Chapter 18

Taking Action When Bad Things Happen to Good Brands

In This Chapter

Watching for brand-damaging landmines

Preparing for the worst, just in case

Sometimes brands make news for the worst reasons. In spite of great planning and a million good intentions, brands can run into trouble due to anything from bad decisions to bad management to bad luck. When they do, the situation requires action, ASAP. The alternative — waiting around while you try to wish the problem away — is a formula for a public relations disaster. This chapter is about righting wrongs, should they happen. It’s also about steering clear of the biggest brand-eroding problems brand-owners encounter.

If all goes well, you’ll follow the crisis-preemption steps and never need to implement the crisis-management advice in this chapter. But be read just in case. Your preparation and ability to respond promptly could be the key to rescuing your brand’s reputation and equity.

Caution Ahead: Avoiding Brand-Equity Landmines

Beware. Most brand-damaging events fall into one of these categories:

• A lapse in social responsibility: For example, think of the apparel brands that have been tainted by news coverage of unsafe working conditions in manufacturing facilities. Other social-responsibility lapses result from worker mistreatment, environmental damage, human-rights violations, or other harmful actions.
• A lapse in corporate behavior: Scan the financial news for too many examples of brands caught cooking the books, violating regulations, skimping on safety procedures, or using loopholes to maximize shareholder value, devastating their brand reputations and minimizing their brand equity in the process.
• A lapse in the behavior of a high-profile executive, spokesperson, or brand representative: Names are probably popping up in your mind as you read this sentence. From star athletes to celebrities to politicians to church, association, or corporate leaders, personal transgressions (to use the term popular in mea culpa admissions) turn into scandals that ruin personal brands, for sure, while also damaging the branded organizations led or represented by those making news for the worst of reasons. While major personal scandals are the most obvious behaviors to hurt brand images, an insensitive comment, a poorly timed social-media post, or a political or social stance counter to customer opinions are equally capable of shattering brand support.
• Death or sudden departure of a high-profile corporate leader: For example, consider the impact of Dr. Robert Atkins’s death on Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. Within days of Atkins’s untimely death from a fall on an icy sidewalk, headlines asked, “Is the Atkins brand toast?” The answer came through loud and clear two years later when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection.
• Product failures, malfunctions, or dangers: Whether real or perceived, and whether the result of human errors, inadequate or overlooked quality procedures and controls, violations of procedures, circulation of misinformation, consumer misunderstandings, or out-and-out product sabotage, when people lose trust in a brand’s offering, trust in the brand is simultaneously endangered. See the sidebar in this chapter, “Pushing through the pain,” for a summary of how product tampering can trigger a brand disaster that sincere and skillful crisis management can overcome.
• Natural or manmade disasters or accidents: These events can range from earthquakes or fires to snipers or terrorist attacks.

The best offense is a good defense. Before planning how to handle brand threats, take some time to plan how to avoid them if you can.

To defend yourself, you need to take two essential steps:

1. Identify potential threats.

   Go through the preceding list to identify the kinds of threats that may take a toll on your brand reputation. Then assess the likelihood of those threats actually occurring. For any threat that appears to loom large, reduce vulnerability by establishing systems and protective actions that steer your organization away from the potential risks.

2. Prepare a brand-crisis-management plan.

   Decide who will lead and serve on the crisis-management team, what communication procedures will be followed, and the steps that will get a clear, consistent message out to all affected audiences.

Identifying potential threats

While your business environment is calm, take time to imagine some of the worst-case scenarios your brand may face. Then assess how significantly each threat could affect the strength of your brand and business. Take these steps:

1. Consider potential brand threats that may negatively impact your brand image.

   Refer to the preceding list of brand-damaging event categories to prompt your thinking.

2. Rank the likelihood of each brand threat occurring.

   For instance, a privately held service business with no shareholders and no production facilities has a low likelihood of encountering a threat from a lapse of corporate behavior. If that same business is headed by an owner with a high-profile, jet-set lifestyle, however, the likelihood of a real or perceived lapse of personal behavior may be high.

3. Determine which of your brand attributes would be most affected should your brand encounter each potential brand threat.

   For example, if your business has to deal with news of a product failure, brand attributes such as safety, precision craftsmanship, or quality would be affected. If it suffers from a lapse of the leader’s personal behavior, and if part of the brand’s image is reliant on the leader’s reputation for trustworthiness and integrity, a brand crisis could easily follow.

4. Rank the impact of each attribute that may be affected on the overall strength of your brand.

   For example, if your brand is known primarily for its safety record and suddenly sustains a safety lapse, the impact on brand strength would be high. Brand damage is always worst when the damage hits closest to the promise and attributes for which the brand is known and respected.

Use the chart shown in Figure 18-1 as you assess the likelihood that various potential threats will impact attributes that are important to the strength of your brand image. Wherever you see a likely brand threat to a high-value brand attribute, take preventive action by fortifying systems and procedures in order to avoid the lapse and the brand-shaking crisis it would likely trigger.

Taking preemptive strikes against brand threats

After you complete the chart in Figure 18-1, pay special attention to any rows in which you’ve checked “medium” or “high” in both the second and fourth columns. These rows indicate areas where your brand faces a strong likelihood of encountering a threat that could shake its reputation to the core.

For each high-risk, high-impact threat, develop a two-pronged strategy to reduce the risk while also developing a capability to deal with the threat should it happen. Go so far as to share your preemptive plans with those who have a stake in your brand — from employees to customers to suppliers to investors.

For example, Berkshire Hathaway is a publicly traded company controlled by Warren Buffett, one of the most renowned and richest investors in the world. When it comes to Berkshire Hathaway’s brand attributes, the wisdom and wit of Warren Buffet soar to the top of the list. As a result, the departure of Buffett, who has run the company since 1965, is a valid brand threat from which the company doesn’t run or hide. Berkshire Hathaway annual reports include “Succession Planning” sections. One included the paragraph, “As owners, you … also want to know what happens if I should die tonight.” The rest of the section details how the company is prepared to handle the transition in a way that protects the security of the company and shareholder investments. It ends with the assurance, “We have an outstanding group of directors, and they will always do what’s right for shareholders. And while we are on the subject, I feel terrific.”

Take a straightforward approach when owning up to and addressing your own brand threats. Follow these steps:

1. Face facts.

   Where you know you face a risk, admit it. Trying to wish danger away is never a decent strategy. If you’re vulnerable because of lax production policies, admit it. If the public places high confidence in your beloved but aging leader, admit it. The same goes for any other possible threat that could endanger a key attribute of your brand or that could strike at the essence of what your brand promises and stands for. Wherever you think a threat could be lurking, shed light on it. Dare to imagine worst-case scenarios and begin planning to avert the threat and minimize the danger it could cause.

2. Gather a team to discuss risks and responses.

   Form a brand-threat management committee to consider potential threats. Involve not just brand-management staff but also managers from customer service, production, financial management, and other departments. Discuss what kinds of events could trigger a brand threat and how each can be preempted.

3. Take preventive action.

   If the threat is real and the risk is high, address it head-on. Enact new policies. Install new procedures. Establish a succession plan. Create evacuation procedures. Address high-risk behaviors. Take whatever steps are necessary and effective to face up to and reduce or eliminate vulnerabilities that could damage your brand image.

Be Prepared: Planning to Dodge Brand Threats and Missteps

Today, bad news transmits virally at the speed of Internet connections. If the worst happens and your brand reputation is attacked by internal or outside forces, be ready to move immediately to get in front of the story, to remedy the problem, and to assure the public that it won’t happen again.

Public relations professionals talk about a golden hour during which you can control the news and move quickly to save your brand image from disaster. Yet too many companies spend the first hour following a brand threat wringing their hands, pointing fingers, and trying to figure out the steps to take. By the time they’re ready to move, the story is out of their control and being told by others, often with inaccuracies and from perspectives that damage the brand even further.

Commit to developing a brand-crisis-management plan that includes these components:

• Who’s who on your crisis-management team, including who will serve as the primary and secondary spokespersons, who will provide legal or technical advice, and who will help staff the plan.
• Whom to contact in the event of a crisis. Prepare a list with home, office, fax, and cellphone numbers; email addresses; and mailing addresses for
  • Emergency and security contacts
  • Top executives and managers
  • Business and financial partners
  • Media contacts
  • Employees
  • Key contacts in your community, industry, and distribution channels
  • Key customers
• What to say, including what happened, what you’re doing to make it right, and how it won’t happen again — all in terms that describe your concern for the public and not simply your actions to minimize corporate or brand loss. Remember, you can’t plan your exact message in advance, but you can plan what your message needs to convey.
• What your strategy is, including plans for releasing the news, establishing and staffing physical and online media centers, staying active and responsive on social media, handling heightened interest through expanded and even back-up phone and online capacity, and providing ongoing updates regarding how you’re working to remedy the problem and prevent it from recurring.

The following sections cover each of these components in more detail.

Compiling a list of who’s who

To activate a crisis-management program at lightning speed, know in advance exactly who will serve on your management and communication team. Fill the roles explained in each of the following sections.

Primary spokesperson

Each communications crisis needs one calm, knowledgeable person to serve as a spokesperson who presents facts, fields questions, and provides an interface between the media and the brand. In small businesses or organizations, the CEO or the owner often takes on spokesperson responsibilities simply because no one else in the organization has a high enough profile to fill the role. In larger organizations, the person who serves as the communications expert (usually the vice president or director of public relations) assumes the task.

When other qualified candidates are available, many organizations avoid naming the CEO as primary spokesperson. The reasoning behind naming someone other than the CEO is sound: If media representatives are trained to deal with the CEO, they won’t settle for statements from a secondary spokesperson. As a result, if the CEO isn’t available, media representatives may hold their questions, and potentially damaging information lapses may occur as a result.

As you appoint your spokesperson, be sure he or she is trained in your brand story and message as well as in media relations, including how to conduct and manage interviews and media coverage. Also be sure the spokesperson is

• Capable of communicating and presenting information well
• Comfortable and experienced in front of cameras and in media interviews
• Knowledgeable about your organization
• Credible, trustworthy, and an empathetic representative to those both within and outside your organization
• Able to inspire confidence and explain issues clearly and without jargon
• Aware of the full scope of the issue and the range of experts who can provide additional information to reporters
• Calm, sincere, and likeable

Avoid naming a lawyer as the primary spokesperson. Doing so indicates that you have legal concerns, which translates to guilt in the minds of consumers.

Secondary spokesperson

Your primary spokesperson can’t always be on-call, so name a back-up spokesperson with similar capabilities so that a fully informed person is always available to media and others.

If your primary spokesperson is your CEO, be sure that your secondary spokesperson is a high-level company officer or owner who shares similar clout. Otherwise, media representatives will want to wait to talk with the CEO, potentially costing your brand an opportunity to provide breaking news and facts to the public.

Expert advisors

Depending on the nature of the brand crisis, you may need to involve representatives from various outside organizations to provide specific information on anything from medical to legal to police activities.

Ask each outside organization to name its own primary and secondary spokespersons rather than making comments through a list of different representatives. This arrangement helps you limit the number of people who are explaining the crisis to the public. Otherwise, people hear bits and pieces of the story from a mind-boggling number of representatives, triggering confusion and a lack of confidence in your story, business, and brand.

Your CEO

Regardless of whether your CEO serves as the primary crisis spokesperson or not, he or she must lead the response to a brand threat, getting involved in the very first moments and signing off on every element of the communication plan so that no second-guessing or finger-pointing occurs along the way of dealing with the problem.

Knowing who to call

In advance of any crisis, prepare a crisis communication contact list that contains full contact information for the following:

• Internal contacts, including executives, crisis team members, managers, employees, union representatives, and others
• Emergency contacts, including police, security, and government offices
• Media contacts, including reporters, bloggers, and editors at local, national, international, and trade or industry media outlets that have an interest in news of your organization
• Investor and analyst contacts, ranging from local bankers to your shareholders to investors or potential investors
• Community and industry contacts, including your local chamber of commerce, industry or trade association, key partners, subcontractors, and competitors
• Business partners, including customers, suppliers, and distributors
• Special interest contacts, including those that lead environmental, safety, consumer, or other groups that take an interest in your business

List the sequence in which contacts should be made to ensure that those who most need to know are reached immediately and before all others. Also make sure that copies of the contact list are readily available in multiple locations inside and outside your business, including in the offices of your CEO, communications or public relations director, top-level executives, and in password-protected online files.

Working out what to do and say

The first priority of every brand manager is to avoid brand crises in the first place. That’s why it’s important to regularly assess and take proactive steps to defend against the kinds of threats that are likely to attack your brand strength. The chart in Figure 18-1 helps you with this task.

Sometimes, though, in spite of the best efforts, bad things happen to good brands. Should your brand face a crisis, be ready to launch defensive action.

A single set of advice applies to all crisis situations: Tell the truth, be as complete as possible, issue statements immediately, and aim to restore trust as quickly as possible.

Instead of wasting precious moments debating what to do, take the following actions immediately:

1. Activate your emergency communication system by contacting those who need to know first about the threatening event.
2. Convene your brand-crisis communication team.

   Immediately assess the situation. Determine how the situation affects customers or others. Also determine whether the situation affects your organization legally, financially, administratively, operationally, or in other ways.

3. Craft the message you’ll deliver to explain what happened and what your organization will do to address the situation and restore safety and confidence.

   When writing your message, limit it to a few sentences. If you can’t explain the situation in seconds, people aren’t able to grasp and understand it, and they’ll turn to others for what may be erroneous explanations. Prepare a message that meets these criteria:

   • It has no more than three key points that explain the situation, each summarized in fewer than ten words. For each point, prepare up to three supporting facts that your spokesperson can provide as additional explanation.
   • It includes no industry jargon or words that can’t be understood by someone with an eighth-grade education.
   • It’s relevant and delivered in terms that matter to those who are affected by the situation. This isn’t the time to talk about how your organization is affected. This is the time to show you care about all affected parties and are dealing with the situation on their behalf.
4. Name who will serve as your primary spokesperson and secondary spokesperson and what additional experts you will need to call on to explain the situation.
5. Make a list of a dozen or so of the toughest questions you think your spokesperson will be asked.

   For each question, prepare and rehearse a short response that includes the name of the person who can provide additional legal, technical, or other specific information.

6. Have your message and your prepared answers to anticipated questions reviewed and approved by those responsible for the affected functions as well as by your company’s CEO and legal team.
7. Prepare a news release that explains the situation.

   Tell who, what, where, when, why, and how you’re dealing with the situation, using your approved message and Chapter 12’s advice on writing releases.

8. Make your announcement and distribute your news release as quickly as possible.

   Notify employees and all organization insiders immediately before or at the same time that you release the story to news media. In addition to circulating your prepared release, deliver a concise statement that summarizes key points and focuses on the steps you’re taking to achieve a positive outcome for all affected parties.

9. Open a media center where you can meet with reporters in a location that allows them access to the story yet provides adequate distance from the hub of activity so that they don’t overhear unplanned comments.
10. Activate an emergency website, or add designated pages to your online pressroom to present breaking news and background information.

    See Chapter 12 for assistance in building an online pressroom.

11. Constantly update and distribute information that provides situation and response updates, including steps your organization is taking to ensure the safety of people and products.

    Remain consistent, forthright, available, and responsive to all who are affected or who have questions or concerns.

12. When the crisis subsides, assess the impact on your brand and begin work immediately to restore your brand strength by following the steps detailed later in this chapter and in Chapter 16.

Acting with speed, calm, consistency, and unwavering customer focus

A long string of high-profile public-relations crises have taught some of indisputable lessons:

• Don’t wait to address the problem. The longer you stay silent, the longer you allow others to frame the story and spread their version of the facts, rumors, or even conspiracy theories, with damage escalating with each post, tweet, or newscast. Brand silence gets translated to mean a lack of control or a lack of concern. Either is devastating to brand trust. Instead, learn what happened, know how the problem is being addressed or corrected, know where and how the news is spreading, and replace conjecture with facts and solutions.
• Don’t try to trivialize or, even worse, cover up the issue. With 24-hour news and split-second social media commentary, there’s no such thing as a “blip on the radar screen” when it comes to brand missteps. When public awareness and concern about a brand problem or misstep is high, the story likely won’t go away until the issue is adequately addressed and overcome. Being anything less than honest about the extent of the problem creates a situation that requires further elaboration or even backtracking, nicking away remaining brand credibility with each revised comment. Instead, take responsibility. Briefly communicate what happened, what you’re doing to right the wrong, and how you’ll prevent the problem from reoccurring.
• Don’t say no comment. If you truly can’t comment due to legal or other restrictions, admit you’re unable to make a statement. Otherwise, explain that the issue isn’t related to the topic at hand, or that you have nothing to add, which is an apt response to a question that’s already been asked and answered repeatedly. Saying no comment is the worst of all answers because in the ears of others it sounds an awful lot like guilty as charged.
• Spread your response to the story through the same media channels where the bad news is spreading. If your brand mishap is trending on Twitter, sending a news release to traditional media outlets adds nothing to the conversation that’s taking place. For an example worth following (though we hope you won’t need to), consider the Domino’s response to a disgusting video featuring two uniformed employees enacting our worst fears about behind-the-scenes food prep. Within 48 hours and, unfortunately, a million views, Domino’s countered by uploading its own video. With cameras rolling, the Domino’s USA president apologized, thanked members of the online community for making the corporation aware of the video, and announced that even though the employees claimed their video was a hoax, Domino’s was taking the issue “incredibly seriously,” shutting down and sanitizing the location and instituting a review of hiring practices to avoid similar problems in the future. The brand also gave the whistle-blowers coupons worth approximately a year’s worth of free food. Other than wasting 48 hours between the crisis and the response, Domino’s delivered a superb reaction that, most agree, saved the brand’s reputation.

Following crisis communications do’s and don’ts

Whether you’re in the throes of a brand crisis or simply preparing your organization for such a situation, use this checklist of advice as you prepare to face up to public concern:

• Do be caring and genuinely concerned.
• Do take responsibility.
• Do explain the situation immediately in a few sentences that can be widely understood by the general public.
• Do prepare a concise message and share it within your organization so that everyone is talking from the same page and telling the same truths.
• Do be prepared to present complete back-up information and explanations upon request, but don’t offer more information than requested or you risk confusing the message.
• Do avoid jargon or language that the general public doesn’t understand.
• Do keep your employees informed of all new developments.
• Do plan and share remedies for the situation and controls that will prevent it from recurring.
• Do answer questions in a way that allows you to reiterate the key points of your approved message.
• Do prepare updated background information and news releases prior to each new announcement or major interview.
• Do realize that the spokesperson should provide facts that have been assembled and confirmed by your organization and its expert resources and should stick to the approved points.
• Do limit the number of people who explain the crisis to the public. Include only your primary spokesperson, a secondary spokesperson, and a handful of designated expert spokespeople from within or outside your organization who are selected to explain legal, medical, technical, or other aspects of the situation.
• Do rehearse presentations and responses to anticipated questions.
• Do follow up immediately on all information requests.
• Do refer questions requiring technical or legal responses to the designated expert spokespeople.
• Do stay calm and positive and demonstrate genuine care and concern.
• Don’t veer from approved messages.
• Don’t say no comment or ask to be off the record.
• Don’t respond to negative questions by repeating negative phrases. Instead, address the issue in positive terms.
• Don’t delay responding to media. If you need additional time, schedule a return call shortly, by which time you should have the appropriate information to share.

Picking Up the Pieces Post-Crisis

After the crisis — after you’ve moved quickly and transparently to explain, address, and overcome the problem facing your brand, two major steps remain: Following up on promises made during the crisis response and rebuilding brand trust that was weakened during the ordeal.

Following up on promises made

When the heat of the moment passes, details remain to be addressed:

• Provide any information that was promised to reporters, bloggers, customers, investors, or other stakeholders who were aware of or affected by the brand crisis.
• Create and circulate a summary of recovery efforts and corrective measures. Externally, circulate information that audiences will find reassuring, useful, or simply interesting. Internally, circulate assessments of how well your crisis response worked and what additional preventative measures or response plans should be addressed, and how such improvements are being planned.

Above all else, offer thanks and issue compensation, rewards, or praise as appropriate to those who helped you address and overcome a threat not just to your brand but to the people your brand is fortunate to serve.

Rebuilding trust

On an ongoing basis, monitor what’s being said about your brand. Then double your brand-monitoring efforts following a brand threat.

At the very least, increase the frequency at which you study search results for your brand name. Set up Google Alerts (google.com/alerts) to receive email messages each time the brand name or terms you want to study are mentioned online. Also, use free services such as Social Mention (www.socialmention.com) and Topsy (www.topsy.com) to monitor social media for mentions. Plus, do your own searches using browsers and search boxes on social networks to find recent references to your name or to terms that reference the recent crisis you’ve been through.

Use your findings to guide development of responsive communications. If your brand promise has been endangered, create programs to reactivate the pledge you make to your market. For example, Domino’s followed its brand crisis by launching a “Pizza Turnaround” campaign, and the Lean-In organization launched a paid internship program after it faced a damaging barrage of criticism in response to an ad seeking unpaid internship applications.

Never forget: Your brand is your most valuable asset. Constantly protect, defend, and strengthen it, whether that means realigning your brand to address changing market situations or, in the most drastic of circumstances, rebranding it with an entirely new identity if — and this is the rare circumstance — the damage done is irreparable. Make Chapter 16 your brand-repair guide.