What makes one brand survive a reputation crisis better than others?

While it would take a PR and branding genius to help, for instance, BP restore its tarnished image, how about less extreme examples? Consider the recent New York Times expose on General Electric that revealed how the corporate behemoth paid no taxes in 2010.

GE made $14 billion in profits in 2010, $5 billion of that in the US — but its US tax bill is negative $3.5 billion. And yet, GE's reputation has not suffered as much as BP, Toyota or Goldman Sachs, at least so far, according to YouGov BrandIndex, the consumer perception brand research service.Continue reading...

A year after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up (along with its reputation), BP clearly has a long way to go to rebuild trust.

As might be expected, the oil giant's executives were confronted by protesters (one smeared with a black, oil-like substance) and heated accusations at the company's first annual general meeting since the Gulf of Mexico disaster.Continue reading...

Today being April Fools Day, brands including Whole Foods and a raft of others are pulling pranks. Does the move humanize the companies that show a sense of humor, or does it just annoy customers and others on a day already rife with silliness?

We checked in with Grant Powell, founder of Pomegranate (POM8), about the foolish activities that go hand in hand with the day.Continue reading...

With the ouster of designer John Galliano from haute fashion brand Christian Dior, once again we see a brand scrambling to pick up the pieces as one of its celebrated spokespeople gets embroiled in controversy. We have heard this story many times before. The Tiger Woods debacle, which affected a number of brands including Nike, is one glaring example.  

For brands linked to high-profile personalities who are not always predictable, swift and decisive damage control seems to be part of the package in this era of swift and loud real-time public outcry.

For Dior, though, the removal of Galliano has to be particularly painful — even though the designer has issued a public apology following charges of anti-Semitism sparked by a web report by UK tabloid The Sun, which posted damning video of a ranting Galliano in a Paris café.Continue reading...

From the "Bad Things (to Say, Let Alone Think) Happen in Threes" Dept. of Personal Branding today:

Natalie Portman hadn't even accepted her first Academy Award on Sunday, when news broke that Christian Dior designer John Galliano had reportedly made anti-Semitic remarks in public that were videotaped and published on the website of The Sun, a British tabloid. The new face of the brand's Miss Dior Cherie perfume, whose first language is Hebrew and was born in Israel, decliend to comment at the Oscars, where she wore a dress by Black Swan costume designers Rodarte. On Monday, however, she issued a statement expressing her shock; and today LVMH, which owns Dior, moved to fire the designer, who also maintains a namesake fashion label.

Also facing charges of anti-Semitism this week: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — who's also facing rape charges in Sweden, wants to trademark his name and today saw his whistleblowing organization nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize — is (naturally) being defended by his supporters staffers.

And the third passenger on this crazy train: Charlie Sheen told Piers Morgan in an interview that aired Monday night on CNN that he regretted making remarks about Chuck Lorre, the producer of Two and a Half Men, that were interpreted as anti-Semitic.

Thanks to judicious handling, a mistakenly sent tweet by a Red Cross employee turned into good publicity for a beer company and more donations for the Red Cross.

Gloria Huang, a social media marketer for the Red Cross, was using social-media management tool HootSuite and sent what was meant to be a private tweet to a friend via the Red Cross account rather than her personal one.

In the modern-day version of "reply all" on email, she tweeted: "Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head's Midas Touch beer.... when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd." (“Getting slizzered,” of course, referring to getting drunk — which the Red Cross says Huang  was not at the time of the tweet).

An hour later, Wendy Harman, Red Cross social media director, responded on the Twitter account, "We've deleted the rogue tweet but rest assured the Red Cross is sober and we've confiscated the keys."

Turns out that Twitter followers of the Red Cross didn't mind the red face; and, in fact, cheered the easygoing response and started donating.Continue reading...

When the Tiger Woods scandal broke, some marketers featuring the golf star couldn't distance themselves from him fast enough, while others tried to weather the storm. Woods reportedly dropped around $32 million in sponsorship money as a result of his marital meanderings.

But Woods was just one high-profile example of the risk associated with using a celebrity for a product endorsement. British soccer star Wayne Rooney, famously skewered by the British press for his lascivious liaisons, will be summarily dumped from a Coca-Cola campaign in the U.S. next year.

That accounts for an increase in something known as 'disgrace' insurance. No surprise, brands want their backs covered when their ambassadors don't keep theirs covered.Continue reading...

Think you understand the "reputation economy?" Ha. Two separate reports today indicate that reputation maybe is not all it's cracked up to be.

In the first example, despite the cocaine scandal involving Kate Moss, including seeing brands like H&M dump her in response, the British model has made much more money. Secondly, another report notes that Jet Blue passenger traffic rose 15% in the wake of the Steven Slater debacle. (You're forgiven if you've forgotten Steven Slater, by the way.)Continue reading...