What do BP, Tiger Woods, the TSA, Toyota, Apple’s Antenna Angst and HP’s CEO scandal have in common? Most are included in the inaugural “Top 10 PR Disasters of 2010” poll, conducted late November by Cantor Integrated Marketing Staffing in partnership with CommPRO. (see below, top post).
The survey/poll is further examined by the second post, entitled "It’s NOT a PR Problem. Think Real Values, Mission and Culture," by Tom Gable, where Gable talks about solutions when a brand tumbles from popularity; the fix is to embrace image as a part of corporate strategy, then the communciations and PR professionals can work to regain reputation and trust.
“Top 10 PR Disasters of 2010″ Poll Provides Lessons for Brand Stewards
by Brian Pittman, Partner, CommPRO.biz
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It came as little surprise to us here that BP, Toyota and Tiger Woods topped the list in the inaugural “Top 10 PR Disasters of 2010” poll, conducted late November by Cantor Integrated Marketing Staffing in partnership with CommPRO.
More unexpected were the volume of write-ins calling out a wide variety of sports icons, boorish celebrity behavior and political missteps. On the more upbeat side, multiple respondents took the time to say they believed the Chilean Mine Disaster was handled extremely well from a crisis communications perspective.
That said, following were the top PR disasters in 2010 as ranked in the poll by their negative brand impacts:
1. BP Oil Spill Response
2. Toyota’s Great Recall
3. Tiger Woods’ Marital Mess
4. Action for Children – Autism Ad Campaign Backlash
5. Apple’s Antennagate
6. HP’s CEO Scandal
7. EasyJet Volcanic Ash Cloud Saga
8. Nestle’s Palm Oil Crisis
9. Johnson & Johnson’s ’10 Recall
10. Al Gore’s Trysts
LeBron James’ “The Announcement” Backlash narrowly missed making the cut, while Jet Blue’s Angry Steward story and Stanley McChrystal’s Loose Lips episode tied but fell far short of the top ten. The most frequent write-in responses included: Obama Administration Policies Backlash, CNN Firings, Goldman Sachs Banking Scandal, Meg Whitman’s Undocumented Maid Cover-up and Charlie Sheen’s “Bad Behavior.”
So what lessons might the poll results hold for brand stewards in PR, IR, marketing corporate communications and even advertising?
“In the age of social media, the need to communicate quickly and often is critical,” answers crisis communications expert Gerard Braud, who was commissioned to write the crisis communications plan for the IRS following the events of September 11. “The takeaway for PR people and others is how each organization must uniquely decide if their crisis communications strategy is based on the ‘tried and true’ or the ‘shiny and new,’” explains Braud. Braud will present a (paid) webinar on crisis communications best practices with CommPRO.biz on Dec. 16. Watch for details in CommPRO’s iTunes style store here: http://commpro.biz/store/prstore.htm.
About the survey: The “Top 10 PR Disasters of 2010” survey was distributed via email to 25,000 professionals in PR, communications and related disciplines and generated 167 responses. Exactly 43.4% of respondents work in corporate communications, 34.7% work with PR agencies and 11.4% with non-profits. In terms of discipline or practice areas, 30% of respondents work in media relations, 29% in marketing communications—with internal communicators (6.5%) and integrated marketing (6%) professionals constituting the majority of other respondents. The remainder was comprised of professionals in IR and issues management.
It’s NOT a PR Problem. Think Real Values, Mission and Culture.
by Tom Gable, via www.Gable PR.com
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What do BP, Tiger Woods, the TSA, Toyota, Apple’s Antenna Angst and HP’s CEO scandal have in common?
Most are included in the inaugural “Top 10 PR Disasters of 2010” poll (SEE ABOVE), conducted late November by Cantor Integrated Marketing Staffing in partnership with CommPRO (we added TSA because of its late surge in media attention). This anti-popularity poll is worth looking at for similarities. The ranking:
1. BP Oil Spill Response
2. Toyota’s Great Recall
3. Tiger Woods’ Marital Mess
4. Action for Children – Autism Ad Campaign Backlash
5. Apple’s Antennagate
6. HP’s CEO Scandal
7. EasyJet Volcanic Ash Cloud Saga
8. Nestle’s Palm Oil Crisis
9. Johnson & Johnson’s ’10 Recall
10. Al Gore’s Trysts
An interesting exercise, but I would argue that these go beyond having PR disasters. More importantly in each case those swept up in the tornadoes of negative media coverage for their transgressions had deviated from the strong core values and behaviors that made them successful in the first place. They violated consumer trust. As a result, each needs to solve deeper and more important cultural, organizational and other shortcomings before PR can start persuading many different target audiences to take a new look.
When a brand tumbles after a successful rise to stardom and success, there is a disconnect. Psychologists call it cognitive dissonance, where conflicting ideas battle for loyalty in your head (Toyota quality versus Toyota cost cutting to drive profits; the world’s greatest athlete versus the world’s worst philanderer; important need for ensuring air travel safety versus the brutish behavior and public theater the TSA pursues in subjecting everyone to delays and indignity rather than focusing attention on the most viable terrorist candidates).
The fix is to embrace image as a part of corporate strategy, then PR can work to regain reputation and trust. As written about before, this requires consistent communications over time and delivering what scientists and engineers call proof of principle.
- What do you stand for?
- Can you consistently demonstrate evidence of these values?
The value of reputation has been proven over time in studies by many brilliant authors in the world of reputation management (Charles Fombrun, Leslie Gaines-Ross, Al Ries, etc.). The fix requires not merely whipping up new communications plans in hopes of fluffing and puffing up deflated images. Once the deeper organizational flaws have been solved and a new visions established, PR can work to rebuild reputations for the long term from a solid foundations of facts and deeds – values-based PR at its best.