Crisis Behaviour Shows Your True Brand Colours

We spend a lot of time with our clients getting to the bottom of their brand essence; the basic motivations, beliefs and behaviours that make up the way the brand really ticks. You could call it the character of your brand.  It’s what your brand is once you strip away all the layers of marketing razmataz and eye-catching advertising.

It’s who you are when the cameras are turned off.

These are some truly unique times and this is about as good a litmus test as there is for modern brands.  If you want to know what your favourite brand really stands for, have a look at how they are conducting themselves right now.

Here’s something important to remember about behaviour: it’s easy to put on your best gleaming brand smile when times are good, however…

How you behave in a crisis shows your true brand colours.

Here’s a recent example from our own experience:

StartsWithA were recently overseas with a group of people who were facing disruptions to their flights home due to the unfolding pandemic.

Many of the group were booked with a leading global airline (no names) and were swiftly dropped like dead weight right in the middle of the crisis, without an offer of a new flight or travel credit. Conflicting messages were going out through their website and social channels with nobody on hand to answer key questions. The left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing and during the messy process, the airline essentially washed their hands of their stranded passengers.

Simply putting your head in the sand and pretending you don’t have an obligation to your customers at this time is not good enough. 

We were lucky enough to be a Virgin Australia passenger. Their website continued to work flawlessly and they provided accurate up to date information through all channels. They made a commitment to their passengers and stuck to it.

We were put on the final flight back to Australia on Virgin and learnt the flight was staffed by a flight crew who had actually volunteered personally to be there. It was inspiring to see how well the whole company handled the situation and the character of the staff was a perfect showcase of the culture of the Virgin brand.  Virgin should be proud of the staff that stood up to crew that flight and proud of the way the whole company handled the situation in general. I can’t praise them enough.

I am curious to see what the PR fallout will be for the other airline once their angry passengers finally get home and start writing about the experience

So, how should your brand behave in a crisis?

Here are some key things to consider for your next steps.

1. Is your response customer-centric or self-serving?

In a crisis, what customers really want to hear is how you are going to help them. You may need to make tough decisions and adjustments to the way you work but your customers want to hear how this impacts them.

• Try to communicate the actions you are taking and the desired impact you are hoping to create, particularly how this will impact them.
• Avoid fishing for sympathy or begging for support at this time as many of your audience will be struggling to stay afloat themselves.
• Work out a strategy to address the challenges you face and communicate this strategy to your audience in a way that shows how it will impact them.
• The situation is changing day by day so be prepared to update and communicate your current approach regularly as you get new information. 

2. Are you making the situation worse?

Scared people make short-sighted decisions and often say things that do not help a bad situation. In times of crisis, people also share information that can make a situation worse. It is usually meant with good intentions but sharing information that is not factually correct or that isn’t official in a time of crisis can create more problems than it solves.

• Try to not post information through your social channels that you can’t back up or that your company won’t honour.
• If you give misleading information to your customers that you change your mind on the following week, you will do more damage than saying nothing at all.
• If you don’t know what your plans are yet, tell them that.  Honesty is better than false promises (or lies).
• Look for ways your brand can solve the current problems people are facing. If you can identify a problem, you can innovate the solution. Get your thinking cap on and see what you can solve.

3. Are you being authentic or simply virtue signalling?

Any time there is a hot new cause that captures the publics attention, there is an endless queue of brands clambering to get in on the action to show how much they care.  You have to ask yourself, is what I am promoting during this time in line with our beliefs and behaviours as a brand? 75% of respondents to Kantas COVID-19 Barometer agreed brands should not “exploit” the COVID-19 situation to promote the brand.

A heartwarming message of support from your brand is hollow if it isn’t in line with how you usually do business.

Putting “we all stand together” through your social channels means nothing if you are getting your products built in sweatshops by kids in Asia or paying zero corporation tax in the countries you operate. Ethics shouldn’t just be a marketing trend you jump on when it’s in fashion.

I have seen a few brands jumping on the “social distancing” logo trend (e.g Audi, Volkswagon, McDonalds).  Is this promoting a powerful message or a “cool idea” the marketing team thought would be good to jump on during the crisis?

4. Are you staying on brand?

If you find yourself behaving in a way that is in contrast to how you usually behave as a company, this will come across as disingenuous attention grab. You can do what you like through your personal channels but you need to ask yourself if your response to the crisis is in line with how your brand usually behaves. Your brand reputation takes years to establish and suddenly stepping away from it can take years to repair.

Sources: Data taken from Kantar’s COVID-19 Barometer 

5. Take a moment to focus internally

It’s very rare to have breathing space from “client work”, so make the most of it: now is the perfect time to turn the focus internally and get your house in order.

Strong brands bounce back 9 times faster after a global crisis; seize this chance to plan how you want your brand to come out the other side.

Identify ways to increase your brand value with this ridiculously simple exercise.

Brand Baseline is a simple tool that measures the key health indicators of your brand in 15 minutes flat. Your results tell you each area to focus on and the key tactics you need to action to see improvements.