By Delshad Irani
It’s never been easier for a brand to break up with a consumer than it is today in our authenticity obsessed times where people make themselves up to take a candid morning selfie. No irreconcilable differences, tears or fuss, all one needs is a breach of trust for a separation, if not divorce, to happen. In this age of complete transparency, a non-negotiable expectation people have of their brands, it’s a tweet that breaks the camel’s back. So what’s a little thing like trust? People, nowadays, have tumultuous relationships with brands anyway, so one need not expend too much energy to push them away. To make matters easier, we’ve listed some guaranteed ways to do just that. Now, we’ve left out a few, limited real-estate et al. But liberally use this Dummy’s Guide to breaking a consumer’s trust in the brand. Or treat it as a guide of what not to do. The choice depends entirely on what you want to achieve, dear reader
Keep a Kim Jong-Un like grip on you brand communication.
Whoever said communication today is a two-way street needs to go back to driving school. Learn a thing or two from the Supreme Leader of the hermit kingdom about keeping adoring fans unconditionally loyal to, and in love with, you. How? Just don’t listen to what common citizens have to say. And yes, especially if the twittering is unflattering. Hush the hashtags and ignore the critics, (Alas, labour camps are not an option here.) In fact, pretend discontent doesn’t exist. Who listens to the educated opinion of influencers and critics, anyway? And there are so very many of them. In fact, not paying any attention to what’s buzzing amongst users has its benefits. American brand DiGiorno Pizza didn’t bother reading beyond #WhyIStayed, a widespread discussion between victims of domestic abuse. That was fairly apparent when DiGiorno tweeted “#WhyIStayed You Had Pizza”.
If you’d like to smash trust, don’t acknowledge the naysayers and customer feedback. Certainly don’t follow in the footsteps of, to take a local example, the food chain Faaso’s, or the etailer Amazon, who move mountains to please customers, keeping lines and tweets open 24/7 and directly addressing those who have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with service or product.
There’s another way to go about taking total control of the brand’s destiny. Do what Apple did, a brand with fans who possess the kind of dedication Annie Wilkes (the obsessed fan from Stephen King’s Misery) would find hard to match: Force U2’s Songs of Innocence, an album the company paid $100 million for the right to distribute, upon 500 million iPhone and iPad users, whether they like the Irish or not. Even lifelong devotees who write reams of web pages dedicated to extolling the virtues of brand Apple hated the move. It was the best thing that happened to Microsoft since 1984.
Blame the universe for your blunders.
Never admit one’s shortcomings and mistakes, for, pray tell, what good can come of it? Consider the curious case of an etailer. Just days before Big Billion Day sale, Flipkart went to town allegedly poking fun at Amazon and its chief Jeff Bezos with cheeky hoardings. Not two weeks later, Flipkart’s Diwali super sale brought a section of its shoppers to distressed tears and tweets when the portal failed to keep its promise of giving users the mother of all sales. One incensed arm-chair shopper swore never to buy products on the site again. And she was not alone in taking that pledge.
A textbook case, then, of trust destruction. Or it would have been if the Flipkart co-founders had just shrugged, merely kept mum or given the sort of non-apologetic apology so many CEOs specialise in. Filled with corollaries and dodges like “Sorry if you were upset/offended.” But instead, co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal stood before the world, asking it to forgive them in a note that was a masterclass in contrition and remorse. What they didn’t specifically ask people to do was to go back filling their flipkarts with goodies – whether required or just powered by a deal too good to ignore. But many formerly irate members of the public did that anyway, touched by this act of public repentance and acknowledgment of failings. To say nothing of the people who bought the goods worth $100 million that Flipkart claims to have sold in one day flat.
Be as authentic as a celebrity’s smile.
Temporarily latch onto whatever trending topic or cause that has everyone in a fleeting tizzy. Be phoney, pile on and don’t forget to slap your logo on. Green, pink, the colours of the rainbow or feminism, pick your cause. It’s only paint it’ll fade away quickly. Perhaps corruption or hygiene and sanitation are more your cup of tea? Pretend to bleed for the greater good while doing nothing constructive and the yawning gap between your deeds and your insincerely articulated words will cause any vestige of trust to quickly disappear.
Also, one would do well to look at marketers (the whole lot, practically) who try their damndest to fit in, like the Papa who thinks he’s one of the kids. Blinded by the power and influence of millennials, marketers of all ilk have commissioned the best surgeons to make their brands look and seem younger. There’s no better strategy to confuse both old and new users. And yes, get them wondering whether you can be trusted.
Or, one could try to do something that just isn’t in the brand’s DNA. Just imagine now the damage Dove could inflict upon itself if the brand turned away from its “real beauty” positioning and hired a Kardashian or Kapoor to do the talking.
Whatever you do to break trust do not emulate Tata Tea and Lowe Lintas who for over five years have been hard at work awakening the consciousness of the citizenry with Jaago Re moving from mere TV commercials to online and activation programmes that encouraged people in general and women in particular to vote.
Create ads that’ll make the viewer stupider with every passing second.
Dumbing down a brand’s advertising is a mechanism that has acquired a recent bump up in pace. Just sign on a celebrity that fits the brand like knock-off couture. Stop thinking out-ofthe-box entirely. Stop innovating, really. In fact, take it up a notch.
Look what BlackBerry achieved when they hit the brakes on keeping pace with times, competition and value for the price paid. Even though there are a few hangers-on still, for every BB wielding consumer who refuses to move on, their resolve wavering, there are countless who lost the connection.
Always make promises you know you can’t keep.
After centuries of practice, politicians have mastered the art of promising their constituencies the sky but delivering no more than abject disappointment. Becoming an expert serial promise-breaker doesn’t happen overnight though. But one tries. There are lessons to learn from oral care brands that promise no cavities. Or, for instance, low-cost airlines and telecom brands. Over the years, air-fare and air-time wars have only become bloodier, much to the delight of travellers who salivate at the thought of flying away for the weekend (with data-packs active) at less than the cost of a Chinese smartphone.
Then watch them come crying to the company when they discover a few extra digits in the full-and-final tariff. (It’s them, not you.) Take a customer’s expectations and aspirations to stratospheric heights and then kill the engine to give them an experience damn hard to forget. There’s no better way to end a relationship built on trust.
With additional insights from marketing consultants Harish Bijoor, Nabankar Gupta and Shripad Nadkarni
Source:The Economic Times
Copyright © 2014, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Licensed to republish
RB has launched a new campaign on Strepsils titled ‘Ab Montu Bolega’. As a leading sore throat medicine, Strepsils is encouraging people to speak their mind without any inhibitions. The brand has signed film actor Saqib Saleem of ‘Mere Dad Ki Maruti’ and ‘Hawaa Hawaai’ fame as the face of the campaign.
Myntra has announced the launch of Myntra Fashion Incubator that will provide young aspiring fashion designers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build and scale their brand idea into a sustainable business venture.
