How quickly we forget a name, a contact, a business, when they are not visible to us.

Marketing and PR is about visibility and there is no more important time than now to be visible. If you are not visible there is always the thought in some that you might not be trading.

I worked with a very successful digital marketing agency called CTI in Manchester – it is very much growing in staff, clients and reputation today. But the first piece of PR I worked with it on was the Dale Street Fire story (April 2007).

The fire affected two buildings, which housed many marketing and web agencies; some businesses I am sure did not survive.

The PR aimed to make sure that CTI’s clients and the market in general knew that not only had the agency survived, it was still doing well and able to offer its services to the level required. Indeed, the message was that it did not lose a single client even though such calamities usually lead to a curtailment of trading – a testament to CTI and one that I am sure enhanced its reputation.

Well, in these hard economic days a lack of visibility can be seen much the same way as a disaster affecting an enterprise.

Rumours abound in these days of cuts. So not having a clear message that is conveyed to the market effectively could be incredibly harmful to a business, if there is any doubt about the strength of your company.

Two North West organisations that are affected by the government cuts have done just that recently, setting out their positions and how they aim to go forward in key local business press – it is a wise move and one that I am sure will be helpful.

PR is not all about leads. Crisis PR is not all about natural and man-made tribulations such as fires. It can be as much about quashing doubt and fear and hearsay.

If you leave a void in communications, it can be filled with uncontrolled word of mouth messages very quickly. There is something you can do about it though.

George Dearsley, of Avante, has a 20 year track record providing media training for businesses such as Shell, Kodak, KPMG, Bupa and HBoS.

So he has been fascinated, when once again, brilliant marketers and business people continue to cause incalculable damage to their organisations when a crisis hits.  George compares how BAE Systems got it right and Toyota are still getting it wrong, and it need not be that way:

BAE Systems called me about a year ago and asked me to present to its main board on how the company was perceived by the media.

I was both flattered and intrigued. Why me?  I am not a defence specialist, but looking back maybe that’s exactly why I was invited.

I talked to a dozen national media friends beforehand: the first words spoken were “bribes, corruption, brown envelopes.”   There was little or nothing about full order books, cutting edge technology or good employee relations.

In a recent BBC commissioned poll of viewers voting on “What Makes Lancashire Great?” BAE Systems had come 140^th.

Slide two told them that in the same poll black pudding was 1st and the late Fred Dibnah was….26^th.  After the wry smiles we moved inevitably to bribery.  It clearly hurt.

But I told them (as I’m sure a PR person would) that the issue would not go away until there was a significant resolution to the whole affair.

I was reminded of that meeting when I saw a wonderful television performance last week by BAE Chairman Dick Olver.  The company, he announced, had agreed to pay fines of £286m in a deal with US and UK authorities to settle criminal investigations into its actions in Saudi Arabia and Tanzania.  He said in the interview the move would allow the company to “put a really hard line separating the past from the future.”

His key messages were all in place and delivered with great gravity and credibility.  It was a majestic performance.

Compare Mr. Olver’s effort with the shambolic PR exercised by Toyota in handling what began as a minor software glitch involving the braking system in one model.

The opening shot was a Japanese executive who faced television cameras wearing a surgical mask, quite commonly worn during Japan’s cold season.  This soon became a metaphor for a company that wasn’t being totally open with its customers.  The brand loyalty, which took years and millions of yen to build, was beginning to melt away.

The safety defects were initially portrayed as an American problem.  But this was not true and the dithering led to new questions about Toyota’s famous quality control.

In Europe and the US there were crucial delays between Toyota’s confirming a planned recall millions of cars and communicating this to the public.

Journalists, keen to keep the tale hot, were delighted when customers called in with complaints about other Toyota models. The dreaded “bandwagon effect” was about to take effect.

Throughout, Akio Toyoda, the company’s president, was invisible.  After weeks of silence he finally faced the media and was thoroughly unconvincing.

He forgot the golden rules:

• Act quickly and decisively
• Apologise
• Thank customers for their patience
• Explain what’s being done to put the problems right
• Carry out the remediation as soon as possible, whatever the cost

Toyota is now one of the stories of the day – day after day.  The cars have become the butt of pub jokes and programmes such as Mock The Week are getting great mileage out of the situation.  Toyota is now the Skoda of 2010.

The initial $2 billion recall and the loss of 17% of share value is likely to prove small change when the final bill is totted up.

In Japan there is a proverb: “If it stinks, put a lid on it.”

Sadly, it is the very opposite of good crisis news management strategy.

Simon Wharton of PushON has declared war on BD Recruitment.

A litany of sins committed against Simon when he clearly directed the agency on his wishes has provoked his wrath.  There are only so many unsolicited and irrelevant CVs any man can take.

Within a short time his irate blog post was only a few positions below BD’s site on Google.

The lessons are straightforward: managing reputation online is a constant 24/7 occupation.  It is one where just one voice can have a detrimental impact.

I placed a piece for Simon in What’s New In Marketing, an online magazine that was run by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, on organic search marketing some time ago.

One of the respondents was an electronics company that had read the piece and was clearly interested in Simon’s ideas.

When Simon brought up the URL there was a whole page of disastrous economic news following it.  The company had had a bad year but had recovered – their online reputation had clearly not and they were totally unaware of it.

I believe many businesses neglect their online reputation, not realising the round the clock damage their brand is suffering.

What is perhaps most surprising about this first story is that I came across it through Twitter today, a full year after the blog post about BD Recruitment.  And do you know BD Recruitment has not stopped bothering Simon and his angry post is still a few places below their website on Google.

Ed Balls, former economic advisor to Gordon Brown and current secretary of state for children, schools and families, came out with a frankly staggering statement reported today by the BBC.

Addressing a Labour audience he said the financial crisis will be “more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s.”

Balls didn’t mince words,  “The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I’m sure, over 100 years as it will turn out.”

What was he thinking?

Where communications is all important in politics how could he be so irresponsible?  It is not really the most reassuring messaging.  Well it is not messaging, it is just blunt.  Downing Street attempted to play down the comments.

Speaking after Gordon Brown used the word “depression” during prime minister’s questions (later explained away as a slip of the tongue) you would think all government ministers would be watching their words carefully.  The Labour communications team would be ensuring a clear, honest but confidence building message, well as much as is possible.

Now we have a situation where there has been a big balls up, which will make brown the colour of the week.

Business Desk has recognised there is only so much doom and business reporting gloom you can take.  To be fair a number of NW business publications are looking for positive stories, realising that there are many businesses that are still thriving.  Indeed, I work with two that do especially well in these economic times.

Chris Barry says in his article today on Business Desk there are “plenty of business people striving to grow their firms despite the downturn and we will look to highlight their stories.” A much welcomed approach.  Newspapers are there to report and have no obligation to be positive, but there has been a lack of balance across much of the press recently.

In November I placed a story in the Salford Advertiser (below) in response to insolvency practice Begbies Traynor’s apocalyptic assessment of Salford businesses looking into the abyss.

On the nationals’ side I am not so sure.  One contact that receives a lot of media requests at his work has told me that the calls they receive want redundancies, redundancies, redundancies.

Tom Bloxham and the Urban Splash team have had a rough time recently.  Even though the enterprise is something of a beacon in the Manchester property sector it has had to make painful layoffs.

But Tom has approached one media channel (The MEN) in the right way at a time when he probably felt like ignoring it: he communicated and got his point of view across.

So many business do not.  By talking he was able to come over as honest and put over his direction to see Urban Splash come back from this set-back and current market conditions.

There will be businesses that react in the opposite way and lose out.  It reminds me of the effects of the dotcom crash:

I was working for an Internet agency that claimed the quite powerful local newspaper did not like them.

I suggested we speak to the business team.  The answer from management was that it was a bad idea: they didn’t like them.

The problem was that the agency had got lots of good editorial when things were going well in the late 90s.  As soon as the dotcom downturn happened they battened down the hatches and refused to speak to the media.

The first piece of coverage I achieved, a good quarter page, had a sting in the tail.  After talking about a big project it noted, with glee, that the agency had failed by a long shot to meet the ambitious aims it had announced in the late 90s.

I arranged to meet the deputy business editor to sort out any issues, got on very well and achieved a lot of coverage over the following 18 months.  (I actually keep in contact with him).

Working with the media is a two way process.  It is not a tap to switch on and off, whatever is happening with a business or the economy.  It is better if a business wants to suspend communications to explain why (off the record) and resume a PR campaign when it feels this is appropriate.  Having the courtesy and thoughtfulness to do this will win any business a lot of credit.

My last post was an innocuous but heart warming story of a man that believed he had been wrongly clamped by NCP Services. The owner of the clamped vehicle sawed his car in two in protest.

Not much of a deal you might say until NCP Services director of communications got on the case.

I had quite an aggressive response to a four paragraph post that simply reported what the BBC had said.

Tim from NCP Services stated based on the factual inaccuracies that: “I would be happy to add you to the database of agencies we would never use.”  You’re barred my son!

It was suggested that I take my “offending” post off, which I replied that because someone thinks it is offensive (could be disagree) is no reason to take something off, unless it is slanderous or grossly offensive or insensitive.

After my reply where I pointed out it was a blog, not a marketing website I got this:  “I didn’t realise your site is just a blog.  I thought it was a marketing website.  Sorry to bother you.”

Well!  You would never have thought communications was becoming more democratic and it was about negotiation and diplomacy and less about force.  And anyone involved in PR, especially if they are senior, should recognise the power of blogs surely?

But you know Tim and NCP Services has a  interesting perspective that might surprise.

When I pointed out the story of the bus that got a ticket in Manchester I got an interesting reply.  The reason was that the bus driver had simply gone off to breakfast leaving the vehicle blocking later buses causing a real obstruction.  That puts things into a bit of perspective.

Tim states NCP Services also have doubled the removal from our roads for untaxed, many in a dangerous state, vehicles.  This is a positive messag that we do not tend to hear or take in.
Clamping and parking fines are a contentious issue.  I know how most people feel and I generally feel the same.  But NCP Services has a story to tell.  Once you explain your position, if it has merit, you can possibly achieve some change in opinion.

Open dialogue has to be the best way for the majority of time.

I am very happy for Tim to supply copy for a post about the work they do and examples of they are trying to change viewpoints and work in an area that arouses strong emotions.

It’s preferable to use “jaw jaw and not war war” as one great man said.

Well, judging by the two PR disasters that are dominating the new – losing 25 million records by the government and selecting an England manager that did not achieve the minimum requirement of qualifying for the European championship – you do what any leader of any high profile organisation does: blame someone else and accept no responsibility.

The government has blamed a junior civil servant and not cuts for not having better procedures for handling sensitive material. Moreover, staff at the Tyne and Wear office involved have been warned not to talk to the press with a strict warning.

Brian Barwick CEO at the FA has decided that he and the board should not go for selecting the wrong or at least an unsuccessful manager – let’s not recount the Phil Scolari very public recruitment farce – whose fault was that Brian?.

Brian Clough once said that if the board make a mistake about a manger they should go. Sound advice.

In a blame culture solve your PR woes by making yourself blameless with your messaging and you can forget about the real problem.