sarah’s blog.

“We believe that all individuals who work in garment factories deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and are entitled to safe and fair working conditions,” says Gap Inc.’s Social Responsibility page. That must be why Gap Inc. is in big trouble. According to PRWeek.com, reports have arisen that Gap Inc. was in business with a vendor in India allegedly using child labor. Yikes!

Because Gap Inc. puts such an emphasis on social responsibility, obviously it’s gong to talk back and try and fix the situation. I’m impressed with the way Gap Inc. handled it. First, when you open the Gap Inc. website, on the homepage there is a link to a media release that addresses the child labor situation. This is something that I’ve learned in class—be upfront and honest about things that happen with your company because it looks less sneaky and more professional. Gap Inc. wasn’t trying to hide anything by putting the link on the first page everyone will see.

Second, Gap Inc. had a crisis management plan that it put into action immediately. A company should always be prepared for anything. According to a PR teacher, “just when you think it won’t happen to you, it will.” The media release that was part of the crisis plan included the “company’s prohibition of child labor, its response and investigation, its upcoming November 2 meeting with Indian vendors to reinforce the policy, and its cessation of business with 23 vendors for violating its code of conduct last year,” according to the article.

Gap Inc. is a smart and successful company, and I think it handled this situation with integrity and finesse. This is a good example of quality crisis management and a situation that was made slightly better and not extremely worse.

So we’ve all been that person–you find a great song on the radio, look up the lyrics and five minutes later it’s in your iTunes library thanks to LimeWire, Kazaa or BearShare. Free stuff is fun.

The indie band Radiohead thought it would give listeners a chance to do the right thing and allowed for fans to get on the band’s website, download the CD and then pay whatever they wanted for the CD. Whatever they want? I’m not sure that I know many people who are going to pay $15.99 for something that they could get for free. Maybe that’s just me.

There is a catch! According to an article from MTV, the online album was “leaked” by the band at a subpar quality, causing some fans to be dissatisfied. Yes it’s free, but buying the CD in 2008 when it comes out seems like a better choice for those wanting to get good quality Radiohead noise. This is an interesting tactic because Radiohead has essentially leaked their own album so that the fans interested in stealing the music from other places could instead take it from the band’s website. Because it’s at a low compression rate (poorer quality), listeners will be hungry for a better quality sound (aka will buy the real CD for $15.99 when it actually comes out). Oh, what a tease! I think this is a little sneaky, but a good way to create a general buzz and desire for the actual CD. Very nice!

McDonald’s has recently taken a step in a positive direction. According to PRWeek.com, McDonald’s has implemented the McDonald’s Brand Awareness (MBA) program to help employees become more aware of what is important to the company. This way, if an employee is asked about the things McDonald’s supports, he or she will be able to talk more fluidly about what McDonald’s cares about.

This is such a great idea. First, how many people can really talk about McDonald’s extensively who work the 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift in the drive-thru. No offense, but i’m pretty sure some of those people don’t know what’s going on in general (like the line that’s backed up to the engineering building on Magnolia, full of people who just want a double cheeseburger to prevent further hangover and who are tired of waiting an hour to get one) much less about what corporate McDonald’s is all about. I think that giving them a more in-depth briefing about the inner-workings of McDonald’s will give a stronger sense of pride to most people’s jobs.

Making employees more aware of the company they work for will yield many good things. Your employees will feel more plugged in to the company and will feel like they have some part in everything that it does

Employees are going to be more willing to do extra things for the company when they feel like they are important. Employee relations is the most important issue that a company needs to deal with regarding publics because it’s the employees who relay the mission statement to the world.

Attention, lovers of NBC’s The Office! How awesome would it be to attend a party celebrating this amazing show? I know… super awesome.

According to an article posted on PRWeek.com, an “Office convention” will be held in Scranton, Pa., to celebrate and to get more awareness out about the show and the city’s other attractions. Click here to read the article. PR is so fun. They are just throwing one big party to let people know a little more about the city. Yes, tickets are a little pricey (or maybe I’m just a broke college kid), but the stars of the show will be there along with the producers and writers of the show — I love famous people.

These PR people are genius. While giving the show some attention, they are also giving Scranton some much needed publicity (because who had actually heard of it before The Office?). A lot of PR tools were used in getting the word out about this event too (including TV blogs!). I would love to meet the professionals who were involved in getting this three-day extravaganza off the ground. I have some interest in event planning and I think it would be cool to get to put on an event of this size. How much planning would be involved in making sure that everything was covered?

Some real-life PR has happened to me this week, and I thought I’d share. Here’s some background info…

Last week I attended church in Birmingham, Ala., at the Vineyard Church on Valleydale Road so that I could be a part of my brother getting ordained. After the service, I was greeted by the pastor of the church. He introduced himself and asked me simple questions about my life and school and then briskly proceeded to the next guest.

My week continued as usual, but on Wednesday I received an e-mail from the Vineyard church! In the message, the pastor wrote me a personalized e-mail thanking me for attending Vineyard and how excited and proud he was that Scotty (my brother) was such an amazing person. He also wrote that he hoped Auburn would yield great things for me and wished me well. WOW. In the five minutes that I had spoken with him on Sunday, he acquired and retained enough information to write me a two paragraph email three days after the fact.

“It’s all about relationships” seems to be this month’s theme in my education—remembering names and maintaining relationships. The church, although not the first place you’d think to go for all things PR, took a step to ensure that I, the customer, would revisit. They created a relationship with me. Not only did he remember my name, but also that Scotty was my brother and that I attended Auburn University. I’m impressed with their efforts to reach out and demonstrate how important I was to their Sunday service. I believe that this is one of the things every PR practitioner should do—strengthen and maintain relationships.

I never thought that the class PR Style and Design would teach me so many things about social media. I must not have read the fine print hard enough. Since the first day of class, I have been surprised  at the amount of importance placed on social media. I have learned more about blogging than a loyal MySpace 15-year-old could ever hope to know. At first I didn’t really understand the importance of blogging in the grand scheme of the universe, but it has become obvious to me that it is quickly making a name for itself. Social media definitely changes the dynamic of Public Relations.

Those suspicions were confirmed when, clicking around O’Dwyer’s, I saw O’Dwyer’s Launches Its Blog — Finally. It seems like everyone is trying to “catch up” and get plug into this new realm of communication. I appreciate the class more now than ever because we’re doing things that haven’t been done except in the last few years. It’s fun to be on the cutting edge, but it will be more exciting to see what PR Style and Design classes will be learning about in years to come.

People willing to wait in line for 18 hours at their local Best Buy are fully aware of the price tag that is going to depreciate their wallet when they buy the newest of the new. It’s common knowledge: to have bragging rights, you are going to pay. It makes perfect sense to me, but not for some people outside of the Apple store.

Apple recently made the decision to drop the price of the iPhone by more than $200. Naturally, people who bought this gadget 15 days ago (one day after the return policy expired) are a little peeved. I can understand that, from their perspective, it would be a little frustrating transitioning from the only one with a $600 cell phone to the idiot who couldn’t wait and now everyone is getting it for an arm less than they paid.

And now back to my original statement. Bragging rights are going to cost you. The people outside that store need to take a chill pill and suck it up. Yes, it was a little drastic on Apple’s part, but it happens all the time. I paid big bucks for my Nano, and now, people can “get one free” when they purchase a laptop. It happens.
 

From a PR perspective, should you make statements about the price drop to make the customers happier? I think that if I was in charge, I would make sure that people understood that Apple wasn’t trying to rip people off. I don’t think that I would make a huge deal about it because this isn’t that different from other price reductions on electronics. A small message may be necessary because it is important to establish a good relationship your customers (especially the ones willing to wait 18 hours to buy your product). 

Phil Gomes of Me2Revolution at Edelman brought up a very important point in a blog he posted this week. Junior level PR practitioners need to be able to step it up. The world of social media is such a novel concept that many of the senior practitioners are going to be a little behind without some TLC. Like Phil mentions, who better to teach than those who know?

I grew up playing Nintendo NES everyday after school. It seemed like every Christmas yielded some kind of electronic upgrade—a new N64, Xbox, Game Cube. You name it, we had it. Now I own an iPod (along with the rest of the world, it seems), a FlipVideo, a digital camera, a cell phone, a DVD player (the list goes on). I say this because Phil has a point. My parents didn’t watch TV when they were kids. My mom learned how to use text messaging on her phone last week. To be successful in this industry, people need to be comfortable using different forms of social media.

So my education finally makes sense! Today I had a management test that I wished hadn’t existed, and I thought to myself, What’s the point? I’m not going to be in a management position in the future (as if I had a crystal ball..). After reading this blog, it clicked in my head that management is about working with people, having good communication skills and creating a positive learning environment. Auburn provides an elective option of taking three management courses. Even if you’re not going to go the management route, learning the basic skills needed to get along with people in the work environment will put you ahead of the game. Companies will need people who can “manage up,” as Phil put it, and be comfortable in that position so that employees are all on the same page and moving forward into the new and exciting world of social media.

What will be the “new thing” when I’m a senior practitioner?

Mattel Inc. has recently had some trouble with its toys. By some I mean millions. In an article from Odwyerpr.com entited Tough Times in the Toy Department, Richard Nicolazzo makes some good points about the extremely fundamental elements of ethical public relation that any student should encounter in an enrty level PR class.

According to the article, Mattel Inc. recalled more than 700,000 toys made in China because of high amounts of lead in the paint. Before that, two other recalls added 20.5 million toys to the list. Seriously? Now, keep in mind that I’m speaking from a beginner’s point of view, but I would think that the best option would be to apologize immediately and do everything possible to fix it. Mattel Inc. waited way too long to come out with the recall and a statement.
 

A reputable image does a lot of good for a company. Consumers will be able to trust in that company’s products or services and will feel good about investing in something they can count on. In my opinion, it was a bad PR move to wait so long to say or do anything about the toys. It looks deceitful and socially irresponsible. Mattel’s crisis management should have been on top of the situation the moment that it was discovered so that the least amount of children was affected. The way that the CEO spoke in the interviews makes the company look like it doesn’t care about its consumer. As a result, it will make consumers distrust it, and they won’t be as willing to invest. 

Thank you, Robert Stephens! The founder and chief inspector of Geek Squad gave a speech about brands and logos as they relate to his background and the company he pioneered. Watch the video here. I thank him because for the first time, I was able to listen to a speech by a successful business figure and not get scared of growing up. I’m sorry, but business can be scary sometimes. this is especially true if you have failed one or two “important” classes (not me of course!) and felt the wrath and disappointment of a teacher who you look up to as being “in the know” about the business world. Yikes!

Getting back to the video, I agree with the way that he described brand and logo. I love movies, so the analogy of creating a company name and image like a movie title and plot made sense. Logos really are about symbolism and meaning. Companies have a “family crest” and a Latin logo too in a way. There is an image (logo) that gives some picture portrayal of its function or concept. There is also a motto (mission statement) for which the company constantly thrives. In everything that Robert Stephens did while creating his company, he thought about symbolism and meaning—Batman’s functions corresponding to Geek Squad, NASA being about teamwork and human accomplishment, the colors of the “Squad” cars and the symbolism behind a police force—this all helps to define who that company is and what their “family” stands for everyday.

On another note, he is SO right about employee satisfaction. A company cannot stop at the logo and the mission statement and leave their employees in the dust. A brand includes a reputation, a culture and a way of living and operating. If the employees don’t have the same mindset as the company, the customers aren’t going to get a sense of what the company is actually about and the lifestyle that it leads.

I think that what made this fun to watch was how relaxed and “real” he appeared. This strategy was well thought out because it tied into one theme he discussed about being simple and humble. This was seen in many aspects of the companies start-up as described by Stephens– riding his bike to the Secretary of State’s office, driving one car around town to promote the company, using cars because they were fuel efficient, etc.—as well as his presentation style—stating he was going to “make this sh*t up” as the speech went on, keeping the audience laughing telling jokes about the French and making fun of Geeks. Anyone could relate because he came off as just another guy with a good idea. It inspired me because the way he went about creating the company, logo, uniform, etc. seemed so simple and logical. It suddenly didn’t seem so intimidating to be in the “adult world.” If this Ramen-eating, Batman-loving guy could do it, maybe so could I.