The need for risk management and mitigation in the arena of
public relations has become imperative in the new world of social media. We
have seen countless cases where bad PR events and customer complaints that
would have gone unnoticed a few years ago but nowadays it becomes an internet
phenomena’s in a matter of hours. These
events have been detrimental to the company’s brand and reputation. One such
recent event which went viral is the customer complaint about an arrogant sales
person in Gasp store on Chapel Street. Because of the mistake made by one sales
person not only the brand has to face the aftermath from its customers but it
also has to come up with an explanation and solution to stop the damage to the
brand and revive its sales.
Companies need to be more diligent around their public
relations and the people who represent them in the market and what they do or
say in relation to the brand, as everything will eventually go online through
blogs, social media sites and forums. Not only are companies affected by this,
so its employees, Celebrities and executives have been caught off guard making
silly statements that have come back to haunt them. The same applies to the
average Joe. We have seen Microsoft employees get fired for tweeting about the
company, competitors and its customers.
It is almost inevitable for such an event to occur to just
about every business. The ability of companies to overcome it and reap the PR
for their own benefit using social media is what will put them apart. All of
this leads us to one question why do brands justify these kinds of experiences and
mishaps for example gasp is justifying its employees behaviour even with so
many customers complaining. Do they still believe any publicity is good publicity?
I think GASP even thanked Keara after all the buzz in the media. They seemed to think that negative publicity is still publicity and creates awareness that will not hurt the brand. They're trying to be 'exclusive' but it'll be interesting to see how celebrities react to what happened and if they keep wearing Gasp brand..
ReplyDeleteIn the end, even the negative publicity will fade away in the long-run if the company has a strong brand name. So many big businesses have made mistakes but do we really think of those mistakes when we are in a purchase situation?
I agree with you roni. gasp is now known to more people that ever before, but like you said bad publicity fades away as time goes by even people who now know about the brand because of this event will also forget about the brand. so what has gasp gained from this publicity stunt just negative perception about the brand that's all I don't see gasp gaining anything from this incident
ReplyDeleteBad publicity goes away, but seriously bad publicity could do too much damage to the brand before it has a chance to go away. For GASP, this all happened just as the racing season started, they are in serious trouble I think. Sure they got a whole heap of publicity, and I think in a way it could be good, but if they don't start to effectively manage the situation, it may well be too late.
ReplyDeleteRoss