How PR People Rebuff the Media, Risk Brand Image

Community Coffee to the media: Fill this out and wait!

As co-founder and publisher of BoomerCafé – the online magazine for baby boomers – I was checking Community Coffee‘s website the other day for a contact. I was going to write a story about coffee. What I found instead was a corporate online fortress — “To access this area, you must enter the password for media professionalsin the field below.” Yes, it said, “professionalsin.”

I thought, okay … I’ll explore where this takes me … and found a form that asked for all kinds of information that’s really none of their business if they legitimately want to respond to media inquiries.

Before Community Coffee would give me any access to their online “press” (sic) center, I had to provide information, including name, phone, email, “publication, station or company” (online news sites and blogs were not included), city, state, zip, circulation or estimated audience and a bio.

You cannot find out anything about the company or download an image without registering and waiting. Like a medieval walled city. Man, you just don’t do stuff like that in today’s 24/7 online digital era and hope to get any attention.

I dutifully completed Community Coffee’s form … and waited … and waited … and waited. I am still waiting. No response from the company. What if I were a reporter on deadline? I’d be out of luck.

Community Coffee’s site didn’t even generate an automatic acknowledgement … like, “Thanks, you’ll hear from us.” Nothing.

Ford's media form: Don't waste your time.

Now, don’t get me wrong … I really like Community Coffee and prefer it to the burned taste of Starbucks. In fact, I’m hoping to see “CC” coffee houses coast-to-coast. There’s huge potential, I believe, because of the great ambiance of CC coffee houses and the company’s terrific products. But, to intentionally encase a company in such a protective wall in today’s open and transparent online environment seems naive and provincial. It doesn’t help the company’s image.

Makes me wonder how many media opportunities Community Coffee loses because journalists are put-off by such an insular website.

Community Coffee is not alone. There are a handful of other companies that foolishly attempt to overly control or rebuff media contact, sometimes at the expense of their brand image.

I am reminded of a blogger who was disrespected by a corporate communications guy at Target Stores who haughtily informed that blogger that the company did not consider bloggers part of the media and, consequently, would not bother to respond. That made national media, although not too kind to Target.

Ford Motor Company continues to have one of the most insular online newsrooms, form and all. But, of course, none is worst than Dell Computer where many media inquiries are just dismissed by the company’s army of PR people, reflecting poor leadership in the digital era.

Here’s a headline for the PR people at Ford, Dell and Community Coffee: You cannot control today’s news media which is 24/7 and every minute in between. Every second of every day, including weekends, is the news cycle. Times have changed. Roll up your sleeves and get to work!

The best way to manage the reputation, image and brand of your company or organization in today’s media environment is to be expeditiously responsive, 24/7. Don’t attempt to parse who you might think is or is not the media, especially because if you make a mistake, your mistake may hurt the reputation of your company and ruin your day.

Footnote four days later … I received a quick and professional response from Community Coffee but am still waiting on Ford.

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4. How to Salvage Toyota’s Brand Reputation
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Category: Featured, Reputation management