Two powerful examples of reputational damage, and how to prevent it.
Inept leaders are often big fans of their own advice. And boy do they take it. Throughout my career I have watched a considerable number of dinosaurs explain their superiority to me, to the backdrop of meteoric change. Monsters always growl the loudest as they fall into the abyss. If that abyss is the reputational damage of a brand, then I would like to suggest that falling into the abyss is entirely optional for leaders.
Consider joining us as we train leaders
to profit from the ASIAN CENTURY.
It is increasingly important in an age of globalisation, and with the advent of the Asian Century, to safeguard brands against reputational damage.
We encourage leaders to learn how to apply multicultural and diversity inclusion through a rehumanised communications strategy. Top down. Adopting an organisational culture that behaves based on virtue.
Learning from the mistakes of others, has high value.
When it comes to brand reputation management in Asia, we suggest to JUST ADD CHINA to your Marketing, Adverising and Digital Agency. We have put a lot of time and effort into mapping out what agencies need to add China audiences to their client portfolios. In fact, one day, we believe a leading agency will end up buying RCN Asia to lead the way in Asian engagement in the Asian century. MORE INFORMATION: https://www.rcn.asia/agencies
A successful Asia agency will establish best practice standards for cross-cultural communications. These standards are based on long-termism. This is due to the excessive costs of earning and then keeping foreign trust and the necessity of ensuring a return to stakeholders through a lifetime value yield. The principles of relationship and communications management apply to Government, NGOs and Companies. A disciplined communication strategy will yield cost efficiency across lifetime value to maximise profitability. Not all bottom lines are focused on profit. We have often worked with NGOs where the key metrics for success are qualitative in nature. The best way to insure yourself against loss of profits or the other desired outcomes, is to invest in building trust in your brand. This applies equally to everyone.
You are going to need to invest in training the key people in your organisation. A quick way to do this is through an Asia engagement enablement program. Learn how to use the technology properly. To achieve this, start from the top down by certifying your key personnel in WeChat for business.
DOLCE & GABANNA (D&B) INFURIATED, AND THEN ALIENATED CHINESE CONSUMERS We see examples of this short sightedness in the story of DOLCE & GABANNA who infuriated and then alienated Chinese consumers with culturally inappropriate marketing. Three years after the controversy, D&B have lost market credibility through reputational damage. READ ABOUT D&B HERE
WATCH THIS RESEARCH BY SIMON YOUNG - THE TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has presented us with, one of our best cautionary tales yet regarding particularly inept cross-cultural communications implementation strategy.
The Australian Prime ministerial team mismanaged Scott Morrisons personal WeChat social media to such an extent that he completely lost it. When I say, 'lost it', that's exactly what I mean. The Australian Prime Minister lost ownership of his personal social media!
This was simply because he and his team, were completely unaware that an outside consultant had set up his social media profile. A third party owned the profile and then simply repurposed it.
Inept reputational damage behaviours can lead to mass scale disaffection by audiences of the brand that leader represents. In the case of Australia, over 1.2 billion people use WeChat day to day. That's 1.2 billion people who are all smarter at using social media than Scott Morrison. THE MORAL OF THE STORY? Once you lose trust, you lose everything. Invest in cultural and diversity training. Establish trust through competency. Then cherish the lifetime yield of trusted relationships. While East and West leaders may not always agree with each other's messaging, we should always
maintain mutual respect. The recommended policy during times of disagreement?
STAY ENGAGED.
