5: Game Changer 2: Never Give Up
One of the most significant factors in digging a brand out is the patience and persistence to do so. The period when a brand is under attack is a scary time for the stewards, and their self-confidence is strained in the face of a disaster.
It's then that you will see the dark side of human nature: the mob turns against you, and seems to thoroughly enjoy kicking you when you're down. Friends abandon you when you most need their support. The parasites seek to feed at your wounds. It's a miserable experience.
Giving up seems much easier, and it's a path that has been taken: there are many who have withdrawn in defeat, resigned their position, took their brand off the market, even ended their lives in a literal sense. It's much easier to quit than fight your way back.
But as much as our culture loves to pile misery upon a loser, we also admire those who have the perseverance to make it through hardship and recover - and this can help restore faith in a salvaged brand. However, don't count on much admiration, or sympathy, until you have pulled yourself out of the mire - you're often entirely alone until you have done so.
New Beginnings: One Door Shuts, Another One Opens
There are no shortage of folk sayings that suggest that anything bad that happens is really just good stuff in disguise, and that you'll end up better for having gotten through a rough patch. These are more annoying than comforting to those who are in distress, and they certainly offer no help whatsoever. What may provide a bit of relief is knowing that others have pulled through and recovered, knowing how they did so, and focusing not on the tragedy, but on recovery.
Before getting into case studies, the author reflects on the definition of failure and its impact on people and brands. Of importance, failure is a situation, not a characteristic: it describes a condition, and generally a temporary one: we fail until we have succeeded. Failure does not define character, but character defines the way in which we cope and manage in a state of non-success.
A brief reference to the stages of grief: shock, fear, anger, blame, shame, and despair - people tend to go through this cycle before they regain their footing and focus on what they need to do to restore a sense of normalcy. The emotional impact is worse when dealing with a personal brand, because the person tends to take it personally - when they were being praised, it was comfortable to imagine that the person and their public image are one and the same.
(EN: consider the reaction of ordinary heroes - people who are suddenly being praised in the media over something they did in a crisis. They are not at all comfortable being called a "hero" and feel they didn't do anything extraordinary.)
The author provides a few prolonged case-studies of Michael Vick (football player involved in dog-fighting), Martha Steward (magazine editor convicted of securities fraud), Ariana Huffington (a political author who plagiarized other works) - but the point seems lost in the narrative.
He also tells the tale of a less recognized person, a convicted felon who got an education while in prison and went on to lead a security firm, as evidence you don't need to be famous to have a brand that needs help, but the details of the narrative again wash out any other point he might be trying to make.