Month: July 2018

Goldman Sachs has taken an interesting way to gauge the valuation of a company and its stock — buzz on social media. Its analysts used comments to warn on Tesla and its Model 3 sedan. Here is how they did it:

“Goldman analysts looked to gauge sentiment on the Tesla TSLA, +0.63% Model 3 by analyzing daily social-media posts and categorizing Twitter and Reddit posts as positive, negative, or neutral. The buzz has skewed negatively recently, they said.

Economics has become more interesting since the field moved to behavioral studies — what people actually do and not what they are mathematically supposed to do. This experiment shows how to cross the bridge between intention to pay debt and the action of funding it. The authors theorized that people get busy and fail to follow through so they changed outbound calls to delinquents to gain their commitment to action. The test worked although the numbers were small but the expense avoided and revenue generated was larger. The focus was on gaining commitment to a specific time frame for paying debt. Rather than talking to the debtor, the system asked for the deadbeat’s response then solidified the answer. It is one more verification that effective communications is two-way.

US airlines have submitted to China’s demand that they label Taiwan as part of China rather than a separate country. China has pulled a power play. Taiwan is separate in government, economics and culture. Nothing can change that, and the longer the country is apart from the mainland, the more distinct it becomes. Unfortunately, because of China’s political and economic might, few are willing to buck the government, whether airlines or other countries. Taiwan has become a non-entity on the international scene. It’s there, but it’s not. It exports products, but it gets no recognition for doing so. From a communications perspective, the country is in a long lasting bind. At some point, China is determined to take over the island, but it isn’t ready to risk condemnation from the world community for doing so. So it waits and applies pressure on everyone to call Taiwan a mainland Chinese territory. It is a terrible position for Taiwan to be in.

One of the foundations of trust in a society is its money. The public has to believe that it can use paper documents to purchase or pay for something. When that trust breaks down, the public will eschew notes and find other ways to fulfill economic transactions. This is what is happening in Venezuela where monetary inflation is reaching one million percent. Its money is worthless, and the public is trying anything to get the necessities of life from barter through blackmarket dollars and in the worst case, theft. How did it get so bad in a country living on a sea of underground oil? The government wrecked the economy and continues to pursue its ruinous ways. It has lost public trust and maintains power through the barrel of a gun. Should the military turn on President Nicolas Maduro, it will be the end of him. Thus far, he has maintained his grip, but for how long?

When a 13-yer-old boy in Minneapolis started a hot dog stand, he didn’t have permits from the city. He was reported. But, instead of the city crashing down on him and putting him out of business, the bureaucrats went out of their way to help him become legal. It is a heart-warming story, especially since the young fellow is trying to raise money to buy new clothes for school. It could have easily gone wrong with patrol officers ticketing him and harassing him out of existence, but it didn’t. It shows that Minneapolis city workers have empathy for budding entrepreneurs, young or old. It makes one want to live there and is an example of smart PR.

There is a leadership crisis when there is an unplanned succession. Who will take over? How will the company change? What’s to become of its market position? That is the worry Fiat Chrysler found itself in over the weekend. Its long-time and popular CEO was suddenly replaced because of ill health. He had shoulder surgery a few weeks ago but something went wrong. The report did not mention if he was fighting for his life, but no matter, there was an urgent need for a new CEO. Mike Manley, 54, who spearheaded the growth of Jeep and RAM trucks over the past decade, has taken over in an internal succession. The directors of the company seemed to have been prepared for succession, which is not always the case. There will now be a testing period for Manley to see how well he can run the entire organization. With luck and skill he will be OK.

Can a huge aircraft be a publicity stunt? Airbus thought so, and now we have the beluga cargo plane. It was achieved on the one-off parts ferry for Airbus’ factories. The bulbous craft now sports a smile and a pair of eyes that make it look like the whale.  The BelugaXL will not be readily spotted since it is flying from factory to factory, but the paint job has already achieved international recognition.  Not bad for generating news copy and a few gallons of paint. Kudos to Airbus.

Mark Zuckerberg is wrapping himself and Facebook in the First Amendment by allowing Holocaust deniers a voice. The unknown question is whether the public will tolerate free and unpopular speech on the platform. It might be a risky move for Zuckerberg to take. He has already been forced to excise political speech and advertising traced to Russians. There is no telling what authorities will ask for next or what activists will condemn. He has set limits for hoaxers and for those who would urge harm to others. However, he says, “Okay, you have your page, and if you’re not trying to organize harm against someone, or attacking someone, then you can put up that content on your page, even if people might disagree with it or find it offensive.’ But that doesn’t mean that we have a responsibility to make it widely distributed in News Feed.” Even though he is correct according to the law, he should be prepared for ongoing PR challenges.

MGM is engaged in dangerous litigation. It is suing victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas in order to release itself from responsibility for the disaster. Lawyers for the victims are outraged, as are the victims. On the other hand, one can see some of what is happening here. MGM is a deep pocket, and anyone wanting compensation for injury and/or stress must go to the money. Their attorneys, of course, see a payday in their torts against MGM, and a lucrative one it could be. Should MGM win its suit and pay out nothing, it still has a negative PR image to deal with.  The perception of the hotel as unfeeling and not caring will linger and might hurt its long-term business. The company has put itself in a bad position, even if it decides to drop its suit.

President Trump’s press conference with Vladimir Putin yesterday has been condemned by members of both the Republican and Democratic Parties. The media haven’t been silent either. Anderson Cooper said, it was “perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president.” Trump went against conventional wisdom and a body of facts in his embrace of the Russian president. It left both his supporters and opponents sputtering with rage. One wonders what Trump was thinking or if he was. The outcome was to put him in a worse light at home, especially after his faux pas in the UK and his attacks on NATO. From a PR perspective, Trump shot himself in the head. He has a lot to make up if he decides to run again. Many American voters hope that he doesn’t.