Boston Hyatt Regency; Photo by RM Miles
The Hyatt debacle in Boston seems to have largely passed. Now it is time for the corporation, potential investors, and communications experts to determine whether any real brand damage resulted or the labor-management melee just created bruised management egos. (This is not to imply that real damage, emotional or financial, wasn’t visited on the 98 workers involved.)
But before defining our next steps, let’s first establish an assessment foundation by examining Hyatt’s global news coverage. This is the first step in determining what amount of repair needs to be planned and executed. (Hopefully, C-level Hyatt officials have this well underway.)
The media coverage was surprising for its breadth and depth, and we will comment on those metrics shortly. But now, here’s what we found from our Google search on the words *Boston Hyatt boycott,* which returned 121 non-redundant listings on the first 10 pages. We believe they fall into six general media groups.
1. US general circulation daily newspapers
- Virtually every daily form Atlanta and Tupelo through Fort Wayne and Moline to Boise and Seattle carried a story distributed by the AP or Reuters.
2. International news Web sites
- Canada, National Post
- Canada, Yahoo News Canada
- Czech Republic, Newstin, organizing the news, Prague
- Germany, FinanzNachrichten.de, German finance and business Web site
- India, BestAsiaHotel.com
- India, Sify.com, international financial news, Mumbai
- India, Taragana.com, India international news Web site, West Bengal India
- New Zealand, AOL News-New Zealand
3. Major US print, broadcast and Web media
- ABC
- AP
- CNBC
- CNN Money
- Forbes
- Harvard Business Review
- National Public Radio
- Newsweek
- PBS Nightly Business Report
- Reuters
- The New York Times
- The Washington Post
- UPI.com
- USA Today
- Yahoo News
- Yahoo finance
4. Social media and commentary
- Facebook, WHDH-TV, Boston
- Huffington Post
- Salon.com
- Twitter, hyattboycott
- Twitter, Tweetmeme
- YouTube, WCVB-TV Boston
5. Travel and Hospitality industry management
- Business Travel News, BTNonline
- Corporate Meetings & Incentives
- Hospitality Industry Web site
- HotelExecutive.com
- Hotel News Resource
- Hotel Resource
- Incentive Magazine, managing marketing motivation
- UpTake, travel industry newsletter
6. Organized labor and related
- Boston Hotel Union Local 26
- Democratic Underground
- Tennessee Guerilla Women Web site
- Greater Southeastern Massachusetts Labor Council
- Hotel Workers Rising
- IBEW Web site
- New York Hotel Workers Union
- Peoples Weekly World, “a national, grassroots newspaper”
- Texas Liberal, political blog
- United Professionals
- Workers Independent News
We provide these media coverage lists because we find their scope very interesting, and potentially challenging for Hyatt. In generating this level of coverage for an otherwise local story, we surmise that three factors were at work.
- During this time of global economic crisis and generalized job loss, public and media attentions are naturally drawn to people whose economic foundations are perceived as being wrongly threatened.
- The working-level media, as much as they deny it, are reporters and editors whose politics are fundamentally liberal and sympathetic to organized labor; indeed, some were or are represented by labor unions, or guilds.
- The media “working stiff” sees the same pressure on operating costs — salaries — among their own publishers as the housekeepers experienced at the hands of the Hyatt executives.
Media proclivities aside, any news coverage analysis and subsequent remedial stakeholder plans must include several fundamental questions, a few of which follow.
- What impact has the boycott effort had on consumer perceptions?
- Have these activities influenced consumers’ willingness to stay at a Hyatt property?
- Have the labor actions influenced bookings among companies with large union work forces?
- Have consumers’ perceptions changed regarding cleanliness, service and overall quality at Hyatt properties?
- While it is very early presently, a close watch needs to be maintained to detect any early shifts in bookings and market share by city or region.
- Have opinions among financial interests — investors, analysts, lenders — changed because of altered perceptions of Hyatt’s earnings prospects?
- What are the current attitudes of business and financial journalists about Hyatt?
- To what degree have these opinions influenced valuation of a Hyatt IPO?
Our colleagues at Acumen Strategic Communications told us that they suggest taking “soft soundings” among institutional and high net worth investors, other key stakeholders, and industry and financial analysts to determine their concerns — and to evaluate how they are reacting to Hyatt’s management messages.
Then, of course, there is the issue of addressing employees’ concerns and bolstering morale. The “they’re just employees” attitude won’t cut it, especially now. This is a serious area in which Hyatt has previously fallen short, in Boston as well as elsewhere.
At the consumer level, does Hyatt need to consider a campaign focused on quality of service and value to solidify and enhance consumers’ and other stakeholders’ confidence in the Hyatt brand.
And, of course, there’s the political community in Boston, which quickly took exception to Hyatt’s actions and comments. How is management attempting to heal those wounds and provide a new foundation for future relationships — which could affect city, county and state permitting issues, always thorny in Boston?
Labor issues are never simple; and they often create polarities that can influence future business strategies. How Hyatt handles the many stakeholder facets of the Boston boycott fiasco can materially influence their fortunes for years to come.
Superb coverage and analysis of the Hyatt debacle (and yes, it is a debacle). Your series of posts should be required reading for CEOs and PR students (and every practitioner is a student). The core of decision makers who made these labor decisions did not see how the media and reputational dominoes would fall. If they were advised of the likely outcome, they did not listen. If they did not seek adequate PR counsel, they have problems that go beyond even this major misstep.
Great follow-up story to your previous post! Hyatt will have to figure out how to turn around this negative sentiment, and it will be interesting to watch.
And had you used a professional media monitoring service such as BurrellesLuce, I am certain you would tracked even more coverage of the crisis — from additional online sources as well as stories appearing in print-only and subscription media. (Disclosure: I work at BurrellesLuce.)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kelly_Growley and John Prieur. John Prieur said: Very interesting article! RT @gail_nelson: READING: @edit30 post chronicles damage to the Hyatt brand. http://bit.ly/18HG7r [...]
Hyatt's Staph Infection?
The Hyatt debacle may resemble a staph infection in that the visible sore throat may have gone away but the real damage could be just beginning.
If you manage an ethical investment fund or one that is running or competing for union money – would you want to be seen attending an IR presentation on a Hyatt IPO that takes place at a Hyatt Hotel?
With all the choices available today …….. What might C-suite answer when a Union Rep asks nicely, "Are our people STILL booking rooms at a Hyatt?"
In an earlier comment, someone asked, "what happened to the good old days" (as it relates to treating one another with kindness) as if corporate behavior is in decline.
Sadly, these ARE the good old days in terms of transparency and stakeholder relations which is why we are so sensitive to the Hyatt response when compared to generations past . At least now, when actions such as Hyatt's become known, people are outraged and can choose to spend their travel and investment dollars responsibly and conscienciously. What is more, others are open to learning from bad examples and will commit themselves to the better treatment of all stakeholders.
I am writing from a communications conference in Slovenia where, believe it or not, this episode was retold! A perfect example of how bad behavior knows no boundries.