Cos Rework Strategies for Online Reputation

Rush to experts to insulate the image they have created over years from such shocks

For many brands, the backlash over actor Aamir Khan's intolerance comments has offered a lesson on the perils from social media. Several of these companies are rushing to experts on social media and online reputation management to rework their strategies and insulate the image they have created over years from such shocks.

The Khan controversy generated more than six lakh tweets on the actor over the past week, according to data compiled by social media analytics firm Blueocean Market Intelligence. Snapdeal, the ecommerce company Khan endorses, was the hardest hit, with many of those tweets and comments on other social media platforms calling to boycott the brand for its association with the actor.

“We are getting queries from some of the brands that the actor is associated with. They reached out to us to understand how they can rework their strategies on social media,“ said Anees Merchant, Blueocean's senior vice presidentdigital. “Brands need to be more proactive on social media. It can't be just a one-off marketing effort anymore, but needs to be part of a larger organisational repertoire management system.“

About 82,000 tweets were generated on Snapdeal between November 21 and 27, the week the controversy erupted, compared with about 4,800 the previous seven days, the study showed. Incredible India, the government marketing campaign that Khan is associated with, generated more than 6,000 tweets last week, nearly two and half times more than two weeks earlier.

Godrej, which earlier had Khan as its brand ambassador, was mentioned in about 1,700 tweets compared with just 64 two weeks earlier. While Godrej was mentioned under tags or discussions around 'BSE', 'investors' or 'global' in between January 14 and 20, words like 'fool eyes', 'appwapsi', 'turn', 'think', 'dropped', 'disowning' and 'boycotsnapdealgodrej' surrounded the brand in the week the controversy erupted.

“What happened with companies like Snapdeal can happen with any company and can become a big problem,“ said a company executive, who didn't want to be named.

Words like 'shop', 'buy', 'thanks', 'offers' and 'great' were the tags around Snapdeal, which turned to 'booted', 'accountable' and 're moved' last week.

“From a business outreach perspective, we will continue working with different agencies, and the scope of our social media strategies will expand as business expands. We have a fullfledged digital media marketing team in house and they actively engage with different agencies,“ said a Snapdeal spokesperson.

Brands also seem to have been at the receiving end on discussions on other issues. With `Say no to cricket with Pakistan' trending last week, many users took to Twitter to express their displeasure and announced their intent to boycott all brands that might get associated with the series.

“I have seen the outrage on social media directly impacting the topline and bottom line of brands,“ said Merchant. Such incidents shouldn't be taken lightly.“

Akash Bhatia, cofounder and CEO of Infinite Analytics, said social media has gained a lot of ground, and is not something that can be ignored by brands any longer. “Brands like Gap have gained or suffered greatly owing to social media and brands need to put more resources behind it,“ he said. Brands and companies on their part say they have been doing their bit to expand their presence on platforms.

Sweet Dreams Are Remade of This

Brands feeling the brunt of anger directed towards their rather loquacious brand ambassador Aamir Khan must understand that the best way to handle such flak is to maintain an 'out of sight, out of mind' policy -Khan being out of sight for a while, that is. Public memory is notoriously short. And as is the case with memory, an unfortunate moment that can trigger a negative response can be dealt with by associating that moment with something new, nice and more memorable. If not with a new face or campaign, then certainly with an inviting offer.

The Economic Times, new Delhi, 4th Dec.2015

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