When creating a communications strategy we often begin—and too often end—by marshalling a litany of facts, logic, sound science and reason.
When the opposition is armed with little more than outlandish claims and emotional appeals, it just seems right that undeniable fact and indisputable logic should carry the day. But each of us in our own way has found through experience that it is just not so. Or, as a sage lobbyist and friend of ours likes to remind us, “In politics, logic is your weakest argument.”
In our enthusiasm to support our argument with an avalanche of economic, scientific and demographic data—speaking to the head—let us never underestimate the value of also showing the human side of a corporation—speaking to the heart. After all, as author John Junor once noted, “An ounce of emotion is equal to a ton of facts.”
As we have often observed, the noise from a relatively small band of activists garners a disproportionate share of media attention because activists have learned that speaking to the heart resonates with a sizable segment.
Emotion, trust get attention
Even in the no-nonsense world of business-to-business marketing of such products as machine tools, building controls and engineered systems, it is generally acknowledged that decision makers buy on emotion and then justify with fact. Why should it be any different in our world—the “softer” world of the marketplace of ideas?
In the glare of controversy and media coverage, science finishes a poor second in the war of dueling sound bites. Experience shows that countering opponents’ vivid, emotionally charged attacks with clinical facts and cold logic plays into the opposition’s hands.
Why? What is the key emotion that sways the constituent and the machine-tool buyer alike? It is simply this: trust. Trust in a brand. Trust in a corporation.
When we add an emotional appeal of our own—personality, if you will—to our arsenal of reasoned facts and logic, we can turn the tide in our favor.
But—and this is key—doubling back to another of our “Rules of the Road,” when we speak to the heart we must stand for something, not against something. Let the other side cast negative aspersions; we want to take to the high road. The high road establishes trust.
It may seem heresy, but most who compose the marketplace of ideas will neither care enough, nor take time enough, nor be qualified enough, to weigh the technical components of any issue. This is why we stress to clients that, while competence and truth are essential to our argument, a genuine, equally truthful ability to relate to, and empathize with, constituents is more important.
As just one example, TV debates are won or lost entirely by who seems the more trustworthy. They are won or lost more on tone than content. If the corporation is perceived as trustworthy, people are more than happy to let the world turn without their intervention. “If it’s not broken; it doesn’t need fixing.” But if the corporation is not seen as trustworthy, then our economic-benefit facts seem so much like proof that we are solely profit driven, and cold technical argument proof that we are a monolithic Goliath ready to run our machine over whomever and whatever gets in our way.
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One of our clients—a global food company—successfully bid for a bankrupt rival’s production and processing unit in “enemy territory”—that is, a U.S. region already poisoned by prominent lawmakers, media and production farmers who had long claimed our client was anti-family farmer and profit-driven at all costs.
Emotion augments facts
All that remained was to secure regulatory and bankruptcy court approvals, but these lawmakers and activist groups made a last-ditch emotional appeal to thwart the sale. Although the opposition scored early points with its emotional attacks on an “impersonal, multinational, uncaring” organization, we augmented our fact-laden, comprehensive communications strategy with a positive appeal to the heart. We characterized the buyer as sharing the same principles, values and ethics with the farmer-owned, co-op company it was buying: Dedication to quality, strong work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaking to the heart, we linked the two companies by their shared approach to conducting business with single-minded integrity.
Our positive, “stand-for-something” approach neutralized the opposition’s negative pronouncements, and we succeeded in securing all the final approvals within 90 days of the initial bid.
Another client company was faced with the dual task of conducting a product recall while limiting adverse publicity that could threaten its well-respected brand. On one front, we developed a crisis communications plan that laid the foundation for a successful recall. Proactive communications targeting the media, distributors, retailers and employees spelled out the company’s action plan to recall the product swiftly.
On a second front, we spoke to our audiences’ hearts by focusing on the client’s commitment to doing the right thing. Key messages included:
• Our company’s paramount concern is for the safety of our customers.
• We have a long history of focusing on product safety and standards of excellence.
• Given our history, we will err on the side of being cautious.
The company recalled 92.5 percent of its product during the first 36 hours of the voluntary recall, and media coverage was limited to the client’s initial recall announcement.
A global livestock company that slaughters animals to produce its food products is a regular target for animal rights activists, who define the company in the court of public opinion as a “torturer and sadistic killer of defenseless animals.” In the past, the company’s primary defense was to repudiate the activists’ labels, citing facts and policies that demonstrated its humane treatment of animals. But to no avail.
Instead of continuing to fall into the opposition’s trap by defending itself against a negative, the company now is defining itself by speaking to the heart. It is embarking on a campaign that defines what it stands for: putting food on the world’s tables.
The most successful at issues management are those companies that sound, act and behave with the honest emotions of a single individual. That “individual” can still be authoritative but must have an uncanny knack for reaching the soul of an issue and establishing a connection of trust, as well as mere authority. And it cannot just be “P.R.” It needs to come from the soul of the organization. |
