Brand Central Station

Nobody ever likes to think about what they’ll do when things go wrong.  As corporate marketers, a big piece of your job is to make sure things go right.  So, what are you doing to make sure a crisis doesn’t permanently derail your company?

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It’s happened before, but never with this much fanfare or attention.  eBay is feuding with its customers again.

I must admit, I have an interest in this fight.  It’s my wife.  She sells stuff on eBay.  But she’s not as hot as some of the “Power Sellers” who have called for a boycott of eBay February 18-25 to protest the online auction service’s new policies on rates, release of payment through PayPal and (most controversaly) significant changes to its rules on feedback left by sellers about buyers.

Now Money Magazine is wading into the fray with an article and a post on YouTube asking for disgruntled eBayers to contact them for interviews (note: the post requesting contact from disgruntled eBay sellers was removed overnight Sunday evening). (more…)

From the “What were they thinking department?” – here’s a story about a restaurateur in Mumbia who, after reviewing all of the potential names and historical icons with whom to associate his restaurant, decided that Adolf Hitler was the man for him. His restaurant, Hitler’s Cross, opened last week.

It stands out, you can say that much.

Ads promoting the restaurant used pictures of the German leader, Nazi iconography and an extra serving of controversy. But today, four days after the restaurant’s opening, the owners have decided to rename the eatery.

According to this story off the Zeenews web site, owner Shakir Siddiqui said the decision was made after a meeting with the Jewish Society of Inda. The meeting was held following public protests by a variety of people including the German and Israeli Consul Generals.

A new name will be announced in a few days. Any suggestions? Send us your proposed name and we’ll post them to this site.

Jonathan Bernstein has taken his Crisis Manager newsletter online into a new blog format. Posts include commentary on the impact of terrorism on crisis communications and issues surrounding business continuity.

Jonathan also provides some excellent background information on the fundamentals of crisis PR as he does with this post describing the role the Internet plays in the immediate (and often confusing) spread of information surrounding corporate crises.

For seasoned PR pros, this may be a little to PR 101, but for most business managers and younger PR’s, this is great background. After all, it’s nearly impossible to manage a crisis if you don’t understand how the different communications channels surrounding that crisis actually work.