Kill them with kindness

In a digital age of influencers, fake news, and Brexit, the need for genuine, transparent communication from people in positions of power has never seemed more important than it is now.

The world needs to feel human again. With this in mind, are leaders empathetic enough and what’s the stance of brands?

The world cup showed brands how beneficial being transparent and honest in your communication as a leader can be when trying to prove yourself to a post-Brexit nation.

Last summer the UK fell adoringly into the arms of its three lion-lover. Eleven millennial footballers dressed in polyester suits of armour went to battle and almost brought it home. A nation united.

The success of the national team at the World Cup was some spectacular branding for a previously torn nation. Their leader? Gareth Southgate. He supervised the madness of a World Cup campaign with serene, sleek stewardship. He was genuine and empathetic throughout. He hugged opposition players who missed penalty kicks.

Then again it’s easy to get onside with something as trivial as a football team doing well at a football tournament but perhaps not as easy to believe in something as serious as politics.

Brands can choose to position themselves somewhere in the middle, with the unique ability to voice opinions and support movements but be consistent in their approach. They need to establish a consistent tone of voice, a brand language that feels honest and caring and doesn’t fluctuate as much as the form of the country’s football team or a politician’s promise. That way they can be trusted as being human and dependable.

Are we entering an era of emotional intelligence?

Leaders will always be judged on how they deal with a crisis. It’s something that our world is sadly becoming all too familiar at having to deal with.

They’re expected to be positioned at places of crisis very soon after the event. Yes, Southgate was pitchside on the evening the Croats prevailed and his team were knocked out of the World Cup, a microphone was thrust into his dejected face and he tried his best to offer words of comfort to topless blokes around the country on the other side of a TV screen. However, this was a shallow drama and is rendered absolutely insignificant when compared with real-world tragedy.

In the aftermath of horror, how do you appear human?

The Christ Church Mosque shootings in New Zealand meant once again we were forced to engage in the mental gymnastics of comprehension, so no wonder so many were left to marvel at the power of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s response. Heartfelt and raw, as it always should be but so often isn’t.

She refused to use the perpetrator’s name, embraced grieving victims with hugs and through the symbolic adornment of the hijab, she pleaded for “sympathy and love for all Muslim communities.” Rumour has it the second time she addressed her mourning country, it was with words organically developed on a forty-five minute flight back to parliament.

Here’s a leader with a human touch. The outpouring of support for her in the days that followed her speeches was a justification of how effective her honest communication was.

In contrast, some argued that Theresa May’s initial failure to meet the victims of Grenfell had exposed a lack of empathy on her behalf. Ardern’s actions feel disturbingly rare in modern politics, regardless of what side of the fence you sit on.

It’s an accusation that has always been levelled at politicians. World leaders existing through their spin doctors rather than themselves. It’s reminiscent of two under-age kids stacked on top of each other under a very long coat pretending to be something they’re not.

After all, there’s always been confusion as to whether Tony Blair’s poignant “people’s princess” speech after the death of Diana was actually his own or simply spun by Alistair Campbell behind the scenes.

It’s public knowledge that spin doctors exist in politics so I suppose while they’re in operation, it’s always going to be difficult to decipher how heartfelt politicians can actually be.

But then is it just politicians who can be untrustworthy in their communication?

Let’s look at the branding world. Telecommunications company ‘AT&T’ mercilessly found an advertising opportunity in the tragedy of the World Trade Centre: “You can take pictures of the scarred New York City skyline to remind yourself of the tragedy that struck that city those years ago. Therefore, buy AT&T phones.”

Nice.

It’s obvious that now is a time for a clear, empathetic tone of voice to be adopted by brands. Just like football managers and politicians, brands need to show they care and have our interests at heart.

Starbucks CEO Kevin R. Johnson demonstrated class when managing a crisis at one of his chains in Philadelphia after two black men were arrested despite their only crime being that they were sitting down while they waited for a friend to join them. Johnson’s response was swift and humane: “I want to apologize to the community in Philadelphia, and to all my Starbucks partners. This is not who we are, and it’s not who we’re going to be. We are going to learn from this and we will be better for it.”

He didn’t shy away from responsibility and use a nonsense PR spin to worm his company out of the situation. Instead, he appeared considerate and understood the basic need to apologise.

Own your brand’s language

We live in societies where language is scrutinised and analysed more than ever before. Brands need to use language that is sympathetic and progressive. Understand the importance of transparent communication. Helping to understand a clients’ moral code is crucial.

We recently worked with Luminate, their focus on ‘independent media’ deals with sensationalism over considered reportage, contributing to declining trust in the media, the spread of misinformation,

Part of the branding process focused on articulating what they do as a company. Direct language was vital but we had to consider tonal subtleties — they work across countries with differing political and social norms. This sensitive approach showed them to be a brand that was caring, not wanting to be inflammatory with any of their language.

When branding, choose a voice that reflects the company’s values and also feels trustworthy because essentially, we all need to feel cared about in the same way that the crying Colombian midfielder was after he missed that penalty and Gareth Southgate put his arms around him.

Written for opx.studio

Article first published on OPX Medium