Building a Resilient Brand

Many years ago, a friend told me that it is unrealistic and naïve to wish for a life of no crisis. Her argument is that crises are critical parts of life’s refining processes, and emphasis should be on emerging a better person from such crises. At first, I didn’t agree with her that crises serve any good. However, over the years, I have come to accept that crises are nearly inevitable, and more important is the resilience that is built, therefrom.
Resilience is the quality of bouncing back, more like the snapback in elastic bands. In people, it’s the ability to survive failure or problems. When it comes to a brand, resilience is just as important to survival. People often ask me how a brand differs from reputation. The simple answer I always give is the degree of resilience. The better a brand’s reputation, the stronger that brand, and the better it can withstand the pressure of failures, missteps, and even brand sabotage.

A particular brand in the Nigerian financial sector has been in the line of fire, more times than comfortable, in the last couple of months. The bank has taken repeated and direct hits, especially in the social media space. Its crises are severe and nearly self-inflicted. As a brand watcher, I must say the brand handlers are doing their best but the bank’s management decisions and policies seem to throw the bank on its sword, each time. Time will tell how resilient it is or can be.

So what does it take to build a resilient brand in the marketplace, one that has earned its good reputation honestly and can survive a crisis? While my six suggestions don’t guarantee a resilient brand, they will help in building trust capital for an affected brand

1: Align your brand promise with your brand experience.
A thin brand promise that is no deeper than words on a webpage is flaccid and weak. Brands “happen” when they are delivered to the customer through every touchpoint and through every interaction. A resilient brand doesn’t just say what it will do, it actually does it. If a brand keeps its promises, then it’ll be trusted and forgiven, when something goes wrong

2: If you make a misstep, own up and deal with it.
Like people, brands make mistakes. We could point to Toyota’s recent problems leading to recalls as great examples of brands that acknowledged their mistakes, talked openly to customers and made it right. It had earned a reputation for excellence already, so forgiveness was easier. MTN did that with its ‘Mama Na Boy’ ad, that year. And by being forthright, they built up even more resilience. You don’t have to be that big to build brand resilience. It grows from taking the time to respond to an angry customer, to making something right, even if you will incur losses.

Read Also: Why MTN is partnering African Union to help vaccinate 7m health workers

3: Listen to your customers and engage them.
Brands are at greater risk now than ever before because of the internet’s ability to increase transparency and reach. That means that one person’s experience or opinion can reach everyone and quickly become everyone’s experience and opinion. The bank I mentioned earlier knows this for a fact, now. Build reputation and resilience by monitoring all touch points carefully and responding to emails, tweets, posts, comments, texts, phone calls and even letters with real answers by real people that acknowledge the issue and make an honest attempt to fix the problem or address a complaint. The personal touch is perhaps a brand’s greatest resilience asset

4: Choose your brand partners carefully.
When Tiger Woods’ brand crashed as a result of his poor choices, the brands that had supported him bailed as fast as they could. Brands no longer stand alone, but are linked to others through arrangements like co-branding, endorsements and sponsorships. When one brand stumbles, then all the brands within its halo can stumble too. Build resilience and reputation by choosing your brand partners with care, and be ruthless if a brand partner no longer shines the right light on your brand.

5: Pay attention to your employees.
There are potential brand saboteurs everywhere and they probably work for you. Unhappy vocal customers can be a problem, but real brand sabotage is usually an inside job. Your employees are the people who have to deliver your brand promise. If they don’t understand how to do that and how their behaviour affects that promise, it’s a problem for your brand. If they are unhappy and you fail to address their concerns properly, that’s a potential problem for your brand.

6: Be patient.
Building resilience takes time. It’s the result of consistent messages, consistent delivery, consistent quality delivered over time to build reputation and trust. So be patient.
Last line: Crisis is no sin. Falling isn’t an aberration but rising from the ground is key, in every way.