Managing Reputations: Engineering, Art and a Bit of Daring Do
Under Construction
Posted by Tom Gable
Why invest in reputation and image as a part of corporate strategy? As covered here previously, recent studies show companies that invest in reputation – and walk the talk over time – do better than their competitors in a number of ways:
- Growth versus peers
- Profit margin
- Employee morale
- Community goodwill
- Investor support (upside and downside)
- Relationships with vendors, suppliers
- Self-pride
What are the basic steps to building reputation over time? This will be the first in a series of posts based on presentations given the past year to a variety of professional and business organizations on the benefits of investing in image as a part of corporate strategy. Let’s start with building the machine. Some basic questions to ask: More…
New Research Shows Positive Reputations Enhance Corporate Results
Head of the Class
Posted by Tom Gable
The Reputation Institute just released its annual Reputation Pulse, which measures the corporate reputations of the largest U.S. companies based on consumers’ trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling about a company while also gauging perceptions across seven rational dimensions of reputation.
The survey named Johnson & Johnson as the most reputable U.S. company first for the second consecutive year, followed by Kraft Foods, Kellogg, The Walt Disney Company, PepsiCo, Sara Lee, Google, Microsoft, UPS and Dean Foods. AIG finished 150th out of the 150 companies included in the survey. More…
Facebook Follies: Making Sure Social Media Fits Within Your PR Strategy
Rolling out new tools
Posted by Laura Woods
The public relations profession is at a wonderful and challenging crossroads in its evolution. No longer can the traditional approach of solely using press releases be effective in building a client’s reputation and media presence. Now PR professionals have to be comfortable integrating all aspects of social media — blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other tools – into their strategic arsenal. Beyond proactive approaches, PR pros need to be diligent in setting high standards for all communications and monitoring for questionable or negative impacts. More…
60 Seconds to Glory: Outline for Crafting the Essential Elevator Pitch
Make it quick!
Posted by Tom Gable
Elevator pitches are finely crafted and rehearsed monologues that in 30 to 60 seconds create a positive picture of you, your organization and vision for the future, with a goal of capturing the interest of your audience and leading to positive next steps. The concept had its roots among entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley who struggled to set meetings with venture capital and angel investors who were besieged with proposals. Since time was at a premium and real meetings hard to secure, how to connect during brief encounters in public spaces? More…
The PR Hurt Locker: Ten Land Mines to Negotiate in a Crisis (six through ten)
Bye Bye Reputation
Posted by Tom Gable
The previous post covered the first five of ten land mines to avoid in a crisis: guilt, no plan, lack of culture and core values, big hat (no cattle) and CEO ego. The following delve more into hazards to negotiate during implementation.
6. Attorneyitis – This land mine occurs when otherwise good messages and communications that the CEO and crisis team have approved get handed off for legal review and come back bruised, bloated and infected with the deadly disclaimer virus. Short, compelling copy turns fuzzy around the edges. Statements of fact become weighted down with convoluted clauses and abundancies of redundancies (In one set of Frequently Asked Questions that Gable PR crafted to explain a law suit our client filed against a magazine for libel and slander, a sharp 19-word sentence nailing the editor for deceit was turned into 100 words of circumlocution without a verb). The test: read a sentence out loud and if everyone’s eyes glaze over like you were reading from C-Span transcripts or they laugh so hard they herniated, start over. More…
Ten Land Mines to Avoid in Your Next Crisis (one through five)
Tred Lightly!
Posted by Tom Gable
Crises come in all forms and sizes, from global product recalls to local political scandal, the nuisance law suit about spilled hot coffee at a fast food restaurant, corporate malfeasance, alleged embezzlement in a not-for-profit, sexual harassment issues, hazardous waste spills, to manufacturing, transportation or other accidents that take human lives.
Skilled public relations professionals have been dealing with these issues and more for decades. They have honed best practices and tempered them under fire, increasing the odds of success in any crisis program. Good advice and case histories abound. But advances in how the world communicates instantly and in living color (photos Tweeted from cell phones, drive-by videos of transgressions, amateur news casts, rumors in the blogosphere, a consumer issue going viral via Twitter, etc.) have added new complexities to the art and science of crisis communications. The race is increasingly to the swift and, as detailed later, the trustworthy. More…
Crisis PR: Three Core Principles and Planning Checklist to Guide Your Actions
Reputation Skewered
Posted by Tom Gable
Most major organizations create crisis plans in advance of need, update them regularly, have a strategic array of tools and tactics ready to go (hidden Web sites, video, audio, fact sheets, media kits) and even rehearse their responses. The better job an organization does before a crisis strikes – or at the beginning to quickly manage a crisis based on sound principles should a plan not be in place – the better the result. These fundamentals came to mind in tracking the Toyota recall, the changing communications strategies and lack of responsiveness early in the game.
In creating a crisis plan and carrying it out in any crisis communications situation, three basic principles should guide your actions:
One – Be honest and stick to the facts. Do not speculate, hypothecate or exaggerate. Those impacted by the crisis deserve nothing less – and your reputation may be damaged irreparably if you aren’t truthful and authentic. More…
Beyond Crisis PR: Can Toyota Change Its DNA?
Road to Recall
Posted by Tom Gable
The Toyota crisis PR case is not just about the recent recalls, global media scrutiny and potential Congressional action in the U.S. It has metastasized from neglected issues within the body corporate to impact vital functions in every fiber of the Toyota being.
Possible deeper issues were discovered by Ken Bensinger of the LA Times and others in major media. He started following the case after an off-duty CHP patrolman and three family members died when the accelerator stuck on their Toyota and they crashed in rural San Diego County in August 2009. Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, apologized. Soon, Toyota recalled 4.3-million-vehicles, its largest recall ever. More…
In Crisis PR, It’s Not Always How You Start But How You Finish
Shrinking image?
Posted by Tom Gable
The news media, auto industry analysts and elected officials have been aggressive in going after Toyota for its delays in responding to a growing crisis about sudden acceleration in some of its models from gas pedal and floor mat issues.
NPR opined that “the carmaker that could end up doing long-term damage to the sterling reputation it has painstakingly built up for several decades.” It cited a slow response time in dealing with the problem and communicating. More…
Weighing In on the Taco Bell Drive Thru Diet – A Belly Laugh or Two
Worked for me!
Posted by Krista Rogers
Among the top New Year’s resolutions are pledges about weight loss and exercise, so it is no surprise that when January rolls around we are besieged with gym and health-food advertisements. Ironically, as awareness of unhealthy transfats and the American obesity pandemic grows along with our waistlines, the fast food restaurants that have been guilty of clogging our arteries for years are now tooting their healthy-choices horn louder than ever. This makes sense from a marketing standpoint. People want healthier options, so it’s smart to truthfully highlight the healthier menu items. What doesn’t make sense is when a popular fast food chain tries to convince a nation that their “Drive-Thru Diet” is a weight loss secret. More…
