Month: November 2015

The attacks in Paris were an example of negative publicity.  ISIS wanted to let the world know it can strike wherever and whenever it wants.  And, it was successful in that effort, killing 129 people and injuring hundreds more.  ISIS leaders may be basking in their glory for what was achieved, but the rest of the world was horrified.  The problem with negative publicity is that it motivates people and organizations against one.  The tit for tat of the French attacks was bombing in Syria against ISIS strongholds.  In other words, the rebel leaders are worse off today than they were on Friday night when the attacks took place.  That is often the outcome of negative publicity.

It has long been said that the best management tool is a good pair of shoes.  This notion has been turned into an acronym — MBWA — Management By Walking About.   Here is an example of a CEO who works as an Uber driver to learn how people feel about travel. It makes no difference to him that he is a multi-millionaire and founder of a successful company.  He is aware that he can’t know what customers are thinking unless he rubs shoulders with them.  He is not alone.  Retail CEOs conduct store visitations to see how they are working and to hobnob with customers. CEOs of fast food franchises spend time each year behind the counter to remind themselves what is important.  It is smart management and PR to stay in close touch with the bottom, customer-facing side of a business.  It grounds one again in what is important to the success of an enterprise and closes the gap between customers and the top of an organization.

This might be a poor PR decision and practice of the auto manufacturers.  While run-flat tires can take one a distance and puncture kits might work, that might not be enough for the individual whose auto is stuck by the side of the road and no way to replace a tire.  Granted that car makers are looking for anything to save weight and increase mileage, but there ought to be a limit of common sense.  It is easy to envision a scenario in which a driver is out of luck — for example a tear in the sidewall of a tire.  No run-flat kit is going to fix that.  So, in order to reach regulatory mileage per gallon, the spare tire is sacrificed.  I’ll try not to purchase a vehicle without a spare.

Sometimes there are no good answers to an event.  Whatever one says or does carries severe penalties.  There isn’t even a way to weigh the lesser of two evils.  This is one case.  Slovenia is building a border fence to bar migrants from the country.  Slovenia already has tens of thousands and is struggling to care for them.  With winter coming, the country feels helpless to handle thousands more.  If it had left its border open, it would have had a humanitarian crisis.  But, by closing its border, it is sparking a humanitarian crisis.  There is no good way to handle this situation.  Political principles fail.  Migrants are desperate, cold and ill-fed and they will be that way whether or not the fence had gone up.  The citizens of Slovenia cannot bear the responsibility of handling all the refugees.  The resources aren’t there.  Only time will tell what happens to the asylum seekers and chances are it won’t be good.  It is a tragedy.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been going for so long that no one quite remembers it was originally and still is a publicity event for the store.  The parade has taken on a life of its own.  Macy’s to its credit has allowed the parade to expand and include a little of everything from bands to balloons to dancers and pop and Broadway stars.  The publicity is immeasurable and defines Macy’s as an essential part of Christmas cheer.  It is not often that an entity can create something that at its heart is commerce but in its presentation is community relations.  As such, the Thanksgiving Day Parade deserves a close examination for how it got started and how it grew.  The first couple of years it was a publicity stunt on the part of the store, but then it turned into something else and over time as the balloons were added it became a parade like none other.  Today, tens of millions line the parade route or watch the parade on television.  Children who don’t know Macy’s from K-Mart stare wide-eyed at the passing characters they know from cartoons.  Their parents know and that is enough for Macy’s.

The University of Missouri is feeling the power of protest with its football team stopping practice and a call for the president of the university to step down.  The situation that sparked this was a swastika drawn on a residence hall.  African-American students rose up united to descry the incident and to call for action.  What they are doing shows the force of mass persuasion.  Organizations cannot run when their participants refuse to cooperate.  It is the same for strikes and all other crowd uprisings.  From a PR perspective, leaders have to realize that they are only in control through the power of positive persuasion and while people have a tendency to go along, there is always a chance they will not. When that happens, organizations break down and societies rupture.  At this juncture, it would probably be best if the President of the school did step aside.  It is too late for him to react and calm the crowd.

We are often told to think outside the box, be creative, smash old paradigms and find new ones.  But there are times when a box fosters creativity and is essential to artists, entrepreneurs and business persons.  Here is an example.  The Pantone color system put an end to the headache of identifying colors and using them consistently in one’s work.  It is an essential tool everywhere and assists creative solutions in all forms of media and decoration.  One wonders why an inventor failed to come up with such a solution long before it was discovered in 1963.  The beauty of the Pantone system is its exactness. It specifies the blend of paints and inks to make the same color time after time.  As any colorist can tell you, that is hard to achieve.  So, while Pantone is a standardized tool, it facilitates out of the box thinking and imagination.  Communicators should consider this.  Some things are best when they are routine.

Bob Lutz is a long-time car guy who has served in the top ranks of multiple auto manufacturers.  When he speaks about cars, he talks from experience.  That is why this opinion piece focused on Tesla is a serious PR problem for the electric vehicle company.  Lutz picks apart the economic and technology model of Tesla and predicts imminent doom for the business unless it cuts costs now.  That is contrary to the vision of Elon Musk who believes in invest, invest, invest and someday profits will show.  This approach depends on the forbearance of banks and investors whom Musk must charm as long as he can.  To be fair, Musk doesn’t see Tesla as a typical car company.  He is out to save the world with an electric auto, but the world will ask who is paying the piper.  There is no doubt the Tesla is the ultimate performance vehicle run only on electricity, but Lutz points out in a time of two dollar gasoline, there isn’t much call for it.  Tesla is teetering on a cliff and had better be prepared to respond before it pitches over.

This story outlines a PR opportunity.  It is about consumers’ inability to figure out health plans.  The opportunity, of course, is to devise and explain a plan that they can easily grasp.  The first company that achieves this will take market share from competitors.  Why hasn’t it been done already?  Because health coverage is complicated and its myriad of options can only confuse customers who are trying to pick what is best for them.  Hence, the problem and opportunity.  PR practitioners alone cannot devise easier plans to comprehend.  It will take a coordinated effort on the part of actuaries, marketers, lawyers and others to work through the complexities and simplify them.  Almost certainly, the impetus for change will have to come from a CEO who is customer oriented.  The PR department is usually too low in the power structure.  But, the practitioner can always pitch the idea.

One doesn’t value Generally Accepted Accounting Principles until they are ignored and a major failure results.  Consider this company.  Valeant sticks to the letter of the law by giving GAAP numbers in its press releases but it also presents and emphasizes non-GAAP earnings in which certain expenses have been deleted from the bottom line.  Hence, Valeant can show a higher earnings per share than it would under GAAP.  Now that Valeant is in trouble, its non-GAAP earnings are being held up as an example of what not to do.  The company’s financial reporting has cost it credibility and its stock price, which has plummeted.  So, why do companies continue to report scrubbed numbers?  Because they can get away with it.  They honor the letter of the law but fracture its spirit.  It is poor investor relations, but look for it to continue as long as management can make itself look better.