Back in the 1980s research showed that when someone had a bad experience with your brand they were likely to tell 35 people. Now a negative mention online can reach millions in a flash. If you’re smart, and you have a monitoring system in place, you can catch the negative content the moment it happens and do damage control.
Hats off to investment research and rating firm Morningstar and their marketing and PR staff for doing just that today.
The Wall Street Journal published an article this morning with the headline The Morningstar Mirage. The article takes issue with the Morningstar rating system of mutual funds that many investors rely on. It’s not a positive article.
WSJ is promoting the article with a Google ad on the brand search for Morningstar.
However, just monitoring is not enough. When you see an attack on your brand you have to take fast and effective action. Now when you search Google for the name Morningstar, this is the first thing you see:
If the Monringstar team were not alive, awake and savvy this could have been far worse than it is. By immediately placing a larger ad and bidding for the top spot, they’ve mitigated some of the negative effects of the article.
If you don’t yet have a monitoring system in place check out Sendible.com
If you need help with how to respond in a crisis, call 888 243 3470
