The Public Relations Blog

Background

Billed as the world’s first supersonic plane that could cut travel times in half, the history of Concorde’s beginning was disappointingly marked by exorbitant costs, design complications and a 1973 oil crisis that saw airlines seeking ways to drastically decrease expenditures. The result was large-scale order cancellations that threatened to cripple production and subsequent success of the project. Making matters worse, public opinion began to sour against the airliner, citing concerns over noise and other environmental issues caused by the jet’s sonic booms. Such voices culminated in a crushing setback for Concorde’s backers as governments around the world, including the United States, banned operation of the plane within their respective airspaces. Knowing the continued existence of Concorde rested on winning international public approval, the airplane’s financiers understood the urgency of getting to work on repairing Concorde’s image.

PR Success Story: CBS vs. Gen. Westmoreland

Background

After airing a controversial documentary accusing military leaders of gross miscalculations concerning the strength and size of enemy forces during the Vietnam War, CBS News soon found itself acting as defendant in a $120 million libel lawsuit. Having recently suffered some negative press coverage due to a similar circumstance, the last thing the news network wanted or could afford was yet another public image crisis.

Background

During the early 1980s, Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) Tylenol suffered a catastrophic setback due to product tampering that resulted in the deaths of seven people. News of bottles being laced with cyanide quickly spread, creating a nationwide panic that was expected to cause irreparable damage to the brand’s image. Many experts assumed nothing could be done to repair the injury done to J&J’s most profitable product. However, the pharmaceutical company would embark on a public relations and media relations strategy that not only minimized reputational harm, but also led to sales rebounding to pre-crisis levels.

When I’m not toiling away in front of the computer, I love to plan future vacations that hopefully won’t be too far in the future. Almost every week I pray that there’s one on the horizon, even if it’s just a short weekend jaunt.

Anticipating a specific public relations crisis isn’t always possible. Unanticipated crises pop up on social media so often (and spread so fast) that companies can find themselves in deep trouble even when they did the right thing.

Crisis Communications

Kotkin Enterprises is still in business, but a crisis last December nearly cost owner David Kotkin everything. The launch of a much-anticipated new product was crushed, his and his company’s reputation was severely damaged, and Kotkin Enterprises’ very survival was threatened.

The clothing retailer that most of us grew up with is no longer on our radar screen as “the” store to shop at. In fact, it hasn’t even been on our “stores to shop at” for a number of years now. What happened to this once clothing emporium and shrine to casual wear? Did the Gap change, or did we? Apparently, we changed, but the Gap didn’t change with us. It remained stagnant.

Here’s how one simple marketing mistake unraveled into a 30-day public relations and sales nightmare for Starbucks, all because of one simple e-mail blunder: