What is Media Relations?
Media relations means “working with various media for the purpose of informing the public of an organization's mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner”. How come it is ‘working’, not ‘exploiting’ the media? In my opinion, there is a reciprocal relationship between the two parties, where the target company wants to inform what it intends to inform, and the media just wants to do their job so that they can have something to publish or release. Obviously, mass media cannot survive without any news to be reported and most of the companies knew that. From this rational standpoint, whether it is good news or bad news, the company can enjoy free advertising using the media and their images can be leveraged according to the situations.
Angel or Troublemaker?Never judge a book by its cover. Starbucks has done a great job in media relations. In the customers’ eyes, it is portrayed as a green and corporate socially responsible company but on the other side, it is reported that each of the coffee bean suppliers has only received 5% – 7% of the price of each cup of the coffee sold. In other words, customers are all convinced that they are helping in the “green project” but they never think that they are actually paying Starbucks to do so. Isn't that $4 - $6 for a cup of coffee is too much for Starbucks where it almost enjoy 300% profit? Will you still supply your coffee bean to Starbucks or just go out and sell your own coffee?
In the case of Toyota, The CEO of Toyota, Akio Toyoda has apologized in front of its stakeholders using various forms of media. He has done a great job as well in terms of sincerity and the spirit to improve. I can say that people make mistake, but I am looking forward to hear the strategies on how Toyota regain the public confidence on its cars as millions of cars have been recalled. However, good news never spreads as well as bad news does. In the March 1, 2010 Businessweek magazine, it states that the NHTSA regulators were hired by Toyota for the past U.S. car safety issues. Thus, Toyota has encountered the most serious crisis in the global context in terms of the product recalls and the case of bribery of the U.S. regulators. From this case, even though Toyota has established a good relationship with the mass media, the mass media will inevitably turn against Toyota if anything happens. It is like a double-edged sword.
Will Toyota still survive in the U.S. market, as well as the global market? One thing for sure is the short term sales performance will decline drastically and the competitors will enjoy the immediate turnover gain acquired from the Toyota’s customers. For example, Chevy reports that more and more Toyota customers turn back and buy Chevy cars after the recall incident. By using this opportunity, most of the Toyota’s competitors like Chevrolet, Ford, and GM have launched a series of advertising to counterattack Toyota for its stable market share. Good product will have to prove itself and Toyota should now take on the challenges and move forward!
From my own experience…
I worked in restaurant chains before, which consists of three main restaurants, as a chain manager. Hiring issue is the biggest problem as the turnover rate in food service industry is quite high. We always think that networking is the best and cheapest tool in hiring but it is not always the case. Out of any choice, my boss chose to publish the advertisement in the newspaper. I was surprised that our advertisement is much bigger than others in that page. Due to my curiosity, I asked my boss about this and he said: “it is the power of media relations!” “Having a lunch or dinner with the editors is common and do not consider this is as bribery, this is socializing!” This is what he always told me. There are a lot of “grey areas” we need to explore indeed in the business world!
References:
Definition of Media Relations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_relations
Videos:
Starbucks’s “excellent relationship” with the media:
http://www.starbucks.com/sharedplanet/index.aspx
How Toyota uses media relations to regain public confidence?
http://www.youtube.com/user/ToyotaUSA?v=vD2dwz4GcfE&feature=pyv&ad=4440589514&kw=toyota
How media affects the customer confidence for the car recall?
http://www.youtube.com/user/ToyotaUSA?v=vD2dwz4GcfE&feature=pyv&ad=4440589514&kw=toyota
How media becomes the bridge between U.S. Government against Toyota?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQMuRmAvUU&feature=related
I really found it interesting how StarBucks really showed the type of help that they gave to the people of New Orleans. The help that they gave is the type of help that all companies should do. Just as we had talked about the other night in class, many times we don't hear about the type of help that businesses, people, and even Churches are doing all around the world. I think that it is time that we should promote these types of acts so that maybe it would start rubbing off on others.
ReplyDeleteintresting Blog reading. I saw the video of Toyota car owners interviewed about the service and recal. I was just curious that were they interviewed by toyota and telecasted or was it any media coverage ?
ReplyDeleteI think most probably Toyota did that personally because I got this video from the Toyota account in YouTube. Maybe this is one of the ways to illustrate the "excellent" services they have for all the cars which will be recalled.
ReplyDeleteI think Media Relations is an interesting topic when it comes to business. In one hand, mass media has there own agenda's, where bad news sells more than good news. However, Mass Media in this country is owned by corporate giants. So I believe there will always be some sort of bias. They cover the stories they want to cover. For instance, there has been minimal news coverage about the $27 billion lawsuit thats being brought about by a group of Amazonian/Ecuadorian people against Chevron, for polluting 10 times the amount of the Exxon Valdez, 21 years ago. I find this very interesting for most of mass media in the United States to neglect this environmental disaster, while the Exxon Valdez disaster was a major media news story. I think Americans would be greatly interested in learning about the situation.
ReplyDeleteI think it is so hard to keep a good reputation for a company with all of the negative media. It seems like our country spends more time bad-mouthing people and corporations and less time worrying about theirselves. I think media needs to start looking at the positives that corporations are doing right now. Personally, I like to hear more about the positives of corporations and less about the negatives.
ReplyDeleteI agree for the most part, the media and the news really try to present stories worse than what they are. They have the advantage because obviously we all can't witness scenarios first hand, so that is why I believe stories such as toyota right now got dramatized by the news and media.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that the media and news presents stories worse than they really are. The media often chooses to pick a side of the story or issue at hand and sticks with that side throughout. Even if the issue is ongoing and not just an open and shut story. For example, the media constantly talks about all of the "bad" things that happen over in Iraq. I don't remember hearing any of the good things that happen. However, my cousin's husband was over there for awhile and said there are good things that happen in Iraq, it is not all bad like the media portrays. The media has the power to put things into the minds of people who listen to them. The media isn't just expressing their opinion on businesses but basically everything around us. People have to be able to think for themselves and realize what is true and what is not. I have learned that you cannot place your full trust in the media.
ReplyDeleteThere is a media war going on. No form of media would like to lag behind the other and in doing so, they would most definitely spice things up. Viewers/Readers/Listeners are so used to getting news that are negative that sometimes what we may call Good News might not sound that interesting. What? How? When? we're way past those questions and the question is Who? to believe now? Media did a good job in unveiling Toyota's negligence in their manufacturing quality but did they forget to cover the recalls made by NA Auto Companies during that time? Or was it more like a biased form of 'breaking the news'?
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