The Public Relations Blog

How Turing Pharmaceuticals’ Martin Shkreli and others can climb out of a PR nightmare

Imagine this: A crisis is brewing over your company’s perceived lack of compassion for your customers. To make things worse, a top executive is quoted in major media outlets saying that the company will do little (or nothing) to change.

You don’t need to imagine it; you can read all about it in the news coverage of Turing Pharmaceuticals’ CEO, Martin Shkreli, who decided to drastically increase the cost of a life-saving drug from $18 to $750 a pill. However, there are ways for this company – and others in a similar situation – to recover from such a fiasco with help from PR.

We live according to our own moral standards and beliefs and we run businesses in the way we believe is ethical and appropriate. Unethical business practices can not only damage your business reputation, but can also completely ruin the business itself. When it comes to dealing with your public either in person or on social media, it’s important to know which behaviors are ethical and which are not.

Of course, ethical norms vary from business to business and from culture to culture, but some are more or less standard for most business practices.

You won’t win true customer loyalty with flashing lights and shiny objects; your values and your brand identity are what will attract and retain consumers long-term. Keep an eye on the next generation’s habits and favored platforms in order to better connect with them. You don’t have to look far to find templates to model your business’ success after.

When used regularly and wisely, blogs are useful tools for driving two-way communication with audiences. Over the years, Axia Public Relations’ team members have fielded questions about the relevance of blogs and whether businesses should even bother, given concerns surrounding time investment and lack of topics. In short, it’s important to view your blog as an active extension of your business. To help with content creation, we’re sharing another short list of ideas to inspire blog neophytes.

Is your company doing all it can to attract and retain the best and brightest employees?

Many companies still believe that all it takes to attract the best and brightest job applicants is to offer a competitive salary and benefits. Smarter companies have learned that, these days, it takes much more. Which of these sound like your company?

Beyond salary, companies must strive to build an environment that considers many important elements, including work-life balance, opportunities for career development and advancement, training and office culture. Axia Public Relations is here to help with tips for how to promote your workplace excellence and culture as well as earn award recognition as one of the Best Places to Work.

Learn why you shouldn’t let just anyone manage this vital tool

To do business today, everyone says you must post, tweet, share, update, like, pin, snap and follow on a daily basis. You also have to take great care to prevent costly mistakes and pay close attention to what others are saying about you. This is in addition to everything else you do to keep your business successful. How do you find the time?

Let PR show you how you can benefit from disaster

President John F. Kennedy remarked, “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.” A crisis typically indicates that something was wrong and has now reached the stage where you can no longer ignore it. Still, it is also a chance to make changes and make things right.

After a crisis, you must quickly assess the situation and determine what you can learn from it. PR can help with this process.

Invite local bloggers to build awareness locally for your national brand

Firehouse Subs is one of America’s leading fast, casual sandwich franchise restaurants. Brothers Chris and Robin Sorensen founded Firehouse Subs in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1994, creating a brand out of their personal history as firefighters. Their company now boasts 903 locations in 43 states and Puerto Rico, with international expansion to Canada and Mexico planned for the near future. How did the franchisor build such an impressive brand and reputation?

Here, you win by demonstrating your ethical know-how

Is fakery rife in the PR industry? Lying has unfortunately become more common with some PR practitioners – especially lately, with the majority of outlets slashing their seasoned workforces. This leaves tightened budgets, added responsibilities and time-crunched junior practitioners with little experience and apparently no problem turning their heads when it comes to unethical tactics.

Talk to ethics experts and they’ll tell you that the best defense against ethical problems is keeping it real. Professionalism – not exaggeration – is the key to the future of the PR industry. PR is all about building relationships and brands; if the brand image tumbles because of a faulty message, that can damage your relationships, products and services.

Learn more about this important topic to ensure eyes on more of your posts

Why aren’t consumers reading, liking and sharing your social media posts more often? Perhaps your images are to blame. Thankfully, our cool friends at Sprout Social have developed an amazing guide to help ensure that your images are sized correctly.

We spend lots of time determining what kind of information clients should post to each social media platform. However, many don’t understand the importance of the accompanying image.