Day: September 24, 2004

Business 2.0, who if memory serves me correctly broke this story, has an excellent article by Thomas Mucha on the Kryptonite drama.

It serves as a good example of poor crisis management.

“I won’t be backed into an apology,” Kryptonite’s public relations manager Donna Tocci replied when I asked her if the company is sorry about what happened. Worse, the company’s main strategy seems to be centered on deflecting blame. “This is not just a Kryptonite problem,” Tocci repeatedly said. “It’s a concern with other companies in the industry. At this point Kryptonite is the only company that’s addressing its consumers’ concerns.”

In fairness to the Kryptonite PR people, crisis management is a function of the entire company and at this point we don’t know if management are simply ignoring good advice..

We have finally found PowerPoint’s killer application.

Footnote:

Link courtesy of Good Morning Silicon Valley.

 

UPDATE:

Well is seems that the PowerPoint link above was hijacked temporarily (see the comments for more details) however the original content has thankfully been restored.  Thanks to Andrew Denny and Mitch Wagner for the vigilence!

Alice Marshall has posted a great analyst quote on Microsoft’s decision that it will only fix a security problem with Internet Explorer on Windows XP:

“It’s a problem that people should have to pay for a whole OS upgrade to get a safe browser,” said Michael Cherry, analyst with Directions on Microsoft in Redmond, Wash.

In effect they are saying that if you are one of the millions of users running previous versions of Windows, tough, buy a new computer that will run Windows XP, pay for a new copy of Windows and then we’ll give you a (probably temporary) secure browser.

Now I use Microsoft’s products, I admire the company in many ways but this is an un-wise move on their behalf.

It’s the equivalent of Ford saying that they’re only fixing the braking problems on the latest model… I don’t think so.  If your product is found to be flawed and you have charged people good money for the product then it is your responsibility to fix the problem.

To ignore your customers is poor public relations and could even be mistaken for arrogance.

Jim Horton’s beginners guide to Media Relations which I mentioned earlier in the week includes a quote from Wal-Mart on the folly of their policy of exclusively focusing on communicating with customers directly while not engaging with the media.

So it was with some interest I spotted a story in Silicon Valley Business Journal on Wal-Mart launching a PR offensive.

Only one problem.  The “PR Offensive” is in fact an advertising campaign….

Larry Weber has been a major force in the technology PR business for a long time.  For the past year rumors have been circulating that Weber was considering getting back into building an agency but this time aimed at using the new tools and technologies that are coming onstream.

In July 2003 he was quoted in the Boston Herald:

He (Weber) talked about “viral communication,” or using virtual communities to spread a message. “That’s what blogging is,” Weber added, referring to the Web’s proliferation of open but focused bulletin boards called Web logs, or simply blogs, that anyone can use to post a message. “You really can’t underestimate that,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a consolidation of marketing,” Weber said, as enterprises seek better ways to use technology to reach target audiences.

Well now he has kicked off a new agency called W2 Group Inc. According to the Boston Herald:

Weber says W2 will offer “data-driven, strategy-infused and digitally delivered” PR services targeted at specific groups, along with mobile or wireless marketing, Web marketing and PR for health and life-sciences companies. He calls Boston “the innovation town,” with the necessary technology clusters to make it work.

He has already acquired PR agency Racepoint Group to get the venture underway.

In the modestly titled launch press release (“Marketing Visionary Larry Weber Launches W2 Group, Inc. a Global Marketing Services Company Addressing 21st Century Constituent Management Needs”) he lays out the agency’s vision:

“While founding and building the largest PR firm in the world and leading the formation of Advanced Marketing Services at IPG, I’ve had the opportunity to evaluate and integrate new technologies into the communication process to bring organizations closer to their constituents,” said Mr. Weber. “W2 Group will redefine marketing services by creating an ecosystem of companies offering the most advanced digital research, delivery and measurement technologies to provide analytics and understanding of constituents and market trends and highly targeted message delivery. Clients are demanding the level of measurable, predictable results that traditional marketing services firms are not delivering.”

It’ll be interesting to see how this idea develops. However I thought it was very interesting that they chose the traditional media to break the story.. ahem… as the French say plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose…..

Footnote:

• PR Week has a news story on the launch
• Jeremy Pepper on the news
• Matthew Podboy’s new look blog also comments