Archive for the ‘Bad Press’ Category

The British catwalker is again in the news for all the wrong reasons. The extent of her temper has invited suggestion to instate sirens and lights to alert those vulnerable souls she hires.  They say ‘When you are with Naomi better don’t say “No”, or else you get a bloody nose. This time it was her 27-year-old-driver, who was boxed and slapped from the back seat of the car in Manhattan. Naomi immediately fled the scene. The driver called 911 and the NYPD was looking for her to be questioned.

Naomi Campbell’s reputation is on the rocks. Just Google Naomi and you will find majority of the websites are related to her bad temper than modeling. She had been in and out of trouble numerous time before, the charges she faced ranges from beating an assistant, hurling mobile at her maid and throwing abuses at British Airways staff.

What is it that makes this sultry siren go wild? Is it because she had a trouble childhood and  struggled in life, so all that frustration has to be taken off by beating up people?   Money is not a factor and she doesn’t seem much bothered about her reputation. Serious loss in waiting and she need to realize that negative comments influences everybody and travels faster than her imagination.  Her recent show to raise funds for Haiti earthquake is over shadowed by bad stories.

Is Naomi Campbell adept to change herself? Half way through this blog I came across the news that Ms. Campbell’s driver has apologized and he is  blaming himself for the confusion. How did this happened? Naomi later issued a statement

I have worked very hard on correcting my previous wrongdoings and I will not be held hostage to my past.

We at Reputation Management For.com feel that this was a great PR move by Naomi because she was able to turn this around while the news was still buzzing. But more than that celebrity management is one thing she may need, to realize success and failure in its true form and reputation management to defend her super stardom status.

Related celebrity posts

• Tiger Woods Press conference
• Sarah Palin- Tea Party
• John Terry and Max Clifford

Yelp Extortion

Yelp, the hub for disgruntled clients to put in scathing reviews is now facing class-action lawsuit. The allegations against Yelp is that it asks advertisement money from business houses to manipulate or remove reviews. Strange, but no advertisers on Yelp has a perfect reputation.

Yelp the popular user-generated reviews website, was more popular than Google; users would search for a particular company or local business house before they wanted to deal with it. And anything that appeared negative or positive will be the final impression. So if it is on Yelp, it’s heard.

The company on the other hand denies the allegations, contained in the class-action lawsuit, but the whole affair has put a huge question mark about the reliability of Yelp.

If Yelp’s revenue was solely based on advertising, it was easy to understand why they wanted to tamper with reviews on its website, but it was not to be. Yelp will have some hard time explaining the ethics it follows. It will be interesting to see what the company has to say in its self-defense.

The situation would have been different if Yelp had a big brother with corporate backing like MSN or Google, then meddling with reviews wouldn’t be a cause for worry.

As reputation management goes Yelp needs new principles, new moral code of conduct to bring back credibility before they are totally deserted.

Crisis management is the new buzz word now, everybody from Celebrities, Politicians, Automobile companies to Theme parks are in dire need to salvage their reputation from getting tarnished online.  No organization wants to be in a situation that would stimulate bad press against them and cause disruption to their business.

Some companies that are hard hit recently were not able to handle crisis efficiently. Toyota is one company that is finding it difficult to stop the embroiling situation, the quality crisis refuses to die down for them. This clearly shows that the company is not good at handling crisis. The initial slow response, the half-minded recall, poor communication had adverse effect on the reputation of the company.

Managing crisis is the second best thing you can do for a successful business. To deal with crisis needs accurate and  decisive action. Take for example ‘A Gun manufacturing company loses a gun while on transit and before the public or the media ever comes to know about this the company is able to find it and put it back into the inventory‘. So rapid and precise action saved the company from getting a bad name.

Some of the ways to handle crisis is as follows:

• Identify the problems: The first step towards crisis management is to identify the problems in clear terms, so that you can sort it out easily.

• Collective decision: Fighting crisis can never be a one-man-show, a collective decision and team work is always better. Consider the relevant team and their decisions pertaining to the risk factor and go with the best option.

• Leadership: Lead from the front and talk with everybody in the team. Monitor the function required to minimize the crisis.

• Communicate: The most sought after action is to have continuous communication with the public and media. It is always good idea for the company to have their own portal or hub to update their view.

• Segregate issues: Take the best team out and let them work on every piece of the issue, break the issue until you identify the grey areas. Hire a reputation management company, which has standard practices to deal with crisis related issues.

• Encourage feedback: Read customer/client online reaction, this will help you know the correct pulse of the general public and help you overcome crisis.

• Analyze the problems:  So you know from where it took shape and who is responsible and what corrective measures can be taken to get rid of it.

• Learn: Take a cue from your last experience, this will help you mold a better strategy in future.  Always keep your last crisis experience in perspective and put in place tools so that your company is safe from similar crisis.

So obviously part of our reputation management is monitoring what people are saying about clients.  We of course monitor what is being said about our own business, and it’s amazing what we see.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/reputationmanagementfor.html

This is a classic attack from either a competitor or from the website owners themselves trying to damage our reputation or force us to pay a premium to add comments.  This happens to 1000’s of companies and many are not aware of it until customer cancels a sale after reading bogus and negative comments on such sites.

If you want to comment on their pages this is what they say:

ConsumerAffairs.com is a private, non-govermental entity that empowers consumers by providing a forum for their complaints and a means for them to be contacted by lawyers if their complaints have legal merit. Your complaints and comments may be published, shared with the news media and reviewed by attorneys at no cost to you. See the FAQ for more information.

Please be accurate and fair in your comments. Remember, you are responsible for what you write. We do not proofread your submission so please type carefully — and please, don’t use all capital letters.

Consumer Information Information about you. We do not publish your identity but must have it for our records. If your complaint is published, only your first name will be used on our Web site. See privacy policy for more information. Reports become the property of ConsumerAffairs.com Inc. and may be published, edited or discarded at our sole option.

Why don’t they publish the details of people who complain?  Does this mean anyone can write anything without the worry of being sued – I think so?

Company Response Welcome If complaints about your company appear on our site, we welcome your response. Please see the Response Form for more information.

I could not see anyway to have things removed, only options available are to respond:

We offer two different ways to respond to consumer complaints and comments on our site:

1. The complaint form Click on the red “Complaint Button” and insert your business name in the appropriate spot. Your response will be posted as soon as it is reviewed by our moderators. Do not use the customer’s last name or other personal information that you may have. Doing so will result in your being banned permanently from our system.

2. Isertive Instant Response®
This is a premium service that enables businesses to respond directly to consumers, enabling them to resolve complaints and prevent similar problems in the future. Subscribers may also post their responses directly to our site. For more information and an application, visit Isertive.com

The last thing you ever want to do on such a crappy site is respond on it, this will encourage even more people to write negative responses and you can’t control it.

The best thing Google could do is BLACK LIST this site from showing in their reults.

Please let me know if you are having an issue with bogus comments on this site.

Now what are the chances that Consumer Affairs is owned by the same people who own, oh surprise surprise James Hood owns both of the sites http://isertive.com/

WHOIS Info for CONSUMERAFFAIRS.COM

Some information on the domain:
Domain Name: CONSUMERAFFAIRS.COM
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
Name Server: NS0.DNSMADEEASY.COM
Name Server: NS1.DNSMADEEASY.COM
Name Server: NS2.DNSMADEEASY.COM
Name Server: NS3.DNSMADEEASY.COM

IP:209.20.68.198

Look at how often they have moved servers and changed name, hmmm call me synical!!!

Email Search: is associated with about 1,024,614 domains

Registrant Contact:
ConsumerAffairs.Com, Inc.
James Hood ()

Fax:
11400 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90064
US

Administrative Contact:
ConsumerAffairs.Com, Inc.
James Hood ()
+1.2132918086
Fax:
11400 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90064
US

Technical Contact:
The Oakton Press, Inc.
James Hood ()
+1.7033596800
Fax: +1.8007790816
11350 Random Hills Drive, Suite 650
Fairfax, VA 22030
US
is associated with about 30 domains
is associated with about 182 domains
Registrar History: 2 registrars with 2 drops.
NS History: 12 changes on 8 unique name servers over 8 years.
IP History: 4 changes on 4 unique name servers over 4 years.
Whois History: 674 records have been archived since 2001-12-20 .
Dedicated Hosting: consumeraffairs.com is hosted on a dedicated server.

WHOIS Info for isertive.com

Registrant Contact:
ConsumerAffairs.Com Inc.
James Hood ()

Fax:
PO Box 3233
Oakton, VA 22124
US

Administrative Contact:
ConsumerAffairs.com
James Hood ()
+1.8778548038
Fax:
PO Box 3233
Oakton, VA 22124
US

Technical Contact:
The Oakton Press, Inc.
James Hood ()
+1.7033596800
Fax: +1.8007790816
11350 Random Hills Drive, Suite 650
Fairfax, VA 22030
US

Status: Active

Name Servers:
ns1.slicehost.net
ns2.slicehost.net
ns3.slicehost.net

Creation date: 13 Aug 2000 16:38:07

3 Labour MPs Elliott Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and a Tory peer Lord Hanningfield will face criminal charges over alleged misuse of their expenses. They will be charged under section 17 of the Theft Act relating to false accounting; if found guilty the four could land in jail for seven years.

Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer while announcing the charges said ‘that one other case was still being investigated, as there was insufficient evidence to charge the Labour peer Lord Clarke of Hampstead.

According to Sir Thomas Legg, who carried out the audit of the expenses, stated the system as “deeply flawed”. Hundreds of MPs were ordered to pay back a total of £1.12 million.

So what’s next?
Do we start thinking about reforming the British Politics and Democracy? High-time to give it a thought, the public fuming about the expenses scandal is justified, so faith needs to be restored.

Have the public lost faith in MPs? The expenses file shows MPs more than half the entire House of Commons are involved in the controversial expenses scandal. They exploited the system of parliamentary allowances to promote their lifestyles and homes. The revelation has angered many voters and the reputation of the MPs has taken a beating.

People at large knew nothing until the scandal was out in the open and how MPs claimed for items far beyond what was allowed. Change in the system was voiced, but unfortunately there weren’t many takers. The after effect of not heeding that advise is all out in black & white.

It’s not easy to get this scandal off the mind of the taxpayers. While some MPs are guilty for the wrongdoing it has tarnished everyone in the house of Commons with the same brush.

So what does this mean? Is there a need for an urgent damage control to restore public faith?

A need for a strategic reputation management to get back the lost glory. There is no quick-fix method to fix the problem, but MPs need to realize that they are  the representatives of their constituency and are not traders.

Politics and politicians are definitely not immune to bad press or negative comments, the above scandal shows how a politicians online reputation can go for a ride even if you are not at fault. You need to apprise the public your accomplishments, and what you are planning to do. This will allow people to respond positively and garner faith in the system.

David Cameron, when said ‘all MPs who do not repay will be sacked and be termed not eligible for election. This is a welcome statement and will infuse confidence in public, and also minimize the resentment in public for those in the House of Commons.

Politician’s reputation holds greater significance as electorate comprising of different age and group will have a common thinking about their representative, which makes sense to them. Let your positive image be known to the public, after all that is all you need to face the polls.

Leno, reeling from the backlash in popularity after The Tonight Show fiasco has done the one thing PR Gurus all over the world order you to do if you are in a reputation soup – Go on the Oprah Show and tell your side of the sordid tale.

Leno has lots to be worried – his Jay Leno Show is officially ending on Feb 9th due to bad ratings and he is slated to get back into the Tonight Show at 11 pm.

On the other hand, Conan O’ Brien bid adieu in style and even thanked the NBC for the chance of hosting every funny guy’s dream – The Tonight Show!

This was nothing short of tragedy as far as the Leno and Coco are concerned a network goofing up on its scheduling after realising the ratings dropped had done the unthinkable – got two funny guys to probably go bitter. While the wisecracks continue everywhere and the numerous jokes with Leno at the receiving end being  portrayed a bully, continues unabated.

O’Brien has not just gained a colossal amount of money to walk away but has also managed to come out of this with a better image and popularity. People tend to take sides with the bullied and now everyone knows who Coco is all over the world.

Leno on the other hand had everything to lose – he was there, his show made millions, people enjoyed him, he was known all over the world and had even agreed to move aside for a successor. Now that the Oprah show appearance is done, let’s wait and watch what he’s going to do to build his reputation back.

In celebrity reputation management terms Leno is going through his worst time added to this he has to go back to the Tonight Show and rebuild all that he was. Good humour though is always handy and let’s hope Leno has enough of that remaining!

As for NBC – the business side of things ain’t everything guys, you need to protect the image of your stars!

Reputation management is here to stay as it will be an ongoing threat. The social media has made it easy for all to plug in and play. When user feeds in a negative comment it is more likely to generate new type of threat for your brand. Your infrastructure vendor will be good at blocking malware, but not the negative comment circulating on the web. So most companies will need to find way to shield their repute. We need not have to dig deep to take into consideration what the future holds, but we’ll see that in coming year companies will take a serious stand to monitor their reputation.

One of the main factors why I chose to pick on social networking sites is because they are a very important part of reputation management. If there is one thing that we learned from social media is that user content ranks very well in the search engines. Just sit back and do a search, I am sure you will come across at least a couple of social media sites in first page of your search. So imagine the height of damage these hi-speed information portals can do in a click of the mouse. The usage and access to social media in workplace will be on top priority to help protect companies from getting their brand tarnished.

If you notice many of these social websites allow users to register in company user ID and even generates URL that ends with the name of your company.

http://twitter.com/companyname

http://companyname.Wordpress.com

http://www.myspace.com/companyname

You need to be the first to register with your name and URLs on these sites and do it fast. The problem with such provision is that you are always at risk and someone use these sites to damage your brand reputation. It will be immature to say that such things will go off and settle down by itself. Companies should not take for granted the power of social websites and its impact. The one-click-connect-to-all kind of platform is powerful to damage your reputation and is an established form of media today. Remember when a user tweets about the pathetic service you offer, it will obviously put your business in trouble, that’s the power of social media

While you want to remove bad press or comments on social website, you need not have to change the way you do your business. Even if you run your business perfectly you are bound to get a dissatisfied customer who will do the rest to tamper your reputation. The best way to counter malicious content on the web is to hire a reputation management firm to take care of your stake. They will counter these allegations, build up your profiles and gets them listed on search engines with keywords that are important to your reputation. It’s one method to gain access and be in control. It also provides you with a chance to reach those customers who never visited your official company website.  Safeguarding your brand reputation comes with a cost and should be included in your business budget.

Certain allegations really hurt. The EU’s accusation that pharmaceutical companies deliverately overhyped the threat of bird flu to sell vaccine drugs is about as serious as it can get in reputation management terms. “Big Pharma” already has a reputation for hyping drugs, hiding clinical research results and generally doing nothing for the common good, now they are, effectively, being accused of making governments buy substantially more drugs than they would be needing. The UK has bought 90 million doses of Tamiflu, whilst Germany bought 94 million. The UK has only used 4 million of the doses so far.

The heart of the accusation is that by persuading their “stooges” in the WHO to declare the 2009 birdflu outbreak a pandemic, national governments were forced to implement emergency contingency plans that involved the purchase of huge batches of vaccines. A number of governments and organisations are announcing or demanding investigation into the role of pharmaceutical companies in the decision process.

Whilst we all love a good conspiracy, there is compelling codependency between WHO scientists and pharmaceutical companies. For example, Professor Juhani Eskola, the director of the Finnish research vaccine program and a new member of the WHO group ‘Strategic Advisory Group of Experts’ (SAGE), is directly involved with recommending which vaccines — and how many — member countries should purchase them for the alleged “pandemic.  According to documents acquired through the Danish Freedom of Information Act, Eskola’s Finnish institute, THL, received nearly 6.3 million Euros, ($9,049,760.00), from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for “research” on vaccines during 2009. Not surprising, GlaxoSmithKline produces the H1N1 vaccine ridiculously named ‘Pandemrix,’ which the Finnish government — following recommendations from Professor Eskola  — purchased for their national pandemic reserve stockpiles. Likewise, the more than 6.3 million Euros that the WHO’s research center received from GlaxoSmithKline represents the WHO vaccine program’s number one income source.

All this is on the heels of another dramatic WHO scandal involving Austrian journalist Jane Burgermeister who revealed that the WHO conspired with Baxter International (another vaccine manufacturer) and the United Nations itself to produce and release live bird flu viruses in 2009, all in an effort to trigger the pandemic. Burgermeister has, in effect, accused the WHO itself planning to commit mass murder. (You can read more these allegations here)

These allegations are part of a wider reputation management problem facing all pharmaceutical companies. On the one hand they position themselves as selfless wellness companies, on the other hand, critics accuse them of being the nasty end of capitalism.  Pharma companies descry oversight that, according to them makes clinical research too expensive in both time and financial terms. At the same time, their critics accuse the companies of spending more on lobbying and influencing than they do on actual research. It is estimated that the industry spent $57.5 billion on marketing and promotion in 2004 alone far exceeding the $20 billion that was erroneously estimated by the most often quoted research firm, Integrated Medical Systems (IMS). The amount spent on research and development actually pales in comparison, at $31.5 billion. While the substantial evidence that the FDA is incompetent and inefficient, something that I have seen for myself; the pharma companies’ intense lobbying of all decision-makers and influencers is equally questionable. As Democratic congressman Sherrod Brown puts it,“ PhRMA [the major lobbying group] doesn’t need to lobby. The industry is in the While House already.”

The challenge for any pharmaceutical company is that they are all tarred with the same brush. If these allegations get proven, some companies face reputational meltdown, but increasingly the whole industry faces even greater oversight and a long awaited control on their lobbying and marketing spending.

The media are reporting that British Airways cabin crew are stepping up their industrial action through a campaign of passive resistance: they are pouring unfinished bottles of vintage wine down the sink!

It’s always the details that matter in a story. With Bill Clinton it was the cigar, now it is the fact that it is vintage wine. The actions are supposed to push the company back into negotiation, what they actually do is make the cabin crew look petty and childish. The company is losing money, their pension is underfunded and they have lost the public’s sympathy, but they persist in behaving in a manner that makes them look petulant.

The cabin crew need to regain the initiative if they are win or benefit from the coming negotiations. That means they need to polish their reputations by providing outstanding service and demonstrate to passengers that whatever illwill they feel for their employer, they continue to serve customers with passion.

If they are not careful, they might follow the wine down the plughole as well.