Frenemies with Benefits: Engaging Your Critics

Ron Loch
June 6th, 2011
“Like clockwork.” It’s a phrase used to describe a smooth operation, consistency, reliability. But look inside a timepiece and you’ll find that for the hands to move forward they must engage a gear that moves in the opposite direction. For businesses, a similar connection with contrarian forces can help make for smoother operations and greater success. Making “frenemies” can have its benefits.

For most public relations professionals, negative clips and comments historically have been viewed as fires to be put out, often with the overwhelming force of reach and frequency. However, with the dominant role social media play in society today, disgruntled customers or concerned citizens can match the reach and frequency of even the largest Fortune 100 company as long as they have a compelling story to tell. More than ever, a new mindset of engagement is needed – one that embraces contrarians as key stakeholders.

That’s what Domino’s Pizza did in 2009. Despite being the world’s largest pizza delivery chain, it decided to embrace its critics to help improve its product. Convening focus groups of dissatisfied customers, the company’s leadership was subjected to criticisms of its product ranging from the most common, “tastes like cardboard,” to the sublime “there’s no love in Domino’s pizza.” As the market leader, the company really didn’t have an immediate need to change. Being the leader in convenience and price was more than enough to make it successful. But rather than ignore the criticism or combat it with positioning, the company changed its signature pizza recipe, from crust to toppings.

(This post is an excerpt from “Frenemies with Benefits: Engaging Your Critics,” a G&S Insight newsletter article written by Ron Loch, senior vice president at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations. He leads the firm’s Greentech & Sustainability Practice, collaborating with G&S colleagues specializing in advanced manufacturing and energy, agribusiness and food, consumer lifestyle and building solutions, professional services, and technology and general science.)

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The Power of Story Telling

Ron Loch
June 24th, 2010

During my Industrial Ecology class the other night, the professor talked about the influence of stories in the evolution of social and environmental awareness. 

There were Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” which led to a call for meat inspection standards, John Muir’s “The Yosemite,” which inspired the creation of a national park system, and Dian Fossey’s “Gorillas in the Mist,” which rallied support for protecting endangered species. 

Each was a story that connected emotionally with people across social, geographic and economic boundaries to inspire understanding and action.

It made me reflect on a discussion I had last week at a G&S event on CSR leadership.  The particular exchange focused on the challenges of pursuing sustainability in organizations that are highly decentralized.

How do you get divisions that are at different stages in their journey toward sustainability to embrace and align with a corporate directive? 

The answer is to share more stories; stories that will motivate the line worker as well as the division president. 

Forget the PowerPoint slides filled with facts and figures.  Find an emotional connection that will get them excited.  

The outdoor clothier Patagonia provides an excellent example of this with its The Cleanest Line blog.  With stories of outdoor adventure, the blog helps crystallize the importance of both the products they sell and their commitment to sustainability without specifically mentioning either.    

Stories are powerful motivators.  In fact, I think the old saying that starts with “give a man a fish and you’ve fed him for a day” needs to be revised. 

Forget about teaching him to fish.

Tell him a good story about the big one that got away and he’ll want to fish for a lifetime.

(Guest contributor Ron Loch is a senior vice president at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations. He leads the firm’s Greentech & Sustainability Practice, collaborating with G&S colleagues specializing in advanced manufacturing and energy, agribusiness and food, consumer lifestyle and building solutions, professional services, and technology and general science.)

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Let it Flow

Ron Loch
June 17th, 2010

The other evening Gibbs & Soell hosted a CSR leadership discussion with senior communicators and sustainability advocates.

It was pure conversation at its finest.

One question triggered a chain reaction of comments like water rings from a stone dropped in a lake. Speakers turned the tables on the audience, peppering them with their own questions.

And, best of all, PowerPoint slides were banned.

During the networking session that followed, discussions naturally turned to the oil spill in the Gulf.  The estimated flow of oil was reported to be 35- to 60-times greater than first thought.  We debated the impact this news would have on President Obama’s address to the nation later that evening. 

The importance of reliable feedback systems was the common thread between our program’s topic and the White House’s role in the crisis.

The government initially relied on BP’s estimates which proved to be too rosy, and then had to assemble its own team of experts to try to measure more accurately.  As the estimates of flowing oil grew, the credibility of the estimators and of the “Communicator in Chief” declined.

Unfortunately, President Obama’s reputation remains at the mercy of an oil spill playing 24/7 on live video feeds put in place by BP 5,000 feet below the water’s surface. 

When a company pursues a path toward sustainability, it is taking responsibility for the flow of information within and outside their organization.  Without complete and trustworthy feedback, a well intentioned claim of improved environmental stewardship can turn into a growing accusation of “greenwashing” as results prove otherwise. 

And once marred, credibility can be as tough to restore as plumes of oil that have escaped from a deep sea well.

(Guest contributor Ron Loch is a senior vice president at Gibbs & Soell Public Relations. He leads the firm’s Greentech & Sustainability Practice, collaborating with G&S colleagues specializing in advanced manufacturing and energy, agribusiness and food, consumer lifestyle and building solutions, professional services, and technology and general science.)

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