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Peter LoFrumento

Branding & Corporate Communications

Branding & Corporate Consulting Services

Broadbridge helps clients tackle their biggest business and reputation challenges. We work side-by-side with a company’s CEO and senior leadership, providing effective communications support and strategy based on an on-the-ground understanding of the client’s specific needs.

Our depth of experience and expertise covers such key areas as crisis and risk management, mergers & acquisitions, regulatory strategy, media relations, financial communications, employee engagement, investor relations, litigation communications, message development and HR communications.

Brand Down: When Your Boss Gets The Boot

//  by Peter LoFrumento Leave a Comment

Sometimes in business the signs of things to come are right in front of us.

This was the case recently when I was asked to assist the communications department of a prominent lifestyle services company with the sudden departure of their longtime senior executive.  

Her departure followed a rash of similar unplanned high-profile transitions that seem to signal a period of waning CEO tenures. 

They included Kevin Systrom (Instagram), Indra Nooyi (Pepsi), Matthias Müller (Volkswagen), Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs), Les Moonves (CBS), John Schnatter (Papa John’s) and Brian Krzanich (Intel). 

Some of these chief executives were forced out, some exited having guided their companies to relatively solid success, and some simply retired.

But collectively, they serve as a useful wake-up call for board directors and managers who fail to appreciate the importance of having an effective plan to handle sudden executive changes. 

In the case of Instagram, Systrom’s puzzling departure not only disrupted the social media network, but also caused a leadership void in the Facebook-Instagram pairing because Systrom, along with co-Founder Mike Krieger, had shaped virtually everything about Instagram’s culture and product for the past six years. 

Where these cults of personality exist – companies whose reputations largely ride on one executive or a small group of them – the firm’s brand becomes particularly vulnerable following the sudden departure of a key executive (a.k.a key man risk). 

This is because the event itself creates a notion of instability that not only affects a brand’s trustworthiness among customers, but provides a window of opportunity for competitors to maximize. 

It’s much different when an existing CEO or key player announces ahead of time that he or she is exiting and their company has enough time to properly pick a successor and message appropriately for a smoother transition.   

But in the case of Instagram and numerous other companies where executive departures occur unexpectedly, there’s an immediate perception of a leadership vacuum, which stakeholders abhor. 

And the longer there’s a vacancy in leadership, the more likely the media and your competitors will control your company’s narrative and in turn, negatively impact your brand’s reputation.  

Just think about the stories that typically follow a leader’s abrupt departure which feature allegations of customer unrest, poor performance and declining employee morale. 

If your company is facing this difficult scenario, there are few steps you can take to avoid damaging your brand: 

boss

1. Communicate who is in charge. You need to reassure stakeholders that someone has their hands on the wheel.

That is, the company’s continuity remains uninterrupted. It’s business as usual messaging for stakeholders and the media.  

Also, keep in mind that an interim appointment can go a long way to ensuring a smoother period of uncertainty while you search for a new leader.

Setting the tone for an executive exit is as important as planning an entrance strategy for a new leader. 

2. Don’t forget your employees. They are your first and best line of defense, especially when dealing with your business partners, customers and social media.

Realize that they are getting calls, emails and texts, and are having social media interactions with your stakeholders and public as these situations unfold.  

Use this to your advantage by being proactive: meet with key department heads and managers to ensure they have the right messaging for their staffs. Supporting those most impacted by the change goes a long way to maintaining business continuity. 

3. Remember your brand. Your brand is not just the products it sells; it is also the image it creates in the minds of potential customers.

And more often than not, a CEO embodies the company image, and his or her departure can signal a major change in the brand’s promise.  

Remember what happened when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997? Jobs’ success turning Apple around and making the brand synonymous with technical innovation also made it synonymous with him. When he fell ill, Apple’s sales and stock suffered with him. Since his passing, the company has struggled to recover in the areas of innovation, performance and public perception. 

To mitigate these effects, it’s important to remember that your messaging must be consistent with your brand’s tone and voice.  

At best, your messaging should: 

* be authentic and complement – not conflict with – the business brand;

* be as positive and affirming as possible given your particular circumstances; 

* be obvious both internally to the company and externally to the public. 

The Takeaway: Think Outside the Box 

When a CEO or key executive leaves your company, the likelihood that your brand takes a hit grows exponentially the longer you fail to address the situation.  

Instead of traditional reputation management practices, think outside the box by taking the offensive and immediately showing how your management team is actively engaging partners, customers and employees.  

Faceless organizations are easy to turn into piñatas for your competitors and the media.

However, when you demonstrate care, your brand becomes more human. And then you can better control the narrative and curtail a larger brand crisis.

Now that’s a sign of something!

Category: Blog, Branding & Corporate CommunicationsTag: branding, communication, instability, planning, reputation, trust

3 Tips Managing Your Brand Crisis

//  by Peter LoFrumento Leave a Comment

Boeing Gets Its 737’s & Reputation Grounded: 3 Tips For Managing Your Brand Crisis

Brand leadership is easy when things are good and everybody’s happy. When times grow tough, however, a brand’s true authenticity is quickly revealed.

For Boeing, times couldn’t be tougher. Since the heartbreaking second crash of its 737 Max plane this week, the U.S. has joined several dozen other countries in grounding the aircraft, adding to Boeing’s woes as more than $25 billion has been wiped off the company’s market value.

And things aren’t looking up anytime soon.

Boeing investors ended this week by rushing into derivatives markets to protect themselves from further steep falls in the company’s share price. The sale of puts soared to 237,000 contracts on Tuesday – 20x the average daily volume – and has remained elevated since. At the same time, the cost of hedging against a further 10% fall in Boeing shares has close to doubled.

The market is simply reflecting what most of us are already thinking: Boeing’s handling of this latest tragedy hasn’t been very good.

Of course, given the scope of this crisis, Boeing would certainly face difficult questions and investor fallout.

But adding unnecessarily to its woes has been Boeing’s lack of effective leadership in its response. 

Brand reputation is a fragile quality. Leadership, especially in times of crisis, is necessary to preserve it.

Here are three tips that you can distill from Boeing’s missteps this week that will help maintain your brand’s reputation when challenged:

1) Core brand values come first. For Boeing, its core brand value is safety. In fact, on Boeing’s website you can read its brand value statement: “We value human life and well-being above all else and take action accordingly.”

Following the second crash, Boeing could have been proactive and grounded the 737 Max jets themselves while addressing safety concerns. Instead, they took the path of least resistance, foregoing their core brand value by announcing, “we have full confidence in the safety of the 737 Max 8.”

The company missed a critical opportunity to lead with its core brand value: safety. 

Here’s why.

According to reports, there are roughly 380 737 Max 8s in service. In North America, Southwest operates the largest fleet with 34, while American and Air Canada each have 24.

The question these numbers raise is what kind of company which values life ‘above all else’ – and has such a small number of these planes in service – would display absolute confidence in an aircraft after two deadly crashes inside of five months? And to do so before the NTSB completes its investigation.

The answer is a company that is now perceived to be more concerned with its own corporate reputation and bottom line than the lives of passengers. Boeing had the chance to lead by grounding the planes because they truly ‘value human life’.

Takeaway: Don’t abandon your core brand value when things get tough. If you do, the price you pay in the Court of Brand Reputation is steep.

2) Own your Sh*t! Boeing is largely responsible for its current reputational position. By reaffirming the safety of the 737s and not taking any action, the company put itself on the defensive. With more than 40 countries insisting on grounding these planes, Boeing put itself into the unenviable position of defending the continued use of the 737 Max, even as airlines and regulators argued for safety.

Takeaway: Own up to the challenges that come your way. Show your stakeholders that your core brand value is authentic enough to withstand scrutiny.

3) Understand Your Situation. In one of its more puzzling moves this week, Boeing announced that it had a software update to the 737 Max that makes “an already safe aircraft even safer.”

Excuse me, what? Haven’t you been insisting that the aircraft is already completely safe?

Absent the circumstances of the crashes, such an announcement makes sense. But in light of the ongoing investigations, what could have been a meaningful software announcement for its business only frustrated Boeing stakeholders further. It’s difficult to message an important software safety upgrade for an aircraft you’ve been professing absolute confidence in for several days.

Boeing’s executives misread the situation in a way that dangerously delayed a successful response.

This troublesome misread is reminiscent of the United Airlines case in 2017. If you recall, instead of apologizing for humiliating a passenger, the airline’s CEO (Munoz) apologized for the inconvenience caused to other passengers. As a result, the company and Munoz both came under intense criticism. Munoz had to apologize again and United suffered a major reputational setback that translated into heavy revenue losses. All of this happened because United Airlines misread the gravity of the situation. It is, therefore, necessary to understand a crisis thoroughly to ensure a timely and correct response. 

Takeaway: With the right approach and messaging, your brand can survive almost any challenge. Remember that when you face a crisis, your customer also faces a crisis. Put them first and then be their source of information and communication. If not, they will find it elsewhere and your brand’s reliability will suffer.

Moving forward, Boeing might do well to adopt an approach to their corporate culture in which bad news can not only flow, but also be recognized and acted upon.

A resilient brand responds and adapts to adverse circumstances. So that in those tough times, your brand can emerge from a crisis strengthened, both internally and in the eyes of key stakeholders.

Category: Blog, Branding & Corporate CommunicationsTag: adversity, Boeing, brand crisis, branding, crisis, public appearance

Nothing Stays in Vegas Anymore

//  by Peter LoFrumento Leave a Comment

Top 3 Brand Reputation Management Lessons Courtesy of United Airlines

It was the shriek heard around the world.

The seemingly mild-mannered Dr. David Dao being forcibly removed from United Airlines flight #3411 earlier this week.  It was a move that caused United Airlines’ stock to lose $800 million in value on Tuesday, and the company to suffer nearly a full week of severe reputational hemorrhaging.

If you’re like me, you’ve seen, heard and read enough about this sad incident, so I will spare you from any recap. Instead, let’s take a quick look at several lessons from United’s experience that brands should take note of in this digital age of reputation management:

1) Nothing Stays in Vegas anymore. 

If no news is good news, then bad news will travel globally and fast. As humans, we are wired to share stories. And with social media, any crisis can go viral in a matter of seconds. So if something happens, understand that the likelihood is great that someone will have pulled out their phone and recorded it. Brands should adapt their social media policies and practices to accommodate this fact — and this means being proactive on social media when something does go wrong.

2) Forget the lawyers and put people first.

Most crisis teams include attorneys. Rightly so, but there are situations, like in the case of United, where their counsel to refrain from admitting anything is less than useful.  Just re-read United CEO Oscar Munoz’s first statement on Monday. His corporate double-speak – “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers” – failed to address the most important part of his apology, which is acknowledging the violent behavior that led to Dr. Dao’s suffering.  

It only goes to prove that empathy and sympathy go a long way, and even saying sorry can quickly defuse a crisis-in-the-making.  Why? A heartfelt apology can reduce anger and importantly, provide your customers with the feeling that they are being heard.

3) Be Consistent.

If you recall, Mr. Munoz’s first statement was from a leaked internal email intended only for United staff. While it reassured employees, it did little to provide any comfort to an already outraged public. In the minds of United, they wrongly thought they could communicate different messages to different audiences. They forgot a simple truth: in our new world order, everyone is listening during a crisis. You have to assume that what you say internally will eventually become part of the public conversation. So please be consistent in your messaging.

Nothing stays in Vegas anymore, and that has put brands under intense public scrutiny. To avoid United’s reputational fate, own the issue by being proactive (especially on social media), putting people first and ensuring consistency in your messaging. This will enable you to bring any crisis to a resolution in the way you want it to be managed or resolved. 

Category: Blog, Branding & Corporate CommunicationsTag: management, management consulting, reputation, reputation management

By the Time You Hear the Thunder, It’s Too Late to Build the Ark

//  by Peter LoFrumento Leave a Comment

Why PR is Essential to Driving Your Brand Campaign

If you’re not convinced, just ask Mark Zuckerberg.

After his lackluster performance before the United States Congress, you can bet that CMOs will be voting with their budgets this year, as unreliable Facebook metrics, fake news and poor transparency have brands questioning their spends on the platform.

And adding insult to injury, we live in an age where any small misdemeanor (or worse) can be magnified within the media in a matter of seconds. So it’s no wonder that despite their best efforts many brands, like Facebook, have lost the trust of their business partners and users.

facebook trust

Think of it this way: platforms like Facebook are enjoyable if that’s your thing. But being able to depend on it? It’s no longer a brand people trust.

How did they lose this trust? How can they get it back?

Whether you’re in a branding crisis like Facebook, or are about to rebrand your company, a central key to getting the outcomes you want is to include effective public relations (PR) campaigns that complement all of your branding efforts.

With Facebook, they failed to properly get positive brand messaging out prior, during and after their Congressional appearances. They weren’t fully prepared.

But Facebook isn’t alone.

Over the last two years, we’ve seen many companies rebrand themselves to keep up with their current customers and deliver a fresh take to draw in new ones. Some have done it really well (Old Spice, McDonald’s), while others have tripped (Harley Davidson, Macy’s).

mcdonalds rebrand

At the highest level, rebranding is repositioning a brand with new messages, products, values, and in many cases, a new identity. It can be a long, arduous process often involving executive battles over logos, words and vision.

Essentially, the success of a brand is driven by how well it’s positioned for its target market and then how that positioning is communicated. Yes, splashy advertising campaigns and creative marketing strategies are always key pieces for the branding puzzle.

But you should also make sure PR is in the mix or you might end up missing the mark on your business objectives.

Here are just a few quick ways PR can help you with branding/rebranding:

build trust

1) Build and Maintain Credibility: if you are in the process of rebranding your company that the world has known for decades, people will naturally be skeptical.

PR can help by laying the proper groundwork before, during and after your launch with the right strategy to ensure you are communicating credible messages and continue to build the right reputation.

Further, the essence of good PR is having someone else talk about your brand rather than the company itself. Third-party endorsements, whether implied or explicit, are often very effective, sometimes more so than paid media. It helps when the publicity results include proof points that reinforce a brand’s proposition or identity. A testimonial is an obvious example, but third-party endorsements can also come with content sharing and social media community-building. 

tell stories

2) Tell stories: ok, storytelling is an overused term, but at its core, it means packaging information into meaningful and entertaining narratives to forge stronger emotional bonds with business partners and customers. And remember, the most persuasive stories are often closer to home; they can be business partner or customer testimonials and employee exploits.

3) Manage brand crises: Certain PR functions, such as talking points development, media training and crisis management, play an important role in branding.

ron burgundy

Just take a quick look at the recent brand challenge facing UPS.

Amid negative brand awareness following package mishandling, UPS quickly initiated a crisis PR campaign to assist their brand outreach.

In particular, UPS proactively decided to quit asking consumers what it could do for them directly, and instead focused on asking what it could do for its employees.

The answer was a year-long campaign called Be the Brand, aimed at educating and reminding drivers that they are the face of UPS day in and day out. UPS made use of Twitter and YouTube to promote the campaign.

With improved delivery rates, higher customer satisfaction and a more positive view of the brand, UPS not only proved it could deliver for its customers, but proved it could deliver for its employees.

4) Focus Executive Leadership: indeed, it all flows downhill. Mr. Zuckerberg’s confused performance before Congress last week was proof enough of Facebook’s deep-rooted brand issues.

follow the leader

As a CEO, he came off as unfocused by failing to distinguish what Facebook’s brand stands for now, following the numerous advertising and political scandals over the last two years.

Instead of using this PR opportunity (it was!) to foster trust to drive growth and make people love Facebook again, Mr. Zuckerberg evaded answering questions on such key issues as user privacy, partner efficacy and Facebook’s business model.

But if armed with a clearly defined PR campaign, Mr. Zuckerberg would have been able to address its failed corporate culture with discursively strong leadership, hint at a dynamic rebrand identity that balanced continuity and innovation, and enhance stakeholder relations by demonstrating a better handle on Facebook’s internal conflicts.

meaning

Simply put, don’t allow your brand to experience the same crisis as Facebook. Strong brands realize that business partners and customers seek not just to buy something, but also frequently to buy into something.

Adding a strong PR campaign to your branding efforts will allow you to take your brand beyond insight to know and understand stakeholders on a personal level.

That’s because when you complement your branding efforts with effective PR, you can directly shape authentic stories that are relevant to your stakeholders, allowing you to connect emotionally and build brand trust.

If you don’t, then you’re simply inviting the thunder and rain to start. And then the best you can do is hope things work out.

There is indeed a chance your brand may survive without effective PR support, but if it does, it will be luck.

rain

And luck isn’t leadership.

It’s gambling.

Don’t forget your umbrella.

Category: Blog, Branding & Corporate CommunicationsTag: building trust, pr, public appearance, trust

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