Japan

The recent Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan has had a devastating effect on the country, but it seems that the natural disaster is providing various opportunities for brand development.

The first company to have been (rightfully) criticised is Microsoft’s search engine Bing, who sent out this tweet on Saturday.

Now I’m sure the intentions of Bing were perfectly honourable, but when it comes to raising money for the relief effort in countries who have suffered a natural disaster, there are perfectly acceptable ways to do this without seeking to promote your product at the same time.

Twitter is arguably the quickest method to raise awareness of an issue or transmit a message to your followers, but the backlash can be just as quick; many users were not backwards in showing their condemnation at Bing’s opportunism, and noted that $100k is a paltry donation for a company of their size.

Bing later sent out an apology on their Twitter, but apologised not for the content, but that their intentions had been misconstrued, before stating they had donated the $100k to the relief effort.

I also spotted that musician Lady Gaga is planning to sell a charity wristband, which has the wording “We Pray For Japan” written in both English and Japanese, with her ‘monster paw’ symbol in-between the wording. Very tasteful, and not in any way TACKY - I’m sure you’ll agree (picture and tweet below)

Purchasers can also choose to add a donation (of between $5 and $100) to their purchase, but this looks like a rather shameless attempt on the part of Lady Gaga to exploit her massive fan base; by claiming that the wristbands are limited edition, there is more desire attached to the item (especially with her reputation as a "style icon"), consequently more people will want to try and get hold of them.

Note: I’ve recently handed in a report which was based around Robert Cialdini’s Weapons of Influence (of which scarcity was a part). If you wanted to read up on his theories, head to the Wikipedia entry for Persuasion and go from there. Or seek further reading in your local library!

Plus I thought that charity wristbands had gone out of fashion since there was a whole array of them in 2005; I can remember having most of my wrist covered to show support for various causes during my Sixth Form days!

Anyway, to conclude; the best way to improve your reputation as a charitable company with a strong CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) ethos isn’t to sell promotional items and give the proceeds to the cause. Nor is it a good idea to cross-promote your service with an announcement that you intend to donate money.

In terms of PR often the best thing to do is just keep it simple. Donate the money, and then let people know you have done so.

I would be interested to hear any other methods of charitable donation to the Japan relief effort that hasn’t jeopardised a company’s reputation. In the meantime, if you would like to donate, click the link to the UK Red Cross website.

Paul