You may think Crisis Management PR is only relevant to publicists who represent celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, politicians like Elliot Spitzer and models like Kate Moss (our favorite who always comes out on top). Well, think again! Beauty publicists need to be schooled in Crisis Management PR too, right alongside Paris Hilton’s peeps.

Not sure who was hanging out on YouTube last Saturday night at 10pm, but I can tell you who was…me!

Purple Lab ran into a bit of a PR crisis two week ago after posting what we thought to be a successful Dayton, Ohio news segment featuring Huge Lips Skinny Hips.

The segment was a publicist’s dream – five minutes, brand exclusivity, visuals galore, and all positive reviews from credible sources. (Now if only the Today Show would catch on!)

Because the segment only aired locally, we decided to share it with a larger audience by posting it on our social media outlets, one of them being YouTube.

Immediately, multiple viewers watched. An hour later, hundreds. By evening, thousands. P.S. with all of our fun, crazy antics – burlesque, pole dancing, runway lessons – THIS is the one that caught on! I mean… sumo… come on… our bloggess friend Michelle Joni Lapidos took to the mat in hot pink Jimmy Choos!

Check out her “Sumo Choos”!

As the viewership continued to grow, so did the comments – and they weren’t all positive. The Dayton Ohio ABC News decided to feature Huge Lips Skinny Hips after coming across a video review from the popular – and absolutely adorable - beauty guru, JuicyStar07 (a.k.a. Blair), who also happens to a friend of Purple Lab’s.

We saw her channel a few months ago and fell in love with her – her in that all-pink bedroom in Tennessee. She did the most amazing video. We never asked her to do it. It was totally organic; she didn’t HAVE make a vid just because we sent her a gloss. A million brands send her (and online influencers) products in the hopes that they’re cover it, no different than journalist/beauty editors/fashion editors, really.

Anyway, her seven minute video on us was just about the best thing I have ever seen!

Karen and I reached out to her to say thank you – how could we not show our appreciation? And when she mentioned she’d be in NYC soon, we offered to take her for a mani pedi (we met her mom and sister, Elle, too… they couldn’t be lovelier).

JuicyStar07 has become insanely popular over the past few months, which has caused some controversy amongst the YouTube community. Just like any celebrity, the more popular you become, the more people want to know about you. Think about it – no one cared who Kim Kardashian was until she was photographed all over the place with celebutante Paris Hilton.

Now, she has her own reality show and her career is booming. So are the tabloids over her on-again off-again relationship with Reggie Bush, her curves and the debate of whether she really dyed her hair platinum for that short stint over the summer (I totally think it was a wig).

So, as Blair’s career grew at full force, her fans wanted to know more about her. And everyone has opinions… no different than celebrities you read about in US. Fact is, she is smart and savvy and already making a career for herself. It’s sad that there are nay-sayers out there, but they’re out there all the time, so it’s part of life… and the media.

That is where crisis management comes in.

As mentioned earlier, the comments began to roll in, in large amounts and our YouTube page became an open forum for JuicyStar07 haters, which is so not the place because A) Purple Lab has a great relationship with her and we don’t want anyone bashing our friends and B) No brand wants to see negative comments on their page.

As the backlash grew, the comments grew deeper and I have to say meaner! Comments about Huge Lips Skinny Hips and our relationship with JuicyStar07 were expressed, and they weren’t pretty. People wanted to know, “Did we send her product for free,” “Why are we promoting weight loss,” “Do we bribe the media…” The list goes on…

1. We did send her a gloss

2. We did not pay or bribe her

3. We met her in person and took her for mani pedi

4. There was all sorts of comments about whether we did or did not buy her a Coach bag because she received one as a gift when we met… we did NOT purchase a Coach bag for her

About our brand:

1. We are NOT promoting weight loss or defining skinny

2. We are being fun and cheeky

3. Huge Lips Skinny Hips is meant to be a reminder – because of the Hoodia ingredient – to be healthy and mindful; appetite is often about the head, not the stomach (i.e. I’m eating now and I am full from lunch)

How did we handle the situation?

First of all, this is what I looked like:

We replied to everyone. We expressed our perspective to clear up the confusion. And we never deleted a comment – it’s not natural for everyone to only have glowing things to say and we’re so passionate about what we do here that we don’t feel like we should manipulate anything.

That said, I want to outline the Do’s and Don’t of Crisis Management PR so you can learn how we handled the situation and what you can do if you find your brand (even if your brand is YOU) in a similar one.

• Do have an open dialogue. When someone posts a comment, whether positive or negative, respond to them. If the comment is positive, thank them for their support and make sure to personalize the comment each time, you don’t want it to come off like an automated response. If the comment is negative, again thank them for visiting your site (even though you don’t want to!) and attempt to clear the air – maybe they were misinformed about your brand, the situation, etc. A simple explanation could turn them into a supporter. Also, encourage them to learn more about your brand by visiting your website, Facebook page, etc. this way they will become well versed and educated about your brand and hopefully debunk any other rumors that are out their amongst consumers. Turn these people into brand advocates.

• Don’t erase comments. This is a BIG don’t. By erasing comments, you quickly will lose credibility. As long as you follow the instructions above, it is ok for consumers to speak negatively about your product, because if you respond properly, you may change their opinion. In addition to losing credibility, consumers will become less trustworthy of your brand. They will know when comments are erased and will most likely call you out on it, which lets face it, is embarrassing!

• Don’t let consumers bully you. Although you still want to be polite and treat each and every consumer with respect, stand up for your brand and your philosophy. But don’t engage in so much back and forth if what you’re saying is not putting someone at ease – sometimes, there’s just nothing you can do. But showing consumers how much you believe in what you’re about could encourage them to learn more about you and the brand, hopefully evoking an emotional connection.

• Don’t get defensive. As I mentioned earlier, don’t let consumers bully you, but don’t bully them either! Remember these are the people who evidently control your brand’s destiny (and sales). The last thing you want to do is leave a bad taste in their mouth. Do not respond to consumers with an attitude and do not ever tell them they are wrong. To avoid coming off as defensive, be selective with your wording (i.e. don’t reply when you’re all worked up!). For example, instead of, “You are wrong,” respond with, “I am afraid you may be misinformed.”

• Don’t change your story. And if you’re telling the truth, you won’t have to change your story (unless you’re a dirty politician – they put a whole new spin on things). Lay out the entire story from the beginning. Don’t leave anything out because most likely, those tiny, unmentioned details will surface eventually and that will only provoke more questions from consumers.

• Do craft a statement. As mentioned above, once you have your response, share it with consumers! After our fiasco, Karen filmed a video response that viewers could watch to get the story straight. Keep it short and sweet. The longer you speak the guiltier you may seem!

• Do act in a timely manner. Stay on top of the negative comments and respond as quickly as possibly. It may not always be at the most convenient time (i.e. Saturday night at 10am – did I mention I was at my Grandfather’s 90^th birthday?) but it is so important. Don’t let more than an hour or so go by because the longer you let consumers rant and rave, the more gossip will appear. The last thing you want is supporters of your brand to read negative comments ignored by the brand, because they may start believing them! The sooner you address the negatives comments, the sooner you will clear up the misconceptions.

In case you are wondering, our crisis has, at the moment, been averted. But, if you have any Crisis PR situations of our own and need advice, please email me at Sharon@PurpleLabNYC.com

Mwah!

Sharon

Communications Queen

This whole thing – starting a business, becoming a manufacturer, raising money, balancing it with a day job, overseeing back and front end of all operations… it’s war, I tell you. WAR!

At times, it was war with the accountant.

At times, it was war with the bank – or the fact that it was showing no love.

At times, I cannot lie, my husband.

At times, every vendor.

At times, the friends and family who gave the seed money to help kick it off.

And much of the time, it’s war with yourself. At least it is for me.

This is where we are in the story…

We were taking meetings with investors (and luckily, the fabulously amazing space where we did our launch event, Meet, was generous enough to let us crash in their chic all-white conference room, equipped with humungo flat-screen).

For this kind of presentation, you need to be nipped, tucked, perfectly prepped. Our friend Phillippe, who works with Calliope Studies, who did all of our branding, is a mad genius with the camera and video equip.

He helped us put together a “sizzle reel,” a few minute video that really reflects the brand’s image – a mix of press, blog event footage, broacast media, and collateral. It was a hit, I must say. And so were the enormously thick business plans.

But one fact remained: In a down economy, getting money is no easy feat.

We had no site and press. We had to get something up on the web – we were looking really stupid. So we did manage to get up a one pager to tie us over until we were ready to ship.

We were in a holding pattern with our delivery – STILL!

And so it went.

Here are the ugly deets!

More juice soon!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

I am desperately trying to catch up on the Purple Lab story from where I am in the blog to where I am in real-time. To speed up the process, I thought I’d do it by video – VLOG!

Here is the part of my story about getting a B-plan and raising money (at least the start of it).

Wait – before you click – sorry that YouTube paused on this image… it looks like I’m about to throw up!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

At this point, I was about 60k in the hole. Maybe more. I was losing count. And numbers were never my strongsuit.

Could I have spent less on press materials? Yes.

Could we have tried to negotiate better terms with our vendors – i.e. don’t pay half up front but maybe 1/4? Maybe. But I didn’t and I didn’t quite know how either. In hindsight, everything is 20/20.

The problem was, there was only so much money left. I needed more. A lot more. I still had 20k for the rest of the inventory. I had the monthly retainer to Whisper PR. There was marketing, business cards (forget fancy ones I once treated myself to when I needed personal cards), letterhead, mailing cards, events, delivery costs (for sending products to editors, celebs, etc.).

Oh, did I mention that in the contract with the main retailer, I committed to visiting each and every store (that meant all 62 in the UK and 14 in the US) to train the staff and do P.A.s (public appearances)? That’s gonna leave a mark!

Ugh. P.O.S. displays (point of sale). Apparently, it was our job to provide them. At the time, I hadn’t a clue that these things need to be module so you can add to them as you grow. And I didn’t know that there were specific vendors. I went to an acrylic artist to design something that mimicked the shape of our box – curvy, sexy – in purple. The prototype was $1,000 and each one would be $100. Didn’t seem so bad – until I thought about the 62 stores in the UK!

Every day I turned around and found a new expense rearing its ugly head.  I’d show you the invoices but they make me too sick.

I didn’t feel badly or awkward asking people for money. I had an actual business with potential and two really respected retail chains supporting the brand. I just didn’t know how – or how much and when I got money, how much of the company’s equity do you give away.

An investment banker friend started talking about “valuations” (i.e. how much the company is worth – based on revenue; I would have said nothing but based on potential, who knows… millions?!?!). When you get a valuation, the investment represents a percent of it. So if there was a $100 valuation and I got $10, someone would own 10% of the company.

I needed a business plan (I actually thought I could sit in front of some kind of super wealthy business person, share my dream, and walk away with a check. What? Why not? And I got Marc Cuban’s email address from someone who used to work for him and actually sent him a note about the investment. Guess who never replied?

I quickly found out that it wouldn’t happen that way. Bottom line: Todd and I needed reinforcement.

Next chapter: Business plan and finding dough.

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

In case you’re wondering, I was a good 60k in the hole. And believe me, every dime of it hurt – it was a life’s savings and it was dwindling with a list of expenses still ahead.

Could I have spent less on press materials? Yes.

Could we have tried to negotiate better terms with our vendors – i.e. don’t pay half up front but maybe 1/4? Maybe. But I didn’t and I didn’t quite know how to do so and as a new company, we have such little leverage.

In hindsight, everything is 20/20.

Bottom line: I needed money. Fast.  There was the monthly retainer to Whisper PR, marketing costs, a launch event I envisioned for some fab bloggers (that wound up being ridic – we’ll get there eventually), business cards (forget fancy ones I once treated myself to when I needed personal cards), letterhead, travel and entertainment for retailer events and trainings for their staff, payment for the rest of the inventory, warehousing, shipping. Oh, I could go on.

Did I mention that to ship to the UK, you  must have a European address. I had no idea where to get one. A friend told me I should get memberships to industry organizations like the CEW and ICMAD, both of whom offer support and networks to insiders. I did. And with the ICMAD, you could pay $1,500 to gain access to an EU address in Belgium which would allow a certain amount of shipments overseas (if you ship more, you upgrade).

Done. But $1,500 here. $2,000 there. It all adds up. And every time I turned around, there was a surprise invoice coming our way. God, we hadn’t even built the website yet!

Oops, did I mention that in the contract with the main retailer, I committed to visiting each and every store (that meant all 62 in the UK and 14 in the US) to train the staff and do P.A.s (public appearances)? That’s gonna leave a mark on the bank account!

I didn’t feel badly or awkward asking people for money. I had an actual business with potential and two really respected retail chains supporting the brand. I just didn’t know how – or how much and when I got money, how much of the company’s equity do you give away.

A friend’s investment banker husband started talking about “valuations” (i.e. how much the company is worth – based on revenue, I would have said nothing but based on potential, who knows… millions?!?!). When you get a valuation, the investment represents a percent of it. So if there was a $100 valuation and I got $10, someone would own 10% of the company.

I naively thought I could meet with moguls and investment firms and tell them my idea, show them the traction and imagine and I’d get money. That was far from the case.

I needed a business plan. I bought the guide book for dummies. It may as well have been written in Arabic. And while Todd is a savvy business man and entrepreneur – a real estate investor who is completely self made – this was not his cup of tea either.

We stressed. We attempted. We often disagreed. We realized we needed help.

That’s the next post – B-plan city, finding investors, and taking a family loan (thanks Dad and Jason for all of your support!).

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix