Chrysler: Good Public Relations?

(Originally posted December 19, 2008)

It’s a hazard of the profession. Whenever I read about a company in the news, I think about whether they are using sound public relations principles and whether their message(s) is/are being effectively received. I also think about what I would do differently if I were the public relations director for that company. I think every public relations professional does the same thing.

For the last few weeks I’ve been watching Chrysler and the other auto manufacturers. They’re in a pinch now, aren’t they?

They started off with the now infamous PR faux pas of going begging while riding in their private jets. They tried to fix it next time they went, hat in hand, to Washington DC by driving in hybrid cars.

So, based on what I see in the media, their message is:

We need money to pay our bills or we will shut down our plants and a lot of people will be out of work.

Based on what I hear from people in the street, their message is:

The banks got theirs. We want ours too. And we’re willing to hurt the little people (employees) to get what we want.


In my estimation, the car companies are not sympathetic characters. The public sees them as overpaid executives used to living the good life while their employees get little or nothing. The executives got themselves into this with pure and simple greed and now they’re looking to the average American to pull them out of the hole.

Is their position salvageable?

The last maneuver was to shut down their plants for a month (Chrysler) and a week (Ford). In poker, it’s the ultimate “all in” bet. They’re waiting for us/Congress to call their bluff.

Congress will ultimately cave and give them the money they want. Because they can’t take the chance of having thousands (more) people out of work.

It’s not over for the car companies. Just because they will get their bailout, they won’t be out of the woods if no one buys their cars.

The American people are watching. They have long memories. Chrysler has a long road to hoe in gaining public confidence and public trust.

They need to do some serious work in regaining the public trust. They can do this by:

Demonstrating (and publicizing) how they will do business differently. What kinds of changes will they make in their automobile lineup, how they will streamline operations to make good use of the money the American taxpayers just loaned them. This is a biggie. They will need to work very hard at this or the public is just not going to forgive and forget.



Being an active player in the community. Show off what being a good corporate citizen is all about
 Marketing their cars more efficiently and effectively. A price reduction would be nice. 


Getting rid of the top heavy bureaucracy. Yeah, this is a pipe dream. They’re not going to cut salaries of the C-Suite folks ... but we can dream, right?

Can you imagine what a great PR move it would be for Jim Press (Chrysler President) to announce during his whistlestop tour that he will not take a salary NOR stock options until the company turns around? Whooowee. But it won’t happen