a study by Edward Glaeser and Matthew Kahn, UCLA and Harvard profs respectively.

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I’m here at the highly anticipated board meeting of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, where they just decided to declare a “Water Supply Allocation Plan Level 2.” This means Met will reduce deliveries to member agencies by 10 percent beginning July 1.

You can hear a collective sigh across the Southland, because this represents a considerable improvement over what water wholesalers and retailers in Met’s service area were anticipating just one month ago.

What Does This Mean For Your Conservation Message and Outreach?

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