Abercrombe & Sitch
There is an art to public relations. Abercrombe & Fitch demonstrated what you shouldn't do in PR this week when they apparently paid "The Situation" from the show "Jersey Shore" to NOT wear their clothes since they felt it didn't align with their brand image. Abercrombe put out a press release that seemed like they were laughing and pointing their fingers at the cast of Jersey Shore, almost bragging that they offered a "substantial amount of money" to the cast to just not wear their brand on the show.
Talk about a "situation", the stock dropped approximately 20% in the past two days, roughly 1 billion of market cap! Whoever made that decision just cost their shareholders and staff 1 billion dollars all over the Jersey Shore.
HP's Big Day of Mixed Emotions
So let's talk about the HP press release today. My phone has been ringing off the hook -- and I'm somewhat beside myself over the whole thing.
- I appreciate the potential of webOS and the idea of licensing it to a company who has good relationships with major carriers makes sense... so good on them if they are actually thinking about it, however if they wanted to license webOS, why didn't they wait until they had a deal in place before announcing the cancellation of their hardware?
- They totally risk alienating the loyal webOS community and even their team. They need to address this quickly, the messaging was poorly developed -- and you can bet that the sharks are swimming looking for some talent to poach.
- They drop a bombshell that they're looking to spin off the PC business or sell it. Now this is amazing to me. It's completely counter to what HP is all about, certainly not something Mark Hurd wanted. I don't quite understand this decision, not sure I can see the positive here.
- They acquired a 10 billion dollar software company that "no one" has heard of in a shaky economy - they are paying 10X sales! Clearly a move towards the enterprise and away from the consumer?
- Just an observation: HP's stock was $46.30 the day before Mark Hurd left, the next day it went down on massive volume -- the largest volume day in the last year was the day after Hurd left. In fairness over the last year the stock climbed back up slowly and has fluctuated, however today it hit $26.61 after hours, which is near the 2009 crash lows.
I really love HP. The company is an icon in the Valley, and has been one of the most respected technology companies for decades. People like Steve Wozniak started their careers at HP, and Bill & Dave put Palo Alto & Cupertino on the map. This content of the conference call seems poorly timed & scripted.
I don't believe the intent is to kill webOS software, but it "feels" like it is.
I don't know what to say about the spin-off of the PC business. Seems like a missed opportunity. I can't say it's a "tap-out" because the company is very competitive overall, but maybe there's a lack of vision.
I hope they think about the messaging and the broader impact that it has on their people, the community, the market, etc. It feels like it was taken lightly.
Is "The HP Way" gone for good?
Bill & Dave are probably wondering what the heck is going on with their company. I know I'm disappointed... and as a living founder of a brand that was once considered a major part of the company - I feel their pain.
So back to the topic of PR
I think HP could have done a better job of messaging this;
- wait until they had a deal to license webOS on the table
- announce the deal in fabulous fashion, while quietly mentioning they killed webOS hardware.
- as far as the rest goes, who knows, the acquisition and the pc spin-off thing have my head rumbling.
Good Luck HP!
I wish all my friends and ex-colleagues nothing but the best.... you know I have mad love for you --- and what's meant to be is meant to be. HP will still be here for a very long time, it'll just be a different HP, and one that we all hope comes back stronger and better than ever.
I really hope this is the case.
