Why did Boeing do such an abysmal job of managing the Max 737 plane crashes? It seems as if corporations continue to make the same mistake over and over again. From a public relations perspective, what Boeing did was marketing negligence. What happens is that the situation pulls the CEO in the direction of protecting shareholders from a short-term loss of value, instead of doing the right thing.
Lessons Learned from 30,000 Feet
My takeaways from observing what their CEO Dennis Muilenburg did wrong from the beginning of the crisis.
- Be visible immediately and show leadership. You weren’t out front from day one. You should have been the point person for the media. Don’t hide in your lawyers’ offices. A threat needs a face that says we take responsibility. We care about your safety. We will not fly this plane until we understand what happened.
- Immediately get all the facts out – warts and all. Don’t let details dribble out. Put it all out on the table quickly. You knew more than you initially said according to subsequent interviews that came out after a month or so. Why not tell everything upfront? The public wants to believe you but we can all tell when you are being lawyerly and hiding what you fully understand. It is acceptable to say, I don’t know, too.
- The CEO has to manage the crisis in confidence and trust, not what went technically wrong. I don’t understand plane technology and don’t need an explanation. What I want from the CEO is to regain confidence that he cares about my safety on his planes. Your job was to regain trust and you lose that opportunity quickly by hiding behind a lot of technical explanation. Tell me you screwed up. We will forgive you and so will your board. It is a sign of strength, not weakness and helps repair the reputational damage.
- The marketing challenge isn’t about liability or and money but reputation. As CEO, job one is protecting what the company and the brand stand for in the mind of the public. You do that by caring about public safety and only public safety. Why didn’t you immediately pull all planes out of the air and not wait for the FAA to do this? One word: Tylenol.
- Don’t worry about the company; worry about the public. The company will survive if you put the public’s interest first. You put your shareholders and employees before the flying public. Big mistake. Your brand (reputation) is in the hands of the public, not the shareholders and employees. We the flying public get to decide how we think of the Boeing brand and if we trust it.
- I’m okay if you say we don’t know what happened and we are investigating. On day one, tell us that you don’t want to risk anyone’s life until you solve the problem and are so confident that you fixed the problem, that the first flight will be with all Boeing senior executives, engineers and their family. That gets my attention.
Are You Prepared?
Fortunately, most businesses don’t suffer this degree of challenge that could cost you billions in lost reputation. What happened to Volkswagen is another great case study in marketing negligence. But the advice sticks for smaller problems.
Be out front about the problem; tell everything you know and keep people informed. Leaders are the ones who face this difficult task, but the biggest mistake is thinking you can hide the problem under the rug.
Sorry, a challenge to your brand’s reputation from a defective product or customer service screwup won’t go away. It can take years and millions of dollars to build trust. And, you can lose it in an instant by not stepping up and owning the problem.
Does your business or brand have a plan in place to avoid marketing negligence? How would you and your senior leaders handle an unfortunate situation?
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com The conversation is free, and we can explore working together.
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