With Michael Vick’s sentencing dominating the headlines today, we thought it might be appropriate to share a few insights with regard to the dilemma of brands, powerful personal identities and crisis management. In short, if you’re the owner of a brand like the Atlanta Falcons, how do you deal with a marketing mess like this?
By contrast, think about “Colonel” Harlan Sanders (Kentucky Fried Chicken), Truett Cathy (Chick-fil-A) and Ray Kroc (McDonald’s), to pick on the fast food category for a moment. All of these amazing entrepreneurs recognized the importance of establishing a franchise and a brand separate and distinct from their personal identities. Please note that we’re not saying that their personal identity did not have significant impact on their respective companies. In all these cases, they had tremendous impact in shaping and ensuring disciplined (sometimes brutal) execution against the brand promise. Sure, if the Colonel went out one night, tied one on, and careened off some Kentucky back road into a barn with the local farmer’s daughter, the story would hit the papers. However, the backlash would have had minimal repercussions for the KFC franchise or fried chicken sales because the actions of the individual would not have been so tightly bound to the promise of the brand.
Which brings us back to Vick’s dilemma — how does Arthur Blank , the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, deal with a situation where the brand promise, the franchise, and the individual player are inextricably linked? Ironically, the fact that Vick was participating in an illegal dog fighting operation has little if anything to do with the promise of the Atlanta Falcons brand or the other talented players on the field each weekend. However, in the court of public opinion the allegations have everything to do with consumer perception of the brand – which has the potential to have a dramatic impact on consumer intent to purchase Atlanta Falcons tickets and related sports merchandise.
Of course, being the marketing scientists that we are, we’ve come up with a straightforward scientific method for dealing with just such a situation. It’s a survival marketing strategy that we call S.A.V.E. We’re happy to report that Arthur Blank and his team have already taken some steps in the right direction, but the jury is still out on whether they will be able to pull off the SAVE… SEPARATE, ASSERT, VALIDATE AND ENGAGE.
The first step is to SEPARATE the source of the crisis from the core business. In this case, suspending Michael Vick and moving quickly to terminate his contract were very wise moves. At the first hint of any potential impact to the brand, the Falcons separated and deflected the heat away from the franchise and related products – drawing a clear distinction between the positioning of the team and the positioning of Vick’s personal case.
Separation creates room for the company to ASSERT the positioning of the brand as distinct from the case and the media attention surrounding the crisis. Asserting the positioning means working overtime to connect with the core customer base through whatever channels are available to reassure them that the crisis has little, if anything, to do with the business. In this case, The Falcons have taken admirable steps to isolate the crisis from the core business and reassert their positioning.
Asserting the positioning of the company is a great move, but the company must quickly VALIDATE the impact in the market to determine if they are achieving desired results. What we mean by validation is getting in the market and talking to channel partners and consumers to determine how good a job marketing communications have done to reassure the target audience that the core business will be unaffected by the crisis and promises will be kept. By validating, the company has the opportunity to re-position the brand entirely before it is too late. In the absence of validation, a company can quickly be drawn into a death spiral where their comments and assertions actually reinforce their negative positioning and accelerate their demise – need an example here? Remember what happened to Arthur Andersen during the Enron debacle?
Assuming the messages are working, the company then has to ENGAGE customers and consumers in a robust dialog about the brand, the company and their products — in this case, separate and distinct from the team’s star player. In other words, you have to sell the benefits of the brand not the individual personality. Easier said than done when your superstar quarterback is headed off to 23 months in the Federal pen and your three backup quarterbacks aren’t exactly lighting it up… But, if the target is sufficiently engaged, the company will actually begin to reap the benefits of distracting attention away from the crisis. Strange as it may sound, the company may even see a significant up-tick in sales and profitability if they are perceived as handling the situation openly, honestly and with genuine concern for the needs of their customers and consumers. It’s amazing how customers will recognize and reward sincerity and genuine character if a company is bold enough to take a stand for the needs of their customers – a stand that is rooted in values and beliefs that mean something.
The Falcons may have a terrible record on the field this year, but the team will be back next year. Vick won’t be back for a few years (at least) and the only team that might touch him then is the Oakland Raiders!.
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