How to Get PR When The Big Guys Screw Up

October 13, 2007

I got this email today with the headline: Urgent Post Office News - Brand Refresh on Monday 15th. Well, when I opened it, it was an email banging on about their new brand, and how they hoped I would promote it through their affiliate program.

Well, I would rather cut off my own hand and eat it. Any business owner who lives in the UK is probably totally pissed off with the Post Office by now. They’re on strike - who knows when it will end, so we can’t receive cheques, send invoices or carry out any marketing activities by mail.

So, you can imagine how annoyed I was when I got this email. How on earth could they think about promoting their new brand when their workforce is on strike indefinitely and their backlog of mail would make Imelda Marcos’s shoe collection look like an anthill.

Obviously I know that none of my readers would be stupid enough to launch a brand makeover when they weren’t even meeting a fraction of their customers needs. But, the point is, whenever your business is affected by a crappy situation like this, you can always turn it into an advantage.

First, we decided to hand deliver some of our mail. And for a bit of a laugh we attached stickers announcing “We Shot the Postman”. I won’t deny that we hoped this might get us a bit of newspaper publicity.

Then Matthew Legg, our favourite News and Star journalist gave us a call to see how we were coping with the postal strike. This led to us getting a nice bit of coverage in Thursday evenings paper, even if they do use the same awful picture of me each time. Thanks Matthew. At least you give a toss about local businesses.

So, if your business does hit problems - don’t let them get to you too much. Think of ways you could turn them into an advantage. Is there a way you could get positive PR? If you want to check out more ideas - click here to find out what we did another time to get more PR than Paris Hilton.

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Comments

3 Responses to “How to Get PR When The Big Guys Screw Up”

Mrs. Micah on October 13th, 2007 5:36 pm

“We shot the postman?” That’ll attract attention, lol.

My boss was once on the phone with an account representative, trying to get him to fix a problem we were having with his company. He tried to sell her more products. She was pissed and told him that she’d only know if we could even do business again once the current problem was resolved and she wasn’t going to pay more unless they proved they could deliver.

I can’t imagine his proposal working for anybody.
Steve M on October 14th, 2007 10:25 pm

Local Press usually love stories about local business that are overcoming the shortfalls of the the larger national companies and government departments. All it takes is a bit of creative thinking
cathlawson on October 16th, 2007 12:44 pm

Hi Mrs Micah. I just don’t understand those type of sales people. They’re just not in tune with the customer at all.

Hi Steve - Thanks for dropping by. It is always worthwhile appearing in the local press. Some of the newspapers won’t feature the first story you send in, but if you keep plugging away it is so worthwhile. And once you have your foot in the door, you’re able to build a relationship with them.