Protecting the brand from one incident. involving staff.

Building a brand is often like building a house of matches. It takes a great deal of time to construct, but one small act is all it may take to destroy and it obviously can be destroyed much quicker than it can be built. In many cases it is possible that it can not be rebuilt.

I have been watching the news that came out yesterday about David Ortiz and his being named supposedly as an abuser of performance enhancing drugs. I should say supposedly as this list comes from a report which was to have been kept secret and nothing has been officially verified as of this writing. Obviously for David Ortiz this is a huge blow as he is both a tremendous performer as well as the type of positive personality you don't see all that often in sports.

Still as a marketing professional I have to think about how this effects the corporate entity, that being the Boston Red Sox. In many cases the acts of one individual should and normally do have an impact on the organization either positive or negative. Given the large role that David Ortiz played in winning two world series for the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007 and the near mythic role he assume in 2004 you have to be very concerned if you are the Red Sox.

First of all, I have to assume the Red Sox have some type of crises plan in place for these types of situations. I believe that every organization needs to have a crises plan in place for the possible missteps of employees, especially the critical and publicly visible ones. I believe that the Red Sox issued a statement of support for Ortiz and that in my opinion was a very smart move. They recognized his accomplishments and while supporting him, did not offer him a free pass from any misdeeds he may have committed.

Some companies do not have this option. If you recall a few years back when Boeing hired the procurement General for the U.S. Air Force it was found out that this was a quid pro qo. Boeing realized that in order to protect themselves legally and ensure the survival of their brand, immediate action was needed. They not only fired the woman they just hired, they fired the man who hired her. As it turned out, both were later tried and found guilty of fraud which, thanks to their quick action, Boeing was able to avoid being caught up in the whole mess.

The message here is that you need to have plans in place that protect your brand from the possible mistakes or failings of your staff. The first job of a marketing, communications or PR person is to protect the brand. We are the brand's secret service protection and it's our lives for the brand. I would strongly recommend having a plan in place and I would also strongly recommend that you remember there are people involved here. While it may seem easy and convenient to throw them under the bus doing so may make it look like you are trying to save your own skin and scapegoating these people to cover your own self. Remember, there are 99 ways to go wrong and one way to go right so be wary!