So all publicity is good pubicity is it?

I am beginning to get a bit choosy about who I hand business cards out to these days because it seems to result in being on the receiving end of yet another email newsletter. Just recently I received one from a copywriting agency, which I usually take a look at, as sometimes it contains a useful thought or tit-bit of information. But last month's caught my attention for the wrong reason: "Take a tip from Richard Branson; all publicity is good publicity" it said.

Aside from the fact that I haven't found any evidence that Richard Branson said any such thing, whatever possessed the writer to choose such a stupid headline? Apart from tending to devalue what copywriters write and advice that PR people give, there are so many examples which prove the exact opposite.

Take Gerald Ratner, for example. In 1991 he made an off-the-cuff remark during an interview that a cheap sherry decanter sold by his firm was 'crap'. As a direct result he lost his job and £650,000 salary, £500m was wiped off the value of his company and a billion pound turnover was slashed overnight. 18 years later he still feels the pain and 'Doing a Ratner' has entered the English language. There are other examples. When an outbreak of avian 'flu hit a Bernard Matthews turkey farm the avuncular turkey tycoon failed to address public concern and initially responded to media enquiries with a brief 'no comment'. Within two months sales were down 40%. 'Big 5' accountants Arthur Andersen collapsed in the Enron scandal, Jonathan Ross's phone message on Andrew Sachs' answer machine nearly cost him his job and Michael O'Leary's apparent plan to charge passengers £1 for using Ryan Air's on-board toilets must have left competitors rubbing their hands with glee. The list is endless ...

What can one learn from this?

Probably the most important point is to appreciate that a good reputation, which has taken years of time, effort and money to build can be destroyed overnight by a few careless words, the wrong response in a crisis or one major mistake.

If you do find yourself in a crisis there are some simple guidelines to follow:

• Do respond to press enquiries; 'no comment' never works. If you don't say something the press will speculate, make it up or find a disgruntled customer, member of staff or local resident who will talk.
• Tell them the facts and tell them fast.
• Accept responsibility for handling the crisis, but not for causing it.
• Give them all the bad news at once, leaking it out a bit at a time gives journalists more to write about.
• Be honest and don't try to cover things up (you'll get found out).
• The boss should show up in person, it is evidence that you are taking the issue seriously.

Best of all try to hit an issue before it hits you. Do you have a risk register of issues which could damage your reputation? Establishing a risk register will prompt you to address them and to prepare a response for the ones you cannot avoid.