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Boston Globe 6 1 11

Public relations maven Lynne Kortenhaus, the powerhouse behind Kortenhaus Communications, got into the business of promoting luxury brands by way of the art world. Raised on a farm in New Jersey, Kortenhaus studied printmaking and painting at Rhode Island School of Design and stumbled on her knack for marketing while working for Phillips Son & Neale, a London-based art auction firm in Boston. Her first Kortenhaus client was the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., which hired her to assess its vast art collection. Twenty-five years later, her clients include the WBoston hotel (opening in October), the Natick Collection mall, and Fallon Co., the real estate developers building out Fan Pier. Surrounded by her artwork in her Back Bay office, Kortenhaus talked to reporter Katie Johnston Chase.

What led you to start your own business?

I never really liked the way I was treated as an employee wherever I worked. I thought I could be a better employer than how I’ve been treated over the years. Not that I was treated poorly, but I just thought if I had my own business, I wouldn’t treat somebody like that, or I would reward them differently.

How were you treated?

I think there wasn’t a lot of mentoring back then. A young, single woman, 20, 30 years ago, you worked in a man’sworld. You just did it, and you didn’t complain, you didn’t whine, you didn’t cry. If you wanted to be respected, you really had to put on your armor.

Is it tough to always have to shape a company’s message in a positive way?

It’s really about keeping the message pure and simple. So many times we over-complicate communication. If there’s one thing I’ve learned by looking at a blank canvas, it is that there’s a purity to that, that you still want to keep no matter what you put on it.

In the luxury market, it’s probably less about crisis management and more about telling people about the wonderful things your clients have.

Our vision is: We create desire. Think about it. I don’t care whether it’s a luxury fashion house, a hotel, a destination, a spa service. You have to instill a desire in people.

And how do you do that?

We actually tell stories that create the desire. And we give people a voice as a result of that.

What is a story you’ve told for one of your clients?

When we opened the Frette store [the home decor company that opened a store in October in the Mandarin Oriental, Boston hotel] most people didn’t know what the brand was. So we have to tell that story. So we worked with a design publication and picked five different interior designers, and we asked them each to come in and design a bed using Frette linens in the store. And they got to touch and feel and experience the product, and they were able to tell their own story about their own kind of dream bed.

And how do you get that product to the public?

We do a lot of events for our clients. We also do a lot of partnerships with nonprofit organizations to help them raise awareness and money by pairing them with one of our clients.

And that creates a positive association?

Exactly. One example would be when we launched Hermés [in 1988] at the Heritage on the Garden [a luxury building on Boylston Street with retail, residences, and offices]. And then we created a scholarship fund for the opera association because one of the founding Hermés family members was an opera aficionado.

You’ve been at this for 25 years.What does it take to run a successful public relations firm in Boston?

I think it’s certainly knowledge of the marketplace. It’s also developing relationships across the board: city, government, business, arts, philanthropic, community. It’s listening a lot to what the needs are: the needs of the client and the needs of the marketplace. I like to look at PR practitioners as caretakers. Caretakers of images, caretakers of brands, caretakers of chief executives, caretakers of companies. And with that comes somewhat of an awesome responsibility.