Apologetic Responses and PR Crises
For many years, the French manufacturing corporation for consumer products, Bic, was criticized for its lines of products that are directly marketed to women, using names such as “Bic for Her” or “Miss Bic”.
A few years ago, the brand crossed a line with the public by releasing an ad during South Africa’s Women’s Day that consumers around the world viewed as very sexist.
The ad campaign featured the brand’s logo, an image of a woman in a business suit, and a statement saying “Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a boss”.
Criticism
Once the celebratory holiday campaign was released, it received backlash from all corners of the internet, with people denouncing the culture behind the ad’s creation, as well as the ad itself.
A number of media outlets also joined in on the criticism, while other market competitors decided to add their own contribution to the negative discussions while pointing out the brand’s misstep.
One of these market competitors was Stabilo, which replied with its own branded image that featured the statement “Look how you want, act how you want, think how you want, work like a boss”, which the brand said was more appropriate compared to the statement for Bic’s campaign.
Apology
Although Bic South Africa did respond to the criticism on its Facebook page, it also ended up making a big crisis management mistake because the statement didn’t pair well with the response to the initial campaign.
The brand released an apology on Facebook stating that it didn’t have any intentions to offend people and that it regretted the campaign itself. Bic also said that it would be making sure no such mistakes would happen in the future.
Public Response
The reason why many weren’t satisfied with the apology and overall response from Bic is that the statement it gave wasn’t enough to overcome the apparent admission of incompetence and lack of compassion that the brand first showed its audience with the ad campaign.
The weak response only ended up further upsetting the brand’s stakeholders, which stirred even more negative comments and backlash on social media platforms.
Lessons
Through the right crisis management plan and honest analysis of the entire situation, Bic could have avoided the additional wave of negativity directed toward its apology and overall statement.
That’s because analyzing what happened and how people can respond to various statements are some of the key stages in crisis management preparation.
With these strategies, companies can better prepare to face any sort of negative public situation and can avoid too much damage to their reputation and public image. Any damage to public image can result in graver consequences such as businesses shutting down after losing the trust and revenue provided by their customers.
Every decision can have a potential impact on a company’s reputation and its bottom line, which means everything should be thoroughly reviewed before it gets released to the public.
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Ronn Torossian’s Professional Profile on Muck Rack
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Ronn Torossian’s Articles on Entrepreneur
Ronn Torossian’s Blog Posts on Times of Israel
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For many years, the French manufacturing corporation for consumer products, Bic, was criticized for its lines of products that are directly marketed to women, using names such as “Bic for Her” or “Miss Bic”. A few years ago, the brand crossed a line with the public by releasing an ad during South Africa’s Women’s Day that consumers around the world viewed as very sexist. The ad campaign featured the brand’s logo, an image of a woman in a business suit, and a statement saying “Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a boss”. Criticism Once the celebratory holiday campaign was released, it received backlash from all corners of the internet, with people denouncing…