McVey Marketing Inc. is pleased to announce that it has been selected by the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., to provide marketing consulting services. The firm started working with St. Catherine's earlier this month in the areas of brand architecture, marketing planning and key message development.

St. Catherine's enrolls more than 5,000 students in its associate, undergraduate and graduate degree programs at campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis. St. Kate's, as it's affectionately known, is the nation's largest college for women.

McVey Marketing is excited about its new partnership with St. Catherine's and is anxious to add value to the college's brand development and marketing efforts.

McVey Marketing Inc. recently completed working with representatives of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, located in west central Minnesota, on the development of three strategic marketing and media relations plans. The plans will help the institutions further strengthen their brands by strategically enhancing their presence in regional and national news media. Here's what Jon McGee, vice president for enrollment, planning and public affairs at Saint Ben's/Saint John's, had to say about working with McVey Marketing Inc.:

"The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University retained McVey Marketing Inc. to enhance their marketing and communications operations by strengthening their regional and national media relations programs. Gary McVey and his firm developed three strategic media relations plans, one for each institution and a joint plan focused on advancing our coordinate efforts. These institutions have a unique relationship, and Gary very quickly grasped the complexities and nuances needed to be successful in positioning and marketing Saint Ben's and Saint John's. He also ensured that the plans we developed supported and advanced our broader strategic goals, including important objectives in the areas of enrollment and fund-raising.

Our presidents and other cabinet officers were thrilled with the quality and comprehensiveness of the firm's work, as well as the value of the investment we made. Gary is one of the most talented and experienced marketing and branding professionals I know, and I enthusiastically recommend his firm. We won't hesitate to partner with McVey Marketing again."

Firm president Gary McVey has been inducted into the Poulsbo North Kitsap Rotary Club of western Washington. He also has been appointed to the club's membership committee.

The club, which has more than 100 members, is currently conducting its annual fund-raising auction online; follow the link below to bid on travel getaways, sports tickets, a trip to the Indy 500 and many other unique items. Hurry. There's only two days left to bid.

The Power of a Strong Brand
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal about the latest salvos in the battle for market share between Wal-Mart and Target reinforced the importance of having a strong brand. The article by Ann Zimmerman, headlined "As Message Misses Mark, Target's Profit Drops," noted an 8 percent decline in Target's fourth- quarter profit and attributed much of the damage to the strength of Wal-Mart's brand promise of low prices, particularly during touch economic times.

According to the article, "While Wal-Mart has always been the price leader, Target has thrived by emphasizing the 'expect more' part of its 'Expect More. Pay Less' advertising slogan. Wal-Mart attempted to go upscale itself, in its stores and advertising. But as consumer spending tightened and the economic outlook dimmed, Wal- Mart trumped Target's successful ads by shifting its marketing back to its traditional low-price message. Its new slogan: 'Save Money. Live Better.' "

In other words, Wal-Mart returned to the power of its core brand promise, which is low prices, and it had the sense to do so at the same time the economy was tanking. As a brand observer and former resident of the Minneapolis area where Target is based, it's been interesting to watch the brand wars between these two retailers.

Of late, Target has been trying harder to compete with Wal-Mart on price, witness its current "Hello, Good Buy" advertising campaign. (Good luck with that.) And, as the Journal article noted, Wal-Mart was focusing more on stealing some of Target's trendy attitude as an upscale value discounter, the brand position that Target invented. With Wal-Mart increasing same-store sales by a hefty 1.7 percent compared to Target's dismal 0.2 percent, the latest round goes to the folks from Arkansas. Build a powerful brand and have the discipline to stick to it -- even when the competitor up the street is looking awfully trendy.

Media Relations do's and don'ts
For a previous newsletter, we interviewed two journalists about how media relations professionals can improve their media relations skills. Here are a few more helpful hints from Maureen McCarthy, Minneapolis team leader at the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune, Minnesota's largest newspaper.

When asked what media relations professionals should NOT do, Maureen said: "Don't assume the media's needs and goals are the same as yours. It's not our job to recognize good people or promote an organization's priorities. It's our job to find and tell the most important and interesting stories. Don't lie, obfuscate or mislead. Ever. Say you can't comment; you won't comment; you can't get your hands on that information. If you're caught being disingenuous, the word will spread and media will avoid you. Don't whine when things don't work out your way (if, for instance, a different business or university or program is the focus of a feature story)."

In Maureen's opinion, effective media relations practitioners DO the following: "You get to know your main media contacts. You have good story ideas, so your suggestions often become stories. You understand the time pressures we work under, so you give us good advance notice and try to ease the way for a reporter to reach your sources. You don't take it personally if your story doesn't get told. When a story contains something that you disagree with, you call and discuss your disagreement clearly, but you don't whine and you don't hold it against us in the next story." Follow these and other best practices in media relations, and your stories will get told.