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Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review: Coca Cola # 120 (CCE)

By Li Evans

About this time of year I start looking for the new Christmas version of the Coca Cola packaging, and for new Coca Cola Polar Bear commercials.  That's how ingrain Coke's advertising has become.  Like automobiles, and fast food, soft drink makers always are reinventing themselves with advertising and trying to find new ways to reach their consumers.  It's no different with Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE).  The company that has more than 50 different soft drink brands under its umbrella including Coca Cola (Coke), Diet Coke, Sprite, Barq's, Dr. Pepper, Canada Dry, PowerAde, Mellow Yellow, Nestea, and Fanta.

No Corporate Public Facing Blogs
Coca-Cola Enterprises does not have any corporate type blogs that address shareholders or press interests.  Their corporate site is quite extensive though, along with a very annoying Coca-Cola brand site.  These sites include areas for all sorts of information, however the brand site seems to be a lot more current than the CCE site.

I did searches on Technorati for an official blog, or corporate blog, but came up empty.  I also searched on the CEO for Coca Cola,  E. Neville Isdell, but again no blogs could be found that were written by him.

Coca Cola Does Utilize Blogs
Coke may not utilize blogs for the corporate face, but they do utilize them internally and with marketing ventures to certain degrees of failure and success.  The recognized and perceived benefit of blogs by Coca Cola is encouraging, I hope to see more utilization of blogs from the company going forward, but only time will tell. 

It would be smart of them to launch a blog talking about their brands and current promotions or commercials since its something they are known for and people actually look forward too.  Besides with over 500 mentions daily in blog posts - they should be taking advantage of that type of traffic.

• MyCoke.com - This area of Coke actually has its own blogging system.  Sort of a "TypePad/WordPress/Blogger" for MyCoke Members, but with a music type spin.  Users can post to their own blogs in this area.
• ZeroMovement Blog - This was pretty much a Blogging disaster by Coke.  Based on the premise that men don't like the word "diet", this blog helped to promote Coke Zero with the male population.  The only problem was, is that the blog was "fake", to be discovered it was sponsored totally by Coke Zero, and although the domain was only bought in November 2005, posts went back farther than that.
• WellSpeakFootball.com - To all accounts this looks like a successful venture for Coca-Cola.  I believe it was because bloggers, rather than marketers were at the helm of this project.  This blog promoted the World Cup Soccer Games in Germany this past summer (2006).
• Internal Blogs - Starting back in October 2004, Coca Cola started an internal blog.  The only reason anyone knows about this is because Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion actually caught a glimpse of it and posted a snap shot of it.  Unfortunately these are not viewable to the public, the blog itself is now password protected.

I could go into the whole Diet-Coke / Mentos / EepyBird.com / Google Video geysers, but that is going to be another post on the whole viral marketing area, since I singled out Coke (as 1 of 5 who didn't "get it") for not embracing this "free advertising" before. :)

SEC Chairman Cox Applauds Use of Corporate Blogs

By Li Evans

Hat tip to Kevin O'Keefe, owner of LexBlog ("Real Lawyers have Blogs").  Kevin's one of the few lawyers who I actually like to read what he writes.  Tonight Kevin's got a post about the SEC Chairman, Christopher Cox commenting on Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz's blog.  The original tip to this was from the law blog on the Wall Street Journal by Pete Lattman.

The interesting take away from all of it, is quite timely for me (as I'm involved with the Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review Project), the chairman applauds the use of corporations uses blogs.  In a letter that followed Cox's comment on Schwartz's blog Lattman reports: "Cox applauds the use of corporate websites as ‘as a source of information to the market and investors.’ "

I wonder if that's going to make some of these corporations finally take notice of utilizing the Internet as a communication tool, and not just a slick, glossy and cheap way to distribute their brochures and annual reports?

Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review: Limited Brands, Inc. #246

By Li Evans

What do Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, Henri Bendel, Express and C.O. Bigelow all have in common?  Other than a target audience skewed highly female, they are all owned by Limited Brands, Inc.

Limited Brands, Inc. is publicly traded under the stock symbol LTD.  The corporation's Chairman and Chief Executive officer is it's founder, Leslie H. Wexner.  The headquarters for Limited Brands is in Columbus, Ohio and boasts a work force of over 100,000.  Other brands that fall under the Limited Brands, Inc. umbrella are The Limited and White Barn Candle Company.

No Corporate Blogs
As seems to be a theme running with all the corporations I've chosen to review, Limited Brands, Inc. has no corporate blogs.  The more famous brands do not have blogs either.  A search for a blog written by Mr. Wexner came up with nothing as well.

I found plenty of posts about Mr. Wexner, most recently a lot about a fund raiser he held in which he and his wife hosted President Bush at their estate.  Like the other corporations I researched (Target, and Toys R Us) plenty of people are blogging about the things they buy or see at the Limited Brands stores.  The main two brands being Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works having the most "buzz" around them.  As displayed in the charts below you'll see that Limited Brands has very low "buzz" compared to Bath & Body Works and then to Victoria's Secret, according to Technorati (clicking the images will give you a larger view of the charts).

The Top Brands Need A Blog
Like Toys R Us, the brands that Limited Brands has need some sort of marketing blog to help capture some of that word of mouth marketing going on right now in the blogosphere.  Limited Brands, Inc. really doesn't need a blog, as its site really does explain a lot about the company and its press section also is pretty extensive.

But here's a perfect reason why the bigger brands need a blog.  Victoria's Secret has a line of sleepwear they are heavily promoting right now, the line is called "Pink".  They are promoting the give away of this cute little stuffed "Pink" dog when you purchase so much "Pink" sleepwear.  After just wrapping up Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, and knowing that there was a whole "Pink" push in relation to the Awareness month, my first impression was that this promotion might benefit that cause.  It doesn't, as far as I can tell - and if it does, it doesn't display it prominently enough - see the confusion?

In conclusion, both of the bigger brands under the Limited Brands, Inc. umbrella could utilize blogs to help market their products and really capture that current on-line buzz around their products.  It can also help them better promote their new lines of clothing or scents (in Bath & Body Works case).

Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review: Toys-R-Us #208

By Li Evans

"I don't wanna grow up.... I'm a Toys-R-Us Kid..."  Now who among us can't sing that jingle word for word?  That's always the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Toys-R-Us, but today I write about them for the Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review.

Toys-R-Us (#208 on the FORTUNE 500 list) is a publicly traded company under the stock symbol "TOY", however all of the stock is divided equally between two major investment firms.  Bain Capital Partners LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), and Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO) completed and acquired of all the Toy-R-Us brands in July of 2005.

No Corporate Blogs
A search of the Toys-R-Us corporate website and retail website turned up no blogs. Toys-R-Us has other brands , such as Babies-R-Us and  Personalized-By-R-Us, however, no blogs were located on either of those sites either. A check of Technorati showed no official company blog listed in the blog directory for any of the brands nor any of the executive team.  Like Target, there are plenty of people blogging about buying things at Toys-R-Us.  There is also a lot of speculation on Toys-R-Us' success in this upcoming holiday season, especially against their biggest rival - WalMart.

As I've done with the past corporations I researched, I looked for blogs written by the major players on the executive team of Toys-R-Us.  I could not find any blogs written by CEO Gerald L. Storch, US Toys-R-Us President Ron Boire or Babies-R-Us President Deborah Derby. 

Of the three, Ron Boire was the most written about. In the past week, toy blogs, gizmo blogs, gaming blogs and electronic blogs were all buzzing with the news that you can pre-order the Wii by Nintendo at Toys-R-Us, Boire is quoted extensively about this.  Of the three Deborah Derby is the least mentioned, I couldn't find anything written about her.

Gerald L. Storch had a decent amount of "buzz" around him, but it wasn't really of the nature companies like to talk about.  The biggest take away in my search on Mr. Storch was the "breast feeding incident" at the Toys-R-Us mega store in New York City.

Why Toys-R-Us Should Be Blogging
Toys-R-Us doesn't need a blog by "stuffy" executives, Toys-R-Us could benefit from a blog written by its "Toy Development Team".  Communication with parents could set Toys-R-Us above their competitor WalMart, and keep them coming back to Toys-R-Us again and again. 

In the blog, they could feature a new toy a week and explain what the toy does, how it can entertain or benefit their children.  This type of blog could also really help them promote their "Hot Christmas Toy Picks", or "Toy Trends of the Season" beyond the press release they send out or short TV segments they do.  Toys-R-Us also has a neat Gift Guide and a blog could also really highlight and encourage its use.

To wrap up why else Toys-R-Us should be blogging, it can help offset of the "negative".  Not just negative press, but things that can shine a negative light on the Toys-R-Us brand.  A search on Ask.com's blogsearch gave me a set of results, but what popped up on the right hand side made me take a second look.

Lastly, if you are using FireFox as your browser, the Toys-R-Us corporate site does not load correctly in the browser, it does however work fine in IE (6.5).

Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review: Liberty Media #277

By Li Evans

Up next in my corporate blogging review project was Liberty Media Corporation.  Liberty Media is a holding company that owns interests in a broad range of electronic retailing, media, communications and entertainment businesses.  They use to trade under the stock symbol (L), however in the past year they've made some moves to help better for better valuation of the company.  Within the last year they've created "tracking stocks" that trade under the symbols: LINTA, LINTB, LCAPA, LCAPB.

Liberty Media owns by entirety, or in some percentage a portion of some very familiar companies.  Under it's Liberty Media Interactive it lumps QVC*, InterActiveCorp (IAC), Expedia and Provide Commerce among others.  Under Liberty Media Capital is lumps DirecTV, Starz, Encore and News Corporation.

No Corporate Blogs
Once again, as with my Target review, the search for a corporate blog was a fruitless one.  Plenty of people blog about Liberty Media or its subsidiaries like QVC, Expedia and Starz, but there is not an official corporate/company blog in relation to the holding company.

The only thing remotely related to a corporate blog in Liberty Media's "stable" is through it's 22% ownership of InterActiveCorp (IAC), in which Ask.com and Bloglines.com have actual active blogs which they communicate with to their audience.  John Caddell at the Shop Talk blog, did the full review of InterActiveCorp (IAC) #313 for the Fortune 500 Blog Project.

I searched for a blog written by John Malone, Chairman of Liberty Media or by Gregory B. Maffei - President & Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Media.  Again, no blogs written by them, but plenty written about them - especially John Malone.  Mr. Malone's been active in the financial sectors, especially when it comes to the investment in News Corp.

Liberty Media, its subsidiaries or its Chairman or CEO would benefit from a blog.  Especially since a lot of the information out on the Internet is not of the flattering nature.  With a blog, Liberty Media could actually show how its using "Interactive Technologies" to promote it's "Interactive Unit" (LINTA).

Like any kind of holding company, interest in the company usually has definitive peaks and valleys.  When quarterly financial statements are due or if members of its board or the company itself is involved in any type of acquisition talks, it sparks the blogosphere around Liberty Media.  The chart is representative of this nature.  If Liberty Media had some sort of blog, it could put a much more positive light on why their company takes the direction it does.

* Disclosure:  I am a former employee of QVC, Inc.

Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review: Target

By Li Evans

My first choice for the Fortune 500 Blog Project was Target.  I have a bit of interest in Target, as I've blogged about them before (in regards to the Target Usability Lawsuit), so this allowed me to dig even deeper into how Target possibly engages its customers or shareholders.  Target is a publicly traded company on the stock market with the symbol TGT.

No Target Corporate Blog
I searched high and low and could not find any official corporate/company blog run by or sanctioned by Target.  I searched all around Target.com and Targetcorp.com and came away with nothing in the direction of any sort of blog.  I then did a search on Technorati in both their blog directory as well as extensive searches throughout blogs.  A lot of people blog about what they buy at Target - but nothing from Target themselves.

I also went and did a search on Target's CEO Robert "Bob" Ulrich, no blog, but two blog mentions came up:

• Why Collaboration Matters
• Top CEO, Top Business Leaders Top ANA Members

I also did a search on Target's President, Gregg Steinhafel.  Found a lot of blogs reporting about the letter he wrote to the Movie Association in regards to the deal Apple, Inc. struck for iTunes downloads, and that was pretty much the extent of my findings there.

I took my search over to both Google and Yahoo (both blog and regular searches), the closet thing I came to a blog run by any sort of relation to Target was a blog listing for the Target Racing Team, however, the link was dead, but you can view a cached version of it.  I did find another interesting item to note, there is a union blog aimed at Target employees.  Target Union is run by United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 789, not the Target corporation.  That led me to a post on whether or not Target should have a blog written last year by the Strategic Public Relations blog.

Other Notes on Target
To wrap up my research on Target a few things to note.  There is an extensive Wikipedia entry for  the Target Corporation, which was last modified 10/27/06.  Another article that seemed to come up rather frequently was one from Fast Company, that pointed out how Target sort of "stuck it to Walmart", although not the main point of the article - its what a reader will remember. Lastly, there could be signs that Target is stepping into the realm of blogging - they have set up RSS Feeds for their Media/News section (image to right).

Fortune 500 Blog Project

By Li Evans

I recently volunteered for the Fortune 500 Business Blog Project run by Easton Elseworth of Business Blogwire.  I've been a reader of his blog for a while now and when I saw this project come up I sent the email off and offered my hand.  I'm pretty excited about this as I picked companies I've got some interest or background into.

The posts will be intermingled with the normal search marketing stuff, so I hope to give you readers a peak into who's blogging in the corporate world and who isn't, what's good and what isn't.  You can also read other reviews by the other researchers by subscribing to the "f500bp" tag in Technorati.