McDonald's "Our Food, Your Questions" Campaign

McDonald's is trying a more direct approach to addressing concerns about its food. In a new campaign, "Our Food, Your Questions," the company promises to respond to consumers' questions.

Some say it does so too willingly. A Huffington Post article, "Only McDonald's Would Advertise That Its Food Rots," questions the strategy. In a video featuring former "MythBusters" host Grant Imahara, we see a hamburger decomposing-not the most attractive sight. Apparently, this busts the myth that McDonald's food is indestructible.

Another video starts with the questions, "Are there lips and eyeballs in there?" and "At what point do we inject the pink slime?" Such a direct approach may raise more questions than it answers.

A TIME article also criticizes McDonald's. According to the writer, the company's campaign misses obvious questions about antibiotics and whether eggs are from cage-free chickens:

"If McDonald's really wants to connect with consumers, it should take a hard look at the practices behind the ingredients it uses and begin to change them incrementally. It could take a real stand for sustainability-including changing to suppliers and producers who raise meat without antibiotics. As the biggest fast food company in the nation, McDonald's choices are no small potatoes. A change like that could mean a much happier meal."

Discussion Starters:

• What's your view of the new campaign? On balance, will McDonald's get the results it wants?
• McDonald's denies that this campaign is related to its poor performance. August showed the worst sales results in more than ten years. What do you think?

Microsoft CEO Regrets Comment About Women and Raises

Don't worry about pay, women, trust that the system will work. That was Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's suggestion during an interview at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing on Thursday:

"It's not really about asking for the raise but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along. And that, I think, might be one of the additional superpowers that quite frankly women who don't ask for a raise have, because that's good karma. It'll come back because somebody's going to know that's the kind of person that I want to trust, that's the kind of person that I want to really want to give more responsibility to. And in the long term efficiency, things catch up."

In addition to backlash on social media sites, Nadella's comment caught heat from a New York Times reporter who appropriately reminded us of the research:

"Women are paid less than men, and one reason is that women are less likely to negotiate for raises or promotions. They feel more anxiety about negotiating and are less likely to consider job situations to be negotiable, according to Linda Babcock, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a leading researcher on women and pay negotiations."

In an email to employees and in a tweet, Nadella said he regretted his comment.

From: Satya Nadella
Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2014 5:24 PM
To: Microsoft - All Employees (QBDG); Retail: All FTE
Subject: RE: Empowering Others

All - Today I was interviewed on stage by Maria Klawe at the Grace Hopper Conference - I encourage you to watch the video. It was great to spend time with so many women passionate about technology. I was honored to be a part of it and I left the conference energized and inspired.

Toward the end of the interview, Maria asked me what advice I would offer women who are not comfortable asking for pay raises. I answered that question completely wrong. Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap. I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it's deserved, Maria's advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask.

I said I was looking forward to the Grace Hopper Conference to learn, and I certainly learned a valuable lesson. I look forward to speaking with you at our monthly Q&A next week and am happy to answer any question you have.

Satya

Update: Nadella apologizes again in an email.

Discussion Starters:

• Assess Nadella's original comment during the interview. Do you agree with him?
• Now assess his apology. In what ways does this change your thinking about his comment?

Zappos Does Damage Control About Layoffs

According to Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, the company's plans to lay off 30 employees started an "avalanche" of false reports. Part of the backlash comes from concern about Hsieh's promise to invest in Las Vegas. In 2012, he started the Downtown Project and poured $350 million into real estate and 300 start-ups that, today, employ about 800 people. 

The perception isn't helped by an open resignation letter written by David Gould. Gould left a teaching job at the University of Iowa to join the Downtown Project. This is excerpt from the letter:

"Tomorrow, many of the people who merged their voices with yours will find themselves without a job. While their names have yet to be revealed, the disillusioned expressions I conjure up are keeping me awake tonight. This group will undoubtedly include numerous young adults, who have not yet found your good fortune. As they have naively purchased homes and started families, this decision will impact them greatly."

In response to the letter and other criticism, Hsieh puts the layoffs in perspective: 

"We eliminated 30 positions from our corporate support staff. We directly employ more than 300 people, and through our investments there are over800 people working in our porfolio of companies in downtown Vegas. Later this week we are adding about 30 positions when we open up The Market and we plan to continue to grow our total job count."

A 2008 ZDNet article compliments Zappo's transparency when it laid off 8% of its workforce six years ago. 

Discussion Starters: 

• Read Hsieh's entire response. Which arguments do you find most and least persuasive? 
• Read the 2008 ZDNet article. What has changed in social media in the past six years? 
• Zappos usually wins points for its corporate culture. How, if at all, do you think that reputation factors into the media coverage?

Michael Phelps Apologizes, Again

Michael Phelps now has two DUIs-in addition to the bong-hit-to mar his record. The Olympic swimmer was arrested in Baltimore after going 84 in a 45-mph zone and crossing double highway lines.

The previous DUI was in 2004, and the pot-smoking incident was in 2009. In 2012, Phelps told CNN, "I'll make a million mistakes in my life, but as long as I never make the same mistake again, then I've been able to learn and grow."

Discussion Starters: 

• Did Phelps do the right thing by apologizing on Twitter? What are his other options?
• Does Phelps' apology meet the criteria recommended by The New York Times writer: painful, authentic, probe deep, encourage feedback, and elicit real change in behavior.

Starboard Letter to Yahoo

Having finished lambasting Olive Garden, Starboard is onto Yahoo. A managing member of the hedge fund wrote a letter to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer with this stated purpose: "to highlight several opportunities to unlock tremendous value for the benefit of all Yahoo shareholders." He summarizes the opportunities as follows:

1. Unlocking the substantial value from Yahoo's non-core minority equity stakes in Alibaba Group Holding Limited ("Alibaba") and Yahoo Japan in a structure that delivers value directly to Yahoo shareholders in a tax-efficient manner;
2. Realizing substantial cost efficiencies by reducing expenses throughout the Company, specifically with a goal of reducing losses in the Display business by between $250 and $500 million;
3. Halting Yahoo's aggressive acquisition strategy which has resulted in $1.3 billion of capital spent since Q2 2012 while consolidated revenues have remained stagnant and EBITDA has materially decreased; and
4. Exploring a strategic combination with AOL, Inc. – a company we know well – which could improve Yahoo's competitive position, deliver cost synergies of up to $1 billion, and potentially facilitate the realization of value from Yahoo's non-core equity stakes with minimal tax leakage.

The recommendation to partner with AOL is perhaps the most dramatic. Mayer responded in a statement:

"Going forward, we have great confidence in the strength of our business. The management team and the board of directors remain committed to building value for all shareholders through the continued execution of our strategy, investing in products that will drive sustainable growth: search, communications, digital magazines and video.

"We will continue to focus on evaluating various capital allocation initiatives, an update to which we plan to provide on our third-quarter earnings call."

Discussion Starters:

• Read the letter for tone. It's a jargon- and cliche-filled masterpiece, but is it appropriate for the context and audience?
• Read the letter for content. What are the most and least persuasive arguments? How does Starboard position itself? 

Ferguson Police Chief's Video Apology

It's a little late, but Chief of Police Thomas Jackson apologized to the family of Michael Brown, the teenager who was shot on August 9, 2014. Wearing casual clothes rather than a police uniform, Jackson spoke to the camera to deliver his message.  

Jackson explained, "The reason we did a taped statement was because there was a lot that I wanted to say, and I wanted to make sure that it was clear. It's harder to do these things out in public." In the message, Jackson acknowledged public mistrust, which some say is irreparable.

Critics on Twitter and Rev. Al Sharpton weren't impressed.

Rev. Sharpton said the response was "too little, too late."

About the delay, Jackson said that he had been wanting to speak with Brown's parents directly for some time. And about his choice of clothes, Jackson said, "It's just me."

Discussion Starters:

• Consider Jackson's options for an apology. Consider the audience, objectives, timing, medium choice, and so on.
• What's your view of the apology video? How do you think the family responded?

Is Yelp Manipulating Reviews?

Davide Cerrentini is proud of his restaurant's rank as the worst on Yelp. Botto Bistro has a slew of negative reviews, most inspired by Cerrentini.

The reviews are quite amusing:

Cerrentini opposes what he considers aggressive ad sales tactics. He claims that Yelp deletes positive reviews and elevates negative reviews if businesses don't sign on for ads.

But Yelp won a recent appeal and posted this statement:

Ninth Circuit Confirms That Yelp Does Not Extort

Posted by Aaron S., Senior Director of Litigation

For years, fringe commentators have accused Yelp of altering business ratings for money.  Yelp has never done this and individuals making such claims are either misinformed, or more typically, have an axe to grind––whether businesses upset that Yelp will not remove reviews they don't like, or unscrupulous internet marketing "experts" trying to make a buck off of honest business owners with dubious reputation management schemes. [Continue]

Discussion Starters:

• How would you describe the tone of Yelp's statement? Is this appropriate?
• Cerretini says he's attracting new, higher paying, loyal customers. Is it still true that "any publicity is good publicity"?

Bad Timing for Headless Halloween Displays

What's fun one year isn't fun the next. Severed heads have been part of many Halloween decorations, but recent beheadings by the terrorist group ISIS make these displays seem insensitive. Several Westerners have been murdered by ISIS, which has distributed graphic videos.

Fox was the first organization to apologize for joking about a severed head. Two weeks ago, to promote the DVD series "Sleepy Hollow," 20th Century Fox created e-cards and encouraged journalists to promote "Headless Day." 

As Fox says in its apology, the timing was unfortunate:

We apologize for the unfortunate timing of our Sleepy Hollow Headless Day announcement. The tragic news of Steven Sotloff's death hit the web as the email was being sent.

Our deepest sympathies are with him and his family, and we don't take the news lightly.

Had we have known this information prior, we would have never released the alert and realize it's in poor taste.

Please accept our sincerest apologies.

Busch Gardens also has an excuse: It's Halloween. Still, the severed head props aren't being received well. The company issued this statement:

The props in this year's event were designed and purchased several months ago. In light of recent events, some of these props have the unintended consequence of appearing insensitive and are being removed. Busch Gardens apologizes for any offense they may have caused.

Discussion Starters:

• Should organizations refrain from headless displays for Halloween, or are people just too sensitive?
• Assess both apologies. What differences and similarities do you notice? 

Urban Outfitters Offends Again

What could be wrong with selling a blood-splatter-patterned sweatshirt? Urban Outfitters has apologized for putting up for a sale a "vintage" shirt with the Kent State logo. If you missed the history lesson, four students were shot in 1970 at Kent State during a political protest.

Urban Outfitters issued this apology:

"Urban Outfitters sincerely apologizes for any offense our Vintage Kent State Sweatshirt may have caused. It was never our intention to allude to the tragic events that took place at Kent State in 1970 and we are extremely saddened that this item was perceived as such. The one-of-a-kind item was purchased as part of our sun-faded vintage collection. There is no blood on this shirt nor has this item been altered in any way. The red stains are discoloration from the original shade of the shirt and the holes are from natural wear and fray. Again, we deeply regret that this item was perceived negatively and we have removed it immediately from our website to avoid further upset."

Kent State weighed into the controversy as well:

This isn't the first time Urban Outfitters introduced an offensive product. The Week chronicled 12 more. 

Discussion Starters:

• Is Urban Outfitters intentionally offending? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this advertising strategy?
  
• Assess the company's response. Does it meet criteria for an effective apology?
• Discuss Kent State's response. Do you think it was wise for the university to weigh in? Why would administrators issue a statement, and what could be the consequences?

DiGiorno Apologizes for Misused Hashtag

DiGiorno's Twitter manager posted too quickly and apologized profusely. Like many Twitter users, the manager didn't check the meaning behind a hashtag and used it to promote the frozen pizza. #WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft were trending about domestic violence-a topic related to the Ray Rice incident.

After a predictable onslaught of criticism, DiGiorno's rep did an admiral job of apologizing. The rep sent individual, customized emails to critics.

The response strategy is a great contrast to Progressive Insurance's approach a couple of years ago. In that situation, the company repeated tweets, inspiring the "robo-tweet" criticism.

Discussion Starters:

• Find other examples of misused hashtags. (You'll see plenty of them.) In each case, what was the failing, and how well did the company recover?
• Evaluate each DiGiorno tweet. Why were these considered successful by AdAge and others?

Racist Email Causes Hawks Owner to Sell

An email from Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson surfaced after a related investigation, causing him to sell his controlling stake in the team. The email is an assessment of operations written to General Manager Danny Ferry, and it includes pointed comments about the numbers of black people at games:

"Before we bought the hawks and for those couple years immediately after in an effort to make the arena look full (at the nba's urging) thousands and thousands of tickets were being giving away, predominantly in the black community, adding to the overwhelming black audience.

"My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant season ticket base. Please dont get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arean back then. i never felt uncomfortable, but i think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority. On fan sites i would read comments about how dangerous it is around philips yet in our 9 years, i don't know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage. When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.

"I have been open with our executive team about these concerns. I have told them I want some white cheerleaders and while i don't care what the color of the artist is, i want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that's our season tixs demo. i have also balked when every fan picked out of crowd to shoot shots in some time out contest is black. . . ."

Levenson is particularly criticized because he was so adamant that Donald Sterling should sell his stake in the team after he made racial comments, which were audio taped by his girlfriend. At the time, Levenson said, "I think I speak for all of my partners when I say we were all deeply offended. We all quickly spoke out against the words we heard on that tape."

Levenson apologized in a statement posted on the Hawks' website: 

"I trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests (i.e. hip hop vs. country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and by stereotyping their perceptions of one another (i.e. that white fans might be afraid of our black fans). By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans."

Additional statements were posted from CEO Steve Koonin and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Read Silver's full statement.

Download Bruce Levenson's email.

Discussion Starters:

• Why would Levenson make such comments in an email? What assumptions did he make? 
• Should Levenson have sold his stake when Donald Sterling sold his, back in May?

CEO Kicks Dog and Then Resigns

Video cameras are everywhere, so watch what you do in an elevator. The CEO of sports catering company Centerplate learned this lesson when a video of him kicking his friend's dog went viral. At one point, we see him pulling the dog up by the leash.

Desmond Hague apologized and promised to do 100 hours of community service:

"I take full responsibility for my actions, this incident is completely and utterly out of character and I am ashamed and deeply embarrassed.  Under the circumstances of the evening in question, a minor frustration with a friend's pet caused me to lose control of my emotional response. Unfortunately, I acted inappropriately, and I am deeply sorry for that and am very grateful that no harm was caused to the animal. I have reached out to the SPCA and have personally apologized to the dog's owner. At this time, I would like to extend my apology to my family, company and clients, as I understand that this has also reflected negatively on them."

The apology didn't stop criticism of Centerplate, and Hague decided to resign (or was asked for his resignation). In a statement on its website, Centerplate announced Hague's resignation and temporary replacement:

Chris Verros Named Acting President and CEO Following Resignation of Desmond Hague

Centerplate's board of directors announced today that Chris Verros has been appointed to the role of acting president and chief executive officer, effective immediately, following the resignation of Desmond Hague from the company. The decision comes as a result of Hague's personal misconduct involving the mistreatment of an animal in his care.

"We want to reiterate that we do not condone nor would we ever overlook the abuse of animals," said Joe O'Donnell, chairman of the board of directors for Centerplate. "Following an extended review of the incident involving Mr. Hague, I'd like to apologize for the distress that this situation has caused to so many; but also thank our employees, clients and guests who expressed their feelings about this incident. Their voices helped us to frame our deliberations during this very unusual and unfortunate set of circumstances."

Chris Verros assumes the new role with more than 35 years of experience and a reputation as one of the industry's most respected leaders. Chief Operating Officer for Centerplate since 2010, he helped the company to achieve unprecedented growth. Prior to joining Centerplate, Verros was Executive Vice President of Boston Culinary Group and previously served as a Group President of Fine Host Corporation, following the 1993 acquisition of FanFare, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1986.

"I have been proud to work with Chris for more than 20 years, and feel that Centerplate is incredibly fortunate to have such a strong leader who can step into the role immediately," O'Donnell added, "This past week has been very difficult for our company, our employees and our clients in particular, and I have no doubt that Chris' experience, vision, integrity, and commitment to our values and mission will help us all move forward together."

Discussion Starters:

• Why would Hague resign from Centerplate? What does this incident have to do with his job performance?
• Assess Centerplate's statement: word choice, tone, organization, and so on. Comment, particularly, on how quotations are used.

Malaysia Airlines' "Bucket List" Promotion

Twitter users were out in force, criticizing Malaysia Airlines' poorly named "My Ultimate Bucket List Campaign." The promotion asks people, "What and where would you to tick off your to-do list, and explain why?" [sic]

A bucket list is commonly known as the activities people want to accomplish before they die or "kick the bucket." Within one year, Malaysia Airlines lost two planes and 537 lives.

In response to criticism, the company changed the name of the promotion to "Win an iPad or Malaysia Airlines flight to Malaysia."

The company also issued this statement:

"Malaysia Airlines has withdrawn the title of a competition running in Australia and New Zealand, as it is found to be inappropriate at this point in time. The competition had been earlier approved as it was themed around a common phrase used in both countries. The airline appreciates and respects the sentiments of the public and in no way did it intend to offend any parties."

Discussion Starters: 

• Did the airline do the right thing by changing the name, or are people just too sensitive?
• What does "sic" mean, which I wrote in the first paragraph?
• Assess the airlines' apology. What rules of social media and apologies does it follow, and what could be improved?

Zara Apologizes for Concentration Camp Shirt

Retailer Zara has pulled a shirt that many said looked like Holocaust attire. Promoted as a "striped 'sheriff' t-shirt," the product reminded people of the Star of David and stripes (although they were vertical) worn by Jewish prisoners in concentration camps.

The company apologized in a tweet: "We honestly apologize, it was inspired by the sheriff's stars from the Classic Western films and is no longer in our stores."

Inditex, Zara's parent company, also posted a news article to provide background and apologize:

Zara Kids has removed a children's t-shirt from its stores and website. The t-shirt withdrawn was inspired by the classic American Westerns and has been taken out of circulation due to the potential similarity with the Star of David that has been used as a yellow star patch. Zara has issued a heartfelt apology on its social network profiles.

The garment was available only for just a few hours and sales of the t-shirt have been marginal. The items will be reliably destroyed.

Inditex would like to reiterate its utmost respect for all cultures and religions. The Group is a Company where people from 180 nationalities work together representing all the cultures, races and religions of the modern world. Inditex is proud of its cultural diversity. In addition, respect and dignity feature among the principles which guide and define its corporate values. The Group condemns and rejects any form of discrimination.

This isn't the first time Zara used Nazi-reminiscent images. In 2007, Zara pulled a handbag with swastikas, which the company says were made in Asia, where the image has a different cultural significance.

Discussion Starters:

• Do you believe that the shirt was an innocent mistake? Why or why not?
• Assess the parent company's message. How well does it rebuild the brand image?
• Does this news affect your decision to shop at Zara?

Time Warner's Response to the Outage

Time Warner Cable had a major service outage on Wednesday morning, but the response was slow and questionable. As people throughout the country took to Twitter to report loss of Internet service, the company was quiet, and calls went unanswered.

Customers joked about how to solve the problem:

After about an hour of reported complaints, TWC tweeted about the outage:

Another hour later, TWC issued this statement:

"At 4:30 a.m. ET today, during routine network maintenance, an issue with our Internet backbone created disruption with our Internet and On Demand serices. At of 6 a.m. ET services were largely restored, as updates continue to bring all affected customers back online."

Although TWC claims the outage was caused by an Internet backbone problem, some suspect the company's system was hacked. Reports say that the outage seems more like a DDoS attack (distributed denial of service).

Discussion Starters:

• Assess TWC's response. Is it fair to say that the response was slow? Someone did tweet at 7 a.m., and maybe employees were busy working on fixing the problem?
• Analyze TWC's statement. If the outage was caused by a DDoS attack, why won't the company admit it, as so many others have?

Best Buy Executives Explain Quarterly Results

Although sales continue to decline, Best Buy executives are sticking with the plan to turn the business around primarily through cost-cutting. The company has been successful in reducing expenses, but sales continue to lag.

In Best Buy's second quarter results report, CEO and President Hubert Joly said,

"Like other retailers and as reflected in this quarter's performance, we continued to see a shift in consumer behavior: consumers are increasingly researching and buying online. As a result, traffic to our brick and mortar stores continued to decline, yet our in-store conversion and online traffic continued to increase due to the execution of our Renew Blue strategy which is in direct alignment with this shift. Our Renew Blue strategy is designed to (1) grow our online business; (2) enhance our in-store customer experience; and (3) leverage our multi-channel capabilities; all to deliver to our customers great advice, service and convenience at competitive prices in the channel they want to be served.

"During the quarter, we continued to make progress against this strategy, including (1) increasing our Net Promoter Score across channels by 400 basis points year-over-year; (2) improving our in-store experience by rolling out over 800 new Samsung and Sony home theater, 18 Pacific Kitchen and Home and 7 Magnolia Design Center stores-within-a-store; and (3) leveraging our new ship-from-store and digital marketing capabilities to drive a 22% increase in Domestic comparable online sales."

CFO Sharon McCollam reinforced Joly's message: "Industrywide sales are continuing to decline in many of the consumer electronics categories in which we compete."

Discussion Starters:

• Read Best Buy's entire second-quarter report. What are the key messages?
• What's your reaction to the executives' statements? Overly positive, blame-shifting, realistic, optimistic, or something else?

Ferguson PR Firm Speaks Out

The situation in Ferguson, MO, following the police shooting of Michael Brown is so tenuous that the city hired a PR firm to help. As you might expect in any emotionally charged situation, the firm has been criticized. Most of the focus has been on Common Grounds Public Relations as an all-white firm.

CEO Denise Benetele defended her firm's role, calling diversity an "industry-wide challenge" and explaining the involvement of The Devin James Group, a minority-owned firm.

Ferguson clearly needs help. In the middle of a dispute that's getting international attention, Mayor James Knowles said, "There's not a racial divide in the city of Ferguson. That is the perspective of all residents in our city. Absolutely."

Aug. 20, 2014

PR Firm Aiding Ferguson Responds to Industry Critics

By Denise Bentele

Just as an EMT would respond to a 911 call, Common Ground PR was asked to provide immediate, emergency help in the form of fielding the overwhelming number of media inquiries the city was receiving until it assembled a long-term team to handle this crisis. Our short-term agreement to assist had nothing to do with the preceding tragic events. Rather, as we watched the news of ongoing turmoil, it was apparent that the negative images could forever impact our region's economic development efforts and the lives of our neighbors. And so we went to field calls from media around the world, trying to connect them to the appropriate sources while city leadership tended to an incredibly challenging, unfolding situation. The pace of queries was profound – like catching raindrops in a hurricane. It's not every day that a city of 21,000 residents gets more than 500 media calls in a day. It's not every day that the alphabet soup of news networks and stations ALL converge in one of the more than 90 municipalities in St. Louis County. But when all of the cameras are gone, we as St. Louisans will be left to rebuild. We will deal with companies who leave town and others who decide not to invest in St. Louis. I was dismayed at the negative reaction online and on social media, especially among fellow communications professionals, who pointed at the lack of diversity on our staff as a sign of the "greater problem." Increasing the diversity of communications professionals is an industry-wide challenge that we all need to tackle. But as a local St. Louisan who watched this tragedy unfold, I offered our assistance because it was clear that this community was overwhelmed and needed immediate help fielding media inquiries.  The color of our skin reflected nothing of our concern to help our broader community respond to the watchful world. In my first conversation with Ferguson city officials, I advised that any solution to strife and development of long-term reconciliation would have to come with the assistance of a member of the black community skilled at community engagement with these key constituents.  To that end, The Devin James Group, a nationally certified Minority-owned firm, has been working with St. Louis County and the City of Ferguson as an independent liaison to handle the public relations and long-term needs, work with community leaders and seek regional support in a grassroots effort to build true engagement. With the long-term coalition and communications help of CEO Devin James, local residents and businesses can focus on determining what's best for this community. Devin is currently identifying and recruiting communities and leaders to participate and assessing potential for collaborative capacity which could result in the forming of or partnering of community coalitions, creating an outreach plan for improving awareness as well as developing a platform that gives the local community an outlet to address the issues and media perceptions. We thank the many people who have shared their support and advice and we hope this helps answer questions our peers have, and hope more importantly that you send your prayers to the long-term healing of St. Louis. Denise Bentele, APR President & CEO, Common Ground Public Relations

Discussion Starters:

• What advice would you give Mayor James Knowles?
• Did Ferguson do the right thing in hiring Common Ground?
• Assess Denise Bentele's statement. What works well, and what could be improved?

SeaWorld Tries New Approach

After denying impact on park attendance, SeaWorld is finally admitting that negative publicity about its killer whales is affecting business: 

"The company believes attendance in the quarter was impacted by demand pressures related to recent media attention surrounding proposed legislation in the state of California." 

The media attention began with the film Blackfish, which criticized how SeaWorld treated its orcas. Musical performers had cancelled their scheduled shows, and attendance had dropped, but revenue held steady for a while, partly because the park increased prices. Now, shares are down 30% for the year (almost 50% for the past 12 months).

After ignoring the negative publicity, SeaWorld's approach was to contradict Blackfish and other animal rights activists. Then, SeaWorld seemed to take a more proactive approach, highlighting on its Facebook page and Twitter account animals it was saving and protecting.

Now, the company has taken a new approach, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to enlarge tanks and provide exercise treadmills. SeaWorld is also committing $10 million to match funds for killer whale research. 

With the headline, "Announcing BIG NEWS on the exciting future of killer whales at SeaWorld parks," an email was sent to SeaWorld customers (entire message):

Discussion Starters:

• Read SeaWorld's email to customers. Assess the design, message strategy, and organization. What works well, and what could be improved?
• What do you think about SeaWorld's viability going forward? Will the parks spring back, or are they doomed?

Read a case study about SeaWorld's Response to Blackfish. If you would like an assignment (a recommendation report) about the case, send me email (https://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/app/facultydb/instructors/an97).

United Airlines' Apology Form Letter

Form letters are a great way for companies to ensure consistency and save time, but they have to be customized. United Airlines forgot this important step.

A spokesperson for the airline said, "I cannot confirm if it is authentic based on the picture, but it appears to be an unfinished customer response letter. If I knew who the customer was we would reach out to the customer and apologize for the response." The letter was posted on Reddit.

A week before this letter was written, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about airline apologies. According to the article, Southwest employs 200 people just to handle complaints, and Delta employs 150 to answer complaint and compliment letters. Delta no longer uses form letters.

United told the WSJ reporter, "Generally we tell the customer we are sorry they did not have the experience they expected on United. We try to be empathetic to the customer but not sound insincere." The article confirms that United has some work to do:

"United Airlines, which had the highest rate of complaints filed at the DOT among major airlines the past three years, has a team of about 450 customer-care agents handling general issues and refunds. Add to that 400 people handing frequent-flier program issues and about 100 answering baggage-related letters and emails."

United apologies dating back to 1996 were form letters. Here's a comparison on Untied.com.

Discussion Starters:

• In addition to the obvious missing information, the letter has some other problems. What are they?
• The WSJ article mentions a 2009 study showing that an apology may be more valued by customers than compensation. What works best for you? Think about a time when service didn't meet your expectations, and you told the company. How did it respond, and what was your reaction?

Real Estate Company Apologizes for Inappropriate Email

Real estate website ListedBy.com sent an email to alert its customers that Robin Williams died. Several people thought the announcement was inappropriate and told the firm so.

The situation reminds me of small business advisor who used Amy Winehouse's death to promote her services. Although ListedBy.com was a bit more subtle, the email still feels like an opportunity to connect with prospective customers. Using a death for this purpose just seems wrong.

To its credit, the company sent a nice apology:

Members,

I wanted to run in to the office even at this late hour and make sure we issue a prompt apology. Earlier tonight we sent out our wkly newsletter including the news of Robin Williams death. We used our same newsletter template we always use for sending out breaking news and while it was potentially a vocal minority we did receive a couple dozen emails that felt it was simply not tasteful and not our place to send out an email like this.

In hindsight we completely agree and understand why this was not a good idea to send and we want to issue our most sincere apology to all our members and anyone who was in any way offended by this.

It was simply an issue of us ourselves as human beings receiving the news about half an hour before we were trying to select the "news of the day" to send out to our members, and being that we were sincerely extreme Robin Williams fans it seemed like there was no news we could think of that was more important than this. In hindsight again though we realize we actually could have negatively represented the man we intended to honor and for that we are very sorry. It again was a very fast paced decision from someone that really was shocked by the news and we hope you as members forgive us if this was in bad taste. As an extra part of our apology and to try to accomplish our initial goal of honoring a great person who was such a big part of American culture for so long we will be making a donation this week to his charitable foundation. Thanks again for your understanding our human flaw on this send and from now on we'll just stick to real estate when it comes to reporting the news!

Sincerely,

The ListedBy.com Team

Discussion Starters:

• Assess the apology: What works well, and what could be improved?
• Edit the apology: Help the CEO (or whoever wrote it) punctuate properly.