Pity the good people at HBC who spent considerable money and time developing a line of Olympic clothing only to find the news media and, it would appear, consumers, crying foul over the design (dubbed “hideous by the Lord of the Rings blog at the Vancouver Province) and the country of origin of much of this year’s off-field apparel. The negative reaction of the media and the public reminded me of a presentation I recently gave to a group of MBA students at the University of Ottawa.
The students were taking a course on customer relationship management (CRM) and my goal was to convince them that CRM needs to be integrated with PR; after all, customers are part of the public and the public is composed of many past, present and future customers. “How to achieve this integration?” I asked rhetorically. By planning together and sharing so surprises are avoided.
I suspect, sadly, that the PR people at HBC who were finally brought in to launch the clothing line were more than a bit surprised at the response. The people planning the design and manufacture of this clothing evidently missed my lecture (their dog ate their homework, no doubt) and so fell victim to the “no PP person at the table” syndrome.
A good PR person at that table would have sensed the inherent contradiction in having part of the Canadian uniform designed with an Asian motif and manufactured in China. A good PR person would have wondered out loud if maybe the designers had the wrong “ism” in mind when they chose to make the clothes out of eco-friendly fibres. The Olympics, it seems to me are all about nationalism, not environmentalism.
The reaction of the Canadian Olympic Association was unimpressive since it, too, missed the mark. Reminding reporters that most of us wear clothes which is manufactured in China every day ignores the fact that the Olympics are not an “every day” event. Buying Canadian Olympic clothing is not an every day purchase — with or without the bamboo fibres. The folks at Roots who used to manufacture Olympic clothing that was undoubtedly Canadian figured that out.
My point here is not to suggest HBC was wrong to opt for Chinese fibres and an Asian motif. My point is rather that a stronger presence of seasoned PR professionals around that planning table would have spotted the risks early, perhaps avoided some entirely, and created a launch strategy to mitigate the impact of the design and sourcing decisions. Instead, the launch focused almost exclusively on the criticism of reporters, politicians, consumers and textile industry representatives. Here’s hoping our athletes have better luck when they burst out of the starting blocks.
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