The question of how to get people to trust your product is one that everyone asks whether conscious or subconscious. I recently read an article talking about some of Tiger Wood’s endorsers starting to drop the famous golfer over his recent car crash incident. Now for the record I was not there and I have no idea what actually took place that night. What I do know is that Tiger Wood’s Lawyers suck and he has some major damage control to conduct on his brand.
The one thing that Tiger Woods can’t take back about the incident that happened is the forgone conclusion that people have reached about the actual event regardless of their factual accuracy. When people are left to their own devices they will conceive whatever they want based on the limited facts they know. Remember the story about people shooting up grain silos in the middle of the night after tuning in late to the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds?
An invisible line was crossed by Tiger that spoke loud and clear to everyone, that he is as human as we are and has skeletons in the closet. Those two revelations have shattered the trust and opinions people have formed about Tiger over the last decade or two. All of the branding and advertising that Tiger has taken part of by some of the biggest companies in the world have made his likeness to be that of a perfect and happy family man who is extremely gifted at golf. That foundation has been cracked.
I can almost say with certainty that Tiger or another family member called one of his lawyers and told them what happened that night. The lawyer probably determined that the best course of action would be to not talk to anyone, including the police (legally fine in Florida). This has some major problems from a branding perspective because 10 minutes after the event took place, everyone on Twitter already knew about it. Now the world knows about what happened that night, which is worse than knowing exactly what happened.
I have dealt first hand with Tiger’s lawyers regarding a domain dispute. The same course of action was taken with me, in a very lawyeristic form: don’t talk, just hit people over the head with legalese. I decided because of how Tiger’s lawyers went about the issue I would put up a fight as I was legally right and they had no real leg to stand on. Had they simply opened up dialogue with me and expressed what they wanted, I probably would have simply given them the domain.
What does all of this have to do with getting people to trust your product? Simple. With the advent of instant communication and the Internet, brands can not go about things the same way they used to. Listening to lawyers all the time can damage your brand just as much, if not more (even if they are legally right). I am sure Tiger’s lawyers were doing the right and correct thing from a legal standpoint, but now Tiger is losing endorsements and suffering for lack of transparency. The brand water has been tainted.
People who get a hold of information that is not resolved will want a resolution. If your brand has an issue, the best thing to do from a brand standpoint is to address that issue head on, hopefully via the same medium. All of the lawyers might cringe when this happens, but what is worth more, the brand’s integrity and future profitability or having that lawyer around?
Don’t get me wrong, this is not a post about how bad lawyers are. This is about the court of public opinion for which lawyers don’t hold degrees. When this type of problem arises with your brand, it is important to think about legal and social ramifications of the solution. Once done, some things can’t be undone.
*picture from http://pspinc.net/wordpress/?p=495
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Wow Josh, that is AWESOME! You know, you're absolutely right. Whether its this little tangle for Tiger or the next corporate scandal, the right thing to do is man up.
You brushed another great point too. It appears that Tiger has spent a TON of time and effort trying to tamp down this little blip on the map to protect his advertising empire. The reality of it is that the damage done to his image may be WORSE than just owning up to whatever happened, and moving on.
You hit the nail on the head… people want a resolution. If there had been a statement the next morning… even if it was bad… it would have resolved the curiosity of the public and we'd be on to talking about something else already. We really are that shallow most of the time.
The application here for us as marketers and social/network natives is to work hard to do the right thing, and work harder when you screw up to be transparent, sincerely apologetic, and do everything we can to fix whatever we broke. We won't be able to ask for any of the trust back… we just have to do the right thing… an it will come, eventually.
Great post as always Josh!
@jtrigsby
Josh–Very good insights, and of course, you have first hand experience!I have seen this same thing in the corp world. large companies are controlled and manipulated by lawyers. Lawyers do not care about the company's bottom line or brand position… they care about covering butts. With that mentality, I have seen Fortune 500 companies make decisions to have zero presence in social media. And time and time again, something negative comes out about said company on youtube (Dominoes pizza and plates being washed in the parking lot for example) and because lawyers told the company to suck it up and shut it up, major damage was done.Lawyers are not paid to "be out there" and "ride the cutting edge," they are paid to take the road that gives them more billed hours and follows precedence.The problem is that the internet is truthfully only 15 years old, and web 2.0 and social media are younger than that, so there is no good precedence to draw from. With no previous legal grounds to refer to, lawyers are lost and archaic, thus you have the Tiger Woods drama blowing up and Perez Hilton fueling the flames.sad sad,Al
A trial can be a very good way to increase the trust that potential customers have. Also, testimonials can be a great tool.
I'm sure Tiger lawyers have feasted on his bank account. The reason? Tiger doesn't have the IQ to blow up helium balloons at a Mall parking lot carnival. If he wasn't blessed with his athletic talent, a 7-11 store would have fired him because he couldn't learn to fill up the slushee machine. Totally retarded human being and I mean no offense to mentally retarded persons.
Lawyers aside, you can't blame advertisers for dumping him as they have an image to maintain, and his humanity aside his image is rather tarnished.
He would have been much better off to front up and admit to his failings rather than let the media run wild with it. I bet you that had he taken this course it would not have blown up the way it did.
As to getting people to trust your product, the way to do that is to never give them any reason not to trust it. Be honest in all dealings and when an issue comes to light, rather than sweeping it under the carpet, it's way better to deal with it.
Lawyers aside, you can't blame advertisers for dumping him as they have an image to maintain, and his humanity aside his image is rather tarnished.
He would have been much better off to front up and admit to his failings rather than let the media run wild with it. I bet you that had he taken this course it would not have blown up the way it did.
As to getting people to trust your product, the way to do that is to never give them any reason not to trust it. Be honest in all dealings and when an issue comes to light, rather than sweeping it under the carpet, it's way better to deal with it.