Plagiarism, Paperchase and the art of crisis mismanagement
The power of social media has been graphically demonstrated after an independent artist forced the stationery giant Paperchase to apologise over an apparent case of plagiarism. Viral justice has been swift and the crisis management failure by Paperchase has surely tarnished its brand.
For Paperchase a combination of a neglible presence on social networks and then showing woefully inept respect for those who do use social media, has made this a very damaging problem for them – and provides lessons for everyone in business.
Things unravelled very quickly last week after the artist known only as Hidden Eloise blogged about one of her designs being sold on Tote bags by Paperchase; efforts to resolve the claim had proved fruitless. It was also tweeted by her on @hiddeneloise, which was when it started to build momentum.
This video proved damning evidence and then fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, tweeted to his almost 1.5 million Twitter followers on @neilhimself : “Fascinating Paperchase plagiarism over at http://bit.ly/cdrzKZ . Bad Paperchase.”
Then it really kicked off! Twitter went nuts and #paperchase became the most popular trending topic on the microblogging website in the UK, Paperchase was deluged with complaints, and scores of people started adding negative reviews to the relevant products on Amazon.
The Paperchase presence on Facebook remained stationary - pun intended - they list a single post, live since they joined back in July 2008 as 'stationary'! More and more bloggers joined in and then of course the national media followed up the story had gone viral and Paperchase were on the back foot.
A rather shellshockedTimothy Melgund, the chief executive of Paperchase, hotly denied any wrong doing to the The Daily Telegraph in a ill considered conversation:
“If we had been plagiarising, I completely understand why we would have received so many emails and Twitter posts concerning our business but we haven’t.
“We bought the designs from a reputable central London Design Studio along with a number of other designs on good faith.
“We take all reasonable precautions when we purchase our designs from companies or individuals, because, to be blunt, we want to make sure they are entitled to sell it.
“We have not done anything wrong. Our reputation is of course very important to us. We spoke at length to the Design Studio in question and they categorically denied any plagiarism.
“What upsets us as a whole is that a lot of our good customers have been angered by this and there is no reason for it.
“We spend a long time building up our reputation for creating dynamic and interesting stationery and then something like this happens.”
Mr Melgund told them the issue raised serious concerns about the “powers, and there in the danger of Twitter. I am sure it can be beneficial but if you get an untruth (on it) it can be very dangerous.”
A belated venture on to Twitter has seen only three posts from Paperchase and those link to a response from Gather No Moss and Paperchase softens its tone slightly, but repeats denials and merrily qualifies apologies.This makes it seem more like a faceless corporate than a caring brand, not least when you consider the next twisty turn of the tale.
The original artist who supplied the designs to Gather No Moss originally denied any plagiarism, however in an email published on Hidden Eloise‘s website, Kitty Mason reveals:
“When Paperchase replied to you I had told them via gather no moss that I had not copied your character which I believed to be true at that time, I now realise that my pose was too close to yours, put my hand up and admit I made a mistake. I am very very distressed by peoples continued criticism of Paperchase. please please please can everyone stop blaming Paperchase for something that was my mistake, they have only acted on the information provided to them.”
So that would seem to prove Hidden Eloise right and Paperchase and Gather No Moss firmly wrong. It is also significant that even with this admission firmly in the public domain, neither has been quick to respond, probably more concerned about liability than reputation. Daft when mitigating one can actually support the other.
What lessons can we learn from this car wreck of crisis management – or rather crisis mismanagement within the inept, socially media ignorant Paperchase? Well, for a start any business should realise that this makes it abundantly clear that ignorance will not mean bliss when you find yourself criticised on social media. More than that, you will need an effective social media presence in order to defend yourself – and that presence will take time to build, so you need to start now!
Crisis management 101 also requires a more coherent and timely response than we saw from Paperchase. It may have been hard to give unqualified apologies when Paperchase could not have known for sure, but surely they could have handled it better?
Morgan PR is well versed in crisis management (after five years making the cops look good at Thames Valley Police teaches you a few tricks!) and we suggest Paperchase should have expressed their heartfelt distress at the suggestion the design was copied (avoid plagiarism and allegation as these are quite inflammatory) and point out they care they take to only use original material.
Do acknowledge the obvious similarity of the two designs (without admitting anything) and announce an urgent investigation and ask for patience. Finally, announce and remove all contested products from the market pending a swift conclusion.
This would have made them look professional and caring and leaves the room to be found wanting after the investigation.
Next, commission the clearly talented Hidden Eloise for a lucrative design series to show how much they really care for independent designers. And maintain that social media presence, not least promoting the designs by Hidden Eloise that the new deal has secured. These would be picked up by the same people who have criticised Paperchase and slowly but surely the damage to its reputation would be countered.
As a bonus, a presence on social media would see them sell more too!
The simple truth is that viral justice via social media, whether right or wrong, equitable or grossly unfair, is going to continue and increase as more people embrace social networking. The sooner you get involved, the sooner you will be ready to defend your reputation in a crisis.