When do company apologies make sense?

My wife recently received a "apology" email from the President of G.H. Bass & Co. (see below)letting her know how they had "lost their way over the past few years" which was a surprise to her.

Lately, a handful of companies have taken an "apology" approach to their marketing strategy and branding (ie. JCPenney just released a new ad featuring an apology to customers for recent changes and a promise to start listening more; Domino's campaign a couple years back stating how their pizza had been terrible all these years).  I'm sure declining business results have led these companies to finally realize serious fundamental and operational issues at play.  I think the solution, in addition to actually fixing the key problems (remember Oldsmobile?), doesn't always have to require that they apologize and point out all their past deficiencies to your customers (unless of course they also plan to give them something tangible, like refunds for "not listening to their needs").

In many of these business situations, I think these brands are making matters worse by focusing their attention and perhaps building greater awareness of these so-called transgressions by communicating them with their customers (and non-customers) as part of an overall strategy to introduce some bold new strategies.   I know that I would want my money back for all the pizzas I bought over the past ten years after now realizing I had been duped.

I am not saying that companies should hide serious customer issues or be deceitful in any way.  But it depends on the situation.  Certainly, there are companies that should be required to apologize, like BP, and at a bare minimum, ask for the public's forgiveness, share what significant actions they will take to make things right again (and prevent from happening again) in order to re-store customer trust.

Thoughts?

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From: G.H. Bass & Co.
To:
Sent: Wed, May 8, 2013 4:15:52 PM
Subject: G.H. Bass & Co - A Letter From the President.

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