Negative Publicity

QUESTION

“Negative Publicity”

What are the different ways in which an organization can react to negative publicity? Which way is almost always a bad response? What is an example of an organization that has had to react to negative publicity and how did they do it? Was it successful or unsuccessful and why do you think so?

ANSWER

Negative Publicity

Negative Publicity refers to a type of publicity that a certain institution incurs because of one or more reasons, and results in bad consequences. The consequences of negative publicity include acquiring a bad reputation, avoidance by customers, loss of customer trust etc. It hurts business operations, resulting in a drop in sales. There are various ways of dealing with negative publicity. A company should first seek to determine whether there is need to respond to the negative publicity, depending on the level of spread. The company should also give the facts about the issue at hand, as many times the bad publicity comes from errors or rumors. If it was a mistake, the company should own up, and accept responsibility.

Hiding is the worst method of dealing with negative publicity, as a company’s success depends on good publicity. Hiding only accelerates the effects of bad publicity, not end it. Gap, an American clothing manufacturer, suffered from negative publicity after it was reported that some of its clothes were made by children in Delhi (Gentleman, 2007). They recovered from this publicity by announcing that it would refine the procedures it uses so as to ensure that underage people are not used for embroidery in India. This was very appealing to the public, and the mitigation effort was successful, as the company did not lose its customers.

References

Gentleman, A. (2007, November 15). Gap moves to recover from child labor scandal. New     York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/business/worldbusiness/15iht-gap.1.8349422.html