2010 - Page 15 of 15 - Wellons Communications

Toyota and its Faulty Communication Management

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Wellons team

toyota-corolla-sedan

For decades, Toyota has been a standard-bearer for quality, innovation and commitment to excellence. Now, its reputation stands, if not in ruins, severely damaged. It’s yet another case of horrific communications management (I won’t even call it crisis management because what has been done in the last few months shows a systemic communication problem).

Now, the future of the company depends on if they can learn from their mistakes, move forward, and start to communicate better and more honestly with their audience. Whether you’re in crisis communications or just corporate communications in general, here are a few tips to keep you from veering off the road.

Step 1. Get out in front of any news story. Don’t sit back and let the reporter, the blogger or the private citizen define the story. Figure out the facts, define your message and stay out in front of the story.

Step 2. Tell the truth. This point should be a big duh, but some corporations have real problems with this. They think that they’re above it all and the truth won’t come out. As a former journalist, I can tell you the truth almost always comes out, or worse yet, some part of the truth. Once again, if you control the story, or at least try to be a part of it, you have a better chance at getting your message out.

Step 3. An offshoot of telling the truth is giving people the facts. Your intelligent consumers will make their own decisions. If your facts are strong enough and your product works, you’re in good shape. If it’s not, no amount of PR or buzz or wizardry is going to help things. So give people the facts.

Step 4. Reach out to your audience. Once again, this is PR 101. Try to connect with your audience. Don’t just give them words or lawyer-ized statements. Honest connection with your audience is a great pathway to success.

We’re going to see in the next few months what pathway Toyota decides to take and what its future looks like. In the meantime, one of our coordinators gets in her car every day and wonders how well her Corolla will drive.

Super Bowl acts should be younger than the game

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Wellons team

My son asked me at halftime of the Super Bowl XLIV – “Dad, why do the halftime acts have to be so old?’’

The Who

At first, I was just happy that he did not add the line I knew he was thinking: “Dad, The Who is way older than even you.”

My 12 year old is slightly too young to remember the wardrobe malfunction that terrified CBS and likely all the executives that picked the halftime act. Since that day, the Super Bowl halftime shows have been the hall of fame for musical acts that qualify for AARP. If something was accidently exposed, I’m sure everyone would just look the other way.

In a marketing sense, the planners of the Super Bowl and NFL need to run a modern play. When picking halftime acts, they should appeal to my son and daughters. Not my parents.

Yes – the younger hipper acts might leave people talking the next morning about something other than the tired commercials. It might actually make for good PR.

The Who is the equivalent of the three yards and a cloud of dust. Time for the NFL to dust off the playbook and bring in a young gun.

Grandstanding makes for bad PR

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Wellons team

Mel Gibson

Today we’ll look at how to handle public relations and media relations THE WRONG WAY with some help from a pair of special guests: the federal government and Mel Gibson.

Lesson #1 – choose your words carefully and say what you mean. This is especially important if you happen to be speaking before a congressional committee. While talking about Toyota on Capitol Hill, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says, “if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it; take it to the Toyota dealer.” This throws a few million Toyota owners into a frenzy and drives the company’s stock price down. LaHood then says this was “obviously a misstatement.” He later puts it in reverse and says, “What I said in there, or what I thought I said was, ‘if you own one of these cars, or if you’re in doubt, take it to the dealer.’” Whether he was trying to talk tough in front of lawmakers or just put his foot in his mouth, the end result was an inexcusable public relations mistake – and your tax dollars hard at work doing damage control.

Lesson #2 – choose your words carefully and don’t say what you feel. This is especially important if you happen to be a prominent actor doing a live TV interview. Mel Gibson is promoting a movie (his first in eight years) and decides to berate reporters who ask him fair questions about his past mistakes, and calls one of them an “a–hole.” This is not a good tactic to endear yourself to anyone, and no one is buying the publicist story that Gibson was talking about him. At least borrow a page from LaHood’s playbook and try “obviously a misstatement.” An apology would also be a good start, especially if you want to make Lethal Weapon 5.