Ever wonder why we were so willing for forgive Marion Barry for getting caught smoking crack with a hooker or why we can't help ourselves in giving Britney Spears yet another chance to revitalize her career and screw up her kids? The psychology of forgiveness is complex. There are people we will forgive anything and there are people we will forgive nothing. Our forgiveness boils down to two very specific things - our love for the person or entity and our overall desire to trust them. Nowhere is this more evident than in our ability to forgive some celebrities anything and others nothing.
What does any of this have to do with marketing?
Reputation management is always a hot topic in marketing- it is where PR crosses paths with shock and awe marketing at Forgiveness Rd. Truth be told there only two real paths to forgiveness in a consumer's mind. Love and Trust. So, how can you earn love and trust through marketing? Take a page from what works and does not work for celebrities.
What are the basic circumstances of forgiveness?
1. We will forgive people we love almost anything. And we LOVE celebrities. It is, in fact, our love for these people that made them what they are.
2. We will forgive the come-back kid. We love to see the small town boy make good, fall from grace and then redeem himself. I call this the Jesus complex. Some celebrities just have a knack for crucifying and resurrecting their careers.
3. We will forgive someone who takes responsibility. We love people that ADMIT when they done wrong, apologize and ask for forgiveness because we all know how hard that can be.
So, let's take a hard look into our ability to forgive Marion Barry of smoking crack with a hooker but not forgive Paris Hilton for being famous for nothing.
Why Can We Forgive Britney Spears for Being a Bad Mother and Lindsay Lohan for Being an Addict?
Britney Spears
and Lindsay Lohan were just the two of the most adorable kids, weren't they? We just couldn't get enough of them. We wanted Britney to "Do it again" and Lindsay to make those Mean Girls nice. Of course, just as they were hitting the pinnacle of success, the green monsters inside us didn't really want these girls to succeed - why should they live the charmed life? And just as we thought that - they satisfied our need with their fall from Grace. Britney married K-Fed in a shotgun wedding, Lindsay started living the real life version of the movie Blow. It wasn't long before both these girls were tabloid fodder and Page 6 regulars.
But, no matter how far these girls fell, we were always willing to give them another chance. Britney is reprising her role of opening the VMAs and Lindsay is shooting more movies as I type. We want them to do well, they have spun the story of a hard life and now they have EARNED a good life. They have difficult family situations we can all relate to and they have suffered, which makes them worthy of another chance.
Why Can We Forgive Marion Barry for Smoking Crack?
When Marion Barry (former mayor of DC) was caught red handed smoking crack with a former girlfriend in a hotel room, he didn't deny it, he faced up to the charges, did his time in jail and eventually was re-elected. Washington residents love this man, in fact after his second term as Mayor, he ran for a number of other political offices in the midst o more drug scandals and was repeatedly elected and in 2007, he was even chosen by a majority of Washington residents and tourists from Madam Tussauds' "Top 10 Wish List," in a contest that pitted him against Cal Ripken, Al Gore, Denzel Washington, Carl Bernstein, Halle Berry, Martin Sheen, Marilyn Monroe, Nancy Reagan and Oprah Winfrey. What is it about this admitted drug addict and felon that Washington fell in love with? He has all the credentials of a hero. He came from humble Mississippi beginnings, went to college and was heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement and was even shot near his heart during the two-day 1977 Hanafi Muslim Siege in which hostages were held by the terrorists. With his folk hero status firmly cemented, Barry claimed DC's love and trust. His personal foibles only made him more human, less perfect, more relatable and the fact he "manned" up to them, even once running under the slogan, "He May Not Be Perfect, But He's Perfect for D.C." made him all the more loved and trusted and worthy of forgiveness and second, third and fourth chances.
Why can't we forgive Paris Hilton for anything?
Now, take Paris Hilton, for instance. The world tuned in to poke fun at her while the po po publicly carted for sobbing tush off to jail. Why? Because we never connected with her- we never loved her - she is a cartoon, a spectacle, someone who was famous for nothing who we perceive as having no talent or work ethic. We don't want her to have more than we have. We don't want her life to be charmed. Her suffering vindicates our lifestyle of hard work and hard earned money. Deep down, we think "see, you can't be born rich and beautiful and get away with it."
Paris popped onto the public radar through Page 6. After recently being expelled from boarding school in 1999, Paris and younger sister Nikki made waves in the NYC club scene. Her fame is derived solely from our fascination with the rich and beautiful. Pars built a career out of flaunting her excessive wealth and ability to get paid to show up at a club or front a product. She worked hard at being completely un-relatable to the average person in her television show, The Simple Life. Because we cannot relate to her life, we could not feel sympathy for her when her private sex tape was released or when she was picked up on DUI and had to serve time for driving on a suspended license. Without being able to relate to her life or connect with her, we cannot love or trust her and therefore, we cannot forgive her.
What have we learned?
When it comes to the art of getting your brand or company forgiven by your customer base, you need to have to, at one time, built a foundation of trust. That means you need to build the brand so it is identifiable and associated with something people can relate to like a quality product, affordable pricing, exceptional service, etc. This kind of brand building and association will help you when and if your brand or company ever runs into trouble. If you have a smaller company and cannot afford billboards in Times Square or prime time television commercials, you can still build a relationship with your consumer through drip email, newsletter, local print and direct mail campaigns. Consistency is key to any one of these strategies.
The other thing that is often necessary for building a foundation of trust is to raise the profiles of your executives. Allow customers to identify with them. It is a lot easier to trust real people than a company or product. Make sure you/your executives name(s) and profiles are associated with the products and or company itself. Use them in promotions and mention their names regularly in press releases. You want to distribute the trust load across your executives, company, products and brands so should one suffer a credibility blow, the others can step in to mitigate the circumstance.
Now, let's say you do run into a hairy situation. What can you do?
OPTION 1: Spin the sob/redmption story- Make people relate to the back story. Help them to understand the suffering that caused the "situation" to show that you have earned a second chance. This works best in instances where an executive has been caught in an untidy personal or business situation. It is recommended if legalities permit to have the person accept responsibility and ask for forgiveness as well.
Example: Donald Trump is the king of executive version of the Come Back Kid from both personal and business perspectives. As an outspoken public figure since the mid 80s, he amassed millions and flaunted his extravagant lifestyle. He was the embodiment of 80s hedonism, yet still managed to be loved and trusted. His persona was larger than life and often acted as a savior for large scale city lead restoration projects even taking on the restoration of Wollman Rink in Central Park at no charge. However in the early 1990s his much publicized financial problems, creditor-led bailout, extramarital affair with Marla Maples, and the resulting divorce from his first wife, Ivana Trump dampened some of the public trust value. But Trump was able to redeem public trust through his business prowess and public profile. He took responsibility for both his personal and business foibles and was able to restructure his debt and eventually re-emerge as a Titan of Business. He was also able to SHOW his business strengths and familial commitment through his television show The Apprentice where his daughter, Ivanka also shined.
OPTION 2: Take responsibility.If you have a faulty product or customer service has been abysmal or the brand is just suffering general credibility issues, use a trusted executive to publicly take responsibility for the problem and offer a solution. By taking ownership of the problem, explaining it and offering up the solution, you can shift confidence in the executive back to the product.
Example: Lee Iacocca (I love using him as an example). In the wake of a failing, near bankrupt brand that the consumer had lost confidence in, Lee stepped in and not only made internal changes at Chrysler but spearheaded a marketing campaign where he publicly guaranteed his product in TV and print ads. He was successfully able to shift the confidence level people had in him back to the brand by taking ownership of the problem.
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Shocking, isn't
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headline. This kind of emotional connection
that compels you to action is the power of maverick marketing. 