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What's a little e coli among friends? That's the question US fast-casual dining chain Chipotle will soon be asking its best customers. After publicly eschewing the idea of launching a customer loyalty programme last year, Chipotle executives said on an earnings call last week that they aim to stem the flood of frequent diners abandoning the chain with - wait for it - a loyalty programme. Though the programme is likely to be temporary, Chipotle hopes it will reignite customer passion for bowls and burritos. The problem: Chipotle executives still seem to display a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of loyalty programmes.
The announcement was one of the only positives in an earnings call that can only be described as apocalyptic: same store sales fell nearly 30% in the first quarter of 2016 and the company posted a net loss of $26.4 million. The company has tried everything to pull out of the free fall: giving away millions of free burritos, BOGO offers, national advertising campaigns; nothing has worked. Money quote from reporter Virginia Chamlee over at eater.com:
"The aim is to target the most loyal Chipotle consumer — i.e. the one who visits 25 or more times per year. The company saw the largest declines among its top loyal (25+ visits a year) and its 'light' consumers (those that visit two to five times per year). Noting the decline in visits amongst its once most-loyal customers, [Chief Marketing and Development Officer Mark] Crumpacker said the company would love to get that 'habit' back up. "We do believe it's beneficial to us to get people back in the habit of visiting Chipotle [as often as they used to]."...
Ketchum’s staff members who provide public relations advice to Russia must avoid being seen as defending acts contrary to American interests while still providing some luster for a lucrative client.
In 2006, executives from the public relations firm Ketchum flew to Moscow to secure an account that has since been worth tens of millions of dollars.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had hired Ketchum to provide advice on public relations before the nation hosted the Group of 8 meeting in St. Petersburg. At the time, Mr. Putin “cared a great deal about what other leaders, especially presidents, thought about him,” said Michael A. McFaul, a former United States ambassador to Russia who now teaches at Stanford.
Times have changed. The escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine has turned relations with the United States as frosty as they have been in years. Last week, President Obama said that as a result of the economic sanctions imposed on Russia, the country “is already more isolated than at any time since the Cold War.” And the United States ambassador to the United Nations called Russia’s actions in Ukraine a “threat to all of our peace and security.”
When Common Ground PR announced Monday that it would be providing “short-term assistance” to the city of Ferguson, Missouri, online sleuths quickly began looking into the firm.
Clashes between the mostly white police force and people protesting the police shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an African-American man, have had a racial charge to them. That led Talking Points Memo and others to question why the city had hired a PR firm that appears to have no black people working in it.
Wednesday afternoon, the president and CEO of Common Ground, Denise Bentele, issued a statement addressing those concerns and answering why the firm stepped up....
Fans had made a to-be-published book by Paula Deen a top seller on Amazon, but the publisher, Random House, joined the list of business partners that have cut ties to the embattled chef....
The book deal was one of the last remaining lucrative business relationships for the embattled celebrity chef. Its cancellation came on a day when Sears, Kmart and J. C. Penney announced that they would stop selling products, including cookbooks, branded with her name. Since last week, the Food Network, Smithfield Foods, Walmart, Target, Caesars Entertainment, QVC and the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk have decided to suspend or sever ties with Ms. Deen after her admission in a legal deposition that she had used racist language in the past and allowed racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic jokes in one of her restaurants. Ms. Deen was deposed on video as part of a discrimination lawsuit filed last year by a former employee....(New York Times)
In the Twitter era, marketers have to be extra careful that what they put on their websites isn't offensive, even intentionally. Extra, extra careful. It’s a lesson Target took to heart this week, apologizing for a product-naming discrepancy that some fuller-figured shoppers found offensive. The kerfuffle started when self-described “Digital Maven” Susan Clemens was shopping on Target.com and noticed an odd thing: The same style of dress in the exact same color was labeled differently depending on the size. The name of the color on the plus-size version was suggestive, and not in a flattering way. Clemens tweeted her discovery, quickly garnering dozens of retweets....
...The Times pretty much disagreesin every respect. They stand by their story which said that the vehicle did not meet its own promises and that the battery failed, requiring the Model S make the last part of its journey on a flatbed truck.
It is not just "he said" vs "she said" however since Tesla published data captured by their onboard computer which seemed to back up some of what they claim....
...this case will continue to raise further discussion and awareness about the power of a reputation as well as the implications of what happens when you are involved in a crisis. Social media will continue to be a platform where people come together to voice their opinions about a variety of topics ranging from brands to people. This is a growing issue in sports – as fans and the rest of the public, we want athletes to achieve impossible expectations in their sports while also presenting themselves in a positive image among their key audiences. However, are these expectations not realistic and can any athlete meet up to them? What about the role of the PR person who is representing these clients – if we know that the image if false, what is our professional and ethical duty?...
After more than a decade of vehement denials, Lance Armstrong finally came clean last night in an interview with Oprah Winfrey about his use of performance enhancing drugs. Early reviews leaned negative: Forbes said "Lance Armstrong admitted a lot of wrongdoing during his 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey tonight, but he did almost nothing to win back the sympathy of the world." CNN host Piers Morgan took it one step further, posting on Twitter that Armstrong was a "sniveling, lying, cheating little wretch...I hope he now just disappears." Armstrong's recent tribulations have been of particular interest to me for two reasons: first, because of my past work as a presidential campaign spokesperson, where fighting off rumors and mitigating media crises is a daily part of one's job; and second, because in 2004, when Lance mania was at its peak and half the world was wearing yellow Livestrong bracelets, I became the executive director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. In the world of bicycle advocacy, Armstrong (whom I met once) was almost a saint: the talent of Michael Jordan, the charitable commitment of Angelina Jolie, plus a dash of come-from-behind, survivor heroism....
If you haven’t heard of Health Management Associates (HMA), that’s ok, few would probably know who they are. That is unless you watched the 60 Minutes segment this past Sunday on how they are allegedly encouraging administrators and physicians at hospitals they own to admit as many patients as possible, in order to boost profits. The public company, headquartered in Naples, FL and whose shares are traded on the NYSE, “through its subsidiaries owns and operates (15) general acute care hospitals and other health care facilities in non-urban communities”, as reported on their Wall Street Journal company profile. If you did see the segment and immediately wondered about a company response to the allegations, then one of your first instincts may have been to see what it was, and maybe (like me) you hopped on Facebook to see what they were posting, damage control, community engagement, etc. Here is a $5.1 billion company I thought, with a gigantic network and hundreds of thousands of patients moving in and out of their facilities every year. Surely they are on social media by now, taking advantages of its potential to reach out, interact, inform, and entertain their community. Instead, I found nothing. No social media presence at all. Zip. If you click around their Web site it looks clean, informative, professional, and…missing something. The absence of social media channels for a company who clearly now has a crisis on their hands makes you wonder why they decided to forgo participation when the channel could have served them well in the wake of the 60 Minutes report....
The folks at Goldman Sachs are breathing just a little easier today. The media sharks have found another sad victim: JP Morgan. $2 billion in trading losses is a lot. Certainly would be hard for me to swallow. And that’s part of the problem with this kind of story. It’s pretty hard for us common folks to understand the scale and scope of Wall Street Investment activity, and when you have politically motivated “reporters” doing all they can to make these bankers seem evil incarnate, it gets even more confusing.... [Different perspective on JP Morgan $2B loss and crisis management - JD]
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No matter how well you prepare, sometimes things just go out of your control. It is not always possible to prevent a crisis. When it comes to PR campaigns, learning from your mistakes can be too costly. The trick should therefore be learning from other people’s mistakes.
According to the First Research study, the U.S. public relation industry is estimated to be at $10 billion, with above 7,000 U.S. firms in action in 2013. Still a large number of businesses suffer the adverse effects of PR disasters. Why is it so? Let’s take a take look at the factors that lead to PR disasters
Last week, an audio technician for the television program Cops was killed by friendly fire while filming a robbery at a Wendy’s in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Omaha police chief, Todd Schmaderer, delivered an almost perfect press conference—one that stands in marked contrast to the shameful media interactions in Ferguson, Missouri—that should be studied by PR professionals as a terrific example of how to communicate in crisis.
PR pro Dave Statter, who writes the excellent STATter911 blog (and wrote about this story first), called this “one of the most effective and timely presentations following a police involved shooting I’ve witnessed.”
He’s right. Chief Schmaderer did many things right in this press conference. Below, you’ll find the five things that stood out to me most....
You may very well ask how–after the initial broadcast of fake names of Asiana pilots by KTVU after the San Francisco crash and the subsequent revelation that they were confirmed to KTVU by the summer intern for the National Transportation Safety board–things could possibly get worse for KTVU. Well, now KTVU has triggered what is now commonly referred to as the “Streisand effect” in its attempt to scrub all of the videos of their on-air blunder from YouTube. The stealth move has worked like a charm, except for all the reports about it, which basically makes them just about as stealthy as Inspector Clouseau....
Food Network, Walmart, Caesars Entertainment…one by one, the many companies represented by Paula Deen are backing out on deals they’ve forged with the celebrity chef. The latest business to wash its hands of Paula Deen? Pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
The bad news continues for fallen idol Paula Deen, who, following allegations of racism, has been losing valuable deals left and right. Whether or not company leaders feel that Paula is actually a racist, they clearly do not wish to be associated with all the bad PR following this case.
A lot of discussion and PR thought leadership have been focused on managing crises in this age immediate communications and networked audiences. However, a fascinating situation that’s unfolding right now between the New York Timesand Tesla Motors highlights the important opportunity brands have to tell their side of the story immediately and convincingly when they have a dispute with the news coverage, and it sure beats the daylights out of having a correction or clarification printed three days after the fact. Simply put, brands don’t have to take what they consider to be unfair or biased coverage lying down....
The star Notre Dame football player enmeshed in a scandal over his apparent relationship with a fictional woman has engaged crisis specialist Hiltzik Strategies.
The Notre Dame linebacker, Manti Te’o, fell into the media crosshairslast week after Deadspin.com published a thorough examination of Te’o’s relationship with a woman -- widely reported as an inspirational story because of her battles with cancer and death in a car accident -- it found did not exist.
He has denied knowledge that the woman and story were fabricated through social media. Notre Dame’s influential athletic department has backed his denials.
Hiltzik Strategies, the firm of former Democratic political operative Matthew Hiltzik, has worked crises for high-profile personalities like Katie Couric, baseball star Ryan Braun and singer Justin Bieber. He is representing Te'o and his family....
This was the week of not quite apologizing enough. Lance Armstrong appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Network to explain 20 years of cheating, lying and cruel personal destruction of his truthful critics. He repeatedly said he was sorry for his conduct, but left the distinct impression that he was sorry mainly for getting caught. And his claim that he did not force his teammates into doping, among other continued denials, sounds like a crock. Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o named the supposed hoaxer who created the fake Lennay Kekua persona who e-romanced the football star before tragically dying, and even before actually living. Te'o's story can be proved or disapproved in about 5 minutes with a peek at his cell phone records, yet university officials have not been curious enough to look at them. Nor did they refute two years of false stories about the star-crossed lovers until at least a week after learning of the hoax. Yet the most shocking non-apology apology was buried in the avalanche of coverage about the disgraced athletes. The true disgrace belongs to Atlantic President M. Scott Havens, whose memo to colleagues about the magazine's ill-conceived online advertorial from the Church of Scientology fails just about every test of honesty, judgment and simple common sense.
Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/191476/the-truthiness-is-out-there.html#ixzz2IdlSIVT4
Through PR, all things are possible. Maybe. Lance Armstrong's career as a public figure, it would seem, is over. After all, he did not one but several of the lowest things you can do in sports (and life, really): He cheated, he lied about cheating, he allegedly harassed and persecuted those who told the truth about his cheating—and worst of all, he became an international hero in the process. Now that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has found Armstrong on the wrong end of "conclusive and undeniable proof" of a decade's worth of performance-enhancing drugs, and he's been banned from cycling for life and stripped of his seven cherished Tour de France titles, the public's regard for Armstrong has tumbled from Superman status down to the depths of disappointment and scorn. But if disgraced heroes like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Martha Stewart, and Tiger Woods taught us anything, it's that there's always a way to crawl back into the public's good graces—with the help of some powerful image-rehab magic conjured up by a trained professional, that is. What, if anything, can be done to help rebuild Armstrong's image? Lance Armstrong, after all, isn't just a man. He's a marketable brand, too. Since it launched in 1997, his foundation Livestrong (formerly known as the Lance Armstrong Foundation) has raised more than $470 million for cancer awareness and research. So I asked four professionals in brand management, public relations, and consulting what advice they would give to Armstrong to help salvage what's left of Brand Lance...
Earlier this month, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare announced that it had agreed to activist demands that its Centrum brand amend its marketing practices. With the prospect of a lawsuit from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) looming, the company agreed to discontinue claims that some Centrum products promote “colon health” and “breast health.” The company also agreed to qualify statements made on the Web and in traditional advertising that certain supplements contribute to “heart health.” All of the changes, including revised product labeling, will be in effect by January 5, 2013. The agreement represents one of those rare instances in which a major corporation – they don’t get any bigger than Pfizer in the pharmaceutical industry – quickly backs down in the face of activist pressure. Some may wonder why Pfizer would make such a move. But don’t fault the company for capitulating just yet. There are least three good reasons why Pfizer’s decision made sense under the circumstances.... [A good strategic public relations lesson -JD]
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![[US] PR Firm for Putin’s Russia Now Walking a Fine Line | NY Times | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/gIca6UV63vQonzUzWhv_ETl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Will a new loyalty program bring customers back to Chipotle after the E. coli crisis?