UNLESS you’ve been living under a rock, chances are you’ve already heard of the infamous “Toweljoy” incident. In gist: mom ordered some Jollibee Chickenjoy for her son, but instead got a hand towel masquerading as a piece of chicken, covered in glorious Chickenjoy batter and fried to golden perfection.
If this had happened to any other brand —one that did not have a solid following and a strong affinity with its customers—the effects would have been devastating. While the incident drew a lot of negative comments and reactions, there also rose a groundswell of support from people who had good memories, happy memories, associated with the brand.
Forgive me for not having any science to back up my research, but going through my Facebook feed alone, I saw a good number of friends’ posts recalling fond memories of and with Jollibee. While the Toweljoy incident is certainly a cause for concern, the love for the brand saw it through, and may even have momentarily bolstered demand for its products, especially the Chickenjoy.
Cultural icon
JOLLIBEE is one of the country’s most recognizable cultural icons—so much so that foreigners visiting the country for the first time often include sampling some Jollibee fare in their itineraries. Even the late American chef, best-selling author, and TV personality Anthony Bourdain had his own Jollibee moments, featuring the fast-food chain twice, three years apart, on his food and travel documentary series Parts Unknown. He called Jollibee “the wackiest, jolliest place on Earth.”
As iconic as the golden arches of global fast-food giant McDonald’s are, the adorable bee has been able to hold its own, especially in the Philippines and in places with a big Filipino population (and Filipinos are everywhere). Over the years, Jollibee has also gone global, fueled by demand from overseas Filipinos who miss the taste of home.
Hark back to the days of your childhood, and you can surely recall a fond Jollibee memory or two. I have my share of Jollibee memories from different periods of my life: looking forward to days when my parents had extra money for a Jollibee lunch after a visit to Rizal Park; collecting toys and other Jollibee merchandise; enjoying Chickenjoy at least once a week for months with my choirmates—I have a loooong list. It’s safe to say that I have a strong affinity to the brand: a weird sort of relationship, as if with a childhood friend.
Brand affinity vs brand loyalty
AS consumers, we all have our preferred brands. We keep buying them because we feel that they give us the best value at a price point that we feel is reasonable. We keep buying them because we’re used to them. We keep buying them because old habits are hard to break. This, right here, is brand loyalty.
Is this the same as brand affinity? Sort of, but not quite. While sometimes used interchangeably, there are some key factors that place brand affinity a notch higher than brand loyalty in the marketing totem pole: shared values, relationships, emotional attachments.
In an article published on the MIT Sloan Management Review, authors Gita Johar, Matthias Birk, and Sabine Einwiller noted how affinity to a brand—in particular customers’ identification with a brand—can help cushion the impact of negative events.
“Customer identification is one of the best forms of insurance against the possibly devastating effects a crisis can have for an organization. Identified customers show loyalty to their brand, share values with it, and feel emotionally attached to it,” the article stated. “However, if a transgression is very severe, identification might not buffer against the ill effects of a crisis, and the brand image takes a hit even among identified customers.”
The power of brand affinity
WHEN the Toweljoy incident happened, Jollibee did not suffer as much of a backlash because of the strong relationship that consumers had with the brand. In an interesting twist, after the incident went viral, people reached into their memory banks and brought back—surprise, surprise—fond memories of the brand.
They took to social media to post about their experiences as Jollibee crew members. Some recalled their first encounters with the brand, as little children tasting the oh-so-sweet Jolly Spaghetti and “crispylicious” Chickenjoy for the first time. Some recounted family meals of various Jollibee staples, in-store or at home.
Others expressed support for the brand, creating memes and posting statements on their social-media accounts. Some even went out and bought some Chickenjoy and other Jollibee specialties, with cravings triggered by all that talk of fried chicken/fried towel.
Not a free pass
THE cushioning effect of strong brand affinity should not be seen as a free pass for brands to relax. If anything, such brands should always be on their toes, to ensure that they don’t erode the relationship that they have been able to build with their consumers over the years.
Should a crisis arise, however, Johar, Birk, and Einwiller in their MIT Sloan Management Review article enumerated some approaches that brands could use to remedy the situation and stem the loss of affinity to the brand.
- Come clean. If the brand is really at fault, admit the mistake and apologize for it. Be transparent. Keeping things under wraps will do more harm than good in the long run.
- Polish the halo. Bolster the brand image immediately following the crisis. Don’t make excuses for what happened. Highlight the good to deflect attention from the bad.
- The “not just me” response. This is not meant to point fingers or make excuses. The intent is to provide the public with more context and information about the incident—that it’s not unique to the brand, and it can happen to anyone.
- Inoculation. Much like how a vaccine works, this entails releasing small bits of negative information ahead of an expected blow-up of an issue. Frame your message to make it appear that the crisis is not as bad as what’s being depicted in the media.
- The “yes, but…” response. Admit to the transgression, but explain the reasons behind it. Leave little room for the public to blame the brand entirely and think that the mistake was deliberate.
- Rebuttal. If the brand is really not at fault, be ready with a persuasive rebuttal—one that does not sound defensive. Staying silent, because you did not commit any wrong anyway, might cast doubt on the brand’s innocence.
- Vilify the accuser. Discredit the source of an accusation to decrease the credibility of a claim. But use this with caution, and only when you are being falsely accused of a wrongdoing.
- Denial. Issue a flat denial when the accusation is not true, when the target consumers largely identify with the brand, and when customers do not perceive the crisis to be severe.
In the case of the Jollibee fried towel incident, the brand immediately issued a statement when they got wind of the customer complaint. In the statement, the company admitted the mistake and detailed the steps that they would take to ensure that this would not happen again. It did not invalidate the individual complaint.
Competent crisis handling coupled with an already solid brand can ensure longevity and success. Revel in those positives, but never let your guard down.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Abigail L. Ho-Torres is AVP and Head of Advocacy and Marketing of Maynilad Water Services Inc. She spent more than a decade as a business journalist before making the leap to the corporate world.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.