Out of the Box

Saying You’re Sorry in Marketing

By Menachem Lubinsky on April 26 2010

The marketing media has recently focused a great deal of attention on mistakes and not just any mistakes, miscalculations that cost millions of dollars and often the very existence of a brand. This begs the question of what to do when you realize that a mistake was made. The way Toyota handled its recent debacle with stuck accelerators and SUV’s flipping over is certainly not the way to say you’re sorry.

Some marketers say that it isn’t necessary to say sorry if the actions of the company speak for themselves. In other words, if word gets out that the problem was promptly corrected, so why draw additional attention to the problem. Others say that apologizing for a mistake is necessary irrespective of how the misstep is being handled. Twenty-five years ago the coveted Coca Cola Co. made a monumental mistake in trying to get customers to change to New Coke. Competitor Pepsi successfully got people to believe that the new product was launched so that Coke tastes like Pepsi. That is true, especially since Coke believed that customers wanted a sweeter soft drink. The public rebelled and before long the company said it was sorry, not in words, but in launching Coca-Cola Classic, essentially bringing back the original taste.

Sometimes saying you’re sorry comes when a company redirects its marketing, realizing that they may not have connected with the customer. Many companies launch their advertising and then sit back and wait for the returns. Trouble is that companies may wake up too late that their marketing has either created a yawn or in fact.

Palm, which at one time was the leader in hand-held devices, is struggling to stay alive. It tried last year to make a comeback with the Pre. A prominent marketing publication said that “the advertising was flawed in that it didn’t create an overall image for Palm, nor did it hammer home the products’ features.” Today, Palm is to trying to right itself (a subtle way of saying sorry) by teaming at long last with Verizon and addressing some of the flaws in its original message.

A client who had raised a considerable amount of money from investors couldn’t find the right words to say he was sorry for some bad decisions. Instead, he blamed many external factors for his debacle. In an attempt to turn things around, he sought nearly $1 million for a short-term marketing campaign. But his new advertising never acknowledged his earlier mistakes and the customer was unforgiving.

Whether Toyota or Tylenol, crisis management always calls for contrition but sometimes the message gives the impression that every effort is being made to make sure that they are not too sorry. One marketer compared this to the apology a child might give for hitting another child. “I’ll say I’m sorry but he called me a name.”

Here’s the way one marketing professional put it: “Think of a true failure (Bud’s “Drinkability” campaign comes to mind) and the client marketers, agencies and consultants responsible don’t come close to admitting it before blaming one another, losing budget, or getting consumer reaction that’s so overwhelmingly negative that silver-lining analyses will no longer cover it up. We usually don’t stop driving until someone peels our fingers off the steering wheel.”

What is perhaps most interesting is that if said properly, saying you’re sorry can work wonders. While the public might be unforgiving to someone who tries to rationalize mistakes, they are quite prepared to cut more slack for someone who is truly sorry. And saying sorry alone is not enough. It is important that assurances be given that the same mistake will not be made again. When is Toyota going to tell the public how they restructured their quality control so that the mistakes that were made are not repeated? And when will Toyota actually utter the phrase “We are truly sorry”?

I am not sure what exactly Ford told the world when its ill-fated Edsel failed. I am almost positive that it did not include a line like this: “Our marketing people and engineering team totally miscalculated that you, our cherished customer, will like the Edsel. We are truly sorry for this mistake and pledge that we will in the future gauge your attitudes before producing a new car.” The letter might further say that the company has established a new consumer research division to directly touch base with customers.

You might say that the same would be true for Coke. All they simply needed to say was that they were sorry about their failed thinking that the customer wanted a sweeter soft drink and that they would never make such a mistake again. It seems that some believe that good marketing means never having to say you’re sorry. But the fact is that it is the worst type of marketing.

Out of the Box is a collection of strategic marketing articles that Lubicom has published on various topics, trends and ideas in the marketing world. The articles have been published in the Hamodia weekly newspaper circulated on three continents to a readership of well over 100,000.

The name, "Out of the Box" is a term used frequently in business nowadays to describe creative thinking that is not the norm. It is meant to help a business pull away from the pack or separate oneself from the competition. It is to some extent fraught with risk, simply because it is not the run of the mill thinking, but it is at the same time the key to reaching the next opportunity.