Negative branding could be a make or break for your business. In a digitally dominated press landscape, a brand slip-up could go viral in seconds. Therefore it’s crucial that you’re ready to handle the consequences.
77% of online users read local reviews of the businesses they interact with before making a purchase. This means that, now, brands can no longer hide from bad PR.
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Instead, many are using negative PR as a chance to jump into a viral position online and turn the story into a success. They say all press is good press. So let’s take a closer look at how you can turn the tables in the wake of a PR crisis.
How Does Negative PR Impact Your Brand Reputation?
Media Relations play a vital role in the health of your business reputation. As a brand, creating a postive relationship with the media can see your business fly high amongst competitors.
Those who connect with local journalists and powerful influencers and build a loyal online presence find themselves popular with target consumers and well-respected amongst the press. This, in turn, encourages sales and establishes the brand as an authoritative player within the industry.
However, those who find themselves in the thick of a PR storm see quite the opposite. Historically, brands that face negative press fall down quickly, especially in a competitive market. Without successful crisis control, negative branding can lead to:
- Damage of Reputation. If your business is the subject of negative press, it’s no surprise that your reputation is likely to be tarnished by the event. Depending on the scale of the brand error, companies can lose loyal followers, investors and even their pot within the industry. Whether it’s one product being questioned or the whole business is embroiled in scandal, it’s vital that a brand acts fast when targeted with negative press.
- A Drop In Revenue. If a product or service is wrongly promoted or negatively spoken about in the press, your brand is likely to see a drop in sales. This could lead to an overall decline in revenue.
- Loss of Trust. Losing loyal customers is usually the last stage of a negative PR storm. These are your cheerleaders, and they are usually the ones who will hang on until the company begins to sink. While trust takes years to foster among consumers, it’s important to know that you can lose it in a moment.
While reputational damage is common when a brand is under fire from the press, fast thinking and positive crisis management can aid it in weathering the storm.
The question is, could you take negative branding one step further? Let’s take a closer look at some of the ways you can turn negative PR into a branding success. And a few brand examples leading the trend forward.
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Respond To The Mistake
The most obvious first step in turning negative branding into a PR success is to respond to the issue in question.
When reconstructing your branding, transparency is often the best policy. Customers not only respect business honesty, but they are more likely to be forgiving if you own up and apologise for your mistake.
No matter if it’s an error or timing, judgment or a product fault. Most consumers believe in second chances, so a swift response time could leave your reputation intact.
Take this example from Victoria’s Secret. Their ‘Not So Perfect’ PR campaign is the perfect demonstration of a brand taking responsibility for a marketing mistake and seeing a PR campaign pay off.
In 2014, their lingerie campaign, sloganed “The Perfect Body,” in the background of a shoot full of small framed supermodels, undoubtedly raised questions about brand ethics.
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More than 30,000 consumers signed a petition to take the advertisement down. The result? The brand immediately took action and changed its slogan, model images and messaging to “A Body for Every Body.”
Viewing the campaign’s new direction as a step towards a more inclusive future, online customers received the switch-up in wording surprisingly well and created a positive buzz surrounding the brand.
Promote Your Brand As a Problem Solver
One way to attack negative PR is to re-promote your brand as a problem solver. If you come under fire for marketing misspeak or a product fault that has gone viral amongst your demographic, it’s time to solve the problem head-on.
Instead of allowing negative press to consume your reputation, generate positive press to counteract it. Release statements about the good things happening within the company and quickly counteract negative PR with a positive solution.
If reviews state that you need to change your product, launch a new product campaign that addresses the new features you’ve added. Ensure that your customers know that their feedback has been taken on board. What is more, respond to the storm with a solution that inspires new conversions rather than a simple apology as you salute your falling sales.
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Humour Is Your Greatest Weapon
In times of trouble, humour is your greatest weapon. One of the key benefits of a negative press storm is that everybody is talking about your brand. Whether this is on social media or within the local news, now is the time to strike with a viral content strategy.
Picture this. It’s Christmas 2015, and Reese’ has released their holiday campaign, the Reese’s Christmas Tree bar. Only to find that their brand mentions look like this the next day online:
(Image Source Business Insider)
Shock, horror. Due to a manufacturing error, their ‘trees’ looked more like something a reindeer would leave under one.
However, Reeses responded to this perfectly in order to turn this negative PR into a positive branding opportunity.
Releasing their brilliant #AllTreesAreBeautiful campaign in an attempt to address the error with humour, the brand quickly saw their post go viral over social media. As a result, their sales boomed despite recall fears only 48 hours earlier.
Their response was so brilliant it also ended up all over the press. This generated more mentions for the brand than any festive season prior.
Target Existing Customers
Sometimes, the key to turning negative branding around is to target your customers directly. While connecting with influential media relations could see a negative piece of press taken down, the damage is often already done.
Existing consumers are usually the group most impacted by a negative branding mistake. Therefore, addressing their concerns as a priority could help you salvage your reputation.
You should do this though existing channels of communication between you and your target leads. Address your customers directly in the form of social posts, live stories, newsletters and any other regular channel of communication.
You can tailor these messages to your customer’s worries and reassure loyal followers that their faith shouldn’t be lost. This is especially important if you’re a local business. Your closest consumers are likely to engage with local news releases and independent forums.
In this case, ensure that you introduce local marketing strategies to your rebound campaign. These could include holding an in-store Q&A, donating funds to a local charity, or releasing your own statement in the local newspaper.
This method of crisis management can turn your negative PR into a chance to get closer to your customers. We are only human, so admitting to a mistake and being willing to put it right on a personal level goes a long way with most shoppers.
Read 7 Steps to Conducting a Reputation Audit for Improving Your Brand’s Image
Ride The Viral Wave
Last but not least, the most important thing to do is ride the viral wave. Negative press ultimately generates buzz around your brand. If you want to ensure that your reputation remains intact, it’s vital that you profit from a viral press storm.
Take Taco Bell, for example, with their ‘Show Them What You’re Made Of’ campaign.
While this is an oldie but a goldie, Taco Bell is one of the most famous examples of a brand slammed with a PR nightmare that managed to turn the event into a positive branding opportunity.
In 2011, the fast food joint was targeted with a lawsuit that claimed its beef was made up of less than 35 per cent of real beef. It came to no surprise that sales quickly feel as reports hit the media. Taco Bell was on the route to go under.
However, instead of ignoring the negative press the fast food giant decided to build a campaign around it.
Not stopping at simply denying the claims, the brands took charge. They released Facebook posts, YouTube ‘secret recipe’ videos and press releases stating that their produce was 88 per cent pure beef and 12 per cent “Secret Recipe” that was immediately revealed to their customers in creative ways.
(Image Source: Eater)
The campaign soared and was wildly successful amongst fans. In fact, their YouTube video alone got an 89% positive thumbs-up score from viewers across the globe.
In response, the lawsuit was dropped, and the fast food giant rode the viral wave for months to come.
Is All Press Good Press?
As we navigate the future of negative PR management, the question still stands. Is all press good press?
In some cases, the answer is no. In a marketing world driven by cancel culture, there are some mistakes you simply can’t escape. However, in most instances, turning the press on its head with a sprinkle of positive PR could not only save your reputation but send it soaring.
