Getting out of a mess!

Bad publicity is often something that sticks with a company longer than any good publicity ever does. It is a shame, but it's the truth.


Companies sometimes manage to dig very deep holes for themselves and then dig even deeper, once the media gets hold of it.

Media is one powerful God of Information that targets consumers all over the world in every virtual and real space possible.

Therefore it comes as no surprise that companies that make a mistake, often ignore the media's power over them, and continue to deny any involvement in a scandal or big mistake. One could say that it is the public relation's job to 'cover things up'. Yet covering it up may work in politics, but rarely works in business.

With today's access to information, negative PR is like watching the E! channel for business people. But not only that, negative PR holds the power to make the consumer reluctant to purchase further. So how is it possible that so many companies still manage to lie, ignore or try and cover up company disasters?

Well, since most companies are led by a board of directors from the stone age, many of them do not realise the enormous power that the media holds over the public, and the fact that consumers do switch.

That is why when a scandal happens to a company, such as the likes of Shell, McDonalds, BP, Nike, Nestle and so on, it pays to use the media to their advantage.

So, a lesson in PR today goes to the love of my life, Apple. 

I am so sad to write that Apple's recent Iphone 4 release and its 'marvelous' new operating system for the Iphone generations has been a disappointment when it comes to information handling. 

Only recently did I read, after numerous complaints about Iphone 4's antenna problem, a very off putting press release published on the Apple web page -> Letter from Apple regarding Iphone 4 . If you wish to read the worst press release ever, please click on the above link.

Not only that, Apple was so keen to launch the new Iphone and give none-Iphone-4-users the chance to use the iOS4 software, that it did not do enough thinking when problems arose. The negative media coverage of the antenna problems, the new software doing more damage than good on older Iphones, has made me wonder what went wrong? 

How could such an innovative and impressive company not react properly to a problem it faced post-launch time? Surely, it would make sense to publicly apologise to your customers and come out with the truth of "We made a mistake". In all fairness, the press release does say that they had a "calculation mishap" in terms of the signal strength formula, however, I believe Mr. Jobs also mentioned in his post-launch-released keynote that 'Other smart phones on the market have long had the same problem'. 

Well... since other smart phones have had the same problem it must mean that the Iphone is excused??!

I know I am letting myself get carried away here. The reason why I am writing all this is that handling PR well is key to a company's success. And a company such as Apple, that is admired by billions, should realise that perfection and confidence only go one way. 

And that is the way how you manage to communicate your successes and failures.

That is all for today. 

Love the Truth. Do good PR. Thanks :)