In the past, products have messed up, and with the help of great public relation teams, they have been able to rebuild their image and make the public love them all over again. Recalls of anything from ready made cookie dough to cribs can be a nightmare for a PR firm, especially if there are fatalities involved with faulty products. And let’s be honest, accidents happen and mistakes are made. but how you deal with those mistakes is what can make you successful again. Admitting your faults is what will get consumers to listen, fixing them will get them buying!
Take for example the rise and fall of the celebrity products. There are so many to chose from, but let’s start with singer Chris Brown, who is now more famous for beating up his then girlfriend, singer Rihanna, than he is for his music career. After the assault, Chris Brown said he did not remember hitting her and can’t believe that he would do that. So far I am not listening, not admitting your fault. Brown later said in a statement, “Of course I remember what happened.” Stick to the truth! It’s a good lesson learned in Kindergarten.
Now, of course Brown is trying to rebuild his image with various interviews and tweets about how sorry he is. What he needs to do is fix his faults in the same way a tire company would go back to the drawing board and find out what made their product faulty in the first place. Then, and only then, you relaunch your product out to a skeptical market. If the product is fixed, then we will buy again.
Consumers have choices and base their decisions on many factors – word of mouth, character of company and quality of product. Will we ever love Chris Brown again? That depends on how great his PR firm is and how willing he is to fix the problem. We have, in the past, taken a break from products that made mistakes, and when they fixed what was broken we returned, but even a Tiger can’t change his stripes!
