Beware the danger of cheap PR stunts and token gestures

After more than 10 years working in PR and the media, few things should really come as a surprise. Yet it never ceases to amaze me how brands and organisations can get it so terribly wrong when it comes to customer relationships.

The latest PR mishap to have me shaking my head came from a housing association in Wales which offered its tenants a free Cadbury Crème Egg as a “small thank you” for continuing to keep their rent payments up-to-date. Valleys to Coast (V2C), based in Bridgend, South Wales, told tenants in a letter its gesture was because the introduction of the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ had been “a challenging time”.

“Disgusting”, “insulting” and “degrading” were some of the words used by tenants to describe the gesture. V2C has defended the letter saying the offer provided an opportunity for customers to call into its offices and pick up a free crème egg while taking advantage of the financial advice on offer. Drawing attention to the fact that hard up tenants have to make their own way to collect the free gift only serves to make the whole thing more ridiculous and the media scrutiny worse.

Having advised organisations in this sector, it’s safe to say there isn’t a more highly-charged issue right now than the bedroom tax. Many tenants, already facing the biggest squeeze on incomes and living standards in a generation, are being forced to find extra rent if they have spare bedrooms. Or they can decide to move to a smaller property, away from the home they have lived in for years. The resentment being caused by this in local communities across Britain is palpable.

I do sympathise with housing associations too. They are bearing the brunt of their customers’ anger over what is a government policy they are being forced to introduce against their wishes. Many are doing a sterling job of engaging with tenants and proactively helping them through these changes.

But what possessed a housing association dealing with such an emotive issue to offer their tenants a free crème egg? What was the strategy here? To show tenants they cared and understood? That seems to be what they were aiming for and, doubtless, their hearts were in the right place.

However, those tenants being forced to deal with the bedroom tax want only one thing – for the government to scrap it. No amount of chocolate is going to change that.

There are many other examples of organisations and businesses doing wrong for trying to do right. Cereal company Kellogs came under fire in November 2013 with an ill-judged tweet that was part of its Give a Child a Breakfast campaign. The company posted ‘1 RT = 1 breakfast for a vulnerable child’ on its Twitter feed. To suggest the company would only be donating breakfasts to vulnerable children if the initiative received sufficient publicity angered many of its followers.

The lesson here is that organisations need to take extra care when communicating with customers on issues that stir up emotional feelings in people. While many mean well, it’s easy for good-natured gestures to be misconstrued and appear to lack empathy.

In these times where such mishaps have the potential to cause an online backlash within minutes, a large dose of common sense has to be applied.