USA Today -- Bug bucks for bug bashing
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Companies trying to reassure customers they're ready for Y2K
By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
It's New Year's Eve. You're in Times Square. And you need some dough.
You rush to the nearest ATM.
Then, it happens. The millennium doomsday scenario hits you smack in
the gut as the ATM flashes this chilling message: CLOSED.
Time to panic?
If the automated teller machine happens to be Chase Manhattan's, it
closes every New Year's Eve for security reasons. Of course, that's not
something well-sloshed, Y2K-weary tourists might comprehend when
the year 2000 is just hours away. Chase Manhattan executives are still
debating how they'll deal with this public relations problem. But they
vow not to let it slip by.
"Silence will not be viewed as a sign that everything's OK," says Brian
Robbins, director of Year 2000 for Chase. On New Year's Day, things that
typically happen every day at the bank - like about 2% of its ATMs being
shut down - might be misinterpreted as a millennium meltdown.
For many of America's largest companies - from Charles Schwab to Bell
Atlantic to Citigroup - Y2K no longer is a technology issue. Most of that
stuff has been solved. Now, it's raising its head as an issue that is part
communications, part PR and part marketing. The going can get tricky,
especially if some Y2K promises aren't kept or if companies somehow
misread the public's concern - or lack thereof.
"Y2K readiness has become Y2K spin," says Joel Steckel, chairman of the
marketing department at New York University. "But I've yet to speak to a
single person who cares about any of this."
As far as Steckel is concerned, every dollar spent on Y2K-related PR or
marketing is wasted at best and unsettling at least. "It's like Coke
coming out and saying: We have sugar!"
That's not stopping the largest banks, drug chains, insurance companies,
utilities and airlines from spreading the same mantra: We're OK for Y2K.
Some are spending many millions of dollars on the message.
[...]
Many firms were strongly advised by their lawyers that the best way to
avoid legal problems was to say nothing. "But the marketers have
overridden the lawyers," says John Koskinen, chairman of the President's
Council on Year 2000 Conversion. And that's a good thing, he says.
"Better too much information than not enough."
Getting the message out
Every company has its own PR strategy. Here's how some of the biggest
are spinning their Y2K propaganda:
[...] |
