Day: March 24, 2004

Jon Udell over at Infoworld has previously provided some interesting insights into how he sees PR in the age of blogs playing out.

On Monday he posted some really interesting thoughts on how blogs impact his work as a technology journalist.

“The basic pattern is simple: a story gestates in blogspace, appears in print and online, and then matures in blogspace.”

“Of course in the trade magazine business, there is a whole profession dedicated to helping me do that. When a story appears on the editorial calendar, I’m swamped with phone calls and emails from PR folk who want to supply me with analysts, executives, domain experts, and customers. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I sometimes accept these opportunities, and in some cases, I learn from them. It’s dangerous, though, to be led down the path of least resistance. So I rely on the blog to find other people who have important things to tell me. As you can imagine, this makes PR folk really nervous.”

Recommended Reading.

The problem with a well executed, well financed marketing/PR campaign is that your success can often be counter-productive if the product or service doesn’t meet expectations.

One of the best examples of this was the 1985 launch of New Coke.  Here was one of the world’s most loved brands launching a newer, and according to taste tests, better product. It got saturation media coverage around the world and the launch was executed to perfection. Only one problem, consumers hated it.

It was launched in April and by July it was pulled. People didn’t like it and the story of the failure of New Coke got more press inches than the initial success. Coke spent millions and learned an important lesson… or did they?

Now Coke is facing it’s Tylenol crisis.  After a successful, �7 million launch of its Dasani bottled water on the UK market, it has had to pull the water because traces of bromate, a cancer-causing chemical have been found in the water. Furthermore it has transpired they were simply taking common tap water and putting it through a “purification process”. This process which at the launch was described as a “highly sophisticated purification process based on Nasa spacecraft technology”, was in reality the same process found in the most popular domestic water purification units

This is clearly the nightmare situation for the PR professional, particularly when the tap water doesn’t have bromate and there’s a cost differential of  0.03 pence for the tap water and 95 pence for a half litre of Dasani.

It’s also an interesting example of how the geographical barriers for crises are falling, this story has been covered all over the globe: UK Story, US Story, Australian Story, New Zealand story, African Story.

From the BBC:

Judith Snyder, brand PR manager for Dasani, confirmed “municipal” water supplies were used but said the source was “irrelevant” because it “doesn’t affect the end result… We would never say tap water isn’t drinkable….It’s just that Dasani is as pure as water can get – there are different levels of purity.”

It looks like Dasani has a different level of purity alright. Another example of how good PR and marketing can be wasted if the product doesn’t live up to expectations. A true PR nightmare.

 Constantin Basturea has a great collection of links to some recent thinking on blogs and their impact.

 Phil Gomes also has some interesting blog links including some recent research on the accountability of bloggers

 Jim Horton points to an interesting story on how the growing use of search engines can have negative, as well as positive effects on your business.

 A story from the San Francisco Examiner on how Sutter Health is trying to tackle its image problems

 The Detroit News profiles local PR firm Clear! Blue

 Meanwhile it looks like MarketingWonk has had a major redesign.

Well after a few days away I’m back.  Nothing like a few days hard work to put things in perspective.

First up is a fantastic interview by Ben Silverman with Kelly Larabee the head PR at Skype.

I always find it fascinating to hear the opinions of other PR practitioners.  Kelly has some interesting thoughts.

“The basic rule with journalists is to assume that their not 100% focused on your single issue and to achieve the results you want and the beneficial story, you have to be able to provide perspective and deep context. In providing the back-story, you have to be honest, straightforward and willingly give insight to the opposition�s information and view � all without overly spinning as this time is the foundation of your credibility.”