When brands get into trouble, there’s a right way and a wrong way to solve the problem. The ANC’s response to the damage caused by Nkandla is very much the wrong way.
The late, great David Ogilvy, founder of the eponymous advertising agency, once reminded his staff of a very important fact. “The consumer,” he said, “is not a moron – she is your wife.” Unspoken was the call for businesses to treat their customers the way they would treat their wives. The same goes for political parties. By and large, voters are not morons and should not be treated as such.
I was reminded of these marketing basics a week or two back listening to Alan Hilburg, lecturing at GIBS in Johannesburg. Hilburg is an American communications specialist who rose to fame during Johnson & Johnson’s 1982 Tylenol crisis.
For those whose memories don’t stretch that far back, seven people were murdered in the greater Chicago area by an unknown killer who had laced Extra Strength Tylenol (a painkiller) with cyanide. Johnson & Johnson’s dilemma was simple: should it recall the product? And if so, just in Chicago or the state of Illinois? (In those days, product recalls were highly unusual, by the way.)
On Hilburg’s advice, the company went a great deal further, recalling 31 million bottles of Tylenol tablets right across the United States in less than seven days. Its response was quick and very public, so much so that when it eventually relaunched Tylenol 20 months later in new, tamperproof packaging, the product gained significant market share compared to its pre-crisis position.
“Tylenol”, as its known, has become a legendary Harvard Business School case study, a classic example of how to respond to a crisis. How to get it right and not only protect your brand, but even enhance it.
In contrast, marketing history is littered with examples of business leaders denying the obvious. Hilburg reminded the audience of Exxon’s response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in Alaska in 1989 – denial, obfuscation and accusation. Twenty-five years later, that’s still in the courts in the US. More recently, who can forget BP’s Gulf of Mexico catastrophe, forever associated with CEO Tony Hayward’s “I just want to get my life back!” remark?
These are examples of exactly how not to do it. How not only to damage your brand, but lose even more support for it as you go along.
The ANC seems to have spent a great deal of time studying the second strategic route, because its response to the Public Protector’s report on Nkandla comes directly from that guidebook. An initial denial that there was a problem, a half-hearted government investigation, accusations against all and sundry, including the media and the Public Protector herself, delaying tactics during Thuli Madonsela’s inquiry, a series of grudging comments and denials on the report’s release, and finally President Zuma’s “I didn’t ask for it, so I’ve done nothing wrong”.
If anyone is compiling a small booklet of world-class CEO gaffes, Hayward’s might top the list, but Zuma’s words wouldn’t be far behind. BP’s share price plummeted during the Deepwater Horizon crisis; imagine what the ANC would be looking like right now if it were a stock listed on the JSE.
Contrast that with what might have been if the ANC had handled Nkandla the way Johnson & Johnson handled Tylenol all those years ago.
We might plausibly construct a sequence of events and responses that could have included an acknowledgement that “things had, indeed and regrettably, got out of hand during construction at the President’s private residence”. That could have been followed by a pledge of full cooperation with the Public Protector, and, when her report came out, an immediate apology and a pledge by President Zuma to repay some, if not all, of the additional expenditure. All done quickly and gracefully, helped along by a throwaway line or two – “I’m sure we all know what builders are like – how they get carried away, how the costs escalate!”
If nothing else, the scandal would have been over and dealt with at least a year ago and nowhere near a crucial election. Remember that even now, Madonsela is not calling on Zuma to resign, just to repay some of the money. Handled in the way I have outlined, I venture to suggest that Zuma would by this time be even more secure in the Presidency, not surrounded by a pack of opposition politicians and media baying for his resignation.
By its actions – or should that be inaction? – over Nkandla, the ANC has trashed its brand and demonstrated that it really does think that we, the voters, are morons.