Brand Turnaround

I recently read Karen Post's book about salvaging a damaged brand: when crisis (inevitably) strikes and the mob turns against a once-trusted brand, how do they recover their esteem and regain the trust of their customers? The answer is quite simple: accept responsibility, clean up your act, and prove that you have done so.

I don't have the sense this is anything revolutionary, or anything that should need to be said - but if you look to the past three decades of debauchery in the corporate, nonprofit, and political spheres, it becomes fairly clear that people in positions of responsibility still have the hubris to assume that they can get away with the most gormless and/or heinous acts, even under the constant scrutiny of a watchful society.

But in all fairness, there are very few instances in which people conduct themselves as comic-book villains, seeking to spread harm and destruction for the sheer joy of it. Most times, it's trying to cover up a minor error by making a bigger one; or ignoring the side-effects while pursuing a worthy goal; or clinging to business as usual even though the market and the culture have changed.

And all in all, people tend to be forgiving - perhaps a bit overly so - when a mistake made for whatever reason is followed by a sincere apology and an earnest effort to rectify a problem. There's some comfort in that, but it should never outweigh the discomfort at the prospect of failure. Sometimes, that's all that keeps us on the right path.