With the issue of PR firms inundating media outlets, I agree that it is a form of spam and these people simply need to be enlightened. Like the businesses they represent, and being a business themselves, PR firms are comprised of people who are focused on themselves and their wants and their needs and their desires, instead of first focusing on the needs of those they want to attract …the REAL key to building relationships, business or personal. I’m under the belief that the best marketers aren’t people with degrees in marketing, but degrees in psychology, since marketing is just applied psychology.

PR firms and their respective people could certainly learn to create a demand for themselves where these outlets could find them as opposed to the PR firms trying to constantly cram their message down the throat of these media outlets.

Relationships are more than the superficial “hey, I have an interest in you/your stuff.” They have a LOT to do with respect. People won’t buy from you (literally and figuratively) unless they like you. If you don’t respect someone, they won’t like you and won’t buy from you no matter how great your offer. Arrington’s article SCREAMS this message loud and clear.

I believe many people in PR miss this point. I briefly worked in B2B advertising and my job was to find every business owner who I could convince that my medium would be best for them and how I could get their name in lights. I felt like I was in some MLM: “Talk to everyone you can find.” Naturally, I wasn’t very successful doing that.

While I have no personal experience with McMurry, I have seen some of their work and although much of it is great, it’s clear that some of their work is based on old-school branding techniques of “just get people to remember who you are by hitting them with lots of messages and they’re likely to buy from you. Stay in front of them.” In a world where each of us now receives over 4,000 messages a day, branding is highly over-rated …in an age where countless start-ups you’ve never heard of are literally earning $ Millions overnight using simple positioning techniques.

The caveat in my opinion here is that I don’t have any personal experience in marketing for large corporate business, although I can’t imagine it’s much different -your message is read by 1 individual person and 1 individual person is buying: demonstrate your company/product/service is the better choice among your competition and people will buy from you. It’s positioning over branding. Fundamentally, this isn’t that complicated.

On the other hand, someone who understands and can apply these concepts well certainly isn’t going to settle for a $60K salary babysitting 20 people looking for a paycheck.

Funny… All the former McMurry PR interns I know fit into “Tier 2” of your distorted professional classification system. But, what do I know? I didn’t take the traditional career path and haven’t been doing this for years; therefore, I must know nothing, right?

Wrong. I have worked very hard in my 23 years. Salutatorian of my high school class, I was offered a full scholarship to Arizona State University. I spent five years working at a local non-profit, advancing several times. I graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and landed a fabulous job with the PR team at one of the top medical centers in the country upon graduation. Oh… I also interned at McMurry.

I am not going to waste my time defending McMurry or myself. I am proud of where I am, and I would not be here without the help and guidance of the people I worked with at McMurry. Jessica Hansen and Emily Barna (McMurry PR) are two PR pros who have taught me quite a lot. Both have what it takes to make it in the industry. On top of that, they have what it takes to teach the future leaders of the industry. I think that Jess put it best, “If you don’t know their names right now, you will very soon … for all the right reasons!”

You do know their names, Mr. Richard (fill in the blank). We have all expressed how very far from “right on” you are with the above comment re: McMurry.

Best,
Becky Armendariz
McMurry PR Intern, Spring 2008

My friend and colleage, Jessica Hanson, is a skilled pro who runs a solid internship program and gives back to the entire professional community through IABC and many other activities.

McMurray has been successful through national niche marketing and services development that make the company less vulnerable to the ups and downs of the Arizona economy, and keeps more people employed. Instead of knocking them, we can learn from them.

In a profession that’s undergoing a lot of change and navigating many disruptive technologies, we are all newbies at many things and can learn a lot from each other, no matter what our age or “Tier” status.

I am VERY proud of the McMurry PR interns we have hired and feel very confident about our hiring process and the value of our internship program. In the past three years, we have had seven interns – some with prior internship experience and a strong understanding of PR and others just simply seeking experience in the PR industry, but ALL have had a very strong work ethic and were already excelling in college courses in related fields such as journalism, communication and English. None of our interns “got into it for the parties” – and I can assure you of that because of our diligent resume review process and the fact that I’ve never even interviewed a candidate who gave me the dreaded response of “I’m a people person” or “I like planning parties.”
The PR interns who have joined our team have had varied levels of experience, but they were all extremely dedicated to learning as much as possible about the PR profession. AND, through their hard work and motivation to succeed, they have EARNED positions at some very well-respected organizations right here in the Valley (Wespac Construction, LPI Multimedia Inc., PetSmart Corporate, R&R Partners, ON Semiconductor, Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center), all in PR, internal communications, marketing and editorial positions. Do they manage a staff of 20 and make $60,000+? Maybe not yet, but they will soon!

The remark from Richard that I have the biggest problem with is the one about McMurry PR interns not having any idea what they are doing – that statement is completely wrong! If you come across any young PR professionals who have “McMurry” on their resume, you’d be lucky to have them on your team and would regret the day you don’t hire them for an outstanding position with your company. They’re all consummate professionals, have earned everything they have accomplished thus far through their own hard work, solid college education, and their strong desire to learn about the PR field and push it to the next level. I have no doubt that the young professionals I have had the pleasure of working with as part of our internship program these past three years are our up-and-coming leaders here in the Valley – If you don’t know their names right now, you will very soon … for all the right reasons!

Dan, rather shocked that you’re in agreement.

As a former McMurry intern, I am proud to have them on my resume for many reasons. First and foremost; it was at McMurry that I learned the fundamentals of PR and internal communications. In fact, out of all the places I interned, it was fellow McMurry interns who landed the best jobs out of school and work for some of the most respected PR pros in the Valley and beyond.

Richard, as a “Tier 3″ employee, I’ll have you know I work for a Fortune 500 company, hold multiple leadership positions in the Valley, am alumna of the Cronkite journalism school and worked VERY hard to get to where I am today. I don’t have a staff of 20 and often hesitate to ask our team admin to file my expense reports.

In my professional career, the only parties I’ve attended have been company holiday parties or professional mixers. I assure you those are not the reasons I got into PR.

May I suggest you apprise yourself of current PR trends and realize the field of PR and communications has changed, thus requiring a different kind of work and different type of practioner. This isn’t the PR you practiced 25-some years ago. I think I speak for all of my peers when I say: we wouldn’t choose this profession if we didn’t want to make it better and we wouldn’t still be employed if we weren’t good.

I’m curious as to why you would choose to target McMurry in such a negative way. And Dan, I’m surprised that you agree with him.

Agree that bloggers are not reporters.

Disagree with Len’s assumption/assertion that embargoes are for public companies — this would be a violation of SEC (slective) disclosure rules.

Embargoes have a purpose. Exclusives are more effective.

(This comment is under embargo until 08:00 Friday AM)