PR & Marketing people should read this

Before you ask: This column was not sparked by my dealings with any one particular company, PR agent, or marketing executive. There's no recent review I wrote that was handled poorly by one company or another. In fact, that's why I'm choosing this time to write something that has been on my mind for awhile; there's nobody specific to lay the blame on.

If you work in PR or marketing, a negative review, preview, or editorial column about the company or product you represent is going to happen. It doesn't matter how much people love the stuff you're hawking. It's only a matter of time. Over the last decade or so, I've dealt with companies that take bad news very well, and I've dealt with ones that seem to do everything wrong. Today I offer some free advice to anyone working with a member of the press for what to do when this inevitably happens.

There's an old saying, attributed to Mark Twain: Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

Arguing with the press about why they're wrong in their opinion of your product or company isn't going to get you anywhere. If you tick them off, they'll just continually think about how awful you are, and it'll show up in print (or on the Web, or wherever). It'll taint future reviews. And even if you vow not to work with them anymore, it won't stop them from writing nasty things about your company or product. So what do you do when something negative about your product/service/company shows up in the media? Here are five rules:

1. Engage immediately: Don't let weeks go by without contacting that person. Letting bad press "sit there" is almost always a recipe for disaster, especially in this age where comments, blogs, and other Web sites pick up on controversial stories. Talking to the person on the phone is best; don't just fire off a big email missive. You want to actively diffuse the situation, not take a "ignore it and it'll go away" attitude.

2. Listen more, talk less: If the reviewer makes a factual error, it's fine to point it out and correct it, but don't go any further than that. Instead, you want to ask the person what their complaints are and try to understand them better. Find out what they didn't like, how they came to that conclusion, and take notes. The press hates being told how to do their job, and loves being listened to.

3. Answer previous concerns directly: The next product will undoubtedly address some of the things the press complained about in their negative coverage. As soon as you're able to talk about it, go back to the person and say "hey, we have this new Sprocket 2 coming out and we wanted to tell you how it addresses those things you complained about with the original Sprocket. We think you'll be really happy with it." The impression that you want to give is not one of hating the press for saying bad things about the Sprocket, but of finding their negative coverage to be a valuable tool to developing a better product. Even if it's not entirely true, it makes the press feel better about doing their job.

4. Don't let a negative review be the most recent one: We see this a lot in companies that make a lot of similar products. If tech analyst Robert Heron over at PC Magazine reviews your HDTV and gives it a low score, the absolute worst thing you can do is stop sending TVs. Now the site's most recent review from your brand is negative. What you want to do is immediately send out another TV that you think will get a better review. You want readers to have a positive impression of your brand.

5. Don't try to "fix it": For the most part, a negative review can't be un-done, and a negative editorial column is even further out of reach. If you're lucky, the author made a couple of factual errors and will revise their opinion on their own, once you point them out. If they had their facts straight and still hold an unfavorable opinion, trying to convince them to "take another look" or "re-review" your stuff is probably only going to make things worse. Sometimes the author will decide to do this on their own, but forcing the issue is like controlling the press, and the press will hate that. Just pay attention to #2 and #4 above, and make it clear that the author can always contact you with any questions or needs as they work on their future coverage.

Look, almost all companies mess up from time to time. Bad products are going to happen, and the worst part about being in PR or marketing has to be putting on a happy face and defending something you know really isn't that good. I know that I personally appreciate the kind of honesty where a company will admit to having a less-than-ideal product, but most people in PR or marketing don't have the luxury of doing that. It's when a company takes the exact opposite attitude that I get my feathers ruffled—when anything less than a most glowing review is unacceptable. Remember that a confrontation with the press is almost always going to end in more bad press, and a conciliatory tone can pay off big further down the line.

byJason Cross

ExtremeTech
19 March 2008