QUESTION: Is Wal-Mart winning the hearts and minds of the American public with its PR initiatives?
ANSWER: It seems to be, despite negative press reports
relating to the company's health care benefits and employee wages. But labor unions are putting up their own PR fight to work against the retailer.
Dueling polls are being used in the latest Wal-Mart/organized labor volley. A poll from the Pew Center for the People & the Press found 69% of Americans had a
favorable view of Wal-Mart, while another poll conducted by Zogby International found 58% of people had favorable opinions.
The Zogby poll was commissioned by a Web site called WakeUpWalMart.com, which was created by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union as part of its
campaign to unionize the Wal-Mart workforce. This group has been using the poll numbers to insist consumer support of Wal-Mart has been declining during the course of the past
year.
Wal-Mart, not surprisingly, has pointed to the Pew poll as a sign that there is no reason for PR concern; the Pew poll included consumer opinions about other well known
corporations (the retailer came in third in consumer favorability ratings, behind McDonald's and General Motors, both at 74%). Those results are also being talked
up by Working Families for Wal-Mart, which describes itself as "a diverse group of community leaders" who are "dedicated to talking about Wal-Mart's positive contributions
and making sure working families benefit from the consumer savings and job opportunities that the company offers in communities."
The unions have also made an attempt to dent Wal-Mart's CSR efforts. When Wal-Mart announced a December seminar entitled "Why Market to Gay America?" (hosted by the company's
Office of Diversity), the AFL-CIO division Pride at Work (which focuses on gay and lesbian labor issues) distributed press statements to the gay media urging
"members of our community not to be fooled by Wal-Mart's new marketing ploy." However, major gay rights groups have not backed Pride at Work's PR push to belittle the seminar
(although the American Family Association also condemned the seminar, albeit for very different reasons). In fact, Wal-Mart has successfully courted approval from gay
organizations. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's leading gay rights group, praised Wal-Mart in a press release earlier this year for expanding its non-discrimination
policy to include sexual orientation. And Wal-Mart's British subsidiary Asda made international headlines last month when it began selling same-sex wedding cards and
"commitment rings" to coincide with the British legalization of gay civil unions.
QUESTION: Do the people at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) care what the world thinks of them?
ANSWER: Believe it or not, yes.
OPEC, which was founded in 1960, recently conducted its first-ever consumer opinion poll. KRC Research conducted the survey in eight countries (the U.S., Great
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, China and India).
From the Americans consumers polled, 50% said they had an unfavorable view of OPEC; the poll also sought out specific opinions of American politicians, policymakers and members
of the media, and that group had a 63% unfavorable rating of OPEC.
For OPEC's PR concerns, the concept of ignorance being bliss worked to a point: 39% of American consumers said they didn't know enough about OPEC to provide an opinion. And
OPEC had somewhat higher favorable ratings in other nations, particularly Japan, China and Germany.
But what is OPEC going to do with its survey results? As of today, there has been no announcement of a new PR strategy (although lowering the price of oil might be a nice
start).
(To ask a question of the PR Sherpa, pass your inquiry to our editor Phil Hall at [email protected].)