The Harvey Weinstein scandal has prompted a snowballing national conversation about sexual assault in the workplace. Historically, a handful of brands have been able to bounce back after a high-level employee or board member was involved in a scandal. However, most of those cases have involved activities other than sexual misconduct, like cooking the books, anti-competitive practices, or in the case of Brian Williams, false reporting.
In the last few months, allegations of sexual misconduct have spread rapidly from industry to industry, with fresh stories surfacing on almost a daily basis. We haven’t yet seen the magnitude to which these stories will impact the standards to which our society will hold brands. Could the radio industry be impacted in the coming weeks? Is there more fallout in local TV?
It is likely that those standards are only going to get higher, says Media Information Bureau guest columnist Deb Gabor, founder and “brand dominatrix” of brand strategy consultancy Sol Marketing.
By Deb Gabor
One of the latest scandals to involve sexual misconduct involves popular NBC News personality Matt Lauer, who has seen an abrupt career downfall amid lurid accusations of improper behavior.
In a statement, an NBC executive claimed the network heard its first complaint about Lauer only very recently. However, accounts from NBC employees who either witnessed, or claimed they were the targets of, Lauer’s inappropriate behavior toward women suggest that the popular anchor’s behavior may have been going on for years and that the network not only knew about it, but covered it up.
An NBC executive has said that the organization is conducting an “internal investigation” into Lauer’s alleged sexual misconduct, rather than bringing in an external investigator, and that anyone with knowledge of such behavior would be dealt with in the “most severe way possible.”
This latest NBC scandal raises eyebrows about a track record of internal cover-ups and failures to report on sexual harassment at NBC – from preventing Ronan Farrow’s detailed report of allegations of sexual assault against Harry Weinstein, to burying that infamous 2005 Access Hollywood recording of Donald Trump’s lewd off-camera comments about women.
A brand is like a magnet that attracts stakeholders – viewers, employees, advertisers and stockholders – who share beliefs similar to those held by the organization behind it. An organization’s brand is not only how it “shows up” on the outside (its image), but also expresses the foundation of what it values and how it operates on the inside (identity).
What if Matt Lauer were a star personality at your radio station, or the top-rated news anchor at your TV station?
The way a company handles itself in a crisis can make or break its brand.
Once a company removes a high-profile employee for sexual harassment or assault, at the very least, the following basic rules for weathering a crisis should prevail:
1. Be human. Express regard for victims (and don’t ever blame them). Acknowledge incidents. Above all, apologize.
2. Assume responsibility. Don’t try to cover anything up. Answer people’s questions and concerns.
3. Communicate directly, and address issues head on. Don’t let emotions cloud a response. Respond only with what you know to be true, so the narrative doesn’t take on a life of its own. Don’t use cleverly worded statements in the passive voice to distance the company from the incidents.
4. Act swiftly to remove the offending individual(s) from their posts.
5. Get ahead of the story. Investigate fairly by involving individuals from outside your organization. Get your facts together. Proactively communicate. Let all your stakeholders – internal and external – know what you know and what you plan to do about it every step of the way.
6. Reinforce and publicly assert your beliefs and values as an organization.
7. Do something substantial to prevent the problem from ever happening again and let your employees and customers know about it.
Whether or not a brand can withstand crises involving their business leadership or talent depends largely on how the organization conducts itself in general, as well as how it conducts itself in the face of controversy, which can set the tone for how the brand will fare in the long run.
Certain news media brands are designed to be polarizing. For example, FOX News has a base of fervent, die-hard fans and enemies. FOX News fans love FOX News and those who dislike FOX News hate it. The FOX News brand has a very distinctive editorial point of view, a clear picture of their ideal, archetypal viewer, and programming geared directly to that persona. Emotions run so high around the FOX News brand, that it’s potentially at higher risk for long-term damage to the brand should the behavior of its leadership or talent veer off-course from the current brand identity. This past year FOX News suffered a 21% decline in its favorability rating, which is likely due in large part to all of the scandals surrounding the network in 2017.
NBC News, on the other hand, has a large base of avid viewers, but without the emotional intensity FOX News fans. NBC News is a network that actively shies away from scandal and conflict. The brand is very much an “everyman” type of brand that seeks to ensure it doesn’t offend viewers rather than appealing to viewers’ deep-seated emotional hot buttons. While NBC News viewers are justifiably shocked about Lauer’s 20-year pattern of vulgar behavior, they may be even more disappointed that the news organization actively engaged in covering it up.
NBC took swift action to remove Lauer from its post. But, it continues to avoid fully owning up to its wrongdoing, which ultimately makes the network look worse.
Although his apology was far from perfect, Mario Batali did a good job at fully owning up to his mistakes. Elon Musk also handled a crisis at Tesla admirably.
If your media company ever faces a scandal such as the one NBC is facing now, this is how it should be handled. Apologize. Own it. Investigate fairly. Stop it from ever happening again.
As the head of Sol Marketing, Deb Gabor has led brand strategy engagements for organizations ranging from international household names like Dell, Microsoft, and NBC Universal to digital entities such as Allrecipes and RetailMeNot. Gabor is also the founder of Investorpitches.com, which works with start-up founders.
