FEATURED ARTICLE

Kate King, associate manager for corporate communications at Timberland. Photo:  Jackie Ricciardi

"When we're moving very quickly on a project, we're literally face to face with most of the time." Kate King, Timberland

For companies and nonprofits that can sustain an internal marketing and public relations department, the benefits are significant. “There’s so many advantages to understanding the culture,” said Nancy Notis, manager of public affairs at Portsmouth Hospital. “Health care is complicated and the technology is changing every moment. It’s very local and it’s very personal, and it makes it important that we convey that in a meaningful way.” “Over time, our communications team gets to know who our subject matter ‘experts’ are, who is appro-priate for which interviews,” said Kate King, the associate manager of corporate communications at Timberland in Stratham. “Also, when we’re moving very quickly on a project, we’re literally face to face with most of time, information sources and resources we need, not relying on phone or e-mail to plan and communicate.”

Margaret Talcott, director of marketing at The Music Hall, agrees that institutional knowledge is key. “We’re moving too quickly — 30-plus live events a year, a move most nights, something happening in the hall nearly constantly — to bring anyone out-of-house up to speed,” she said. “Key to having someone in-house is knowing, creating, explaining the latest happenings.”

Although the departments are typically small, employees multi-task, working on a variety of projects si-multaneously. At Portsmouth Hospital, for instance, a six-person marketing department is charged with a wide variety of duties. Led by Vice President of Marketing Leslie Pope, the work goes well beyond press releases and radio ads. According to Notis, several people manage programs that reach out into the greater Portsmouth area — the “community” in community relations. One person, for instance, manages the hospital’s “age 2U” program that provides activities, field trips and educational programming for sev-eral thousand senior citizen members. Another goes into the business community, setting up screenings, physicals, workstation ergonomic checks, “whatever they need.” Yet another oversees the physical refer-ral call center.

But the written and spoken word, obviously, is the department’s bread and butter. To let one part of the 1,100-employee hospital know what another part is doing, the marketing staff puts out an internal newslet-ter. There’s a quarterly publication for the public, as well.

Notis oversees media relations for the hospital, and handles advertising, print as well television and radio. She also fields the many requests for funding from area nonprofits such as Prescott Park or Families First. “We want to enhance the community we’re a part of,” she said, “and we try to fund as many worthy organizations as we can.”

Pope is a member of the hospital’s senior leadership team, which meets regularly, “so we know what’s going to be coming and are part of the planning process. This is a very interesting time. It used to be that if you had cancer or you had a heart attack you were immediately shipped out to Boston. Now all those services are available close to home.”

At Timberland in Stratham, King’s effort is to get the word out not only in media outlets but also through speaking engagements about this unusual company. Timberland has been recognized nationally as a socially responsible company. For the seventh consecutive year, for instance, Business Ethics Magazine named it a “100 Best Corporate Citizen.” “Much of my job is focused on communicating Timberland’s commitment” to this philosophy, King said. “We have a great story to tell, from employee benefits like our Path to Service program, which pro-vides 40 hours of paid time off for employees to volunteer in their communities, to the way we’re using renewable energy sources at some of our facilities.” King handles corporation communications, and she has a counterpart who handles information on Tim-berland’s various products. Each product division also has a PR person. All come under the umbrella of a director of corporate communications, whose job it is to keep in contact with internal departments and bring information back to the group. King, one of only two people in corporate communications, said her group does contract out with a New York public relations firm which she said acts as “an extended department.” She said the agency assists the in-house people with “everything from strategic planning to media outreach to budgeting.” But in the final analysis, she said, it is those in-house who have the institutional knowledge and the ability to get the word out most effectively.

Talcott at the Music Hall couldn’t agree more. “We’re the only ones who can explain the new ‘drop-in show,’ the government grant won, the donation we’re grateful for, the newly restored mural, the outreach program with high school students,” she said. Talcott handles all media relations and print publications, coordinates advertising, and is in charge of community outreach. Soon the department will expand to accommodate what Talcott said has been “a wonderful season in terms of ticket sales, memberships and overall visibility.” Someone is being hired for Talcott’s job, and she will become the new director of strategic communications — a job that will take her out into the community more, working with other area nonprofits such as Strawbery Banke as well as the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce. The current marketing assistant will take on more responsibility for graphic design.

Because the entire Music Hall staff is so small and the breadth of the shows they stage so broad, “We must all contribute our insights and past knowledge gained to get the word out to the appropriate audience.”

For instance, “Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown’s appearance in April was covered all over the country and even the world, she said. Talcott summed up the feelings of her colleagues in the profession when she said, “We’re about bringing beauty, laughter, poignancy and joy to the community, and it’s a story that must be told ... by the people on the inside.”