The biggest crisis brands face today is the onslaught on social media and an inability to handle it
“Brands are like pieces of fine crystal - they take time to create and are
easy to break" - Mike Isaacson
Maggi, the two minute wonder that has
been hailed in marketing and business school circles as one of the biggest
successes in Indian business history, is suddenly under a cloud. It is alleged
to contain MSG and lead beyond permissible levels and its sales have plummeted
across the country. See link
Maggi is not the first brand to come
into crisis, nor will it be the last. I am sure you all remember the trouble
that Pepsi faced in the country and the even bigger problems that Cadburys
faced with worms in the chocolate and their elaborate campaign of their new
tamper proof packaging featuring Amitabh Bachchan which had the effect of
rescuing the tottering brand and restoring credibility.
See commercial.
Let’s step back a little and study
this whole business of crises as brands seem to lurch from one crisis to the
other with the same ease with which swift footed batsmen take cheeky singles in
T20 matches.
Brands
take time to build
One of the things that we must
remember is that brands are not built overnight. They take time, effort,
strategy and resources to build. Pepsi, one of the brands we spoke about
earlier, is a brand that is more than a hundred years old. And yet it does not
take much to throw it into a crisis and that crisis can affect credibility and
impact sales and market share. And yet there is another twist to the tale
today. If you analyze some of the biggest brand crises of those days whether it
was Tylenol, Pepsi or Cadburys that we spoke about they were much smaller
crises than what brands face today. That was simply because these crises were
played out on mainline media like print and TV which though they had tremendous
impact, were still restricted to the countries they were circulated in. Today
however thanks to the social media and the power of facebook and twitter these
crises can really snowball. Look at this on Maggi where in the early days of
the crisis they had handled it poorly on social media. The results are already
beginning to show.
So what
must brands do?
One of the first realities of modern
business is the realization that some crisis or the other is inevitable as far
as brands are concerned. Maybe the scale of the crisis might vary, but it is
probably lurking around the corner. This leads me to the next question and
arguably the most important one. What should brands do? Do you remember the old
scout motto? Yes it is “be prepared” and brands must really prepare for battle.
How do you prepare for battle? You try to predict where and how the enemy will
attack. Borrowing the same logic, smart companies have contingency plans for
every crisis. What could the possible crisis be? A factory could catch fire,
people could die in an accident, there could be a sexual harassment case in
your office, there could be a safety or health hazard in the products you make,
dangerous effluents from your plant might raise the heckles of the community… The
list is endless and savvy companies list out these exhaustively and start
working on a damage control plan. Crises can be tackled and their intensity can
be reduced. Today one of the biggest challenges is on social media. We have
seen enough instances of the crisis that an off the cuff comment or statement
can make on social media. Here is a whiff of a future crisis that I read in
today’s newspaper about an Uber driver kissing a passenger…
Damage
control is key
I am not sure
Maggi has handled this crisis well though it was brewing for some time now. It
is important for companies to respond quickly and yet not hastily. It helps to
express regret or sympathy particularly where people are involved. The Public
Relations company should work overtime to get the company off the headlines and
from the tickers in TV channels. If the headline were to read “Taxi driver
caught kissing passenger” is better for Uber than to have its name in this
condemning headline. The company must have its version ready or what we call as
a holding statement. It must have only one spokesperson talk to the media. It
must be always available for comments and questions. When there is an accident
or trouble at the factory, it would be advised to hold media briefings away
from the venue preferably at a neutral avenue. More than traditional media the
challenge as stated earlier is manifold in the social media and today more and
more companies have full time experts handling their online reputation. Yes
brands are like fine pieces of crystal. Don’t be casual about the way you
handle them otherwise years of hard work and investment will just go down the
tube in “two minutes”.
No comments:
Post a Comment