The Role of Publicity in Business

Business entities exist for the sole purpose of quality products and services to their existing and potential customers. However, to communicate the potential benefits to their customers, companies rely on various means of communications to relay their messages to create good publicity for their products or services. Publicity is the extensive mention by word of mouth, news, or any other medium of communication positively or negatively (Bednar, 2017). Therefore, it is imperative to note that contrary publicity means a devastating failure for a business. This paper aims to analyze a case study involving Disney’s decision to call a proposed construction of a theme park christened “Disney America”.

Why Did the Project Collapse?

            The management of Disney made a lot of blunders that ultimately attracted a lot of scrutiny and criticism from various quarters of the society. For instance, Eisner-one of Disney’s employees- in his 1998 memoir “Work In Progress” alluded to the fact that they were not specifically interested in a theme park that preserves the American history. Thus, they did not care about the destruction of a significant historic site for the purpose putting up a theme park. He further acknowledges the failure of the management to collaborate with relevant stakeholders such as the politicians and the historians. Thus, the project failed due to negative publicity and lack of proper will from stakeholders (Brooks, 2017).

How Disney Used Communication to contain the problems

Disney used organizational communication to exonerate themselves from the blame and assure American of their continued quest for the preservation of history. First, the management bashed critics accusing them that during that era it was fashionable to criticize Disney even without any probable cause (Lemmergaard, 2017). They defended the reason for shutting down the project because of low forecasted revenues than anticipated because of the low ticket prices. Disney claimed they had been branded an enemy of the American history and plunderer of sacred ground as such; their tickets would not receive much demand from customers. Disney also claimed that the delay in the groundbreaking for two years and the modification of the original plan meant higher cost for the entire project. Further, the company argued that demise of one of their crucial employee devastated the organization and did not want to put the company through much stress.

Second, the company used the media to reassure the masses of their continued commitment to the preservation of American history (Bednar, 2017). In their statement, they appreciated the role of the critics and historians in assisting them to modify the original plan. The statement continued to assert how their experts had spent some time in the surrounding towns and concluded that the nine-month period was not realistic for the project. They, however, stated how actively they were looking for another location with insignificant American history.

Different Audiences of the Message

            The message would have audiences such as potential customers, local authorities, and experts. To customers, the word would have thanked the customers for their patience and steadfast belief in the company, however, it would apologize for the inconvenience and promise to up for the matter. On the other hand, if the audience would have been local authorities, it could have thanked them for working together and give them a chance, and they are looking forward to working together in future (Yoon & Shin, 2017). To experts the message would have blamed them for not foreseeing the potential challenges, the message would instruct them to act promptly on an appeal.

Conclusion

            From the analysis of the case study, it is clear the publicity can make or break a business. Collaboration and seeking expert advice in advance helps reduce chances of negative publicity.

References

Bednar, M. K. (2017). The Role of the Media in Corporate Governance. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.87

Brooks, J. A. (2017). Cognition and Organizational Communication. The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication, 1-11. doi:10.1002/9781118955567.wbieoc025

Lemmergaard, J. (2017). Organizational Climate, Communication Climate. The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication, 1-6. doi:10.1002/9781118955567.wbieoc024

Yoon, S., & Shin, S. (2017). The role of negative publicity in consumer evaluations of sports stars and their sponsors. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 16(4), 332-342. doi:10.1002/cb.1636