Our brand voice guidelines totally failed during a product recall last Tuesday.

We had to announce a recall for a batch of our snack bars. The official statement was written in our usual 'fun, quirky' brand voice. It used puns and exclamation points. It landed like a lead balloon. Customers on Twitter said we sounded like we didn't care. My boss told me, 'The tone is making this worse.' We had to pull it and rewrite the whole thing in a straightforward, serious tone within two hours. Has anyone else had their brand voice backfire during a crisis? What did you switch to?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosed3218d ago

Been there with a food safety issue last year. Our usual playful tone felt insulting when people were worried. We switched immediately to plain, direct language with no jokes. The rule we use now is that brand voice is for normal times, but during any real crisis, you default to a human, sorry-this-happened, here-are-the-facts tone. It’s not about being fun, it’s about being clear and showing you understand the problem is serious.

gavinw5318d ago

Exactly! It's like how you drop the sarcasm with a friend who just got bad news. Serious times need a straight face.