Communications as Ikor

Children’s Place 케이스와 거북이식 PR 생각..  < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

지금까지 제가 올려온 케이스들을 보시고 무슨 느낌들을 가지시는지 매우 궁금합니다. 제가 이렇다 저렇다 해도 각자 케이스를 읽으시며 생각이 있으시겠지요.

매일매일 케이스들을 들추면서 저는 각 케이스들을 쇼핑합니다. 이건 어떨까, 저건 …

그러면서 문득 떠오르는 느낌이 있었습니다. “이것들은 모두 다 평범하잖아..”

“뭐 톡톡 튀는 아이디어들로 꽉찬 뭔가가 없네…”

그러나 이런 생각은 저의 잘못된 생각이었다는 걸 한참후에 깨닫게 되었습니다. 저희는 PR의 역사가 짧습니다. 또한 초기 광고의 사회적 영향이 너무 비정상적으로 컷습니다. 아직도 몇몇 커뮤니케이션 관련 학부 학생들도 PR과 광고를 은근슬쩍 혼동하는 경우들을 종종 보니까요.

제가 말씀드렸던것과 같이 광고는 창의성과 아이디어를 먹고 큽니다. 그래서 많은 기업들은 이러한 컨셉에 의해 PR인들에게 조차 창의성과 아이디어만을 강요하지요. 물론 창의성이란것은 매우매우 중요한 것입니다. 포츈100 내 대부분의 기업들이 “Creativity”를 그들의 중요한 Value중 하나로 가지고 있다는 걸 보아도 이해가 가지요.

그런데,PR에서 만큼은 아직도 기본이 중요하다는걸 강조해드리고 싶습니다.

아이디어는 차후의 문제이고, 일단 이슈를 커뮤니케이션하기위한 기본” 그것이 가장 중요하다는 겁니다.

다시한번 이전의 모든 케이스들을 훑어 보십시요.(시간이 계시면)

별로 소위 말하는 “쌈팍한” 아이디어가 없을 겁니다. 그런데도 그 프로그램들은 굉장히 성공한 것들이었습니다. 왜입니까? 기본에 충실하고, 신경질나게도 잘 꼼꼼히 단계별로, 분야별로 조직되어있기 때문이지요.

물샐틈없는 Stakeholder들의 분석과 접근 공략, 그 방법과 수단에서는 우리가 보기에 진부해 보이는 것이라도 그들은 꼼꼼히 열심히 차근차근 해냈던 겁니다.

아이디어에 울고 웃는 것이 아니라, 기본에 열심인 모습이 바로 그들 PR인들의 모습일찌도 모릅니다.

PR 프로그램에서 진정한 히트는 없지요, 간간히 “PR에서 히트를 쳤다”는 말은 별로 의미가 않좋습니다.대신 PR적 목적을 달성했다라는게 더 정확한 표현이겠지요.

아래에도 전혀 신선한 아이디어는 포함되어있지 않은 누구나 조금만 생각하면 기획할수 있을것 같은 평이한 케이스가 있습니다.

Children’s Place는 약간 싸구려의 아이들옷을 파는 리테일러 체인입니다.

IPO(Initial Public Offering)를 계획하던중 날씨 관계로 치명적인 매출적 손상을 입고 IPO에 실패를 했었죠. 그러나 그들은 다시회생을 하기위해 꼼~꼼한 프로그램을 기획했습니다. 화려하진 않지만, 거북이 같은 은근하고 조직적인 PR활동으로 그들은 결국 목적을 달성했습니다. 그들은 이걸  커뮤니케이션 게임 플랜이라고 불렀습니다. 느껴지시죠? 그들의 자세가?

한번 읽어 보시죠. 그들이 도데체 뭘 어찌 했는지..졸지는 마시고…

많은 관심에 감사드리며 더욱 열심히 모아들이겠습니다.

다양한 피드백 부탁드립니다.

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Mending a Broken IPO

The Children’s Place with Morgen-Walke Associates

OVERVIEW

What better time to execute an initial public offering than booming company sales and strong growth prospects? That’s what The Children’s Place thought when it conducted its IPO in September, 1997, at $14 per share.

What the Mall-based retailer of Childrens’ fashions didn’t count on was the unpredictable arrival of warm weather and some merchandising missteps that quickly caused an unexpected drop in sales. By December, the company’s stock price hit a low of $4 per share, sell-side analysts abandoned the stock, and a group of investors claimed they were misled by the company’s sales prospects. And so the question becomes how does a company mend a broken IPO and win back the confidence of Wall Street?

RESEARCH

Morgen-Walke Associates was brought on board in January, 1998 to evaluate the situation and create a communications game plan that would effectively articulate the company’s growth strategy. This strategy, would in effect, be embraced by new investors, analysts and the public at large. Our research activities included:

*Extensive interviews with management indicating the weak sales season was an isolated incident that was not indicative of any long-term growth issues. Furthermore, the company had a unique merchandising strategy, strong brand image and other unique fundamentals that would validate the viability of its concept and growth plans.

*Extensive interviews with prominent sell-side analysts and portfolio managers identifying serious credibility issues regarding management’s ability to gauge the business and execute its aggressive growth strategy.

*Select targeting of sell-side analysts with reasonable expectations to pick up coverage.

PLANNING

Based on our research, Morgen-Walke created a strategic investor/media relations game plan that would centerpiece our strategy by re-establishing credibility for the company, identifying new analysts/investors and effectively position The Children’s Place story to Wall Street and the general public. One of our key objectives was to compliment our investor relations effort with a strategic financial media outreach helping to:

*Establish third party credibility for the company’s management, brand appeal and growth strategy through high-level national business coverage;

*Communicate the Company’s strong investment fundamentals by identifying and securing “fallen angel” investment stories in the national business press;

*Build relationships for management with the retail reporters who would, in turn, feature the company’s strong sales and earnings results.

Specific investor relations objectives included:

*Identifying turnaround/fallen angel and growth investors who would embrace the company’s management and growth story;

*Create a platform/event to articulate the company’s strong merchandising strategy, excellent management team and other fundamentals that positioned the company as a solid investment;

*Build credibility for management by issuing timely earnings/sales results through news releases, conference calls and ongoing communications with the Street.

EXECUTION

Following two consecutive earnings periods of excellent sales/earnings growth, we launched the “comeback” of The Children’s Place story with a “Back To School” analyst/financial media fashion presentation.

Back To School Fashion Presentation – Critical to the timing of this launch was the fact that it was the anniversary of the Company’s sales and merchandising disappointments. We used the “Back To School” fashion presentation as a forum to:

*Demonstrate the merchandising improvements and depth of the management team;

*Drive home “the story behind the numbers,” by educating analysts, portfolio managers and financial media on the Fall, 1998 merchandising and sales trends, strong brand appeal, and most important, to see the company’s price-to-value fashions for toddlers/children.

*Generate favorable media coverage in the national, regional and trade press communicating the corporate turnaround story, powerful brand appeal and strong growth prospects.

Investment Community Marketing – Through one-on-one meetings for management with investors, in store walk throughs with analysts and candid follow-up on Morgen-Walke’s part, we were able to greatly improve the Street’s perception and helped management to more effectively position The Children’s Place story. These efforts were instrumental in securing sell-side sponsorship from several prominent Wall Street firms, as well as long-term portfolio managers who currently own the stock. Our efforts were instrumental in securing sell-side sponsorship from BTAlex.Brown, Hambrecht & Quist, CIBC Oppenheimer and C.L. King.

Financial Media Efforts – Consistent with our investor relations plan, our media plans helped to re-build the company’s credibility and validate the strong investment fundamentals. Investment turn around/fallen angel stories appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Individual Investor, Business Week and Crain’s New York Business. Corporate strategy stories appeared in Women’s Wear Daily, The Star Ledger, The Bergen Record, Stores Magazine as well as the financial wire services.

Strong Shareholder Communications – We created a corporate Fact Sheet, as well as talking points and scripted comments for all quarterly conference calls, slide presentations to Wall Street and shareholder meetings. The issuance of ongoing releases and management conference calls clearly articulated the strong consistent growth and lack of surprises. In an effort to demonstrate the power of the brand, we frequently included investors in special Children’s Place promotions like “Family & Friends Day, 30 percent off.” These events enabled the investment community to witness firsthand the extremely diverse loyal customer base, and in many cases, turn investors into customers.

EVALUATION

When we began our work with The Children’s Place last January, the stock price was $6 per share with a market capitalization of approximately $156 million. Since that time, the stock has appreciated to its current trading level of $30 per share, with market capitalization of nearly $800 million.

These dramatic gains reflect the Company’s ability to overcome its status as a broken IPO by sustaining strong performance coupled with an effective communications strategy aimed at the right investors and the financial media.

The Company has recently announced a secondary offering thanks to management’s improved relations on Wall Street, new banking relationships, an enhanced shareholder base and a heightened visibility via the media. The secondary will enable The Children’s Place to enhance its liquidity, generate additional sell side sponsorship and capitalize on the stock’s higher valuation.