The lesson in Pope Benedict XVI's apology
The Pope has apologised (I know there are no easy closures on such a horrific issue). But there's a lesson there for Jesse Jackson.Just like there's one for marketers who, as I mentioned before, mess up. Apologise to the consumer. Not many actually do. Remember the 'flaming Fords'?
Pic: http://abcnews.go.com
Comments
It may be considered that the best way brands build positive image , by coming out in the open and apologising publically when something goes wrong.. But actually the opposite might happen.
It actually causes a negative image.
People tend to forget things quite quickly , esp these "damage causing incidents", provided the company works on the corrective action silently and not with a big loud voice with loads of ads ,with personalities from Amitabh Bachan to Aamir Khan to assure the brand is now safe.
eg. Cadbury's and Coke.
(In the case of cadbury,problem actually happened in the Retailers side-I was actually taught by the brand manager of Cadburys in my class)
I am sure everyone would have forgotten the incident totally , if only Coke or Cadbury hadn't made a big thing out of it.The same applies for Nokia case too(the battery problem)
So People get to remember now more clearly the problem,thanks to the company
I am sure there were thousands of brands , that did encounter big time problems,but they played it silently , though reacted sharply to the problem.