Barclays Bank spending half a million pounds on a three day jolly for well-heeled clients would not attract media during normal times, but these are not normal times, we are in the throes or a recession caused by, and exacerbated by, banks.
So, Barclays taking 320 executives and customers to Italy for a lavish banquet on the shores of Lake Como, with an evening of music from Milan’s world famous Scala Opera, may be viewed as a PR gaffe particularly as, days earlier, the media had slammed the bankers for taking executives on a lavish trip to Monte Carlo.
The story featured heavily on TV and radio news, egged on by full page coverage in The Sun newspaper under the heading “Credit Crunch Hasn’t Hit Fatcats”.
So, if you were handling the PR for Barclays, how would you respond?
Well, The Sun quotes a Barclays spokeswoman as claiming Sun readers would not be interested in the trip. She is quoted as saying: “This is an event for bankers and clients. It’s not a story for your readers.”
That isn’t an opening line I would have recommended. However, perhaps it gets better.
She is then quoted as saying: “You can’t stop doing business just because of the credit crunch. This is not a jolly going to dinner, it’s an educational seminar. It’s more important than ever to keep this kind of thing going in the credit crunch.”
Personally, I think she almost got it right. Emphasising that any company must do their utmost to keep their business together in this tough economic climate is the right thing to do. Stressing that it is an “educational seminar” is, quite frankly, fruitless.
I guess that, invitations having gone out, Barclays could not have cancelled but I suspect the executives in charge, caught up in the excitement of packing their best bib and tucker, did not give cancellation a moment’s thought.
Equally, they would not have thought about the PR downside of this trip. That should have been the starting point but, as the event has gone ahead, what would be the best way to handle the negative PR?
Barclays’’ spokeswoman was correct in saying that there is a sector of the market which is still capable of generating business for the bank. The target customers are used to being treated in a special way and, if they do not work in this way, it opens the door for their competitors to step in. I would have added, if it were true, that these events are being scaled down and that more opportunities to use UK facilities are being explored.
The media and the public might not like this but they would accept the reality.
In truth, in a matter of weeks this will be “old news” and forgotten - until some over-enthusiastic bank official heavy-handedly seeks to evict a family from their home for being late with repayments, or they hike up bank charges still further!
