Brands Must Decide on a New Consciousness or Business As Usual

Companies are caught in a chasm. Do they pay attention to only their shareholders who demand fast revenue growth and may lean political in one direction or do they pay attention to customer experience and building sustainable products and business models with their customers in mind who may possibly lean in another direction? Many brands have found out the hard way that simply appeasing to shareholders sinks your stock as it's not the shareholders who drive revenue, but the people you sell to.

This is one of the most turbulent times for business. Consumers in control, digital transformation, the inability to equate marketing spend with return on investment, employees moving from company to company and many leaders lacking the creative hybrid skills necessary to thrive. Uncertainty always causes anxiety but now it's at an exponential level. In an era of “tweet risk,” simple conversations can blow up into hashtag movements which could topple giants or elevate smaller outfits to the summit. What’s up today is down tomorrow and what’s down today is up tomorrow. Questions start to pulse through the minds of many in the C-Suite or at the helm of public companies, “What turmoil will we have to navigate next?”

One thing is certain in life and that is uncertainty.

Some brands that have had to navigate this in these tumultuous times recently have been Uber, Under Armour, Starbucks and Nordstrom. All have had hashtags attacking or praising them based on actions they made on behalf of their leadership. I won’t dissect if what they did was correct or incorrect, that’s for them to decide and for their customers to judge. But what I will note to all of you reading this is how you best respond to scenarios in which you are involved will set your future path of success or ultimate brand irrelevance. Remember, customers are in control and they aren’t simply consumers, they are your brand management team in the 21st Century.

So, let’s say your brand gets caught in the crosshairs of costumers because either information is traveling at the speed of light that you need to correct or you have committed errors in the name of non-transparency?

What should you do? Well, how about we begin by answering what you SHOULD NOT DO. One of the things I enjoy about brand strategy is asking questions about how people misbehave more than how we behave. (BTW, if you want to read a great book on this topic, check out Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman). People will react irrationally rather than react rationally. For one reason, people aren’t perfect. That’s what makes us human. People also don’t follow linear customer decision journeys and don’t respond with a “Thanks, you said you didn’t mean it, I guess everything is alright.” In an era of non-truths, they want to see actual actions. While customer journeys and catchy engagement quotes make for good PowerPoint presentations at brand marketing conferences, life isn’t a PowerPoint presentation. In the real world we all live with distraction, disinformation and indecision.

Two things you should not do if you are caught in a disruptive scenario involving a crisis.

1. Don’t issue a PR statement. I know, the PR communications teams reading this are going to debate me about how incorrect I am on this but hear me out. The action you made to get into people’s negative social media sentiment is probably due to an inhuman action in the first place. So why respond with such a callous instrument? Press releases are robotic, inhuman, unemotional and spineless. They come across with a business operational rigidity that will finger you as guilty of your wrongdoing you may be accused of even if you are innocent. Why? Because press releases are from the read-only era. An era where brands had full control. You don't anymore and you need to understand how people actually will share information. Press releases are for shareholders and journalists, not for the masses of people who support you by buying your stuff.
2. Don’t tweet an apology. First, Twitter is 140 characters. Scenarios that involve back and forth language and complex scenarios can’t be solved with 140 characters or tweetstorms. While media people huddle on Twitter, there are better things to do which will show where you stand.

While planning a response, note that a lot of words and statements will come across as crass if you are accused of wrongdoing in this day and age. Because we are now in an era where any statement is considered “fake news” and untruthful. Plus too many words come across as overconfident and overtly promotional. That is not what an apology should contain. Many people have a lack of trust in regard to both media sources and brands. Right now brands are not highly looked upon with respect. There are various reasons for this that I will delve into deeper in a future post but when many, including your own customers have little trust in you, a whole lot of words just note you are unwilling to take action. So what should you do?

1. Make a quick video with leadership speaking directly at your audience. Don't overbrand it, don't make it seem like it's a press tool. Make it like the millions of videos everyday humans make in this day and age. Explain what is going on, ask for their forgiveness, that you are human and made an error and note how you are going to fix it. Videos are visual and have people in them and don’t hide behind a Word document. Then immediately move to action showing you mean it. Actions now speak louder and faster than words. But don’t just leave it there. Follow up weekly with the progress of your actions. Check in on what happened and how you are continuing to pay attention to it. The PR actions in the past were to bury your mistakes. The PR of the future? Owning and learning from your mistakes. Humans actually will give you the benefit of the doubt the more open you are about mistakes and being honest. They won't if you try to hide those errors. Remember, attention spans are to your advantage in this attention economy if you have made missteps. While you are trying to attract attention, it quickly moves onto the next scandal and thus you will not be the trending topic forever. Especially if you show action immediately.
2. Keep a tracker of what this action means to society and your audience. Most people get angry at brands now because they don’t want them pillaging resources simply for greed while not giving anything back in return to society. We are entering a new era of conscious capitalism whether brand strategists believe this or not. Here’s where tracking action is important in terms of being transparent about your obligations. If you plan to donate to a non-profit organization, get that organization to note they received your donation and have them collaborate with you on staying on top of what they plan to do with those funds. In addition, build what these actions are into your corporate culture. Don’t just do it for the sake of PR and to cover up your behavior, have it set new behaviors and beliefs for your brand, your employees and for your customers to mimic.

Granted, none of this will happen if you take the right steps and move into action phase now adopting a new conscious capitalism sorely lacking from the majority of brands in our greed driven economics. Show your customers your beliefs through actions in a proactive manner before you ever must play defense. You may lose some customers based on these actions, but you will win the hearts and minds of those who ultimately matter the most.

Read more about how to remain relevant in the 21st Century with your brand in my new book Disruptive Marketing.

Geoffrey Colon is a communications designer at Microsoft and works on Bing Ads. You can listen to him on the podcast Disruptive FM with Cheryl Metzger or watch him live talking about business topics from the left of center every Friday on Twitter at 2pm PT.