Fall from grace

The brand image and legacy of Punjab National Bank (PNB) has been sullied in the recent financial debacle, touted as India’s biggest banking fraud. But PNB is only the latest in a whole host of brands to have faced a major blow in the recent past. Whether this nationalised bank is successful is re-establishing its brand equity and wiping out the damage done to its legacy or not, only time will tell.

Akshar Peerbhoy, COO of advertising and branding agency MAA Communications says, “The biggest loss is that special place you have in a happy customer’s heart, which translates into affection and a preference for your brand. That’s the hardest loss to deal with.”

But big brands on the whole have the wherewithal to restore their tarnished images, feels brand experts. Only if they follow certain restoration norms.

Nestle India’s Maggi fiasco of 2015 is a case in point says Peerbhoy. “The company stood up to the crisis at hand, halted all sales, took its time to sort out and fix the issue (with the product) and only then re-introduced the noodles on the shelves. If the brand stands firm, owns up, sets things right; it constitutes the basis to win customers back.”

So firstly, a brand under controversy needs to acknowledge the blunder and not “run away”,says expert. “Owning up to a mistake and apologising for the same profusely works,” said Kaustav Das, CEO of integrated agency Ralph & Das. Running away from the storm is the worst possible damage a brand can do to itself. “Once you run away, you lose all hope of ever saving your brand. Then no amount of money or marketing can save you from a meltdown,” the expert futher added.

The next step is to communicate freely with all stakeholders involved, address every question, and react in a quick and efficient manner addressing the issue at hand by recalling defective products or offering assurances and explanations, all the while keeping customers posted about progress at each step. “In today’s world of always-on and real time engagement, timing is the key. Every second of silence would test the brand’s strength. When a brand fails to express itself soon in a controversial scenario, consumers believe and accept the negatives as a fact,” Pavan Padaki, author of Brand Vinci: Decoding Facets of Branding said.

Peerbhoy says the successful resurrection of a brand depends as much on early, transparent and sustained communication as it does on the actual steps that are taken to address the situation.

It is necessary to communicate and not react, to take ownership and not dodge the issue. “The key is here to deal with the whiplash, placate irate customers and handle their concerns. Any brand that has successfully resurrected itself has done so because it followed a customer-first approach,” says Peerbhoy.

However, if the nature of the controversy is such that the brand’s loyalists and potential consumers feel cheated or aggrieved, the damage can take a long time to contain, says Das. Moreover, if the controversy is not to do with a product or a service (that can be easily rectified and customers compensated), but with the breakdown in the value system of the brand, or with its ethics, then the brand is under tremendous pressure to bounce back. In such cases, “a declaration of a renewed value system with transparency, along with the demonstration of its intent and an emotional appeal could help the brand to restore itself. In such cases, sincerity of a renewed approach and an emotional appeal is the key,” Padaki said.

But ofcourse, time is a great healer. With the passage of time, the controversy fades out of public memory. “Time is the biggest factor. For example, no one associates Cadbury with the worms’ episode anymore,” Das added.

MIND THE GAP

• Big brands have the wherewithal to restore their tarnished images
   
• This is possible only if they follow certain restoration norms
   
• It is necessary to communicate and not react, to take ownership