Communication Tools
NGO and Activist Attacks
Total victory for corporations in their eternal struggle with NGOs and other resolute activists seldom comes from proving the adversary wrong. By undermining their attacks, you pursue an essentially defensive strategy that can lead to ongoing and important partial victories, but partial victories only.
Total victory, by contrast, is achieved by making an adversary’s legitimate issue your own. Run to the controversy. Run to the adversary. It is more than cooptation of the opponent. It is taking the leadership role on the issue away from the opponent, and, to do so credibly, at the earliest possible opportunity.
Consider clothing giant The Gap, Inc. The multinational corporation has endured more than a decade of on-and-off protest against what activists say are its overseas “sweatshops,” “immoral exploitation” of children, and “shoddy” environmental record. In recent years, sales fell in several fiscal quarters – some say in part because of well-coordinated protests and boycotts in the store’s home state, California, and extending across the United States as well as into Europe and Asia.
But to its credit, Gap business and communications strategists have responded efficaciously to foster fair and humane working conditions in its factories, thereby countering labor-abuse claims with real solutions. As part of its “Social Responsibility Study,” the company established one of the most comprehensive factory-monitoring and labor-standards programs in the apparel industry.
A stellar strategic move, the program earned praise even from adversarial NGOs. Yet activists still target the company and others like it for a variety of alleged offenses – a persistence that only underscores the extent to which other businesses are perennially subject to guerilla attacks, at one level of escalation or another, by NGOs and special interest groups.
The Gap playbook thus offers a prototype of the strategic response we’ve described. The protesters had a legitimate point, but The Gap took a leadership position by acknowledging the problem and working toward a similar advocacy program. The Gap thus went from villain to hero, and a very special sort of hero at that.
If the crisis progresses to a point where protestors and camera teams will inevitably show up at your corporate headquarters – or other company locales – boards must advise precise steps to limit and even eliminate the public relations damage:
- Distribute instructions to employees and security, clearly describing how they should react – and not react – to end or avoid confrontation.
- Assume the activists have alerted reporters and provide talking points for one spokesperson at each office or locale where the protestors are likely to show.
- Stipulate in no uncertain terms that all employees must direct media questions to the communications team.
- Ensure that the police will be on the scene to prevent violence and property damage.
- Videotape the protest for protection in the event of litigation and to counter irresponsible or inaccurate media coverage.
When activists are involved, crisis communications thus demand both strategic forethought and tactical preparation. Rest assured, if you’re not armed on both fronts, they will be.
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