Month: February 2017

Self-driving cars are on the way but one feature of their computerized systems still doesn’t work.  That is handling road construction.  Lane change signs and traffic cones confuse the systems set up for straight-through driving.  It presents a major marketing and PR challenge for auto manufacturers as well.  How do you sell a feature that works some of the time?  What kind of PR must one do to teach people that construction zones require hands-on driving?  Vehicle manufacturers have a major step to make before they put autonomous systems into cars and trucks.  Somehow they will need to teach their software to guide around barriers or to slow or stop until someone puts a hand to the wheel.  One can imagine the dangers lurking in this hand-off from automatic to gray-cell driving, especially if the human has been distracted.  The manufacturers will find a solution but it might delay the debut of autonomous driving, which would be a pity.

This event was a conflict of interest.  You are not supposed to shill for private business while serving in the White House.  Why Kellyanne Conway did it is a question in itself.  Ivanka Trump’s fashion line has been taking hits as one department store after another has dropped the line.  President Trump weighed in about it with a tweet.  Conway might have felt she was pleasing the boss by making the statement she said.  Conflict of interest was probably nowhere in her thinking at the time.  It should have been. Now, she has upset even the Republicans in Congress, and made the separation between Donald Trump’s businesses and role as President narrower.  Conway should have been fired.  She was counseled instead.  That in itself makes the charge of a conflict of interest between President Trump and his businesses more real.  From a PR perspective, it smells — and not sweetly.

A lie repeated often enough becomes fact.  That is the tactic of the White House administration.  Calling the traditional media “fake news” will convince some of the public that reporters lie regularly and should be discredited. The White House wants the media to report positively on its actions and will attack anyone who doesn’t. Journalists should be on guard for false stories because their reputations are being questioned.  It is the lowest form of relationship with the media — an adversarial set-to that the White House can’t win in the end.  The media will still be here in four or eight years when the Trump White House is history and it will continue to report on falsehoods of the administration.  Eventually, most of the public will come around and view fake news for what it is — a way to sell advertising or to impugn a foe.  Today, there is a credibility issue.  People don’t know what to believe, so they are as apt to accept the White House with its charge of “fake news” as they are to read and believe media reports.  Trump’s people are exploiting that confusion, but it won’t last forever.

The media are blasting the Trump administration for relying on “alternative facts.”  But what makes this any different?  Buzzfeed rushed to publish unconfirmed documents alleging misbehavior on the part of Trump.  Buzzfeed went on to defend its actions but was roundly criticized by members of the traditional media.  Publications of alt-facts from either side don’t make sources accurate or right.  Buzzfeed is now in court over its actions and well it should be.  Some of Trump’s supporters belong there with it for spreading scurrilous and untrue stories about Hillary Clinton.  PR practitioners should be horrified by what journalism has become with traditional sources overwhelmed by social media that brays constantly in the background.  It means our work is harder and vigilance is the order of the day.  One never knows when charges of some kind are going to appear and where.  If Buzzfeed escapes judicial punishment for its behavior, it will only justify the medium in its own mind.  That would be sad.  Fact checking still counts, or should anyway.

84 Lumber, a materials business, ran a spot during the Super Bowl that invited viewers to its online site for the conclusion of the ad.  The site was overwhelmed with a deluge of viewers.  Within one minute of the ad’s appearance, the company received 300,000 hits to its web site, twice the site’s capacity to handle the flow.  Predictably, the site seized and tens of thousands were turned away.  This was a rookie error.  When dealing with online, especially after an ad viewed by millions, one should set up for a surge that is many times the size of one’s normal viewership.  It is a costly mistake to be caught short as 84 Lumber was.  The company will know the next time it tries a multimedia approach like this, but that doesn’t make up for the error this time.

Nordstrom cancelled Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand from its lineup and said it was purely a business decision.  Maybe so, but it also spared the retailing chain from boycotts and agitators opposed to the Trumps.  One is hard put to believe that this thought was not part of the consideration when the decision was made.  There is no rule that says a retailer must carry a brand. Yes, a store can carry merchandise that breaks even or even loses money for the prestige value of having it, but the Trump name doesn’t carry that cachet.  So, Nordstrom avoided potential controversy and embarrassment of handling Ivanka’s designs and it can breathe a sigh of relief that her pieces weren’t selling that well anyway.

IBM is masterful in marketing its artificial intelligence program called Watson.  Now Watson is assisting in completing returns for H&R Block.  Watson has already been put to work on helping doctors identify and treat cancer, sell auto insurance, and assist customers in stores among dozens of applications for its silicon brainpower.  Watson’s initial success was built on its winning Jeopardy several years ago.  It was a brilliant publicity stunt that proved the power of the software.  Since then, IBM’s marketers and engineers have tailored the program for numerous uses.  It helps IBM that Watson is anthropomorphic and named after a previous CEO of the corporation.  The male voice answering questions during the game show seemed real.  It wasn’t hard to visualize a brain working in the background.  It will be interesting to learn how H&R Block’s 70,000 tax preparers use the machine.  It is one more example of great PR for the technology.

PR is what you do more than what you say, and that makes this great PR.  Google’s Waymo subsidiary has mastered the craft of autonomous driving through developing and tweaking both hardware and software for its test vehicles.  The cars drive hundreds of thousands of miles now with only a few disengagements where a driver has to take control of the machine. That means the vehicles are as road ready as any driverless car being developed.  I would much like to have the experience of riding in one just to get the feeling of how a driverless car operates, especially over long distances.  Waymo is working with manufacturers already to equip vehicles with the technology and that means it won’t be long before they are sold in showrooms.  Perhaps in the next two to three years we will see them advertised and sold as consumer products.

Now is a time for moral courage among America’s CEOs.  Do they have the will to speak out against the White House travel ban or will they duck the issue?  It is not a simple case for them.  They are beholden to boards and shareholders who might not like to see them taking a public position.  The issue might not affect them and their companies directly.  They might fear an impact on their customer base if they put a stake in the ground.  One can’t blame those who remain silent because they don’t see it as part of their job to call out President Trump.  On the other hand, one should admire those who have made a case for getting rid of the travel ban whether it directly affects them or not.  It is easier to remain silent.  But, silence is not what is needed at this time.