How Steve Jobs Can Fix Apple’s iPhone PR Snafu

Posted by Tony Panaccio · 1 Comment 

Let’s see how many cardinal rules of tech product launches Apple can violate in a 30-day period.

1. They released a new, bleeding-edge device behind enough hype to make the next Harry Potter movie look like a Mary Kate and Ashley video – only the darn thing wasn’t completely cooked, yet. Consumers generally understand that new releases may have their share of minor glitches here and there, but with the iPhone 4G release, it was suffering from reception problems. Now, I’m not a tech geek, but when you release a phone that doesn’t get good reception, I’d call that a primary issue. It’s like when you go to a KFC a half hour before closing, and they tell you they’ve run out of chicken. Come on! The “C” on your sign stands for chicken! How do you run out of it? (I wouldn’t be so upset about it if they didn’t put that “secret ingredient” in it that makes you crave it!) So, cardinal rule #1 – when you release a high priced, high hyped new tech device, you have to make sure it, you know, works.

2. When they were called on the reception issues by Consumer Reports, Apple’s official response was that it wasn’t a reception problem, but rather, a display problem that indicated the wrong number of bars to show how much signal the phone was receiving. Um…guys, not so much. When thousands of people complain about reception, it’s not a display issue. It’s a problem, and you can’t address it by spinning it. Many engineers who work in companies like Apple and Microsoft DO have a superior attitude with regard to the products they release, and have a tendency to blame “user error” on most of the bugs in their systems. But bad reception isn’t a bug – it’s a primary defect when the product’s main purpose is to send and receive calls and data. It’s like a computer salesman saying, “Well, you can’t run any programs on this system, but boy, isn’t the display on the monitor beautiful?

3. Finally, when the Consumer Reports reviews of the iPhone 4G were posted on Apple’s Web forums, a moderator from Apple deleted them and all mentions of them. That’s when the collective tech consumer community went all Mel Gibson on them. And they deserved it, because the one thing you DO NOT do with tech consumers is censor the public forums. Those are sacred grounds, folks, like when they built the house in Amityville Horror on the Indian burial grounds. NOT a good idea. That’s when the tech dogs start gnawing on the hands that feed them gadgets.

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It’s gotten so bad, the company is bringing company icon Steve Jobs to the podium on Friday for a hastily organized press conference. After all, when the barbarians are at the gate, you bring out the guy with the biggest sword. In the meantime, Motorola and other competitors are ratcheting up their ad campaigns to pick up customers who have leapt like gazelles off the Apple bandwagon. So, what can Steve do on Friday to calm the masses, correct the mistakes and get his iPhone train back on the tracks?

1. Admit you screwed up – The American public is very forgiving, especially with people for whom they have an abiding affection. People love Steve Jobs. The dude has done it all. He started the company, got booted from the company, started another company (Pixar) that was more successful than Apple was for a while, he beat cancer, and then he went back to Apple to usher it into a new golden age. What’s not to love about the guy? So, if he steps up to the mike and states plainly and simply that they screwed up, it would take a tremendous amount of heat off him and his company. When you look at the celebrities who have come back after stepping in the mine field – Robert Downey Jr. (drugs and alcohol), Mickey Rourke (career death followed by an Oscar nom) and Alec Baldwin (called his daughter a pig and then won an Emmy) – it’s evident how easy it would be for Jobs to rehabilitate himself.

2. Answer every question – In order to get the press to stand down, you basically have to hold a press conference that is so long, so boring, so loaded with unnecessary details that the press holds up their hands and says, “Okay, we get it, we’re done.” Unanswered questions have a way of keeping someone in the negative news cycle, like Tiger Woods and BP. But when you answer everything, openly, honestly and with humility, the press goes away feeling far less suspicious than when they walked in.

3. Punish and reward – Let folks know that the guy who removed the posts from the forum was taken out to the woodshed and made to spend a night in the box, and then offer some kind of discount on new apps to folks who have already invested in the defective phones. Also, you have to offer to fix the problems for free. With the revenue that Apple has made – and still stands to make if they can regain consumer confidence – it’s a miniscule price to pay.

If Papa Steve can step up, clean house and show everyone his cards, the whole affair will quickly blow over, and Steve may even wind up with a new job offer – CEO of BP Oil.

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Tony Panaccio, Senior Campaign Strategist for EMSI Public Relations, is a 25-year veteran writer, marketer and producer in the entertainment industry. He has been a journalist and a senior executive with several of the world's largest PR firms. In the past, he has worked with such luminaries as Stan Lee, William Shatner and Michael E. Uslan, executive producer of the Batman film franchise.

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