Text: Howard Fox: This article appeared in the June/July 2012 issue of Your Business Magazine
Recover from a public relations disaster…
From the trivial – Michael Jackson’s hair exploding into flame during the filming of a Pepsi commercial, to the dire – BP’s Deep Water Horizon oil spill, which killed 11 people and caused a massive ecological disaster; in business, things can go horribly wrong.
Marketers spend a lot of time telling any business that will listen how to create a positive impression. But what happens when things go wrong? Even relatively trivial events (although it must be said that the late Mr Jackson did suffer second-degree burns to his scalp) can inflict massive damage to brand value and long-term business value. While a multi-disciplinary approach is best, it usually falls to the marketers to try to mitigate any long-term damage to the brand and the company’s reputation.
Bad news travels fast, hits hard
Companies, irrespective of their size, are much like high-profile people; they are entirely dependent on their reputation, while the press is in the business of reputation-destroying news. In late April this year, the New York Times reported that Walmart had used bribes to facilitate its expansion in Mexico. The company’s shares lost an eye-watering $10-billion within days. This example shows that you can’t afford to underestimate the speed of impact that negative press (and indeed social media) can have on your organisation. So even those of us who work in organisations a little smaller than Walmart need an effective way to rally the executive troops in a time of crisis. The simplest method I’ve used in the past is a quick SMS event summary to the company exco and directors. Colour coding: green, yellow (advisory), red (urgent executive action needed) and blue (company future in danger). This prevented “crying wolf” while getting the message across when needed.
Years of exemplary reputation count for naught
The minute you think you have it made, disaster is just around the corner. – Joe Paterno (American Football coach, b.1924)
Mr Paterno (now deceased) knew more than most about the subject of reputational disaster. He enjoyed a stellar career as head coach of Penn State’s American football team for over 46 years. The US press still refers to him as “the winningest major college football coach of all time”. More relevant to this article, he was summarily fired in November last year having been accused of “relative inaction”. Upon hearing an allegation from a graduate assistant that a former assistant coach had sexually abused a young boy in 2002, he only reported the incident to university management, but not directly to the police.
Everyone has a duty to do everything in their power to bring child abusers to book and Mr Paterno’s sin was one of omission – i.e. not doing enough to match society’s expectations of him. In the Penn State board’s eyes he was as guilty as the perpetrator himself. His exemplary record for almost half a century, if anything, probably raised the level of expectation people had of him. The board, eager to protect the entire university’s reputation and determined not to be accused of inaction themselves, quickly fired him as head coach, and also fired the president of the entire university.
The same holds true in business. Nothing makes juicier news than the downfall of a previously blemish-free organisation. But there is a second lesson here. Companies are expected to be good corporate citizens. Think carefully: Is there anything your organisation doesn’t do that could be reputationally damaging?
The senator problem
We are the authors of our own disasters. – Latin proverb
You have probably noticed that it is always the American senator who has based his election on clean living and family values who promptly gets caught in bed with someone other than his wife and is ripped apart by the press. In the business world, as in the political world, it’s all about being consistent in your behaviour. If your organisation sets itself up as “virtue personified” you have effectively put a reputational target on your back.
Consider the response to Tiger Woods’ infidelities. Tiger, having a somewhat clinical (some would say “holier than thou”) attitude based on clean living, was ripped apart at the very first suggestion of dalliance. Disgraced, and with his sponsors fleeing, he has never really recovered. Compare that with Phil Mickelson who took the number one spot from Tiger. In spite of rumours of an illegitimate child, that he and his wife were “swingers”, and even that his wife had an affair with Michael Jordan, he has not been crushed. This is because he has always been more of an everyday bloke, happy to show that he’s flawed. It was a much lower risk route to follow given his supposed lifestyle. Let’s not forget, if we put our company’s reputation out there as a virtue (think Woolies), then we are required to work doubly hard to ensure there is no hint of impropriety.
Disasters don’t keep 9 to 5 hours
Prepare to be surprised. – Poster: www.loesje.org
April 2012 was the 100-year anniversary of one of the world’s most infamous disasters. In the dark of night, at 20 minutes to midnight on the 14th April, 1912, and just four days into her maiden voyage, the “unsinkable” Titanic sank. With the death of 1514 passengers and crew, the Titanic remains one of the greatest maritime disasters of all time. As she sank, I’m pretty sure the management of the White Star Line was enjoying a well-deserved night’s rest having just sent their star attraction off on its maiden voyage. Likewise, the Bhopal gas disaster, the world’s worst industrial disaster which killed over 10 000 and injured more than half a million people, also happened at night.
Disasters by their very nature don’t occur conveniently mid-morning on a slow business day. Invariably they happen when decision-makers are unavailable or distracted. So plan ahead. You can’t predict the future, but you can have base plans in place, conceived while not under pressure, which will improve the company’s response time. So:
- Assign specific roles.
- Appoint a limited number of managers who are empowered to speak to the press (and strictly ban all others from comment). This will prevent contradiction.
- Ensure that systems are in place to get accurate information about what has happened.
Nothing is worse than underestimating the problem. “There is no danger that the Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers.” (Phillip Franklin, White Star Line vice-president)
Don’t go yachting
Yachting. Just because you can afford a yacht doesn’t mean you are smart enough to operate one. – www.fakeposter.com
If your organisation does experience a disaster, the public expects a period of mourning from management. It is simply the right thing to do. Ask Tony Hayward. The CEO of BP took a day off from the rigours of crisis management during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to watch his 52-foot yacht “Bob” compete in a posh race in England. Those back in the Gulf whose lives his company had ruined were less than pleased: “Man, that ain’t right. None of us can even go out fishing, and he’s at the yacht races,” said Bobby Pitre, 33, “I wish we could get a day off from the oil, too.” (www.msnbc.msn.com)
Hayward’s comment that he would like his life back, probably didn’t help. President Obama’s chief of staff said that Hayward had committed yet another in a “long line of PR gaffes”. Less than 10 days later BP announced Hayward would be replaced.
Never miss a good opportunity to shut up
If you are in a hole, stop digging. – Will Rogers, American cowboy philosopher
The reality is that most of us won’t ever have to manage a really serious reputational disaster, even though we can clearly learn valuable PR lessons from others’ efforts to do so. But what if you have what should be one of the world’s truly great marketing jobs, Minister of Tourism for South Africa, and the press constantly undermines your efforts with a regular flow of stories of shark attacks, the Shrien Dewani murder trial and reports of Cape Town as a racially divided city (New York Times).
Minister van Schalkwyk recently said that there is no specific plan to deal with this spate of unflattering articles. I am sure that isn’t entirely true. His communications team will no doubt be working hard on the issue. I suspect what he really means is that, based on Will Roger’s advice, there is no plan for a direct rebuttal. If a shark attack happened, it happened, and extending the damage by continuing the debate in the press is often counter-productive.
Pacific Airlines’ marketing campaign in 1967 is possibly the finest example of what not to do. In the years prior Pacific suffered an attempted hijacking as well as a horrific crash in which a suicidal passenger shot the pilot and co-pilot, causing the plane to plunge into a mountainside, killing everyone onboard. In a campaign now part of marketing history, management came up with a controversial marketing message: “Hey there! You with the sweat in your palms. It’s about time an airline faced up to something. Most people are scared witless of flying. Deep down inside, every time that big plane lifts off that runway, you wonder if this is it, right? You want to know something, fella? So does the pilot, deep down inside.”
To add insult to injury, flight attendants passed out survival kits, including a lucky rabbit’s foot and security blanket. When the plane landed, they announced, “We made it! How about that!”
Unsurprisingly business tended to go to those competitors who weren’t mentioning the unmentionable. Sales slumped and Pacific fired the comedian running the campaign as well as two executives. Just months later, the company was sold and became Air West. Lesson learnt.
Howard Fox, Marketing Director of Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) has 25 years’ marketing experience ranging from marketing commodity chemicals to advertising. He holds a Masters’ degree in Marketing and an MBA. Linked In: za.Iinkedin.com/in/foxredone. Twitter: twitter.com/ howardredfox.
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