Thrown off-Brand? Get right back on-Brand

Even Brands with the best of intentions and a stellar record can, in the blink of an eye, find themselves caught in a perfect storm of controversy, tragedy, and plummeting market share. The resulting loss of consumer confidence often means that a Brand must struggle to regain its footing in a market it may once have dominated.

A daunting prospect, sure, but not necessarily an impossible one.

BP repositioned itself as a leader in sustainable energy under past Chief Brand Officer (CEO) Lord John Browne. It did everything from changing its Brand identity to building a wind farm in the Midwestern U.S., all in an effort to reinforce its "green-ness". The reinvented BP now stood for Beyond Petroleum.

And then, tragedy — one that even the President of the United States has weighed in on, and one that continues to present an extremely serious challenge to BP's position as a leader in social responsibility.

Toyota, on the other hand, built its success on its relentless commitment to quality — something that happened to be a weakness of its main competitor, GM.

And then, tragedy — one that resulted in a massive global recall that can be traced back to an alarming lack of quality.

A disaster the magnitude of BP's oil spill or Toyota's global recall are obviously extremely difficult challenges for these Brands. Not only have they lost $63 billion and $30 billion in market value respectively, they have shaken consumer faith.

It's dire. But all is not lost. Yet.

What does the Brand Coach coach?

When a disaster rocks the very foundation of your Brand, striking its position with deadly accuracy, it's more important than ever to drive your management plan from the unique space you've staked out in the marketplace.

Take the Tylenol recall crisis of 1982. When Johnson and Johnson learned that its bottles had been tampered with, it immediately pulled Tylenol from every retail outlet across the U.S. and refused to restock until they could ensure it was safe for consumers.

The Brand stood for health, after all.

In less than a year, tamperproof packaging had been invented and Tylenol was already beginning to restore its lost market share and preserve its long-term Brand equity — not to mention set a new industry standard for safety.

The lesson? With Brand discipline and management — appropriate actions undertaken with genuine sincerity and crystal clarity demonstrating what your Brand continues to stand for — it's possible to recover from the unthinkable.