H&M Reputation is Damaged

Ishola Ayodele (Strategic Communication Strategist)

"H&M Reputation is Damaged" is a Huffington post headline on the 15th of January, 2018. 

About H&M

H & M stands for Hennes & Mauritz AB. It is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children.

The Crisis

In an attempt to reposition the company in order to attract the black community. The H&M PR and Marketing Communication team came up with an ad which they believed will appeal to the blacks.

In the ad on their website, a young black boy wore a green hoodie with the inscription "The coolest monkey in the jungle".

Public Reaction

Rather than attracting the black community, H&M incurred the wrath of everybody. There was massive condemnation of H&M. They were accused of being a racist organization.

Rap star P. Diddy, Football Star Romelo Lukaku & and Basketball Star LeBron James were among the many celebrities who criticized H&M.

In South Africa, H&M's largest market in Africa the criticism and condemnation was so much that people began to call for a boycott of H&M's Stores.

 

H&M's Response

1. H&M issued an apology.

“Our position is simple, we have got this wrong and we are deeply sorry,” (The UK Express, 2018)

2. The company withdrew the ad.

The ad was removed from all their marketing Campaigns. 

Results

1. Despite their apology there was still mass boycott call from the people.

 

2. There was protest against H&M.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a South African revolutionary socialist political party held several protest in front of all the H&M stores in South Africa.

3. Disruption of business. The EFF started chasing shoppers out of H&M's stores.

4. According to CNN, Two high-profile celebrities G-Eazy and The Weeknd canceled their contracts with H&M over this racism row.

5. According to CNN, H&M closed all its stores in South Africa after the Jan. 13, 2018  protests by EFF.

Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, spokesman for the ultra-left EFF, tweeted “The time of apologies for racism are over; there must be consequences to anti-black racism, period!”

 PR Lessons

1. The Audience not the brand, organization or leader owns the message.

The earlier we understand this as Communicators the better for us.

H&M got it wrong right from the onset. CNN did a research on the H&M PR team that came up with the ad and found out that they were all whites. In my article titled, 'Communication without Communicating' published in Brandwatch and PR Quarterly magazines. I stated that, the new approach to communication is outside-in.

 Communication does not start with the brand, organization or leader it starts from the mind of the audience because communication is not about talking it is a mind connection.

How Can H&M claim they want to penetrate the black community market without having any black among the people that designed the ad?

How can they claim they don't know that *Monkey*is the racial slur used for blacks by racist?

If it smells like racist, looks like racist then it is almost certain it is racist.

2. There is no short cut to Effective Comm.

I have said times without number that it is not what you say but what the people hear that determines their reaction.

Let us assume that all the members of the H&M's PR team didn't know that using the word Monkey to describe a black person is insulting. (Which is unlikely)

They should have tested this ad with a small group of blacks that are not familiar with their brand and also seek Expert advice.

The 21st century audience is more sophisticated and powerful than most brand imagine. They have their perspectives and biases on issues.

Consequently, to effectively target this audience our message must start from their mind, we must find a way to make them own the message as if it was their idea by using words that provoke our intended meaning in their mind and not words that provokes negative thoughts.

Communication now is not just an art it is more of science, we want them not to only understand what we are saying but also feel what we felt. The old saying of *creating value for customers* has been replaced with *Co-creating value with customers*. And we don't serve customers any more, we collaborate with customers now.

To have access to over 100 case studies with insightful and thought provoking ideas order for the PR Case Studies; Mastering The Trade learning resources. Contact me on 08077932282.

References

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/protests-johannesburg-racist-hm-ad/

http://m.huffingtonpost.co.za/2018/01/15/h-and-m-reputation-is-damaged-brand-strategist_a_23333581/

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/904248/hm-advert-coolest-monkey-in-jungle-racist-backlash-johannesburg-south-africa-protest-eff

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5293006/h-and-m-hoodie-advert-slammed-racist/

http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/13/news/companies/hm-south-africa/index.html

http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/08/hm-accused-racism-childrens-hoodie-7213005/

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/world/2018-01-08-hm-removes-black-boy-ad-after-racism-accusation/

How a PR Stunt Helped a Brand Gained an Unprecedented Entry into a Saturated Nigerian Soft-drink Market.

  written by Ishola Ayodele (Strategic Communication Strategist)

Country: Nigeria

Company: Pepsi Co


 

The Situation

In the early 90s, there was a fierce competition between Pepsi and Coca-cola, each trying to undo the other by launching series of products. Consequently, the launching of new products began to make little or no impact on the market. Nigerian consumers rarely gravitated to buy any new product launch by these two companies. The ads were all looking the same to Nigerians and they could hardly distinguish which is which anymore.

The challenge:

Coca-cola’ Fanta was gaining upper hand and Pepsi had just invented this new product call ‘Mirinda’ which they believe will help them compete with Fanta. The challenge was how to launch this new product in such a way that Nigerians won’t just ignore it as they have been doing to the soft-drinks launch around that time. How do they get Nigerians gravitating to this new Soft-drink?

Objective:

To garner attention and create awareness for this new product in a unique and appealing way.

To secure market penetration

Strategy:

The idea was to create a PR Stunt that will grab the attention of Nigerians and get them guessing as well as making them eager to know what the stunt was about.

Tactics:

1. Since the colour of Mirinda is orange, three characters were created. They were named “The 3 Orange Men”. They looked scary and strange, almost alien-like.

2. Produced short videos of these Orange men doing awkward things like walking, towing car or just seated looking like Zombies.

3. Produced giant billboards showing the pictures of the 3 Orange men in different part of the country.

4. Produced big banners and posters of the 3 Orange men at every major market in Nigeria.

5. The 3 Orange men appeared unexpectedly at a densely populated market or on the pedestrian bridge following each other in a Zombie fashion.

6. Once the three orange men phenomenon had gotten everyone in Nigeria talking and the awareness had reached a very impressive level, the product was unveiled.

7. Unveiled the product via a TV ad showing each the 3 Orange men enjoying a bottle of Mirinda.

Results:

              This PR stunt lasted not more than 3 weeks but its impact was massive.

1. The three orange men caused a scene when they were seen in public. In a couple of weeks, they were on the lips of everyone. People wanted to know where they came from and what they were doing in Nigeria.
2. Millions of Nigerians bought Mirinda just to have a taste.

3. Mirinda got an overwhelming market penetration.

PR Lessons

a.        Research

You will always get the best out of your campaign if you take the time to gather and analyze data about your target audience. Your understanding of their concerns, needs, attitudes, believes and socio-cultural values will add valuable insight and information that will enable you to strategize effectively.

b.       Be creative

If everyone is thinking alike then it means many are not thinking. You need to distinguish yourself from the bandwagon effect. You need to think differently in order to stand out from the pack. You need to understand how to embark on critical thinking as part of your strategic planning.

c.       The Pandora Effect:

Sometimes keeping people guessing can be a way to grab their attention and create a conversation about your brand.

New research suggests that humans are hard-wired to be inquisitive. The study shows that we have an inbuilt drive to find out more about our environment. We are tempted to seek out missing information when the outcome is uncertain. The Pandora effect states that “Our curiosity drives our decision-making process”.

Maria Konnikova, the author of Times bestseller “Mastermind” summed it up masterfully when she said, “The human mind is incredibly averse to uncertainty and ambiguity; we respond to uncertainty or lack of clarity by spontaneously generating plausible explanations”.

As a communicator, you must master the art of using this Pandora effect for if gotten right it will get your target audience longing for answers, answers that your brand will provide. This was the secret behind the 3 Orange men PR stunt.

Nigerians were theorizing, some say they were alien from out of space, some religious people say they were a sign of end time meant to warn to repent from our sins and some other people just think the guys are stupid clowns trying to scare people. The theory is inconsequential what is of paramount concern to Pepsi was that they the 3 Orange was the major talk of the town. Thus, when they unveil Miranda it answered all the questions and guesses.

When your logo contradicts your communication

The Old Logo

This logo is definitely erotic and certainly not befitting of a dentist that cares for not just adult but children.

These are the type of people Dr. Steve Adubato was referring to in his insightful book “What were they thinking”. One will definitely be forced to ask ‘what they were trying to achieve?’

This is a classical case of lack of congruent between verbal and visual communication. Thus, this is a perfect example of a logo failure. 

They have since changed their logo.

The new Logo

  

PR Lesson

Whenever there is a contradiction between the visual and verbal communication of a brand, the visual will always supersede the verbal. Therefore, you must always make sure your verbal communication is in congruent with your visual communication.