It is that time of year in North Dakota. I consider it a payment for the beautiful summers. Yes, I am talking about the freezing winters that turn North Dakota into an arctic wasteland. With temperatures dropping to dangerous levels, it is a good idea to be bundled up if you are planning to be outside for any extent of time. At this point, battery powered warming gloves would sound like a good idea (if you have $260 to dish out on gloves). Well, maybe not quite so soon.
Outdoor Research has recalled "Primovolta" and "Primavolta" warming gloves. These gloves hit shelves at major outdoor specialty retailers in September. So what's the point? These gloves store energy in lithium-polymer batteries and deliver warmth for six hours at a time. This would seem like a great piece of equiptment for anyone who needs to be out in the extreme cold for extended periods of time.
Well, they definately warmed up. The firm has received five reports of gloves overheating. In one case, a female consumer suffered burns to her hands. It appears that the electric heating pads in the gloves were short circuiting, causing a burn hazard.
The gloves included in the recall are style number 77000 and style number 77010.
After this problem with the gloves is fixed and they are ready to be put back on the shelves, I imagine that Outdoor Research will need to do some public relations work so that people will gain trust in their products again.
As we talked about in Public Relations class, the public relations department that deals with this problem will have to do four things:
They will have to form an idea of their product in the minds of possible consumers. They will have to do tests to prove that their product is high quality and not defective and communicate that information to possible consumers.
They will also have to reform the ideas of the people who now think that their product is bad. I'm sure the woman who got her hands burnt by the gloves isn't thrilled to try on another pair in the future. It is the PR department's job to change her mind.
Reinforcing consumer's ideas of the product is important. This can be done by advertising. Drill your product into their minds.
These four things will motivate the consumer to action. In this case, the action would be purchasing a pair of these self warming gloves.
I don't know about you, but I cannot see myself buying a pair of $260 gloves. My hands will never have to be THAT warm.
The gloves indeed are a good topic of PR. Many times we find out who the most talented PR directors are after a product fails. This glove company has a long road ahead if they think people are going to trust their products again. If the company handles the situation right they will be able to sell their products again though. If they admit that their product failed, pay the people who were harmed by their products, do research, and fix their product they will be back in business. There have been many examples of companies whos products fail. Goodyear tire is an example. certain tire models have failed, there is a recall and they have sucessfully fixed the problem. They still remain a top tire company.
ReplyDeleteThe glove company may have to lower their prices too.. because like you I would never pay that much money for gloves either.
Good post, good example
When I bought a pair of $40 gloves I thought I was paying too much. I would never pay $260 for a pair! And as Dan said before, a PR person is very good to have when there is a product failure in a company. Just look at the peanut butter recall. If the companies wouldn't have come out right away and said something about the Salmonila, there could have been a lot more harm done to people and it could have ruined the peanut butter industries for years. I believe that companies have done a pretty good job to keep the worries of peanut butter eaters to a minimum and that many people will buy peanut butter when the recall is over. If a lot of people would have ended up sick and the companies wouldn't have stood behind their "mistake", they could have lost a lot of trust by their product's users and some people would have probably never bought peanut butter again.
ReplyDeleteThis one is tough. Coming from Arizona and being brand new to such a cold climate here in North Dakota, heated gloves seem so brilliant. Once again, I am upset I didn't think of this first! Obviously, the recall was necessary because of the potential hazards, but I think people who ware going to hold grudges against a company can honestly go but from somebody else. I think from a PR perspective, after a situation like this all you can do is recall the product that is malfunctioning and then offer to refund or replace the products for the people who were hurt. I think if more PR people can portray that companies are created by HUMANS and are for HUMANS there is going to be mistakes/errors. It's just what we do. The thing is PR practioners must show or exemplify how the company has learned from those mistakes. I feel as long as organizations and companies can do that, they should be successful.
ReplyDeleteThese gloves sound like an amazing idea, especially in North Dakota. The warmth of them could mean ice fishing or snowboarding for hours! They do seem a little expensive for what I would want to pay for them. I could definitely see how they could overheat just like heating blankets. I'm sorry, but anyone who would be wearing these gloves should have enough common sense to take off the gloves when they are getting to hot for their skin.
ReplyDelete$260 for a pair of gloves?!?! They would have to warm my entire body, melt the snow, and make my fly before I would spend that much money on a pair of gloves! I have lived in ND my entire life...minus a few years in MT and one in FL. So I am no rookie at cold weather. However, this winter I refused to even buy myself a real winter coat (honestly...I dont have one)...Im swearing to myself this is my last one so why waste the money. This is a great example of PR because any other product that company has out on the market or will in the future they are going to have to have some great advertising to make people see beyond the burned hands. In the lady's sake...take the gloves off if your hands are hot!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think that 260 dollar gloves are rediculous. Yet I would like to try them out sometime.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great PR subject just because of the fact that the company would have to send out an appology stating what they did wrong and how it could be fixed. I think its terrible that a company would send out a product that obviously was not tested well enough. If I were the people who spent 260 dollars on a pair of gloves just to find out they didnt work, I would be outraged!
This is one of the coldest winters that I have ever experienced. I have gone through many different pairs of gloves threw the years, but I would never buy a pair of gloves for 260 dollars. Sometimes if I am out ice fishing or outside doing something else when it is cold out, I will bring some hand warmers with me to put in my gloves to keep my hands warm. There are other gloves out there to keep your hands warm instead of buying battery-operated gloves. I would never wear a pair of battery-operated gloves because you can’t always trust that they will work especially since they burned someone’s hand.
ReplyDeleteGood PR product to write about! I ice fish alot and my hand get really cold, but I would never purchase this product due to price. This glove company has a serious product problem on their "hands". First it is too expensive and now its deffective. I think all the PR tactics you mentioned are great ways to deal with this product. Best way is to settle with consumers who got injured and rethink their product.
ReplyDeleteI find this problem with the gloves funny because when I think of battery powered items I always think of short circuit and sparks fling. As a kid I had a pair of battery powered socks that were, as I though, sweet! This was until after I went sledding a few times while wearing them. Need list to say after a while this started to short circuit and shocking me. So after reading this post it brought back that memory. Even with the technological advances that we have made in the last 10 years, there is nothing that will ever get me to buy anything like those DAMN socks!
ReplyDeleteI feel that gloves of that cost are an unnecessary expense. As well, given the fact that there have been a few cases of burns, turns me off to the product even more. This company has a lot of work to do in order to turn a profit on this product. I am certain that the product is overpriced when concerned with the necessity of the item. Regular glove, which can be purchased for a few dollars already an adequate job warming the hands. Why pay an excess of $200 for heat gloves? It makes no sense.
ReplyDelete260 dollars is insane. Never would I ever pay that much for a pair of gloves. I would say your getting "burnt" if you pay that much, get it ha. Anyway, ya it is going to take a lot of work for stores to get customers to trust this product. And expensive as the product is it will really hurt companies to just sit on a shelf.
ReplyDelete