AT&T is Preparing for a Failed Deal with T-Mobile

In an attempted slick PR move, AT&T announced on Thanksgiving that the company is setting aside some cash just in case their deal with T-Mobile falls out. According to Stacy Cowley of CNNMoney.com, “AT&T said Thursday that it will take a $4billion accounting charge this quarter to cover part of the break-up fee it will owe, if its bid to acquire T-Mobile fails to gain regulatory approval”. 

Back in March, AT&T and T-Mobile announced plans to merge. Doing so would make the new company the biggest cell carrier thus lowering the amount of competition in the cell carrier market. This fact has prompted some to oppose the merger including the Department of Justice. The article stated the DOJ “filed an antitrust lawsuit in August to block the merger” and two days ago, the Federal Communications Commission “[recommended] that AT&T’s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile go to an administrative hearing”. With two government agencies in objection, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom, owner of T-Mobile, has withdrawn their FCC applications.

Clearly, AT&T is prepared and probably expecting the worse.  They figured by releasing their epiphany on Thanksgiving no one would notice. Unfortunately, their news is featured on almost every major business news outlet. It is a clear PR trick to release bad news on a holiday, (a certain politician did the same when announcing their resignation from office), but in the world of social media, news travels fast and quick, rarely hidden. AT&T and every business should think twice before using old school PR tactics in a new school social media world.

P.S.

For those who celebrate Thanksgiving, hope your day was great!

Public Relations is Looking for a New Definition

The definition of public relations was last updated in 1982. We can all agree that since 1982 public relations has changed with the emergence of social media and mobile communications. With this in mind, the Public Relations Society of America is making an effort to redefine “public relations”. According to “Redefining Public Relations in the Age of Social Media” by Stuart Elliott of NYtimes.com the current definition is “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other”.

The problems with the definition are it’s vague; and today, PR is a conversation rather than adaption. The article explains that PR communication is “a process that for decades went one way – from the top down, usually as a monologue – now goes two ways…” Adaption implies being forced to accept a given image or message. Social media has allowed consumers to respond quickly and publicly en masse to a given PR situation. Consumers no longer have to adapt, they can respond in various forms throughout cyberspace, and in turn, companies can change to please the consumers. An example given in the article and that was very public: Netflix attempted to spin-off their DVD services. Their subscribers took to the internet to air their grievances about the attempt and to a previous price hike. Netflix responded by abandoning the spin-off and they lost 800,000 members as a consequence of the attempt.

 The definition campaign is dubbed Public Relations Defined and its goal is “A modern definition for the new era of public relations.” Public Relations Defined started on Sept 30 with a meeting of many representatives from professional PR organizations and will continue as an “open forum” as the website prdefinition.prsa.org will allow anyone to submit a definition (within a given template). With an outdated definition, the Public Relations Society of America could also look outdated. This new campaign should result in a new definition and updated image for the organization.

Sallie Krawcheck Had a Few Things to Say About Women, Younger People, and the Finance Industry

Yesterday, Sallie Krawcheck had a few things to say about the wealth management industry. Krawcheck has had an extensive work history in finance and previously had been voted one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes in 2005. She recently was ousted from Bank of America in September as the company claimed it was part of a “restructuring”.  According to “Wall Street needs women, younger clients to compete: Krawcheck” by Suzanne Barlyn and Ashley Lau, Krawcheck placed her comments on the subject of women and young people:

“The securities industry ‘doesn’t do a great job for women or being appropriate’ for the next generation, said Sallie Krawcheck”

On young people:

“Indeed, becoming more relevant to a younger generation of prospective clients and building more diverse teams of advisers are among the changes Wall Street will have to make to compete in the future”

“Younger prospective clients have become skeptical of the industry through press images of advisers being untrustworthy and repeated messages to avoid the markets”

Developing a Sales Mindset

I came across “How to Adopt a Sales Mindset” by Harvey Mackay on Entreneur.com. I read the article for my boyfriend who works in sales and I ended the article with tips and straightforward quotes that can apply to almost anyone in a work environment. I’ve been feeling stressed and frustrated from my job lately and dealing with a dilemma with a solution I felt would not relieve my frustration. I have read many quotes on positivity and shaping one’s energy in order to change their outlook on life, but this article is a great refresher on the power of the mind.

I’m going to give those 13 rules on getting a “sales mindset” and a quoted sentence or two from each rule.  I only fully quoted 3 rules (3,9, and 12) because I felt they were very powerful; for the full wording of the rules please refer to the article. According to the article, the rules are an “adapted excerpt from The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World by Harvey Mackey. “

1. "Stay hungry. Every good salesperson I’ve ever encountered is driven. They have a strong work ethic and a high energy level”
2. "Never compromise your integrity. When customers trust salespeople, they buy from them”
3. "Stay Positive. Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. Success is 90 percent mental. You can alter your life by altering your mind. In tough economies, it may not be your fault for being down, but it is certainly your fault for not getting up. You have to be a believer to be an achiever” 
4. "Be authoritative. Sales superstars know their products backward and forward.”
5.  "Get prepared". Self explanatory.
6.  "Mind your reputation. You can’t buy a good reputation – you must earn it."
7.  "Be genuine. Likability matters”
8. "Put you best foot forward. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression."
9. "Set goals. Winners set goal; losers make excuses. Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning; they are an incentive to keep you going all day. They must be measurable, identifiable, obtainable, specific – and put them in writing.”
10. "Become a customer-service fanatic. Take care of the customers you’ve got, and they’ll take care of you.”
11. "Remember to listen. Listening is a two-way process. Yes, you need to be heard, but you also need to hear others’ ideas, questions and objections.”
12.  "Keep it all in perspective. It is impossible to underrate the importance of a sense of humor. When there are inevitable setbacks along the way, learn to laugh about them.”
13. "Develop a thirst of self-improvement. Sales superstars are constantly working to become better.”

Remember, you don’t have to be in sales to take away some lessons from the list. What I take from this is that I can’t control everything in my work environment. For those things I can change, I will and for those I can’t, I have to not attach so much frustration and just laugh it off as the article suggests. 

Banks to Abandon Fees in Response to Backlash UPDATED

At the beginning of this year, news outlets warned customers that free checking would slowly but surely become extinct. While some smaller/regional banks may have already started their debit fees, national banks had yet to respond until about a month ago. At that time, Bank of America announced that they would charge a debit fee to all customers whom used their bankcard for debit/credit transactions. As one of the biggest national banks, the announcement drew a lot of criticism.

The reaction to the announcement has been swift and angry. Last week, NBC nightly news reported credit unions have seen increases in new accounts, many of those new customers were angry about their previous bank fees. This should come as no surprise as the best way for customers to show their anger is to take their business elsewhere (as Netflix recently experienced). Banks are also responding to backlash – some are doing away with bank fees.

“SunTrust, Regions latest banks to retreat on debit fees” by Jason Kessler of CNNMoney.com reports the two banks mentioned in the title would stop charging monthly debit fees and “both banks said they will refund any customers previously charged fee”. The irony is both are responding to criticism mostly aimed at Bank of America, but nevertheless a bank debit fee is a fee regardless of whether it’s from Bank of America or regional known banks.  JPMorganChase and Wells Fargo have responded by abandoning plans to charge fees.

Now, the pressure is on Bank of America to see whether they will also forgo their fee plan.  So far, the update is they are “considering proposals that would allow customers to avoid them, according to a person familiar with the bank’s plans.”


Update 11/1/11 12:50pm


According to NYTimes.com's "Bank of America Nixes $5 Debit Card Fee", Bank of America "said Tuesday that the decision to scrap the plan came after listening to customer feedback in recent weeks". Although, the article mentions the bank will be introducing non-fee checking accounts in a pilot program in a few states. Bank of America's decision shows that the bank has the sense to understand that they are are dependent on their customers. Nothing bothers me more than a service-based company that makes major decisions disregarding customer sentiment. In a service-based company, the customer is the business, it is always possible to piss them off enough to inspire an exodus.