What McDonald's Got Right - and Wrong - About Communicating in a Crisis
Dear celebrities, We hate you.
The people.
So read one of the countless negative YouTube comments responding to Gal Gadot and her celebrity pals’ recent cover of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Everyone involved in the making of this video should be thrown in jail,’ said another.
Gadot’s crime? She was tone-deaf – literally and metaphorically: preaching nihilism and atheism at a time when people crave structure and community; lecturing about open borders in a world freshly decimated by a transnational virus; and instructing the general public, foraging for essentials and trying to hold on to their jobs, to “imagine no possessions”.
The video was an excellent example of how not to communicate in a crisis. If a brand were to mishandle things in such a way, it would alienate customers, scare investors and confuse staff, while ushering in a lasting and costly impact on corporate reputation.
Virgin may epxerience this in the coming months, after the company - founded by Caribbean island-owning billionaire Richard Branson - petitioned the government for taxpayer-funded financial aid. Twitter has not been kind.
The good news is that from the NASA Apollo 13 disaster to KFC running out of chicken, history offers examples of how, with the right insight, brands can use communications to handle crises with aplomb, honesty and good humour. The bad news is that, when it comes to if and how a brand can and should respond, each brand has to find its own way.
In times of change – and crisis, especially – there are always opportunities for brands to show their value. But someone once said of marketing, ‘if you’re not entertaining, you’d bloody well better be useful’. Which, for any brand owner in doubt about what to do communications-wise during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a useful litmus test.
Research conducted by GlobalWebIndex in early March explored how people in the US and UK were feeling at this time of rapid change and heightened anxiety. The results show that 80% had made “at least one change to their day-to-day lives” in response to the pandemic.
In this respect, many brands can legitimately find ways to help their audiences navigate difficult times – US retailer Fairway’s launch of a ‘skip-checkout’ app to aid distancing and minimise contact being a case in point. Similarly,
Audible is offering free stories to children now unable to go to school, and Unilever is donating £50m towards a campaign to encourage a billion people worldwide to wash hands and disinfect surfaces, distributing millions of hygiene products to the developing world. Meanwhile, a number of brands are looking to help develop masks and products to protect the front-line workers dealing with those most unwell with the virus.
But what to do if your brand isn’t on our minds? Well sometimes, it is better to say nothing at all. Mundane offers of thoughts and prayers can sometimes go beyond bland platitude and cause actual financial damage thanks to hollow, inauthentic and clearly self-serving sentiment in a time of crisis.
Some may be tempted simply to reflect the mood of current culture, but this too can be a mistake. Brands emailing customers with Coronavirus updates on a scale unseen since GDPR may be fuelling news-cycle trauma – sometimes known as ‘headline stress disorder’ – via their valued customers’ inboxes.
That said, there are opportunities for brands to grasp in terms of marketing in difficult times. And, for a significant number of brand owners – an obvious example being food retailers, on whose services in times of crisis customers particularly depend – there is a need and expectation that they respond. So, in such cases, what should they do?
Three important principles should be applied for brand communications to be effective in coming weeks and months.
First, get the message right. McDonald’s store-closing messaging (ahead of many others having to close), was about doing something for the greater good, it was authentic and transparent by underlining that it was painful but right.
When it comes to anything related to COVID-19, utility in particular is key. This starts with what you are saying, and why. It also depends on authenticity and transparency, and any message being genuinely useful or expert as well as practical. So don’t communicate any message – or image – that is abstract and vague.
Second, get the tone of the message right. To resonate with consumers in a crisis, tone is key. Coca-Cola’s social distancing ad in Time Square was inconsistent with a core value of the brand – being social. As a result it felt inappropriate. There was, similarly, a backlash against McDonald's social distancing logo.
Third, brands must follow an appropriate strategy. Lessons relating to this are also clear from what happened following 9/11. Interviews with CEOs conducted in the months after highlighted the importance of visible leadership from the top, leading from the front and centre; speed and agility of response; openness; honesty; and speaking with one voice.
As we all stumble blindly towards the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, it is the responsibility of all brands to ask themselves: if and, if so, how best to respond. The next step is to hone an appropriate, meaningful, purposeful and responsible communications strategy. This can only be done effectively if the brand’s actions are legitimate and can add real value. In times like these, strong brands can get even stronger.
