SignWeb | signweb.com

(February 2008) posted on Sun Feb 03, 2008

To grow your business, plan an advocacy program.

Tweet

By Darek Johnson

Wade Swormstedt, ST’s publisher/editor, always handpicks the staff’s Christmas presents. This year, he gave me two, cool, Harley-Davidson collectors’ edition books. One, The Ultimate Machine (Harley’s 100th-Anniversary Edition), displays photos ranging from the 1904, gravity-fueled, one-lunger to the latest, Porsche Engineering Service-designed V-Rod twin. It also shows my favorite, Buell’s 90 HP, 440-lb. (4.8 lbs./HP) S1 Lightning road racer. The books reminded me of the kinship that exists among motorcycle riders, especially Harley or other “American Iron” riders. Most belong to an unscripted social order – a patriotic brotherhood, in a manner of speaking, that sustains

implicit bylaws, the most important being “You are your brother’s keeper.” This tenet extends from roadside help to bail-bond monies, even for visiting bikers. See it as a type of advocacy program.

Advocacy
Webster’s says an advocate is a person who speaks another’s cause. Webster’s second definition says “[An advocate is] someone who speaks or writes in support of something.” Essentially, an advocacy program is a public-relations program, because advocacy requires action based upon formed opinions.

Advocacy forms through establishing friendships, or the discovery of a common interest. Some years back, when working with John Shaw’s sign company in Colorado, I occasionally trucked pre-made, video-store signs to related tradeshows, where I setup a booth and

then changed into a suit and tie, to sell the displays. During delivery and set up, I always wore a Harley Davidson T-shirt, to visually communicate my understanding of American Iron values to the Teamsters Union guys. They called me “Bud” and worked easily alongside me.

Blue-collar workers read clothing like military people do insignia – it tells of a person’s history, their interests and competence.

Changing images
Fortune magazine recently noted Wal-Mart’s “series of public-relations gaffes” in Wal-Mart’s employee policies. The mega-store has been criticized for low pay, short hours and insufficient employee benefits. Further, the Economic Policy Institute (Washington, DC), on June 26, said Wal-Mart, in 2006, had imported $26.7 billion dollars of Chinese goods into the United States, and this act had cost the United States 308,000 jobs.

To spruce up its image, Wal-Mart launched a public-relations program that includes the “Working Families for Wal-Mart” advocacy group. This high-budget entity was formed for Wal-Mart by the Edelman public-relations firm in December 2005, to generate positive public opinions.”