GM: What's Love Got To Do With It?

“What’s Brand Got To Do--got to do with it? What’s brand but a second-hand emotion?”
Oh wait….that’s Aretha and she’s supposed to be singing about love not brand!

A case for the importance of managing your brand and avoiding crisis.

It might seem odd to read a story about GM on a crisis communications blog. Most people think of a crisis as being natural disaster, pipe line explosion, plane crash, train derailment, or other sudden catastrophic event. But, based on all of the information
we’ve heard about regarding the GM story, this was a crisis in the making for years.

No pun intended – but who was steering the boat? Uh….car?

Building a brand takes years. A great brand can survive the ups and downs of a market. During tough times, brand managers can help monitor the course. When a company gest as large as GM, and for decades ignores the wishes and desires of those stakeholders most important to its business---its customers-- only one thing can happen, loss of brand equity and eventually disaster.

Now, I’m not suggesting that managing your brand will save your company and cure all ills, but a system of checks and balances, such as finding out what your customer wants and needs and then acting on those consumer desires, with senior management 100% behind the initiative, is one way to avoid a total catastrophe. Think fender bender vs. head on collision.

I mean, how long do you look at the lit up little red oil can on the dash before you realize you need to pull over right away and check your oil? Duh.

What happened at GM was that the oil light came on and they kept driving….and driving….and driving…until a shocking thing happened! Bankruptcy! The oil light came on, the car ran out of oil, and the engine went up in flames.

Oh yeah, and the brand manager was thrown under the bus…..uh, car, long, long, ago.

Don’t let managing your brand take a back seat (I promise – it’s the last one) to good business practices.




Chief Emergency Officer

What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas

Might be a true enough statement if you’re attending a bachelor party—and it is one heck of a marketing slogan – kudos to all who created or own it. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/607344.html

But what happens during a corporate scandal or crisis seldom stays under wraps. Sometimes it appears without warning quickly ruining reputations and causing stock prices to tank. Other times it simmers slowly until it finally reaches a boil, destroying morale, customer confidence, and ultimately market share.

You’ve heard the cliché “good news travels fast?” It does. But in this day and time, thanks to technology, it travels even faster. And guess what? If good news travels fast, bad news travels at the speed of light. So, trying to contain bad news, seldom works. And since the internet is the engine that delivers the news, we know how quickly a message--- accurate or not---can be disseminated to millions of people with the click of a mouse.

Panorama Public Relations prepares and positions industry-leading companies to strategically communicate key messages to the media and other stakeholders who are vital to the financial well being of their business and brand.

“Stupid is as Stupid Does” Forest Gump

I'm always amazed to learn about seemingly sophisticated companies who are caught off guard by the media during a crisis. These are the same companies who appear to be at the top of their game in areas of product, people and professionalism and yet they don’t employ the best-business practice of having a communications plan prepared in the event of a catastrophe.

I speak to groups across the country about this subject. When I ask if their company has a professionally developed crisis communication plan in place, a show-of-hands poll typically produces the same results. About 90% do not.

I hate to use the word STUPID in a business blog, but it is what it is.

Decision makers and policy setters need to remember---what’s often said to the media during a crisis goes on your “permanent record.” It’s very difficult to erase.