Coors Case Chapter 6

1. 

 What problems should Richard focus on?

a. The Coors Company and Coors Family were being same in public

eyes, or company was not able separate these two differently. For

example some of the actions Coors brothers were taking were being

 blamed on the company.

 b. The negativity generated by the AFL-CIO boycott and its growing

support. The beer sales have begun to fall after three months the

 boycott has begin.

c. Harassment from disgruntled labor. Most of the Coors employees

 were satisfied and happy working at Coors, it was only due to few 

employees there were labor troubles.

d. Come up with a strategy to convince Coors Brothers to appear on

60-minutes and tell Coors side of the story.

e. The risk that the upcoming 60 minutes could portray the company 

in real bad light.

f.  The impact of the settlement in federal lawsuit had on the

company’s image. 

g. The general perception that the Coors was anti labor and the

company had questionable hiring practices.

2. 

 What kind of research should she do?

 

1. 

She needs to find out how Mike Wallace conducts interviews.

For this she could watch recordings from old 60 minutes

programs. She can create a profile of type of questions Mike

pushes to Corporations.

2. She can contact CBS to find more about the program and its

scope, so that proper response could be created.

3. She needs to contact other corporations which were featured on

60 minutes. She will be able to get helpful tips from their

experiences.

4. 

She should find out how much impact 60 minutes show have

on the corporation’s image when featured in the program. She

has to get list of companies which measure public perception.

5. She has to collect information and answers, which Coors

management can use while appearing on the interview.

6. 

She can also find out how cleverly placed advertising, around

the same time when Coors 60 minutes will appear, would help.

7. 

She has to collect recent media articles about Coors and its

labor dispute and the actual facts which could remove any 

misinformation in the media.

8. 

She has to find out how Coors competitors are managing the

media and how they are being perceived. She could also find

about the competitors media budget.

3.  What would her communication objective be if Coors agreed to the

interview? If the brothers did not do the interview?

 

If Coors agreed to appear in the interview, they need to appear

friendly and pleasant in professional attire in front of the national

audience. Their answers should be short and they should leave no

questions unanswered. The Coors should listen to the questions

carefully and answer only the questions. Also Coors can use bridging

to move question to their communication objective. Anecdotes,

analogies and simple statistics are to be used to make the point. Body 

language needs to be maintained, to show Coors interest and joy in

appearing in the front of TV.

If Coors brothers do not agree to appear, then someone from

senior management can be selected to appear for the interview. It is

important that the company presents their side of the story and

should not miss important chance.

4. 

Should Shirley Richard encourage or discourage the Coors brothers to

go on 60 minutes?

 Yes Shirley Richard should encourage the Coors brothers to go on 60

minutes. At that time due to the boycott, the labor was having bigger

say in the media. For anything related to Coors, the reporters were

quoting David Sickler and these reports were often negative about the

company. Here was the chance to encounter those reports, since most

the questions to be asked in 60 minutes will be based on these

reports. Coors can use this chance to tell the national audience about

the unique beer Coors makes and the zeal with which Coors has been

serving it to its customers since 1872.

 

5. 

 What suggestions would you have for improving media relations at

Coors?

a. 

Coors should create relations with major journalists so that when they 

come to Coors if anytime Coors comes up in news.

 b. 

Coors can invite journalists to their factories time to time, where the

 journalists could talk to employees, sample taste fresh beer and

understand beer making process first hand. Usually beer invokes

good memories and warm feelings among public in general, such

 visits could be used to generate same feeling about the company.

c. 

Coors can professionally train its communications department on the

new trends and techniques about maintaining media relations.

d. 

Coors should have process in place to tell how it is being portrayed in

the media. It should have a process where media portrayal can be

evaluated and course of actions can be decided to mitigate any 

negative media portrayal.