Poor PR makes a bad situation worse for Pacific Brands
Pacific Brands is digging itself into a deeper hole through poor handling of the PR crisis resulting from its decision to move manufacturing away from Australia, according to communications experts.
Writing in the PR Warrior blog, Trevor Young says:
“Use of such nonsensical language frustrates all in its path – shareholders, sharemarket analysts, media and the public. It’s designed to bamboozle but only succeeds in reinforcing the well-held notion that big business is extremely out of touch with ‘new world’ realities – no wonder trust in companies has become such an explosive issue.”
Meanwhile Aussie Bum moved fast to make the most of its position as a locally made brand. Over the weekend it took out a full page in Fairfax papers to promote it as “100% Australian made & owned.” It says in the ad: “We choose to manufacture all our underwear in New South Wales. Why? Because we are proud of our country and the fact is, it needs our support.”, and just to make sure punters got the anti Pacific Brands message, it added: “It’s your brand… enjoy it.”
And according to Robert Gottliebsen, the scale of the PR crisis is such that the board may have to make changes at the top to appease the public.
Online conversation – mainly negative – has dramatically spiked since Pacific Brands announced its plans. The chart below shows the growth in mentions on Twitter in the last few days.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
I would love to know who was the agency that advised on the” Public Launch Strategy” for the restructure….so I can never invite them in for a pitch!
I wonder if Jim Carey from Fun with Dick and Jane was the inspiration for the CEO briefing.
User ID not verified.
You have to wonder how much a global economic downturn is used as the excuse to close local operations under the guise of “we can’t afford to keep it open”. Everyone seems to ignore global warming by the increase in “green miles” that shipping products thousands of kilometres, when it could be manufactured here. Until carbon trading is introduced, and makes it inefficient to “offshore” production, the exploitation of “cheaper” labour will continue for those ruthlessly pursuing the bottom line at all costs. You have to wonder how much collateral brand damage will be sustained by the move to manufacture in China – we can only hope that consumers will do the right thing and spend on brands that invest in Australia. Good on Aussie Bum for exploiting Pac Brands bad PR, and jumping into the fray. All power to them!
User ID not verified.