PR Resource

PR practitioners learn early that no company or individual is safe and even the smallest mistake can lead to tragedy.  Take this case.   A one-letter typo in a UK government report put a company out of business.  Two companies had virtually the same name.  One of those companies was in liquidation and the other was a 124-year-old family business.  The typo converted the healthy business into the liquidated one.  Suppliers stopped delivering to the family business.  It could get no credit and it went under.  How dumb is that?  The government is paying compensation to the owner four years later, but that is hardly adequate to the loss.  It pays to have a healthy paranoia, to be aware that even small things can damage you and to protect reputation zealously.

The mathematical models and weather predictions were wrong.  The historic storm that was supposed to wallop the Tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut missed.  It side slipped 75 miles to the east and hit the far tip of Long Island and New England.  Government officials and citizens are angry.  The communications lead-up to the storm had built expectations to an hysterical level only to have a modest snow fall with a measly five inches or so.  (At least that is what it was at our house in New Jersey.)  Now forecasters have a credibility gap.  Predictions that they brilliantly made for the devastating storm, Hurricane Sandy, now look inept as if they held thumbs to the sky.  Perhaps they trusted their models too much, or they were caught in an act of hubris.  The outcome is a public relations problem.  Who is going to believe them the next time?  And there will be a next time.  With something as variable as weather, it would seem the best stance is caution.  One reminds citizens that predictions are rarely 100 percent accurate and unforeseen consequences are the rule rather than the exception.  At least it will give them some cover.

How do you refresh an icon gone stale?  That’s the challenge facing Mattel whose Barbie doll cash generator is no longer the ideal play toy for young girls.  The company had relied so long on the once best-selling toy that it has trouble migrating to new toy lines.  The CEO has just resigned and there is no guarantee a new occupant of the chair will divine what little girls want.  There isn’t much a PR practitioner can do in a situation like this.  Barbie needs something to make the doll relevant again to young girls and a PR campaign is unlikely to generate the buzz needed.  It is interesting that Disney stole a march on Barbie with its Frozen movie and line of merchandise.  It thrust a franchise that was beginning to fade into also-ran.  Was Mattel ready for that?  Perhaps it should have been, but after so many years of success, who would have thought a crisis would come so quickly?

School superintendents, county executives, commuting authorities, mayors, governors and weather forecasters all have warned the public about a blizzard about to hit the northeast.  There are predictions ranging from one to three feet depending on where one lives. Supermarkets are mobbed and shelves stripped bare.  People are stocking up on gas for generators and snow blowers.  Snow shovels are stacked at the door.  While one can thank the media and authorities for alerting the public, one wonders, based on past faulty predictions, whether this one is going to be the “Big One” or not.  One almost hopes that it is after the misses of the past.  At least it would be a storm one could talk about.  The PR effort is designed to keep people off the roads so plows can do their work.  If the storm is as big as predicted, there won’t be much worry of that.  Cars will be buried in their driveways.  If the storm is a bust, it will be another PR effort wasted.  One can’t predict storms accurately in advance, but the public can grow tired of warnings that rarely prove true.

How much PR and investor relations do you really need?  If you were this company and this executive, the answer is little to none.  Gordon was able to get away with decades of running a public company as a personal fiefdom.  He talked to no one.  His SEC filings were minimal.  He kept the public far away from his business although he made a consumer product.  Gordon’s silent treatment was at the limits of what a company can do to remain out of the public eye.  There are a number of what-ifs that should be asked about its stonewalling.  What if, for example, there had been contamination of Tootsie Rolls and there had been a nationwide recall?  What if there had been a labor action?  What if his wife had died before he did?  What would have been his succession plan?  None of these things happened while he was leading the company,  so he had no need to communicate — and he didn’t.  When PR and IR practitioners swell with their sense of importance, it is important to remember that there are other Tootsie Roll Industries in the marketplace who have faded into the background and are intent on remaining there.

Airbnb, the room sharing service based out of San Francisco, has a PR challenge in New York City. Hundreds of tenants are angry over other tenants renting out their rooms through the service.  The angry tenants claim that Airbnb is reducing the amount of affordable housing in New York City because landlords would rather let apartments for a night at a higher price than they can get for monthly rental income.  Irate tenants also claim that many of the Airbnb rooms are rented in violation of New York City law.  This is a problem for the company because New York is a desirable market for its room-sharing service.  The cost of hotel rooms is high and a traveler can get an Airbnb room for much less.  Meeting the PR challenge will require ground-pounding work — getting out into the buildings where tenants are letting rooms and finding out just how serious the problem might be.  It also might require lobbying to get the law changed or modified.  It will require working closely with city authorities to make sure that it remains on the right side of regulations.  Press releases and presentations are not nearly enough.

Wal-Mart has won multiple marketing objectives with one stroke of genius.  For the under-banked in our society, many of whom are Wal-mart customers, the chain is offering tax refunds in cash at its stores.  One can go to the store, get taxes done and receive refund without a check or direct deposit, neither of which are convenient for the under-banked.  Wal-Mart hopes that some of the cash refund will remain in the store as customers shop with their refund money.  But, even if they don’t, the chain has demonstrated a close understanding of customers needs and has taken a step to meet them.  That alone makes this a great idea.  It’s public relations at its best.

The Islamic terrorist group, Isis, is blackmailing the Japanese government by threatening to decapitate two Japanese citizens unless the country pays $200 million for their ransom.  Japan would be foolhardy to give in.  By so doing, it would put a ransom on the head of every one of its citizens.  No Japanese would be safe in any part of the world where there are kidnappings,  As ugly as it is, the country for the larger protection of its citizens must risk seeing the two men beheaded on camera.  This will pose an immediate public relations problem for the government, but one that can be handled.  The government will need to explain that by giving in once, it encourages criminals to do it again without an end to the nightmare.  It is a difficult position for the prime minister to be in and he requires a stiff back to withstand the pressure, but leadership is never easy.

Drones are coming to the news gathering business, and to the crisis communicator it means a loss of control.  There will be no keeping back the news media from the scene of an accident while first responders handle the dead and dying.  Overhead cameras will record every grisly detail.  For PR practitioners, there will be less control at events with cameras hovering overhead.  Drones might prove to be a nuisance, or ultimately, they could be woven into an evolving tragedy or event.  Chances are it will be the latter because once the news media start using them, they won’t stop.  Drones are much cheaper than helicopters and can get closer to events on the ground.  It might seem premature to say what a PR practitioner should do, if anything, about drones, but it isn’t too early to ask.

The CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, is accusing federal regulators of piling on his bank.  Rather than one regulator, he says, he now has five or six to deal with.  While that might be true, his complaint smacks of special pleading.  Large banks were in the thick of the financial meltdown, and they are still cleaning up the mess seven years later.  JP Morgan avoided some of the mire early on but was caught later. Dimon might have a case, but he lacks the credibility to make it, and he might not gain credence for years to come.  It is a tough position to be in.  The public perceives regulators to be on the side of the angels and reining in irresponsible banks.  Dimon can complain but he is fighting an embedded perception and distrust of large financial institutions.  Perhaps his best course of action is to remain silent.  Speaking out doesn’t appear to be working, and it makes him seem like a petulant whiner.