[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
circumnavigate the globe in the hot air balloon went danger-
ously wrong, with the Global Challenger falling at a rate of 2000
feet per minute, no one was in any doubt that the lives of the
crew Branson among them were in serious danger. As the
drama unfolded, Alex Ritchie, the 52-year-old senior engineer
on the project and a last minute stand-in for the third crew mem-
ber, made a heroic climb onto the balloon to release additional
weight, averting disaster. The record attempt had failed, but
commercially it was a triumph.
It had cost £3 million for the Global Challenger to travel barely
400 miles. But no one from the world of marketing was in any
doubt that it had been money well spent. Referring to a £300
million Pepsi Co. advertising campaign that included repainting
Concorde blue, one British PR expert claimed that simply by
leaving the ground, Branson had outdone Pepsi fourfold. 4
One anecdote highlights his aptitude for media relations. On
his second and successful attempt to bring back the Blue Riband
to Britain for the fastest sea crossing of the Atlantic, Virgin staff
back on dry land were kept busy throughout much of the voyage
going through a list of the UK s national and regional media.
From the operational headquarters in one of Virgin s record
stores, they called the editors one by one and offered to patch
98 BUSINESS THE RICHARD BRANSON WAY
them through for a live interview with Branson on board the
Virgin Atlantic Challenger II.
While Branson answered questions from one newspaper, the next
would be receiving a background briefing from the land-based
staff and waiting to be put through. The Challenger s skipper
kept this up for hours, answering the same questions and mak-
ing the same wise cracks again and again to obtain maximum
coverage. Finally, he turned to Chay Blyth, the round-the-world
yachtsman accompanying him on the record attempt, and said:
This is getting boring. We ve got to tell them something else.
We ve just missed a whale, the astute yachtsman said by way of
reply. Where, where?, asked Branson getting excited. I didn t
see it. It was only when he glanced back at Blyth that he real-
ized that, whale or no whale, the story made good newspaper
copy. Oh yeah, he said, I ve got it. The next few editors heard
about the huge sea creature that had had such a close brush with
the boat. Naturally, they lapped it up.
So well known is Branson s talent for a good story that new Virgin
ventures have little difficulty now in arousing public and media
interest. Virgin Bride, the company s chain of bridal stores, was
still 18 months off launch when a rumor, started in a West Lon-
don estate agent, reached all the national newspapers within
three days. The company even received a phone call from the
Los Angeles Times.5
ALL TEETH AND NO TROUSERS
Branson will do almost anything to promote his brand. This is
complemented by his yen for adventure. His headline-grabbing
activities include daredevil attempts to become the first person
SMILE FOR THE CAMERAS 99
to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon, which very
nearly cost him his life, and setting a new world speed record for
crossing the Atlantic in a speedboat. Such exploits resonate with
the message life is an adventure; life is fun which matches the
Virgin approach to business.
The Virgin chairman is especially good at creating stories with
visual impact. He is prepared to dress up and act the clown,
where most businessmen take themselves far too seriously to
do any such thing. Certainly most chairmen of large companies
draw the line at wearing fancy dress costumes to promote their
products. In the public s mind, of course, Branson s willingness
to play the fool only serves to emphasize what a bunch of stuffed
shirts the others are.
I ve worn almost every costume there is to wear, says Branson.
It makes a back-page photo into a front-page one. And they
come back for more.
An even more outrageous Branson ploy is cross-dressing. This he
used to good effect when launching his new airline he donned
stewardess uniform and more recently when he modeled a
wedding dress and high heels for
the launch of his new chain of bridal
Branson on fancy
stores. How many other company
dress:
chairmen would dress up in women s
I ve worn almost
underwear in public?
every costume
there is to wear. It
In fact, among Virgin staff the chair-
man s exhibitionist tendencies are
makes a back-page
well known. He seems to have a pas-
photo into a front-
sion for dressing up and stripping off
page one.
in equal measure. One senior em-
100 BUSINESS THE RICHARD BRANSON WAY
ployee6 recalls that Branson s propensity to strip off reached the
point where a groan went up on one trip to Switzerland when
he offered to bet everyone £10 that he would dare to ski all the
way downhill stark naked. Nobody took him up on the bet, but
Branson went through with the dare anyway.
The Sun newspaper once reported that on a Virgin weekend
away, he had entertained employees at a seafood restaurant by
performing a table top striptease in fishnet stockings and lacy
suspenders. The story ran under the headline: Shocking stock-
ings caper by pop tycoon.
The newspaper even managed to get hold of a photograph of
the incident, in which Branson was instantly recognizable by his
trademark the brightly patterned sweater he was wearing.
At the time, Virgin was a listed company on the London Stock Ex-
change. Such a story might have damaged the company s share
price. Indeed, in the same year, reports that Ralph Halpern,
the 48-year-old chairman of the men s wear retailer the Burton
Group, had had an affair with a 19-year-old topless model, were
followed by a drop in the company s share price.
But the Sun article was actually favorable. It praised the Virgin
chairman for his down to earth attitude and a sense of fun
which, it quipped in true Sun style, was Virgin on the ridiculous.
The one note of criticism came from claims that the weekend
had cost the company £250,000 (the company said the real cost
was closer to half that figure).
Virgin investors seemed to take Branson s behavior as only to be
expected from a someone who hobnobbed with pop stars and
hippies, ran his company from a boat, and refused to wear a suit.
SMILE FOR THE CAMERAS 101
BRANSON: SUPER HERO
Branson also has a remarkable knack of popping up at unex-
pected moments of public drama. In the run-up to the Gulf War,
for example, when a British Airways plane and crew was held [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
circumnavigate the globe in the hot air balloon went danger-
ously wrong, with the Global Challenger falling at a rate of 2000
feet per minute, no one was in any doubt that the lives of the
crew Branson among them were in serious danger. As the
drama unfolded, Alex Ritchie, the 52-year-old senior engineer
on the project and a last minute stand-in for the third crew mem-
ber, made a heroic climb onto the balloon to release additional
weight, averting disaster. The record attempt had failed, but
commercially it was a triumph.
It had cost £3 million for the Global Challenger to travel barely
400 miles. But no one from the world of marketing was in any
doubt that it had been money well spent. Referring to a £300
million Pepsi Co. advertising campaign that included repainting
Concorde blue, one British PR expert claimed that simply by
leaving the ground, Branson had outdone Pepsi fourfold. 4
One anecdote highlights his aptitude for media relations. On
his second and successful attempt to bring back the Blue Riband
to Britain for the fastest sea crossing of the Atlantic, Virgin staff
back on dry land were kept busy throughout much of the voyage
going through a list of the UK s national and regional media.
From the operational headquarters in one of Virgin s record
stores, they called the editors one by one and offered to patch
98 BUSINESS THE RICHARD BRANSON WAY
them through for a live interview with Branson on board the
Virgin Atlantic Challenger II.
While Branson answered questions from one newspaper, the next
would be receiving a background briefing from the land-based
staff and waiting to be put through. The Challenger s skipper
kept this up for hours, answering the same questions and mak-
ing the same wise cracks again and again to obtain maximum
coverage. Finally, he turned to Chay Blyth, the round-the-world
yachtsman accompanying him on the record attempt, and said:
This is getting boring. We ve got to tell them something else.
We ve just missed a whale, the astute yachtsman said by way of
reply. Where, where?, asked Branson getting excited. I didn t
see it. It was only when he glanced back at Blyth that he real-
ized that, whale or no whale, the story made good newspaper
copy. Oh yeah, he said, I ve got it. The next few editors heard
about the huge sea creature that had had such a close brush with
the boat. Naturally, they lapped it up.
So well known is Branson s talent for a good story that new Virgin
ventures have little difficulty now in arousing public and media
interest. Virgin Bride, the company s chain of bridal stores, was
still 18 months off launch when a rumor, started in a West Lon-
don estate agent, reached all the national newspapers within
three days. The company even received a phone call from the
Los Angeles Times.5
ALL TEETH AND NO TROUSERS
Branson will do almost anything to promote his brand. This is
complemented by his yen for adventure. His headline-grabbing
activities include daredevil attempts to become the first person
SMILE FOR THE CAMERAS 99
to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon, which very
nearly cost him his life, and setting a new world speed record for
crossing the Atlantic in a speedboat. Such exploits resonate with
the message life is an adventure; life is fun which matches the
Virgin approach to business.
The Virgin chairman is especially good at creating stories with
visual impact. He is prepared to dress up and act the clown,
where most businessmen take themselves far too seriously to
do any such thing. Certainly most chairmen of large companies
draw the line at wearing fancy dress costumes to promote their
products. In the public s mind, of course, Branson s willingness
to play the fool only serves to emphasize what a bunch of stuffed
shirts the others are.
I ve worn almost every costume there is to wear, says Branson.
It makes a back-page photo into a front-page one. And they
come back for more.
An even more outrageous Branson ploy is cross-dressing. This he
used to good effect when launching his new airline he donned
stewardess uniform and more recently when he modeled a
wedding dress and high heels for
the launch of his new chain of bridal
Branson on fancy
stores. How many other company
dress:
chairmen would dress up in women s
I ve worn almost
underwear in public?
every costume
there is to wear. It
In fact, among Virgin staff the chair-
man s exhibitionist tendencies are
makes a back-page
well known. He seems to have a pas-
photo into a front-
sion for dressing up and stripping off
page one.
in equal measure. One senior em-
100 BUSINESS THE RICHARD BRANSON WAY
ployee6 recalls that Branson s propensity to strip off reached the
point where a groan went up on one trip to Switzerland when
he offered to bet everyone £10 that he would dare to ski all the
way downhill stark naked. Nobody took him up on the bet, but
Branson went through with the dare anyway.
The Sun newspaper once reported that on a Virgin weekend
away, he had entertained employees at a seafood restaurant by
performing a table top striptease in fishnet stockings and lacy
suspenders. The story ran under the headline: Shocking stock-
ings caper by pop tycoon.
The newspaper even managed to get hold of a photograph of
the incident, in which Branson was instantly recognizable by his
trademark the brightly patterned sweater he was wearing.
At the time, Virgin was a listed company on the London Stock Ex-
change. Such a story might have damaged the company s share
price. Indeed, in the same year, reports that Ralph Halpern,
the 48-year-old chairman of the men s wear retailer the Burton
Group, had had an affair with a 19-year-old topless model, were
followed by a drop in the company s share price.
But the Sun article was actually favorable. It praised the Virgin
chairman for his down to earth attitude and a sense of fun
which, it quipped in true Sun style, was Virgin on the ridiculous.
The one note of criticism came from claims that the weekend
had cost the company £250,000 (the company said the real cost
was closer to half that figure).
Virgin investors seemed to take Branson s behavior as only to be
expected from a someone who hobnobbed with pop stars and
hippies, ran his company from a boat, and refused to wear a suit.
SMILE FOR THE CAMERAS 101
BRANSON: SUPER HERO
Branson also has a remarkable knack of popping up at unex-
pected moments of public drama. In the run-up to the Gulf War,
for example, when a British Airways plane and crew was held [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]