Should the role of marketing and PR change to reflect the current economic climate?

I was having a discussion on the role of marketing and PR in the current economic client with a colleague recently and a good question came up. Should PR and marketing change their respective roles based on the current economic turmoil. After considering the question, I came up with a truly enigmatic answer, yes and no.

First of all, marketing and PR HAVE changed as a result of the economic situation we are currently facing. For one thing, all marketing and PR professional know that their budgets are often the very first things to be cut while at the same time they are expected to ramp up what they are responsible for doing. In other words, give us more with much less and do so while smiling. This is something that has changed and ,despite repeated studies that have more or less proven the need to keep marketing and PR spending levels consistent, we are forced often times to deliver the same results as before with a budget sometimes a fraction of what it was before.

Still, there is a great degree to which marketing and PR have not changed. Their role within the organization still remains as it always was. Brand management, protecting the message and ensuring that the message is delivered to key stakeholders is still the domain of public relations and marketing and will remain so regardless of economic conditions. It is the role of responsible PR and marketing people to ensure that this mission is not eroded to an extent that the brand is placed in peril.

It is also the role of the PR and marketing people to ensure that the role of marketing and PR does not fall victim to mission creep. That is the situation where the PR person suddenly finds themselves in charge of something that is outside their normal job set skill set like all of a sudden managing HR communications (if it was a separate role) or event management. It is very easy to see how in this day and age one can feel pressure to acquiesce and appear to be the team player, but if by doing so you hurt the corporate then you are doing more harm than good!

On other topics I have to say it was a great weekend weather wise in Boston and by golly we deserved it! The weather was perfect for the tall ships and maybe now that the weather is turning up the shop keepers and hotels on the Cape will see their fortunes turn up.

Josh Beckett pitched a masterful game over the Royals yesterday. It is such a relief to see a pitcher go all 9 innings in a major league game and to pitch a shut out none the less. I also want to give a tip of the hat to Dustin Pedroia who decided that it was more important to be with his ill wife than to take a trip for personal glory. Sure she is in the hospital and has wonderful care, but to Dustin family comes first. Once again, D.P. proves he is a classy guy!

Is it wise to take a vacation when self employed?

I was speaking to some of my other self employed friends about how wise it would be to take a vacation while self employed. Granted, with the weather we have had in the Boston area, many don't feel like they want to take a vacation never mind see the need for one. But still the question is very valid and one that requires deep soul searching. As an hourly employee, not working basically means you are not earning money. What do you do on vacation but really spend money. So as you can see it is a week of financial bleeding.

I would say that we self employed should take some time off if for no other reason than sanity's sake. I don't think we can afford a full week off, but we should still consider that there are serious physical and mental health issues that come without taking time off to, as the old cliche goes, recharge the batteries. Vacation time has been shown to be a proven means of increasing intellectual capabilities and overall job satisfaction. In addition, a clear link to taking time off and increased overall job performance has been clearly established.

That being said, one should go to great lengths to ensure to clients they are not being abandoned. A vacation needs to be scheduled around large projects and slow times in clients calendars. We do not have the luxury of back up or colleagues to pick up the slack for when we are not around. Also, while a vacation does not require you to be in constant contact with clients, lets face it, you might as well stay home if you're going to do that, you should check email or have some means of checking in for emergencies. But do that early in the morning!

Nice to see the Red Sox bounce back thanks to a great pitching performance from Josh Beckett. Right now I am arguing they are the best team in baseball. They are on top of the best division in baseball so that by extension should make them the best team in baseball I believe.

Now if only summer would arrive. Yesterday was unreal with the downpours and thunder. Now I can't say that the thunder was very heavy down here but the rain was almost of a tropical nature. I found it much more interesting to watch the rain than to work on my writing. I didn't watch the foolishness on television because I am not into the culture of the celebrity. Nature always proves that it is the most fascinating spectacle on the planet.

Happy Father's Day

Let me begin by wishing all the fathers out there a happy Father's Day! While my own father has passed on, the loads of happy memories I am left with makes me appreciate the great treasure that it is to be a father and to have a father. I can't help but think of the Red Sox games, the many many times he drove me to the movies or to friends parties, houses and so forth. The many life lessons that only become apparent in adult hood and the general ability to enjoy life.

I was pleased to see the warm response that D. Lowe received from the Red Sox fans at yesterday's Red Sox game. The star of the game was beyond a doubt Josh Beckett. He just pitched one heck of a game! It is so rare to see a pitcher go all the way these days and of course I was glad to see that Tito let Beckett finish what he should have. I wouldn't mind a return to the old days of when pitchers pitched. I remember as a very young boy seeing Luis Tiant pitch a complete nine inning game that was 9-7 and while he wasn't at peak form he was winning so why take him out?

The Special Olympics are going on this weekend at Harvard around Harvard Stadium. These games are amazing and don't let anyone fool you, these athletes are just that, amazing athletes. Except they don't cheat and are actually thrilled to receive the laurels that come with victory. The only down side is that the greedy SOB's at Harvard charge $5 to park. Oh please poor Harvard has seen its endowment slip from $40 billion to $30-35 billion so now the people who attend the Special Olympics have to pay.

The weather is still not any thing to write home about. I wish summer would show up? Right now it's gray and gross. On the plus side it was a bit sunny yesterday and I got a decent tan and slept like a baby last night! Well to all the fathers new and old, happy father's day.

A Lovely Day Despite the Raindrops

Nothing will bring out the Sun on a rainy morning than a Red Sox victory of the evil empire. Once again, we saw Big Papi bring out the Big Lumber and Josh Beckett pitched like the Becket of old. It does seem that Alex Rodriguez broke out the special steroids he takes to choke in big games. Not only did he go 0 for 4 but he muffed an easy double play grounder that should have ended the inning and would have saved 2 runs. Now lets give A-Fraud some credit he's only been playing third for going on five years now and this time he didn't let the ball through his legs did he?

The business continues to go on. It is tough getting a business set up when you need a partner and you have to realize that this is not like working for an established company where you can say, "Hey our deadline is tomorrow." No in starting a company you have to make sure you are balancing the partner's well being with that of your own. So it can be a slow process but you have to make sure that forward momentum never ceases.

It seems like the news is full of lurid murder stories these days. There was the one last night about the woman who was found murdered in the Blue Hills and then the two Catholic Memorial alumni who killed their coke dealer/business partner to settle a debt. How did these two guys come up with something so evil? Now I see myself as an intelligent fellow but I have to admit that I could never cook up a scheme like what we see here? But then again I also think I am way to smart to try and do that. How often do we see these idiots hauled off to jail? Look at Cuckoo Clark Rockefeller for proof that living the life of a fraud only gets you so far before you are caught.

Oh this is the time of year when television is terrible and I have to say thank God for books! I do enjoy reading in the summer time! But it will be nice for summer weather to return so I can indulge in some ice cream and especially a frappe or take a walk to Friendly's for a fribble :)

Well must work and see if the economy is rebounding as strongly as the stock market seems to indicate?

A Great Game For Beckett but another win for the faux fans

OK before I lavish praise on Josh Becket I need to comment on how appalling it is to see that the fake Red Sox fan's have made another inroad into their attempt to pass for real Red Sox fans. Sorry but if you wear a pink Red Sox hat your a poser! If you wear a pink hat with scratch and sniff watermelon accents not only are you a poser but you should be taken out and shot. This is the baseball equivalent of sacrilege.

On the real baseball front, Josh Beckett pitched one hell of a game last night. He reminds me of the 2007 Beckett the one who was robbed of the Cy Young Award. And yes I know the vote is taken before the playoff which is really stupid if you ask me. The Tigers were almost clueless against him and were swinging at his pitches way outside of the strike zone or frozen like wax figures at the ones just over the plate. His command was incredible. Nice to see Julio Lugo riding the pine and with Jeb Lowerie coming back from the DL Lugo will join that long list of signing mistakes the Red Sox committed at short.

I do see that the saintly crooks on Beacon Hill are railing against getting rid of their hack holiday's. Of course we need to raise taxes and cut essential services but heaven forbid we not have St. Patrick's Day ( I mean Evacuation Day) or Bunker Hill Day off. Hey if these days are so critical why not take them off with pay? Sorry it took me five minutes of laughing before I realized what I had said. Now granted the dumbest Wal-Mart greeter has more job skills than any state employee ( I can't bring myself to call them workers since no one has ever broken a sweat up there), but given that corporations are cutting back on workers to ease the pain is it too insane to ask the recipients of the Commonwealth's largest welfare pool to take a hit, or at the very least to do some work?

Well the dreary days of June are here. We have had a nice run so I will not spend much time complaining but let's not make a habit of it. In other news, the company keeps moving forward but these things are slow going sometimes and I think the one thing you have to realize is that your clock is not always other people's clock. So last game for the Sox and Tigers today. God I wish they could play them every game. Oh well as long as we don't have to play the Angels in the regular season. They are unbeatable them. A pushover in the playoffs but bears in the regular season. Oh and tell your friends to vote for Jason Bay for the All Star team. It would so rock if he made it and Manny did not!

Oh it is nice to see BC reached the goal for the stupid Neenan thing which I boycotted. If they only put as much effort into promoting a real BC institution like Cleansweep we could feel proud. Sadly those of us who take pride in the institutional goals of one of the premeire Jesuit Universities can't help but notice that fattening up the endowment and fielding a Top 25 football team seem to be all that matter.

Is there such a thing as a bad Friday?

Well the last Friday of May is upon us and as usual the weather in Boston is like that of early April still. But still things are looking up. First there is the fact that the Red Sox won yesterday and are now back in first place. Josh Beckett looked just dominating and while Papelbon gave up his usual roller coaster ninth of late, he still shut the Twins down.

Last night on the news was the story about the woman in Philly who called 911 to say two black men had kidnapped she and her daughter and they were in the trunk of her car. I had seen in an earlier report how two black men with damage to their cars had been pulled over. Of course they were innocent and you can not blame the police who were answering a kidnapping of a mother and child. Still, I can't help but still be worried because I had hoped with Barack Obama's election we would have moved beyond this BS but as this case shows there are still sick evil people like this woman who try and evoke racial fear for their own twisted ends. While I oppose hate crimes, I do hope this woman gets to spend a long time in a small jail cell. Hey maybe they can put her next to that other sick person who drowned her two kids and tried to say it was a black man who car jacked her. Two peas in a pod as they say.

Lastly for today was some sad news lately and that is how badly my old Alma Mata, BC is destroying one of its finest traditions and that is Cleansweep. For those who don't know, Cleansweep is when BC Alumni and other volunteers go into the dorms after students leave for the summer and collect materials left by the departing students. This material is then offered to various local non-profits who keep it out of landfills and give it to those in need. For the past several years BC has put up every obstacle to running Cleansweep easily. This year, none of my fellow volunteers received notification of the event and as near as I can find none of the non-profits who had received goods from Cleansweep knew it was going on. It would be a real tragedy if BC were to kill of this great event but sadly the signs seems to point to a death by neglect.