Taco Bell "Shell Licking" PR Crisis Goes Away Only After Better Training

Taco Bell is facing yet another PR nightmare Monday after an employee was pictured brazenly licking a stack of taco shells and then uploaded the photo to Reddit and facebook, where it was duplicated and shared endlessly online. The story hit "old media" throughout the world (here and here and here) almost immediately and spread like a Western wildfire.

The company is just coming off a scandal about its meat's composition, and fast food giant Burger King had a similar incident last year with the employee standing in two pans of lettuce, which was exposed on 4chan.

The dangers of social media are on full display here, and it's another lesson teaching us that mishandling it can get you burned.

Usually a great tool used by customers to show off how they enjoy a company's products, dozens of the "licking" photo were being "tagged" by facebook users with Taco Bell's name, making the photo instantly and repeatedly show up under "Photos of Taco Bell" on the company's official facebook page.

The social media meltdown was being handled gingerly and cautiously by Taco Bell PR people who maintain the company's facebook page.

Typical responses on Monday were: "Hi Jen - We have spoken with the restaurant and confirmed that the shells were never served to customers. This is completely unacceptable and we are taking the appropriate action against everyone involved." and "Hi Kyle - We have 100% confirmed that the taco shells were never served to customers. Plain and simple, this is unacceptable and we are taking the appropriate action against everyone involved."

(Despite skepticism of these statements, they certainly CAN confirm this because these restaurants are completely covered in closed circuit cameras to discourage theft, and in some cases, build a case for firing. Obviously the case for firing makes itself in this situation.)

Both of these are good statements, the only kind a company can really make in such a crisis.

Clearly, there are "haters" online urging this crisis on - as they do with every crisis - posting the image repeatedly and saying they will NEVER eat at ANY Taco Bell again. That seems like overkill and piling on, but it's clear that this has an emotional kick to it that will put many people off Taco Bell and change their image of their product.

The fact is, franchises desperate to cut labor costs helped bring this on themselves. Companies seem far less likely to even bother to train lower-wage employees in basic ethics, due in part to high turnover. The same seems true of food-handling procedures, which is even more frightening. THIS is the result of that lack of training.

NEXT STEPS
PR can never be used to cover up or "make the story go away" without something positive coming out of it. Customers are wise to a whitewash, and are incredibly savvy.

Any PR response MUST include corrective action not just with this franchise, but with the entire company. And it should be a wake-up call for other fast food outlets, too, that a crash course in ethical behavior must be taught to each and every employee, and that enjoying oneself on the job is one thing, but crossing the line with unsafe food handling can never be tolerated.

If I was the CEO of Taco Bell's parent company, I'd demand that all employees be huddled into a meeting THIS WEEK in each restaurant that would start a comprehensive review of ethics and food handling, and begin to stress the seriousness of the situation to each employee. Bad publicity hurts where it counts: In profits. A dip in sales from weeks of bad press will mean a cut in hours at every single restaurant around the country. Actions have immediate consequences.

With a renewed commitment to decent food handling practices, the company may actually do a great service to the industry. A "teaching moment," if you will. It's either that, or this becomes a story that tears down years of good image-building efforts with weeks of bad press. Your call, Taco Bell.

Nutella Goes Nutty, Bans Fan's Celebration of Its Brand

Fans of the hazelnut-flavored spread Nutella are going nuts over the company's lawyers sending a "cease and desist" letter to fan Sara Rosso, who, since 2007, has sponsored an unofficial "World Nutella Day" on Feb. 5th each year. (See Time magazine reports.)

While I'm not a fan of hazelnuts, or hazelnut spreads, sending out the lawyers to attack an unofficial FAN holiday celebration of your product is a rather NUTTY way to handle a fan base. 

As Gawker notes, "Many brands would kill for a hugely popular, entirely fan-fueled International "holiday" dedicated to expressing affection for their product by buying it by the boatload."

A post on Rosso's facebook fan page notes that the factory in Italy doesn't even have tours. The company clearly is missing out on generating a lot of goodwill here, and may not know how to reach out to customers properly.

This is all the more amazing when we learn that Russo had frequent (though unofficial) contact with the company's PR department to coordinate activities. In her farewell address on the fan page, she writes,

The cease-and-desist letter was a bit of a surprise and a disappointment, as over the years I’ve had contact and positive experiences with several employees of Ferrero, SpA., and with their public relations and brand strategy consultants, and I’ve always tried to collaborate and work together in the spirit and goodwill of a fan-run celebration of a spread I (to this day) still eat.

Let's hope the company comes to its senses and realizes the massive PR error it's making by deliberately antagonizing its huge fan base across the globe.

English-Language Signs in Cyprus Shows PR Savvy

I have to commend those protesting the Cyprus bank account levy for creating protest signs in ENGLISH. From a PR point of view, this is just smart.

Protest signs written in English allows UK and American news cameras to capture the anger in a way that appeals to news consumers in the UK and US, and even Europeans, most of whom read English.

It instantly transforms what could have seemed a far-off problem - with signs written in Greek, which is literally "Greek" to most Americans and Britons - to something close, easily understandable and "real."

Signs legible to hundreds of millions of people around the world allows the protest to be "branded" as something of international, not just local, interest. And that makes it far more valuable as a news story.

I'll also note that most of the signs look like they are from a single protest. The lettering on on "Hands off Cyprus" sign looks the same in several (meaning: dozens) of wire service photos that have been used for four days in a row now (this coming from an informal Google image search.)

This is even more amazing, since a small number of signs have been effectively transformed into the LOOK of this story for days now. This shows the power of the idea of non-English-speaking protesters appealing to English-language readers.

I often wonder why protesters in Middle Eastern nations like Egypt and even in the Palestinian West Bank don't use more signage in English, and adopt protest techniques proven to be successful in Western nations. My advice to them is to watch the Cyprus experience and learn from it.

 

What is "Public Relations?" A brief definition

People often ask, "What IS Public Relations, anyway?" For those people, I've come up with a brief definition that helps address many of the important issues that PR consultants deal with on behalf of their clients. Here it is:

pub·lic re·la·tions (noun)

the communications management function that seeks to:

• build, maintain and protect reputations
• develop and maintain positive images and perceptions
• change negative perceptions into neutral ones, and eventually, into positive ones
• create positive, clear and satisfying communications with customers and others being served
• manage outside communication to ensure accuracy and positive perceptions

Please also take a look at the bold new look of www.abbottpr.com.

Doing What it Takes - Trusting the PR Process

By Stephen Abbott, principal, Abbott Public Relations

This is one of those times when someone dares to say: “The Client isn’t always right.”

Success isn’t guaranteed. You have to work at it.

Seems obvious, right? But in my career, I’ve had a handful of clients, and have heard of many others, who wound up failing because they didn’t understand that they needed to do what it takes to BE successful.

And in public relations, as in any endeavor, you have to actually do something to be successful.

Yet, a few of my past clients simply didn’t believe me, and we parted ways, only for me to later hear of them floundering and then failing in the very tasks to which they refused to dedicate themselves when I was working with them.

Of course, this breaks my heart to see, and I never gloat about it.

Still, without naming names (and in the most general of ways) I think it would be instructive to take note of some of the ways in which they failed to connect with PR, because as I’ve said before, public relations is a greatly misunderstood profession.

They included political clients who insisted that they didn’t need to convey clear, concise messages to the right voters, only to learn, tragically, that targeting a great message matters as much as wearing the right tie during a speech or making the right political contacts.

I’ve also heard of some would-be politicians who believed they could campaign part-time, while their opponents worked full-time campaigning. Their opponents learned quickly that these are the times to one-up them over and over and over again at events while their opponent was home in bed.

There were a couple of business clients of mine who insisted that they did NOT need to build up their reputations over long periods of time in order to generate positive images that would lead directly to sales (a plan that works, if you keep at it!) Instead, they felt only a quick burst of exposure would do the trick.

That works as effectively as the quick “exposure” a streaker at a college game earns. It doesn’t help their reputation at all, and their name, if it’s even known, is quickly forgotten or turns into a local punch line.

Finally, some thought they didn’t need to remain in constant and regular communication with me while I directed their PR efforts. Bad idea. Communication in a couple of cases became sporadic and then dried up altogether, either through miscommunication or new people in the company not knowing they should keep tabs on the campaign.  This basically means the client gave up on PR, despite clear goals and great tactics that would have borne positive fruit. Neither of them used PR services again, with tragic consequences for their businesses.

By failing to keep doing what it takes, a client leaves a PR campaign in limbo and may leave a consultant unaware of changing conditions or of possible new, positive things being done that could boost their reputation immensely.

In fact, many failures of public relations to yield results can be attributed to a failure of the client to remain dedicated to the process.

Failure to stick with a PR campaign because one doesn’t understand PR is inexcusable, and it’s certainly rare in the case of my clients, because I go to great lengths to educate them about how PR works. I discuss, for example,

• How PR must be a long-term effort, requiring frequent interaction between client and the consultant
• How PR campaigns must be planned with a full picture of the client’s needs and problems, so these can be properly addressed in a campaign and measured afterwards
• How PR encompasses reputation management, image creation and online and off-line marketing techniques, and that this is likely to require a commitment to real CHANGE in a corporate attitude towards their customers (yes, REAL and authentic change!)
• And how it uses tactics such as media releases and events to generate positive buzz among a targeted group of early adopters and thought-leaders who will later become their customers, and that a series of un-serious “stunts” and “getting mentioned in the local paper” isn’t always the best, or even the most effective, goal

Despite this, I hear from PR consultants whose clients tell them they want to see results OVER NIGHT, especially from companies and candidates that have done real harm to themselves that must be repaired in order for them to survive. The truth? That’s not possible.

Lawyers need more than one meeting to begin forming an effective case.

Many diseases require more than a day or two of treatment by medical professionals for the treatments to pay off.

Students can hardly proclaim themselves fully “educated” after just one semester at college.

In the same way, a PR consultant can hardly be expected to make miracles happen with only a half-hearted dedication to their efforts, or with a poor understanding on the part of his or her client of what needs to be done, how, and why.

Remaining dedicated to any task – especially building or re-building a reputation – is crucial to success.

That’s a main reason why PR consultants insist on receiving paid retainers at least on a quarterly basis, and often for six-month or even annual installments.

Reputations aren’t built, or certainly not re-built, of the course of a few days or even a week. A PR-developed reputation isn’t a one-off item a business can buy off the shelf like a can of soup and then forget about it. And like all good things in life, both patience and dedication to the task are required to make PR work.

Speaking for myself, I’ve been blessed with many understanding and wise clients over the years, and I’m very grateful for this.

I would urge clients of PR consultants and those who are considering hiring one to craft a PR campaign, or to hopefully establish an ongoing working relationship with one, to understand that it WILL take time. But chances are, public relations WILL pay off.

Abbott Public Relations can be reached online at http://www.abbottpr.com.

An Introduction to Abbott Public Relations

Abbott Public Relations uses a variety of written communications tools, including social media and the use of news releases, media statements and backgrounders, to convey messages about their clients to the right group of people, called “publics.”

Spreading the good news about you, your cause or your company to people who don’t need to hear it or won’t understand it makes no sense, and is wasteful. But the kind of targeted campaigns used by PR professionals are designed to reach the publics who care, and that is far more effective.

APR works with clients to determine the publics that are necessary to target, and crafts messages and themes most appropriate and effective for each.

APR principal and owner Stephen Abbott is committed to providing PR and reputation management services at reasonable and affordable rates. With APR, even individuals and one-person micro-businesses can afford to effectively and efficiently get the word out about their services and products.

That’s why we offer monthly retainers that are far less than what some major firms charge for ONE news release, and there are attractive discounts for paying quarterly in advance.

APR offers a personal, one-on-one service ethic that is unrivaled in the business and cannot be obtained in larger firms, where clients are often seen as little more than cash cows to be billed by the hour.

Though New England-based, PR services are offered throughout the United States and internationally.

Stephen Abbott brings over a decade of PR and media experience to clients, who range from non-profits to politicians to individuals seeking to increase their visibility and reputation.

He would welcome your call and is eager to help you fulfill your dreams.

APR can be found online at http://www.abbottpr.com, or call 603.341.0372.

What’s Your Band’s Logo?

Quick, what’s Rihanna’s logo? What’s Lady Gaga’s logo? What’s Justin Bieber’s? What’s Madonna’s? How about Elvis? The Beatles?

Their “logo” was in fact themselves. Sure, they used various fonts and styles throughout their careers – and some groups, like KISS, have font faces that are easily recognizable, and even the Beatles had (and have) a somewhat recognizable font-based logo - but that’s incidental to a group’s brand, which is composed of their body of work, which was, rightfully, their focus.

Contrast that with many bands (and, incidentally, many small businesses) just starting out. Their obsession is frequently on a “wicked cool” logo, which is usually anything but. Young bands’ logo designs are usually overcomplicated, poorly drawn and have very little to do with the style, influences and general message of the group.

Getting the right style and “look” for a band is obviously important, and it’s something young bands get wrong. But getting the right sound, message and style should be the main focus of a band.

Abbott Public Relations’ music division, Abbott Music, focuses on getting that other stuff right - the logo, the look and the feel of a band, while also guiding a band towards an appropriate style that will actually please the ears of those who hear what’s produced. It’s a different kind of management, for a different kind of group.

Send your logo over and I’ll be happy to discuss it with you, along with other concerns you might have.

Visit Abbott PR for more information.

Five Ways to Destroy your Online Reputation

By Stephen Abbott, Abbott Public Relations

Engage in Flame Wars – Allow people to get under your skin. Swear at them, yell in ALL CAPS. Say things about people you’ll later regret, but cannot erase, because they’re on a chat board now. Forever. Be sure to use your own name when doing this (and just a note, even a pseudonym may not hide you if you sounds like, well, you. Say far worse things online than you ever would in person, face-to-face with others, including to people you know and would otherwise treat with respect.

Post Pictures Injudiciously – Post pictures of yourself drunk, or drinking heavily. Touching members of the opposite sex inappropriately is a plus. Or if you’re passed out. Or post pictures of co-workers or clients in these conditions. (Forget that pictures online last forever, even if they’re posted for moment. Pretend others can’t “tag” you on Facebook or that people can save the photos and repost them or save them for future ‘reference’ – even if they’re up online for a few moments.)

Spam Everyone, All The Time – Send people emails to join your Multi-Level marketing business. Do it every day. Do it five times a day. Ask them to join your religion. Constantly. Post messages about how they’re going to hell if they don’t join. Post prayers and scripture passages. Tell them they are wrong, about everything. Post 1,000-word Facebook messages about your cat, or dog, or fish, or about your vacation. Pester people generally. Try to sell them something. Exclusively use for business your PERSONAL Facebook page (don’t create your own business page, whatever you do!) Explain in great detail why their football team is going to lose. Do it every day, leading up to the game. Insult the players’ personal lives, physical appearances and religions. Insult others’ intelligence for supporting that team. Double your efforts if it’s their high school team. Extra points if your target is the child of a friend who plays on a youth team.

Tick Off Angry, Social Media-Savvy Customers – Pretend the Internet doesn’t exist. Treat customers with contempt, thinking “they can’t do anything about it.” Pretend that we live in the pre-internet days when a nasty experience only got blasted to 10-20 people, rather than 10,000 to 20,000 in an instant, via Facebook, twitter, yelp, Yahoo Local listings, or any number of outlets. Pretend your customer with a camera in her phone WILL NOT post your profanity-laced treatment of your employees on YouTube, and that it won’t go viral and make you a laughingstock.

Generate Negativity – Do all of the above, with reckless abandon – and more. Post hateful statements on others’ Facebook posts. Trash talk everyone. Overly use profanity. Everyone loves profanity. Call people names. Try to goad people into acting the same way. Continue the thread. Threaten people. Insult people’s parents, spouses and children. The Internet will shield you from any repercussions.

DON’T YOU BELIEVE IT!

If you’ve messed up, or have been the target of any of this behavior, please contact Abbott PR and we can begin repairing your reputation or that of your business. http://www.abbottpr.com

A Broadview of Banal Branding

On July 10, 1985, “Classic Coke” was introduced to much fanfare after a colossal failure of “New Coke” that Spring, after a huge public outcry.

One has to wonder whether the roll-out of the new name for Brink’s Home Security will be reversed in a few months, too, after much public confusion.

“We are now Broadview Security, the next generation of Brink’s Home Security.”

That’s the confusing message that welcomes people to the new Broadviewsecurity.com Website.

Boring, bland, banal, colorless, under-whelming, and a stupid pissing away of 150 years of brand equity.

This new name, announced by company officials June 30, 2009 and foisted onto the world by Ketchum, conveys nothing, other than perhaps weakness, blandness and dullness. Shame on the branding experts at Landor Associates, an otherwise top-tier branding agency, who were engaged to come up with this yawn-inducing substitute. Folks, you’ve got it wrong this time.

I feel very sorry for the Brink’s Home Security employees. They must be devastated.

I know a bad public relations move when I see one, and this could be a big one.

Ad Age Magazine’s June 30 issue quotes a real branding expert, Denise Lee Yohn, as saying, "Trying to transfer that trust from Brink's to a different name is particularly challenging [in a

bad economy.] People are looking for proven suppliers with reputable names."

No kidding. And not only is the name gone, the traditional Brink’s Badge logo will be replaced by a logo with two odd “boomerang-like” swoops that suggest an Internet ISP and seem lifted directly from credit card giant Citi, only rendered in light blue (a weak color.)

In-yard signage and window decals will look something like a white fingernail, or a real estate sign. Will would-be burglars fear a white fingernail-shaped real estate sign in the yard?

The Broadview Website explains that the company spun off from The Brink’s Company last October, and is now a separately traded company. They also reveal that The Brink's Company granted them a license to use the Brink's Home Security brand for up to three years after the spin-off.

So why not keep it until the last possible moment? Why not transition? Why not keep elements of the Brinks name, as some of the “Baby Bells” did after the Bell System broke up in 1984 (Bell Atlantic and BelSouth, to name two.)

Just because change must happen, that doesn’t mean you pick a crap name to replace a time-honored one. That means you try to continue a legacy that has served them for 150 years.

As part of my work with clients who engage me on retainer as a public relations consultant, I always undertake an audit of all materials - Website, printed matter, signage, the works - to ensure that branding is clear and consistent, and that it makes sense.

Most of the time, being vague is a business killer.

Something like “John Doe Enterprises” is a worthless name, because it tells customers exactly nothing about what John does. “Well, I’m trying to be all things to all people,” I’ve heard. Well, that’s not good enough. If you’re doing EVERYTHING, you’re doing few things well. And it’s not about you, it’s about perceptions about you by your past, present and future customers.

In 2006, Stephen Abbott Communications became Abbott Public Relations, in part because the old name sounded like it was a phone company, and PR was my major focus. In 2008, I launched Abbott Media, a company that writes and sells electronic books, explores New Media, news reporting and other writing ventures, because these had nothing to do with PR. That, I believe, is smart branding. [In 2015, Abbott Media and Abbott PR became Abbott Media Group.]

The Broadview Website claims the new name “represents our legacy, our future and our unchanged commitment to "Creating Customers for Life."

Legacy? Seriously? Broadview as a name is the OPPOSITE of building a legacy. But this is marketing-speak, not real English, meant to be understood.

I have no doubt the people at Landor are sincere, and smart. The work on their Website (which, tellingly perhaps, fails to mention Broadview) affirms they are an astoundingly capable firm. And granted, branding is not easy or an exact science. But like many re-brands, this one seems to have clearly come up desperately short in the common sense department.

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Six Possibly Better Names for Brink’s Home Security, off the Top of My Head:

• “ShieldHearth Security” - It even has a warm feeling when you say it, and you know immediately that it shields your home and hearth.
• “HomeSecure” - Again, blazingly obvious and quick to grasp what these folks do. (Although if the company seeks to reach into business security more, this may not be the best option.)
• “SecuriGuard” - Security and Guard. Simple. Direct. Too difficult to screw up.
• “Solidus Security” - From the Latin for solid. In English, it conjures up the same thing. SolidiShield would also help us envision solidity.
• “AmeriBrinks Security” - This one is admittedly tongue-in-cheek, but why didn’t they fight for the name?

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