MONTREAL — Justin Kingsley challenged Canadian Produce Marketing Association convention attendees to be honest to consumers, a critical step to regaining their trust.
“Warren Buffett once said it takes 25 years to build a brand and five minutes to ruin one,” Kingsley said during an April 3 CPMA session. “That’s not true anymore. One click and you can ruin your brand.”
Kingsley, author and strategist, is a former creative director for the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens and developed award-winning communications strategies for Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Georges St-Pierre.
He contrasted Facebook’s slow response to the scandal of selling personal data to Cambridge Analytica for the purpose of manipulating political campaigns to Maple Leaf Foods’ head-on approach to a 2008 listeria outbreak.
“What we need from our public is the benefit of the doubt that we’re not lying to them,” he said.
The CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, Michael McCain, faced the cameras and took responsibility for the company’s part in the outbreak, Kingsley said.
“This poor man faced the cameras every day for weeks and months,” Kingsley said. “But when he finally came out and said we found the problem, here are the steps we have taken to correct the problem, we believed him.”
“Maple Leaf foods is still around; they saw the crisis as an opportunity to do things better.”
While the produce industry faces competitive challenges and consumer misconceptions, Kingsley said the industry and individual companies must take on the positive mindset of Pangloss, a character in the 1759 novel “Candide” by Voltaire.
“Pangloss is an interesting character because he loses a hand and someone says, aren’t you bothered about losing your hand?,” Kingsley said. “(Pangloss) goes, ‘It’s a great opportunity to perfect my other hand.”
Brands can build trust being consistent and being strategic, but also by being emotional, to connect with consumers on a “gut” level.
He urged brands and companies to understand their unique competitive characteristics, what they are fighting for — and what they are fighting against.
“That is the most difficult thing to understand to identify — what your real opponent, your real adversary is — who are you really fighting against?”
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