Buzz Builder

Public Storage, Inc. Learns That Not All Publicity Is Good Publicity

I enjoy receiving Ben Silverman's free weekly email newsletter called PR Fuel which chronicles the PR hits and misses of companies big and small. In a recent newsletter, Silverman described the PR missteps of Public Storage, Inc., one of America's largest storage companies, that have been widely reported in the media (see the story on the CBS News website).

He details how an American soldier returned from Iraq to discover all the items that he had put into storage at a  Public Storage, Inc. facility in Missouri were sold. During the soldier's wartime service, through no error of his own, his monthly payments lapse for his storage space lapse and Public Storage, Inc.  auctions off his belongings. When the soldier tries to get reimbursement, the company initially offers just $2,000 on what the soldier claims is $8,000 worth of goods.

Eventually, due to media attention, Public Storage apologizes and tries to explain, then settles for $4,000. Not surprisingly, many media outlets assail the heartlessness and stupidity of Public Storage. Silverman writes:

"If I was in charge, Rogalin (the soldier) would have received: $15,000 in cash; free self-storage for a year; a year of college tuition (he's currently in school); and, a phone call with a personal apology from the CEO. Had Public Storage done that, it would have cost the company about $23,000 (based on the company's rates at the facility where Rogalin's belongings were, and Missouri State University's in-state tuition).

Instead,  Public Storage, Inc. saved $19,000 and probably lost ten times that - if not more - in business from people who now have a bad perception of the company. Nice job, folks."

Chinese Blogger & Public Protest Starbucks in the Forbidden City

Last year, one of my post popular blog posts was about the "Age of the Empowered Consumer". I outlined how Americans have many ways to share their experiences and thoughts about companies on a broad scale utilizing the power of the Internet.

On 1/19/07, George Fowler wrote an excellent article  in The Wall Street Journal which demonstrates the globalization of consumer power. Fowler wrote:

"Before going to sleep on Thursday night last week, Rui Chenggang wrote a post on his blog about an issue that had been bothering him for years: a Starbucks cafe sitting inside Beijing's hallowed Forbidden City.

The 29-year-old TV news anchor wrote that Starbucks 'is really too inappropriate for the world's impression of the Forbidden City. This isn't globalization, this is the erosion of Chinese culture.' Mr. Rui said he liked Starbucks -- just not inside a national landmark.

In the space of a week, Mr. Rui's post has been viewed more than half a million times, according to the blog's counter, and his demand to shut the cafe has turned into a national cause. Journalists camp out in front of the tiny Starbucks kiosk in a distant corner of the majestic 600-year-old home of China's emperors, whose English name refers to the exclusion of commoners. Now, authorities at the Forbidden City say they are deliberating whether to force Starbucks to leave after six years.

"Blogging is giving ordinary grassroots Chinese people a chance to express themselves," Mr. Rui says.

Increasingly, it is also giving companies a headache in a key market that is laden with unique cultural and business challenges. China is home to 132 million Internet users, second only to the U.S. And according to one government estimate, there are 20 million Chinese bloggers, of whom 3.15 million write actively.

All of the spin-control issues that have made blogging a problem for brands in America are only compounded in China. "There is not a precedent for solving consumer grievances in China. If you are not happy with what you buy, you don't call up customer service," says Scott Kronick, the president of WPP Group PLC's Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in China.

Instead, Chinese consumers now mobilize and gain access to information -- not all necessarily accurate -- using the Internet. The Chinese government strictly censors the Internet for political content but generally doesn't restrict the sort of discussion Mr. Rui's post spurred."

Fowler spotlights other American companies like Yum Brands Inc.'s KFC, Dell Inc., and Procter & Gamble Co. who have run afoul of Chinese bloggers. In fact, these high-profile cases have driven the growth o PR firms in China such as WPP Group PLC's Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. With so many active bloggers in China, these firms have their work cut out for them. In fact, I don't think companies will be able to "spin" their way out of trouble. Rather, they should invest time and money in making sure that their products and services are sensitive to Chines culture.

Fowler ends his Wall Street Journal article quoting  Rui Chenggang, the Chinese blogger who started the recent Starbucks controversy:

"This became an issue because Starbucks is a symbol of Western popular culture. The question is, how do we absorb and embrace the Western world without losing our own identity. This is an issue that everybody is thinking about. I just happened to write about it."

Anthony Bourdain and Apizza Scholls Share Secrets to Success

I'm a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain whose weekly No Reservations airs on The Travel Channel. Bourdain's show is so engaging because he's not afraid to let his true abrasive yet hysterical New York personality loom large. I find myself imagining how he will react to the country he's visiting before the show even starts since he has such a unique way of looking at the world. It's a real breadth of fresh air in a TV wasteland where so many hosts play it safe. You could move most television hosts around yet the programs would remain the same. By playing up what makes him unique, Bourdain's show is both different and entertaining.

Many business could learn from this approach. Instead of trying to play it safe, take a stand and be different. In yesterday's No Reservations about the Pacific Northwest, Bourdain featured Apizza Scholls, one of our favorite restaurants in Portland, Oregon. Without question, the restaurant has the best pizza in town - a thin, charred crust topped with the fresh, high-quality ingredients. But, great pizza alone wouldn't have given this restaurant the amazing buzz that it has in Portland which probably landed it as the only local restaurant featured on No Reservations. Bourdain and other journalists can't stop talking about what makes the restaurant different from other places. For instance, all the dough is mixed by hand. It's so time-consuming to make the dough that Apizza Scholls usually runs out of pizza every night by 8:30 PM. Yet, owner Brian Spangler refuses to go to a faster means of making dough since he feels that it would compromise quality. Likewise, he's so fanatical about great pizza that he won't let his customers mix and match ingredients like they can at other places. 

Kudos to Spangler for following through on one of the most important elements of building buzz! Be good. Be different. And, people and the press will flock to you.

 

Advertising Everywhere Doesn't Work

There's a fascinating article  in The New York Times on 1/15 which illustrates how companies are drowning consumers in advertising. The story mentions a recent Yankelovich study which estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with 5,000 today. About half the 4,110 people surveyed last spring by Yankelovich said that they marketing and advertising today was out out control.

In spite of consumer being over saturated with advertising, the article focuses on the dogged efforts of marketers to push their way into consumer consciousness. Tylenol advertised its children cold medicine on the paper liners of examination tables in pediatrician offices.  Supermarket eggs have been stamped with the names of CBS television shows. Subway turnstiles bear messages from Geico auto insurance. Chinese food cartons promote Continental Airways.  Perry Ellis provides boxes for dry cleaners to pack clothes. And, a a sushi restaurant tried to capture tourists' attention in the airport by placing giant pieces of fake sushi on the baggage carousels (see picture).

While these campaigns surely stir up a lot of creative juices in the offices of advertising agencies, do they really drive consumer purchases? Think about your own buying habits. Do ads in unconventional places get you to purchase? Or, do they just make you laugh and shake your head?

Companies would be much wiser to concentrate on delivering a quality product or service that stands apart from the competition giving consumers a reason to buzz about it.

Disgruntled Hotel Guest in England Joins the Age of the Empowered Customer

Looking at visitor reports for this blog, I've noticed an interesting source of new traffic from a blog site in England which focuses on consumer complaints. On December 10, a very proper English gentleman complained about a negative experience  that he had with at the Marmadukes Hotel in York. He writes eloquently about the problems with his room and the staff. When he seeks a refund from management, he initially is greeted with scorn and then receives a nasty email from the hotel's owner - all of which he posts to the blog.

When the owner apologizes for being rude and offers a full refund and 100 pounds, the disgruntled customer accepts yet emphasizes that the owner should check out a  post on this blog  about the "Age of the Empowered Customer." He also quotes the following passage from this blog: “In 1999, Technical Research Programs conducted a survey showing that for every one complaining customer, there are 26 customers who don’t bother to complain. This equals 27 unhappy customers for every one complaint that management receives. Furthermore, Technical Research Programs reported that the average unhappy customer will tell 16 people about a negative experience. Thus, when 27 unhappy customers tell 16 people about their negative experience, 432 people will hear negative comments about the business in question.”

It's great to see that consumers around the world are using the power of the Internet to get their complaints solved. And, I'm sure that many bad businesses will fail over the next decade because they don't understand the reach and power of consumer complaints in the digital age.

Reach Out to Your Customers to Cure Seasonal Affective Disorder

Here's wishing all Buzz Builder readers a happy and prosperous New Year!

I always feel a bit of a let down after the holidays. The dreary, gray days between now and the end of March are the toughest ones of the year - perhaps it's just a mild form of seasonal affective disorder.

It's likely that many of your customers could use a boost this time of year. If you didn't have the chance to send out Christmas cards, consider reaching out to people with New Year's wishes. Unlike Christmas, when many people get so many Christmas cards that they barely take the time to read each one, a New Year's missive just doesn't have to cut through so much clutter.

When was the last time you picked up the phone to thank your best customers for their business? Now is a great time, and you might even consider offering to take them out for a nice cup of coffee to learn more about their goals for the new year and how you might help them achieve them. If you're like me, you'll find that reaching out to others will put a spring in your step even if is spring is a few months off.