Americans love a good apology. Show even a modicum of sincerity, and all is forgiven. J. C. Penney and its apology ad is certainly banking on this dynamic. Unfortunately, the strategy is flawed, and the execution is worse. We’ve simplified the chain of events in the aerial view below: Did I miss something? I thought …more
Chris Tang, our Asia Pacific managing director based in Beijing, has years of experience in advising clients during times of crisis. The crisis a few months ago involving McDonald’s caught her attention. Here, she shares a mini case study on the episode and what McDonald’s did right to avoid a long-term disaster. By Chris Tang …more
Goldman Sachs just turned to Richard Siewert, Jr., former counsel to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, to take the public relations reins. Obviously, Goldman Sachs felt something had to change. But they had no way of knowing the firm’s tarnished image would morph into a full-blown crisis. That’s what happened yesterday when Greg Smith’s op-ed, “Why …more
It will be fascinating to see how Tim Cook responds to this first crisis since taking the CEO reins at Apple. I don’t think today’s expose in the New York Times, “In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad,” will go gently in the night. Unlike the spike of hoopla around Foxconn (supporting role in this …more
Let’s start with the positive side. Netflix customers passionately care about the service. Every time Kellogg’s raises the price of Pop-Tarts, you don’t even hear a whimper. But the Netflix customer base responded with the emotional fervor of a South American futbol match. Why? Take a look at the blog post announcing the pricing change. After laying out …more
Advertising, not public relations, embraces storytelling techniques. Usually. I came across an ad for the country of Georgia with the headline: Georgia, The World’s number 1 in fighting corruption. While not a fan of Styrofoam-finger advertising, this sounded promising. Anytime you have good fighting evil, a potential story lurks around the corner. Unfortunately, the people …more
This blog is geared to explore how storytelling techniques can be applied to brand building. But what about the story that a company doesn’t necessarily want to tell? Like when things go wrong. We’re about to enjoy a front-row seat to such a case study with the Justice Department calling out Oracle with the news …more
The BP oil rig explosion just hit the two-month milestone. At last count, I was one of 10,332 writers (my horseshoe-far number) who weighed in with a perspective or two on BP’s crisis communications. Make that 10,333, with the BBC highlighting BP boss Tony Hayward’s gaffes. A byproduct of BP’s PR nightmare involves the resurrection of the Exxon Valdez …more
The communications controlled by a company during a crisis – not the media coverage – provide the best indicator of competency (or lack thereof). If you can’t get the communications under your control right, you have zero chance of winning over others to carry your story forward. That’s why I characterized Toyota’s crisis communications as amateur hour. The company’s first open …more
