Commentary

Defensive Branding No Easy Task

Defensive branding is nearly impossible unless companies have someone inside devoted solely to watching things. And the job might start with the CEO, whose role is, in part, to manage risk. All panelists said social networking, the long arm of Google make the task that much harder.

That's one tidbit from "Consumer-Generated media: the age of defensive branding." one of the panel meeting today at OMMA Conference and Expo.

David Dunn, GM, and director of worldwide operations at global PR firm Edelman, one of the three panelists, said he was shocked that major companies whose brand reputations have taken a hit recently didn't see it coming, nor gird their loins for it. "It's striking that we should have toy and food recalls through outsourcing, the idea that these companies put trust into others and didn't double check is astonishing," he says. "And what the social media allows people to do is jump all over companies when they make a mistake."

Rob Key, founder and CEO of Converseon, an internet social-network marketing company said a mistake will last forever, thanks to the potential for search results to continue to reveal, within the first three pages, fiascos, bad press, or misconceptions long after they happened and been salved.

"Even when issues go away Google 'remembers' them," he said. "We started looking a year and a half ago at Coca-Cola search engine results. On the third page was 'Killer Coke,' conspiracy theory blog about the company's putative operations in Colombia, proven untrue. Unfortunately there's rubbernecking online where peopel link to it, and that becomes part of the algorithm. It was dismissed in court, but Google Coke' results still serve it. It will be there for a long time."

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