{"id":28863,"date":"2013-07-13t05:12:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-13t09:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=28863"},"modified":"2024-09-01t14:49:01","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01t18:49:01","slug":"when-bad-things-happen-to-good-accounting-marketers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2013\/07\/13\/when-bad-things-happen-to-good-accounting-marketers\/","title":{"rendered":"when bad things happen to good accounting marketers"},"content":{"rendered":"
the myth of ‘spin control.’<\/strong><\/p>\n by bruce w. marcus<\/em> every election campaign produces, among other things, media myths and bad language. during the elections of the last two decades, the language was infected by a new myth called spin control<\/i>. the phrase implies that a good media relations practitioner can control the nature and texture of a story in the press \u2013 can put the right spin<\/i> on it to get the journalist to tell it the spinner’s way.<\/p>\n in this report:<\/strong><\/p>\n it’s just not so. for all that the myth implies, when it comes to the media, we propose — but others dispose. thus it was, and thus it always shall be, so long as we have a free press.<\/p>\n but is the telling always accurate? no. is it always fair? no. sometimes, despite all of the public relations professionalism, and despite all the cooperation we may offer the media, the story comes out badly. disaster, dispensed in the aura of a supposedly objective media, doesn’t merely strike, it reverberates.<\/p>\n the picture you so carefully and accurately painted is distorted, the wrong people are quoted and the right people are not, the facts are warped and bent beyond recognition, and the whole piece reads as if it were written by your most malicious competitor. certainly, it will be relished by your every detractor.<\/p>\n beyond the first scream of outrage, what can you do? what has been done most effectively by others who have lived through it — and survived?<\/p>\n the experts’ advice<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n perhaps the hardest factor of a negative story to deal with is that most people who are not professional marketers tend to overreact. at one extreme is incredible upset and anger; at the other is casual disdain that says, “so what, no one will believe it.” neither extreme is warranted nor accurate.<\/p>\n the most useful course, then, is to do nothing until you’ve recovered from your anger. even doing the right thing in the wrong frame of mind can perpetuate, not cure, the damage.<\/p>\n so:<\/p>\n it’s this last point that’s crucial to successfully limiting the damage of bad press. too often, the defense is predicated on imagined damage, in which case the reaction is an overreaction, and causes more damage than the original article.<\/p>\n experts rarely concern themselves with why it happened. unless libel is involved, it doesn’t really matter. the reporter could have functioned out of ignorance or laziness. reporters are people, and are not immune to such foibles as preconceived notions that can subvert the professionalism of even the most experienced journalist. there may have been an adverse chemical reaction to somebody in your firm, or a fight at the journalist’s home that morning. it fact, it really doesn’t matter, because the reason for an adverse story is rarely an element that can be dealt with in damage control.<\/p>\n there are some specific questions to be addressed:<\/p>\n the impact fades quickly<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n staying power is an important consideration. how long after publication will the story, or at least it’s negative aura, linger? depending upon the publication and the nature of the story, considerably less time than you think. as one experienced marketer put it, the impact fades quickly, but the impression can linger.<\/p>\n some time ago, a major professional firm was savaged in the press for nepotism. the impact was shocking. in fact, the firm not only lost very little business, but continued to grow. did the story, on the other hand, contribute to competitive defeats? hard to say. an impression may have lingered in a prospective client’s mind, and contributed to other negatives. but ultimately, the damage was nowhere equal to the impact and shock of the article’s first appearance. responding to the damage<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n assessing the damage accurately allows you to choose the appropriate response. there are, in fact, a number of responses, some, unfortunately, inappropriate. you can:<\/p>\n on the other hand, there are some positive things that can be done:<\/p>\n no story is so bad that it should warrant extreme reaction. no publication that’s still publishing is so devoid of credibility that some readers won’t accept what they read. the role of the professional trained and experienced marketer is to maintain perspective, to assess the damage appropriately, and to see that the response is equal to — but does not exceed — the damage.<\/p>\n if bad press meant nothing, then neither would good press, and we know that consistently good press means a great deal. but one story — good or bad — rarely has sufficient impact to seriously aid or damage a company (although a negative story is more titillating than a positive one). most positive public relations is a consistent series of positive articles, interviews and news stories. if a negative press consists of more than one story, then the problem is usually not the press — its the subject of the stories.<\/p>\n the perspective of the bad story, then, requires dealing with it as an anomaly. this means dealing with it as a calm and rational business decision. and no business decision, in any context, is ever a sound one if it isn’t arrived at rationally and professionally.<\/p>\n bruce w. marcus is a pioneer in professional services marketing and coauthor of “client at the core.” this is adapted from his new book, “professional services marketing 3.0,” available for purchase here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n copyright. used by permission.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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