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From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.

Libel, Slander & Defamation: What’s the Difference and Why Should PR Pros Care?

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s recent civil trial has received a slew of media attention, bringing defamation into the spotlight. But what is defamation? And why would a public relations practitioner need a comprehensive understanding of defamatory actions to be a successful communicator?

This blog post will discuss defamation, how to identify it and why public relations professionals need to be aware of it.

What is Defamation?

According to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute (LII), defamation is “a statement that injures a third party’s reputation.” Defamation takes two forms: libel and slander.

Slander vs. Libel

  • Slander – a spoken defamatory statement (e.g., telling HR that a coworker is stealing from the company, when no such thing has occurred)
  • Libel – a written defamatory statement (e.g., Amber Heard’s Washington Post article about Johnny Depp’s alleged abuse)

What Makes a Statement Defamatory?

For someone to prove defamation, according to LII, they must demonstrate four things:

  1. A false statement has been made about someone, under the guise that it is fact.
  2. The false statement was published or communicated to a third party.
  3. The person who made the false statement is liable for negligence. (Public figures must go a step further and prove statements were made with “actual malice.”)
  4. The false statement harmed its subject. (Damages can include loss of earnings/capital, pain and suffering, personal humiliation and decreased standing in the community.)

Are Opinions Defamation?

No, but it is a fine line. Opinions are not defamatory – people are allowed to express feelings about individuals or organizations, no matter how unfriendly.

Let’s use McDonald’s as an example. Someone could say, “McDonald’s McNuggets don’t taste good.” Taste is subjective, so this opinion is not defamatory. However, if someone writes an article that says, “McDonald’s doesn’t use real chicken in its McNuggets,” that is considered defamation, specifically libel. For all intents and purposes, McDonald’s does use real chicken; therefore the second statement is false and could cause financial and reputational harm to the organization.

A good rule of thumb is “feelings are not facts.” If what you say is a feeling about someone or something, then it is an opinion. If you make a statement of fact that is untrue, then you are committing defamation.

Can a Business Sue for Defamation?

Yes. According to Minc Law, “Although a company or corporation is not considered to have a reputation in the sense that an individual does, statements that would impact the public’s view of a company’s financial soundness or managerial integrity are generally considered defamatory to a company’s business reputation.”

A business, however, does not experience defamation in the same way as an individual. The most common instance of defamation against a business is trade libel – false statements about a company’s products or services.

Why do PR Pros Need to Understand Defamation?

Public relations professionals are responsible for the reputation of their client, whether it be an individual or a corporation. If a client suffers an instance of defamation, communicators need to know how to react. While lawyers will respond directly, the PR team needs to develop strategies to respond to false statements. These could be in the form of a tweet, blog post, press conference, or an op-ed in a paper. If there is significant reputational damage, PR pros will be in charge of bolstering a client’s reputation.

Most PR pros will not experience a defamation case – high-profile instances of libel and slander are uncommon. However, it is important to understand defamation in order to be proactive and prepared. If you carry an umbrella, it probably won’t rain.

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What is happening with the economy?

You’d have to be under a rock not to have noticed the inflation. In addition to this, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates. We’ve continued to see supply issues, and the World Bank warns that economists are concerned we may suffer 1970s-style stagflation. (In case you’re not familiar with it, according to Wikipedia, stagflation is the twin problems of slow growth and inflation.)

So what does this mean for businesses across the U.S? Will there be a recession in the next year?

This question has come up on several recent conference calls. Of course, no one knows the answers, but after talking with several other leaders, I remain hopeful that things may not be as dire as some headlines suggest.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

  • Global growth may slow, and the labor market will continue to change, but I’m not sure we will see widespread unemployment in the U.S. Our labor market is still very tight, with May’s unemployment rate at 3.5 percent. Some sectors may see a rise in unemployment, but I don’t think we will see anything like the Great Recession of 2007 through 2009.
  • The future of work is uncertain. Many high-profile leaders like Elon Musk may want people back in offices and factories, but will they return? I believe remote work is here to stay because many businesses realize they can still meet their goals with remote workers, and these workers like the flexibility and don’t want to commute daily.
  • Commercial real estate may take a hit. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Commercial real estate is showing the first signs of cooling in more than a year, disrupted by rising interest rates that are already causing some deals to collapse.” Property sales were $39.4 billion in April, which was down 16% compared with the same month a year ago, according to MSCI Real Assets. The decline followed 13 consecutive months of increases.
  • Commodity prices, which the war in Ukraine has exacerbated, will stabilize. According to Successful Farming, “Commodity prices are sky-high, with soybean futures topping $16.80 a bushel and the USDA forecasting the highest-ever farm-gate price for wheat. But high prices for corn, wheat and soybeans are far more likely to revert to their long-term averages than mark the dawn of a new era of permanently higher prices, said five university economists on Tuesday.” (According to Wikipedia: “The farm gate value of a cultivated product in agriculture and aquaculture is the market value of a product minus the selling costs. The market value is not the same as the price farmers get for their product, as the value they get per weight may be well below the market price.)
  • Many companies will shift their focus from growth to profitability because of the cost of capital and investment. Leaders will shudder the companies that can’t demonstrate profitability or a plan to achieve it. For more about VC-backed companies, check out this article, “What comes after the easy money era ends for cash-burning tech companies in Silicon Valley.”

Whatever happens with the economy, at Communiqué PR, we will continue to look for ways to add significant value to our clients as we all adapt to changing market conditions. We’ll focus on continually optimizing our business in preparation for changing conditions, which means considering various scenarios for our company and team and helping our team and clients prepare for them.

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Lessons Learned from Airlines Responding to a Rocky Return to Increased Travel

It’s no secret that the airline industry has had a tough go the last couple of years. In 2020, the year the pandemic reached the U.S., airline travel dropped by 60%. This year, air travel has continued to make a strong comeback with the amount of international travel increasing and domestic flights carrying 83% more passengers than 2020.

While the travel industry has started to bounce back, it hasn’t been a completely smooth recovery. Many airlines have struggled with staffing, weather and more, leading to canceled or significantly delayed flights, which continue to make headlines.

With the inconsistencies, many airlines have had to communicate the disrupted services to disappointed and even irate customers. Let’s look at the lessons we can learn from airlines’ communication around these crises.

Consider the Figures Made Public

Most recently, there were more than 7,000 flights canceled worldwide over Memorial Day weekend. While the delays were caused by a number of reasons, it left many travelers frustrated and disappointed. Among the hardest hit was Delta Air Lines. Over the holiday weekend, Delta canceled more than 700 flights.

There’s no denying that is a significant number, however, in several articles the quantification of flights was broken down by the number of flights canceled each day, giving the impression of a smaller impact. Additionally, when presented as a percentage, it may have seemed even less significant. For example, Delta cancelled about 140 flights on Monday, about 4% of its global operation vs. more than 700 flights.

Ultimately, when in a crisis, the facts are the facts and cannot be changed. But it’s important to be thoughtful about which figures are made public and if they should be presented as a number, percentage or broken down.

Consider Different Mediums

During a crisis, many organizations turn to written statements to provide an update, acknowledge the error and outline what steps they are going to take to ensure it doesn’t happen again. However, sometimes written statements can come across as dry or too scripted.

To help with this, consider alternative mediums that humanize the company. In December 2021, COVID-19 surges and severe weather led to more than 1,000 canceled flights. Alaska Airlines was one of the most impacted airlines and canceled about 21% of its flights. Following the chaos, the company’s COO was featured in a video apologizing for the disruptions, outlining what went wrong and how the company planned to fix it.

By emailing a video directly to customers, the company demonstrated that everyone, especially the executives, was aware of the significance of the problem. Additionally, the video humanized the company, giving customers access to the individuals doing the work to solve the systematic problems that disrupted their travel. 

Acknowledge the Impact and Focus on Solutions

In May 2021, Alaska Airlines sent out another video apologizing to customers for not “living up to their commitment.” In the video, the CEO apologizes for the canceled flights and disruptions it has caused before focusing on the steps the airline plans to take to address the problem, including hiring more pilots, flight attendants and reservation assistants.

The apology follows textbook recommendations when in a crisis. It acknowledges the problem, outlines what went wrong and focuses on the steps the airline is taking to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Overall, the apology is effective, but does seem to skip over the apology portion quickly.

It’s an important reminder that while it’s critical not to dwell on an error or problem, it’s important not to breeze past it or the impact it has on your customers. Adequate recognition will ensure that customers feel acknowledged and that the company has taken appropriate ownership of the mistake.

Unfortunately, the airline industry has had a tough couple of years. It has been faced with countless challenges and unprecedented circumstances. These unique situations have forced the company to publicly respond and provided a unique case study around communications strategies have worked well and what can be done better.

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Preserving Institutional Knowledge

As I finish my work for Communiqué PR, I want to set my replacement – and the company – up for success. To that end, here are some best practices for transferring institutional knowledge.

What is Institutional Knowledge?

Institutional knowledge is the cumulative knowledge that an organization requires to run smoothly. Because individual knowledge varies by role, assigned tasks, and experience, institutional knowledge is necessarily more encompassing than any one person’s knowledge.

People store knowledge in several ways based on the type of information:

  • Explicit knowledge is typically stored in documentation and is the easiest to record and share; you can write it down or provide example end products.
  • Tacit knowledge is more difficult to impart to a newcomer because it involves experience-based knowledge, understanding interpersonal relationships and resources, and gaining skills.
  • Embedded knowledge lies between explicit and tacit knowledge and exists in rules, procedures and processes. Typically, these processes grew out of trial-and-error or a deep understanding of the business. You can explicitly store and share the “how-to” of these procedures, but the how and why they came to exist are not always readily apparent.

Individuals gain all three types of knowledge during their employment or tenure, making it essential to have retention strategies in place for if or when they leave. When only one person understands a particular operational element of your business or organization, it is often problematic, leading to the risk of mistakes, decreased productivity or subpar results.

Retaining Institutional Knowledge

Once leaders have prioritized intentional knowledge sharing and the maintenance required to preserve organizational memory, they can use various methods to share and store knowledge and promote knowledge retention.

You can create videos, reports, notes, and podcasts to share knowledge. Information technology (IT) systems like cloud storage platforms can help people classify, organize, and search for documents to enable future information retrieval.

It also may be helpful to share stories, explain the reasoning behind decisions, identify exceptions, answer questions, and offer tips for helping newcomers. Job shadowing and storytelling are also excellent vehicles for imparting tacit knowledge. Consider setting up situations where learners can understand what success looks like and you can address any questions they have.

Recommendations

It’s essential to think about what resources your organization can consistently apply toward institutional knowledge. Below are some tips and recommendations to keep in mind:

  • Find IT systems that work for your business. To make it easier for members to find information, consider solutions that can make videos searchable, guide you through different workflows or tutorials, or allow people to see how a document progressed over time.
  • Update and curate resources. Adding information to a repository can be helpful up to a point. Ensure that what you’re offering employees is up-to-date, relevant and essential to their current or potential roles.
  • Support continuous learning. Spaced, repeated exposure to learning materials is crucial for individual memory, so ensure that staff always have access to resources and encourage them to review materials as needed.
  • Develop guiding documents that can identify tacit knowledge gaps. Encourage employees to work together to amalgamate examples of different output quality, point out differences, and share steps they took to improve their processes. Suggest that new employees create “cheat sheets” to recap topics, techniques and helpful resources. Summarizing information can help people learn and identify subjects with room for growth.
  • Enable people to explore new roles and expand their circle. Allowing people to work on different projects or with new teams increases socialization and supports knowledge transfer.
  • Pair departing staff with their replacements for job shadowing. Job shadowing is often an excellent way for new people to learn. In addition, as the incoming employee takes tasks and responsibilities from the outgoing one, it can free up additional time to update documents for explicit knowledge retention.

An emphasis on learning and a dedication to sharing knowledge can help preserve your business’s organizational memory. By prioritizing these efforts, leaders can smooth over transitions, prevent people from making all the same mistakes, humanize the workplace by sharing mistakes and growth and support employees’ upward momentum.

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McDonald’s, Wendy’s and How Social Media Factors into Brand Perception

For many, fast food is one of life’s gratifying comforts. Look no further than to the restaurants themselves for evidence of their considerable reach. McDonald’s has long touted its “billions and billions served” and has more than 38,000 locations across 100 countries. Within the last year, Wendy’s celebrated openings of its 7,000th restaurant and 1,000th international location.

However, not everyone is so enamored with the offerings from fast-food giants, to the point that a New York man recently took legal action.

The man is suing McDonald’s and Wendy’s for “unfair and deceptive trade practices,” stating in his lawsuit that the food chains’ advertisements make their burgers appear between 15% to 20% larger than they truly are. He is seeking $50 million in damages for himself and other customers and requesting that the chains stop their misleading advertising practices.

Food styling in commercials has long been an industry practice, and the lawsuit cites a food stylist using undercooked patties to make burger meat look larger.

Notably, the lawsuit includes social media reactions and complaints that call out the restaurants for the product disparity from commercial to purchase.

Social Media’s Growing Influence

Social media has become a prominent factor in influencing brand perception while allowing an avenue for personalized messaging between consumers and businesses. A study from Harris Poll found that social media has risen as a company’s top way to engage with consumers. More than 70% of businesses surveyed rely on social media for customer connections, followed by 61% relying on email, 27% for TV and radio advertising, and 24% for print ads. The survey showed 91% of executives expect their company’s social media marketing budget will grow over the next three years.

Additionally, a survey from Nielsen and McKinsey found that approximately 60% of consumers researching products online get information about a brand or company through social networking platforms. Social platforms are unique in that they can easily provide product reviews, customer feedback and product ratings, serving as a one-stop-shop for consumer research.

However, this ease of access to consumer research and feedback can build a brand or break them. And often, the reason consumers discuss brands online is to sound off on a negative experience. Brandwatch, a consumer intelligence company, found that 96% of the people discussing brands online do not follow those brands’ owned profiles.

So, what does this mean for burgers? Well, when you continually see an ad for a succulent bacon cheeseburger only to find the product is much more paltry upon laying down your hard-earned cash, people get upset. They may even take legal action. It’s negative press that no business needs.

The bottom line is that consumers want to have trust in their preferred brands and the goods and services they use. Social media has become a powerful resource for consumer engagement. Use it wisely.

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Spaceflight Inc. Successfully Debuts its Latest OTV, Sherpa-AC

Image credit: SpaceX 

Last week, our client Spaceflight Inc., the leading global launch services provider, debuted its new Sherpa-AC, the latest variation in the company’s Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) portfolio. The Transporter 5 rideshare mission onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral on May 25 and headed to a Sun Synchronous orbit, 525km.

Several hours after liftoff, Spaceflight announced it had contacted its Sherpa-AC vehicle and confirmed the vehicle is operating nominally. Spaceflight successfully delivered all five customer payloads, including two hosted payloads on the Sherpa OTV, to their desired orbital destinations.

Sherpa-AC, named for its “Attitude Control” capabilities, augments Spaceflight’s base free-flying Sherpa with key functionality including a flight computer, attitude knowledge and control, and more, making it ideal for servicing hosted payloads on orbit.

Since the Transporter 5 mission marked the debut launch of the Sherpa-AC, we anticipated questions about the new variation’s features and how it differs from Spaceflight’s other OTVs. We worked closely with the Spaceflight team to develop an FAQ about the Transporter 5 mission and collaborated on the messaging surrounding the Sherpa-AC to ensure it is clear and consistent across Spaceflight’s platforms and announcement materials.

Given the growing demand for both orbital transfers and hosted payload support, it was important to emphasize that the Sherpa-AC is ideal for servicing hosted payloads on orbit, demonstrating Spaceflight’s continued work to provide flexible launch services and innovative hardware so all client payloads can successfully arrive at their final orbital destinations.

To ensure reporters had time to ask questions about the Transporter 5 mission and Sherpa-AC, we offered an opportunity to talk to Curt Blake, CEO and president of Spaceflight. Before the launch, we distributed a media alert to space and technology publications, offering reporters a chance to discuss the launch and the benefits and capabilities of Sherpa-AC with Curt. We also delivered some background information on the Sherpa-AC and an overview of the Transporter 5 mission to provide additional context.

Over the past week, the media has been incredibly intrigued by the Transporter 5 mission, which has led to the below coverage (see below).

Congratulations to the Spaceflight team on another successful mission and the exceptional debut of the Sherpa-AC!

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