PC Magazine has a feature article on the top 11 PR disasters in tech.
The list includes:
1. Apple Antennagate
2. WeTab Exec Fakes Amazon Reviews
3. Sony Exploding Batteries
4. RIAA Sues Everyone
5. Digg Redesign
6. Facebook Terms of Use
7. JooJoo
8. Gizmondo
9. Google Wi-Fi Data Sniffing
10. Yahoo and China
11. Microsoft Windows Vista
To me a lot of the items on the list don't really qualify for PR disasters (more like PR hiccups).
Disaster implies how you handled things led to the erosion of your brand equity (if your brand equity doesn't fall significantly then it's hard to call it a disaster).
I definitely think Vista was close to a PR disaster with Bill Gates doing the media rounds prior to release talking about how great Vista would be (only for it to ship with bugs and issues). That definitely hurt Microsoft's brand equity in the market.
RIAA suing everyone made them look like fools (but was it a disaster? Their stakeholders aren't the public, but rather the recording industry. As such did they really lose any credibility with the people that mattered? If anyone lost brand equity in all of that it was Metallica.)
Apple Antennagate was also a big deal, but I wouldn't call it a disaster. If anything I'd call it a PR success with Apple sending every one of its customer an iphone case that fixed the problem (or at least patted down the firestorm). Sure, it was a hiccup, but one they survived (hardly resulting in a PR nightmare for them).
My list of top tech PR disasters would probably look something like this:
1. Ebay buys Skype for 2.6 billion
Ebay spends a ton on Skype and has no strategic plan for what it's going to do with Skype (at the time it was the biggest start-up acquisition and captured the industry's attention for months). After a few years of doing nothing it eventually sells 65 per cent of Skype 1.9 billion. Aside from a big waste of time, it really hurt Ebay's brand as an up-and-coming mega-corporation and established it as a run-of-the-mill tech company that was bad at making acquisitions.
2. Microsoft Zune
Yes, Vista was bad, but the Zune was an utter disaster. It really showcased how Microsoft couldn't compete with Apple and once and for all showed that Microsoft can utterly fail at competing in certain arenas.
The only thing good about the Zune was they had super awesome commercials.
3. RIM loses smartphone race
While Apple and Android were gaining steam RIM continued to push their superiority in carrier and enterprise dominance (things like more efficient data transmission processes). It was a giant messaging mistake as consumers embraced Apple and Google for the consumer-centric applications and user interfaces. RIM could have led the smartphone market, but instead gave the lead to Apple and Google by not understanding how consumer sentiment would play out and the importance of being seen as sexy and cool versus technologically sophisticated.
4. Usage Based Billing
While a Canadian phenomena, it still ranks as a giant PR disaster. The big Canadian carriers tried to push through an internet cap where customers would be charged based on every gig they downloaded (at rates between one-to-four dollars a gig). The result? Over 470,000 Canadians petitioned against it. Shaw Cable's customer service lines were jammed with customers calling to cancel their services (apparently the wait time was five hours to speak with someone to cancel services). I myself canceled all my services with Rogers.
When the Prime Minister has to come out and say the carriers will not be allowed to implement usage based billing, you know you've got a PR disaster on your hands.
5. WikiLeaks
Wikileaks showed that there is no such thing as 'secure' when it comes to digital information. Wikileaks put egg on the face of governments around the world as information that was suppose to be 'classified' was leaked in the public domain.
6. Nortel goes bust
I mean, wow! Talk about a PR disaster. Nortel crumbles under debt after being one of the world's largest networking and communications technology innovator (second only to Cisco). Tens-of-thousands of people laid off, pensions destroyed, billions in equity lost and Canada's most prolific tech company ever becomes nothing but ashes and dust.
7. Y2K
The world was going to end if every computer on the planet wasn't safe guarded against problems that would arise when the year changed from 1999 to 2000. What happened when the year changed? Nothing!
An utter PR disaster that caused all kinds of unnecessary expenditures and left the tech sector with a reputation of crying wolf.
That's about all I can think of at the moment.
To understand PR disasters, or at least in evaluating a PR disaster, you have to ask yourself a simple question... what reality would we be living in if the event never happened?
What if Microsoft Zune had been successful? Where would MSFT stand against Apple?
What if RIM had marketed itself based on consumer usability?
What if Wikileaks had failed to reveal classified information?
What if Y2K had never happened? Would we have more faith in tech trends and not be so guarded against false bubbles?
These PR disasters, I believe, changed the course of events in tech and shaped a very different future than otherwise would have unfolded.
I'm sure there are some PR disasters that I've missed, but the ones listed leave something to think about.
The list includes:
1. Apple Antennagate
2. WeTab Exec Fakes Amazon Reviews
3. Sony Exploding Batteries
4. RIAA Sues Everyone
5. Digg Redesign
6. Facebook Terms of Use
7. JooJoo
8. Gizmondo
9. Google Wi-Fi Data Sniffing
10. Yahoo and China
11. Microsoft Windows Vista
To me a lot of the items on the list don't really qualify for PR disasters (more like PR hiccups).
Disaster implies how you handled things led to the erosion of your brand equity (if your brand equity doesn't fall significantly then it's hard to call it a disaster).
I definitely think Vista was close to a PR disaster with Bill Gates doing the media rounds prior to release talking about how great Vista would be (only for it to ship with bugs and issues). That definitely hurt Microsoft's brand equity in the market.
RIAA suing everyone made them look like fools (but was it a disaster? Their stakeholders aren't the public, but rather the recording industry. As such did they really lose any credibility with the people that mattered? If anyone lost brand equity in all of that it was Metallica.)
Apple Antennagate was also a big deal, but I wouldn't call it a disaster. If anything I'd call it a PR success with Apple sending every one of its customer an iphone case that fixed the problem (or at least patted down the firestorm). Sure, it was a hiccup, but one they survived (hardly resulting in a PR nightmare for them).
My list of top tech PR disasters would probably look something like this:
1. Ebay buys Skype for 2.6 billion
Ebay spends a ton on Skype and has no strategic plan for what it's going to do with Skype (at the time it was the biggest start-up acquisition and captured the industry's attention for months). After a few years of doing nothing it eventually sells 65 per cent of Skype 1.9 billion. Aside from a big waste of time, it really hurt Ebay's brand as an up-and-coming mega-corporation and established it as a run-of-the-mill tech company that was bad at making acquisitions.
2. Microsoft Zune
Yes, Vista was bad, but the Zune was an utter disaster. It really showcased how Microsoft couldn't compete with Apple and once and for all showed that Microsoft can utterly fail at competing in certain arenas.
The only thing good about the Zune was they had super awesome commercials.
3. RIM loses smartphone race
While Apple and Android were gaining steam RIM continued to push their superiority in carrier and enterprise dominance (things like more efficient data transmission processes). It was a giant messaging mistake as consumers embraced Apple and Google for the consumer-centric applications and user interfaces. RIM could have led the smartphone market, but instead gave the lead to Apple and Google by not understanding how consumer sentiment would play out and the importance of being seen as sexy and cool versus technologically sophisticated.
4. Usage Based Billing
While a Canadian phenomena, it still ranks as a giant PR disaster. The big Canadian carriers tried to push through an internet cap where customers would be charged based on every gig they downloaded (at rates between one-to-four dollars a gig). The result? Over 470,000 Canadians petitioned against it. Shaw Cable's customer service lines were jammed with customers calling to cancel their services (apparently the wait time was five hours to speak with someone to cancel services). I myself canceled all my services with Rogers.
When the Prime Minister has to come out and say the carriers will not be allowed to implement usage based billing, you know you've got a PR disaster on your hands.
5. WikiLeaks
Wikileaks showed that there is no such thing as 'secure' when it comes to digital information. Wikileaks put egg on the face of governments around the world as information that was suppose to be 'classified' was leaked in the public domain.
6. Nortel goes bust
I mean, wow! Talk about a PR disaster. Nortel crumbles under debt after being one of the world's largest networking and communications technology innovator (second only to Cisco). Tens-of-thousands of people laid off, pensions destroyed, billions in equity lost and Canada's most prolific tech company ever becomes nothing but ashes and dust.
7. Y2K
The world was going to end if every computer on the planet wasn't safe guarded against problems that would arise when the year changed from 1999 to 2000. What happened when the year changed? Nothing!
An utter PR disaster that caused all kinds of unnecessary expenditures and left the tech sector with a reputation of crying wolf.
That's about all I can think of at the moment.
To understand PR disasters, or at least in evaluating a PR disaster, you have to ask yourself a simple question... what reality would we be living in if the event never happened?
What if Microsoft Zune had been successful? Where would MSFT stand against Apple?
What if RIM had marketed itself based on consumer usability?
What if Wikileaks had failed to reveal classified information?
What if Y2K had never happened? Would we have more faith in tech trends and not be so guarded against false bubbles?
These PR disasters, I believe, changed the course of events in tech and shaped a very different future than otherwise would have unfolded.
I'm sure there are some PR disasters that I've missed, but the ones listed leave something to think about.
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