Courtesy of Media Guardian.
Archive for the ‘Bad PR’ Category
How not to position yourself as an expert for the media
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010It’s too easy to generate negative PR
Thursday, April 16th, 2009We recently suffered the horrors of our business account debit card being cloned and some scumbag going on an internet spending spree. Got all the money back, but it affected access to our bank accounts for a week.
So I figured it was time to get some company credit cards, just in case.
And as Publicity Heaven is a member and supporter of the FSB, it made sense to apply for an FSB credit card and help the organisation earn some commission.
What a nightmare.
First of all the application link on the FSB website was broken. And no-one at MBNA (who run the scheme) answered the phone for a good five minutes. That’s when ringing the special “I’m a member of the FSB and I want to be a new customer please” phone number!
So I rang the FSB directly to give them some feedback. Turns out they knew the link was broken and “are looking into it”. Then the final blow… the lady on the phone told me the FSB credit card is for individuals not limited companies.
Ah. Perhaps you should have mentioned that on your website. Before I wasted 15 minutes trying to get one.
My point here is not to have a rant. It’s how easily a bad experience (albeit a minor one) has turned into negative PR for the FSB.
In the internet age a blog like this leaves a permanent record on the internet. In a year’s time, someone Googling “FSB credit card” could find this post and decide not to bother, based on my experience.
There’s a lesson for every business there.
No salad please, we’re on YouTube
Thursday, March 12th, 2009I love the internet.
It allows the crime to be shown with the court report.
Not good PR for a certain sandwich chain.
Little Chef continues to look bad
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009Managed to tear myself away from the Barack Obama inauguration coverage for another fascinating episode of Big Chef takes on Little Chef last night.
Again the people running Little Chef came over badly.
At the end of programme Heston – surely the UK’s most amiable chef – was threatening to walk out because there was no sign of any commitment from Little Chef.
He had redesigned the famous Olympic Breakfast and was quite fairly asking them to commit to five test sites instead of just one. Heston’s biggest fear about the project was that they were using him for publicity and not to really make a long-term change to the menu.
With one programme still to go, it increasingly looks that way.
At every turn the chief exec of Little Chef came over as insincere and false. His mouth was saying that he thought he had a real connection with Heston, but his eyes and actions were saying otherwise.
When the Little Chef board trooped into Heston’s restaurant to taste his new menu, they looked like a board. A bunch of suits who had lost touch with what was really happening in their restaurants.
If Little Chef’s goal for this was to reach people like me who haven’t eaten there for years and show me how much they’ve changed for the better (or are starting to change) – then so far they’ve failed. Let’s see what if tonight’s final episode turns this PR disaster around for them.
Little Chef lost, the big chef won
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009There was a fascinating programme on TV last night about the roadside restaurant chain Little Chef calling in Heston Blumenthal to help it revamp its menu.
Heston is best known for running the world’s best restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray, and for being particularly inventive with food.
On last night’s programme he failed to introduce a good enough new menu. In the words of one customer, it was “too poncy”. I’m looking forward to see how he changes it in tonight’s programme (and can’t help but think that Gordon Ramsey could have done a better job, with the common touch he displays in his programme Restaurant Nightmares).
From a PR point of view however, Heston won last night. The Little Chef chief exec came across as closed, unsupportive, and unwilling to compromise. At one point he put the phone down on Heston mid-call, because he refused to give him gross profit figures for their food. Was he really interested in Heston’s help, or did he just want the publicity?
Good PR must have a grounding in being real. It would have been a PR coup for Little Chef had they genuinely wanted help from a top chef updating their menu, with the resultant attention helping to drive a new era of growth. If they only got Heston in as a stunt, this was never going to work.
Will Little Chef realise this in time? Apparently the food trial is still continuing right now at a branch in Hampshire. Can’t wait to watch tonight’s episode and see how it turns out.
