Kevin Read,Managing Director

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Corporate PathosNew approaches to quell hostile
publics

• Kevin Read,Managing Director
• Bell Pottinger Business Brand
• 9 July 2007

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Friends, scholars, CIPR members,
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Friends, scholars, CIPR members,
I come not to bury pathos,
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Friends, scholars, CIPR members,
Today, I come not to bury pathos, but to praise
it
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And By Pathos

• I mean any emotional means that is used to
  influence an audience

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Purpose of Today

• To persuade you that PR professionals have
  neglected the emotions

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Purpose of Today

• To persuade you that PR professionals have
  neglected the emotions
• And to show you how to use emotional appeals as
  part of your corporate communications

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Todays Presentation

• Will illustrate the latest research on emotions

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Todays Presentation

• Will illustrate the latest research on emotions
  
• Explain the relevance of a new PR framework
  corporate pathos

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Todays Presentation

• Will illustrate the latest research on emotions
  
• Explain the relevance of a new PR framework
  corporate pathos
• Discuss the range of corporate pathos tools now
  available

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Todays Presentation

• Will illustrate the latest research on emotions
  
• Explain the relevance of a new PR framework
  corporate pathos
• Discuss the range of corporate pathos tools now
  available
• Provide examples of how these tools are being
  used

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The Classicists (circa 400 BC)

• Aristotle argued that
• Emotional appeals (pathos)
• Used by a credible speaker (ethos)
• With a well structured argument (logos)

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The Classicists (circa 400 BC)

• Aristotle argued that
• Emotional appeals (pathos)
• Used by a credible speaker (ethos)
• With a well structured argument (logos)

Led to persuasive communications
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By the 17th Century

• Scars such as Descartes argued
• The mind functioned separately from the body
• Passions (including emotional appeals) came from
  the body
• Human reasoning occurred in the mind and depended
  on logic

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By the 17th Century

• Disregarded the Greek view that thought was a
  constant battle between reason and passion
• Downgraded the importance of emotions

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The Subconscious Challenge

• Freud challenged the logical mind arguments
• Gave new mind models suggesting that
• Our childhood experiences sub-consciously
  influenced our rational behaviour

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The Subconscious Challenge

• Freud challenged the logical mind arguments
• Gave new mind models suggesting that
• Our childhood experiences sub-consciously
  influenced our rational behaviour
• Parts of our brain cannot be directly accessed
  (the unconscious) or directly influenced

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The Emotional Renaissance

• Modern studies from
• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Linguistics
• Advertising

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The Emotional Renaissance

• Modern studies from
• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Linguistics
• Advertising
• Concur that emotions play a vital role on how
• human beings receive and interpret messages

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Neuroscience

• Emotions are processed in the
• limbic areas (one of the oldest
• parts of the brain)
• Mental processing takes place
• outside our conscious
• awareness
• When faced with ambiguity
• emotions can overpower
• reasoning

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Psychiatry

• Meaning is created in the unconsious mind
• Humans compare sensory, emotional and
• cognitive data before making decisions

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Psychology

• Emotions are not based on words
• Our basic emotions e.g.happiness,
• fear, anger underpin our rational
• choices

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Linguistics

• How something is said (para-
• linguistics)
• And how it is delivered (body
• language)

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Linguistics

• How something is said (para-
• linguistics)
• And how it is delivered (body
• language)
• Remain more important than the
• specific words chosen

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Advertising Research

• Emotions have primacy over cognition
• and can act independently of it
• Rational thinking is always influenced by our
• emotions
• And, some argue, emotions dominate
• cognition

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But The PR Community

• Believes that the rational message is still
  king

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But The PR Community

• Believes that the rational message is still
  king
• The public will be swayed with well argued
  messages delivered by trusted brands

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But The PR Community

• Believes that the rational message is still
  king
• The public will be swayed well argued messages
  delivered by trusted brands
• Does not embrace the overwhelming research
  showing that emotions really matter

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But The PR Community

• And they tells us that their skills are based
  around gut and instinct
• Rather than a clear method

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Therefore

• A new framework Corporate Pathos will be
  unveiled

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Therefore

• A new framework - Corporate Pathos will be
  revealed
• This allows PR professionals to
• Understand
• Analyse
• Manage
• Evaluate

Emotional Appeals
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And

• It will be established why Corporate Pathos
  must now form part of the Corporate PR toolkit

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Defining Corporate Pathos (i)

• Corporate pathos - the act of identifying,
  managing, delivering and assessing emotional
  appeals, which form part of an organisations
  corporate communications
• It involves being able to identify how both
  verbal and non-verbal communication can be used
  to create a mood or reaction without necessarily
  any specific rational argument being made

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Defining Corporate Pathos (ii)

• Managing corporate pathos involves
  communicators being familiar with a wide range of
  rhetorical techniques that empower an individual
  to influence tone, language and mood
• Such that they can be deployed as an integral
  part of rational messages
• Delivering communications in a corporate pathos
  aware manner requires corporate spokespeople to
  carefully rehearse arguments/ ensure that copy is
  checked to reflect both the emotional and
  rational

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New Reputational Threats (i)

• Classically investigative reporting and the work
  of protagonists have presented the major
  challenges to an organisation
• New media, (in particular, web 2.0 techniques)
  and other new types of threats have emerged that
  are more difficult to assess
• The new media revolution, (in particular blogs,
  forums and chat rooms) - a new generation of
  individuals are merging who can stir up hostile
  opinion, quickly and virulently in an
  unaccountable manner

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New Reputational Threats (ii)

• When organisations decide to mount a defence for
  a well respected and established brand by
  reference to long-standing consumer respect, they
  often find themselves in difficult positions
• Consumer are no longer deferential toward brands
• Many consumers now seek points of reference from
  peers, friends, colleagues and even Richard and
  Judy ahead of long-standing corporations
• Providing rational arguments when emotional
  threats are posed often prove fruitless

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New Reputational Threats (iii)

• Greenpeace/Shell Brent Spa
• The environmentalist played upon the publics
  public fear by suggesting that dumping the oil
  rig would be harmful to their environment - they
  did not seek to lay out all the rational options
  and invite the public to choose the best one to
  follow
• Shells response, on the other hand, lay within a
  conventional framework based around a sense of
  honesty and the need to present the facts of the
  situation
• The attempt to rationally counter an emotionally
  charged environmental argument did not work with
  the media or the public
• They lacked an equally strong neutralising
  approach of their own that marshalled both
  emotions and rational thought

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The Corporate Pathos - Toolkit

• Threat Analysis
• Road Maps
• Tone and Language
• Sequencing
• Coaching

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Threat Analysis

• Extremely important to regularly scan both the
  media and the web - recently developed tools now
  also allow for an assessment of conversations,
  and their intensity, across the web
• From a corporate pathos perspective
• Rapid assessment of threats in terms of their
  likely organisation and reputational impact
• Arguments are graded in terms of a ratio of
  emotional as opposed to rational
• (E vs R) arguments
• The extent of dispersal of the arguments across
  the web are assessed
• The quality of the protagonists is analysed
  including developing an impression of the
  rhetorical devices they use
• A rich balance of emotional appeals and rational
  points usually indicates that a corporate will be
  dealing with a formidable opponent

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The Road Map
Relaxed
Open
Attentive
Encourage
Communicator image
Lasting Impression
Friendly
Avoid
Disregarding
Contentious
Over Dramatic
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Tone and Language
Positive
Psychological
Negative/disruptive
appeal
appeal
appeal
E.g. deliberately
E.g. address an absent
TONE
E.g. strong, positive
exclamations
withhold information
audience
Linguistical device
LANGUAGE
E.g. repeating a plea
External plea
Self reflection
Amplification
E.g. acknowledge the
E.g. dwell on a strong
E.g. make a public
need for help
argument
promise
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Sequencing

• Given the consensus around both the
  importance of emotional appeals and the view that
  emotions are simpler to understand and quicker to
  process than rational arguments
• the implications for corporate
  communicators are clear namely, where possible,
  always seek to engage emotionally before making a
  rational argument

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Coaching (i)

• Need to provide highly focused coaching for
  corporate spokespeople and specifically they need
  to be taught
• the importance of emotions
• guidance on the need for a positive road map
• knowledge and comfort with the tone and language
  toolkit
• Then carefully rehearsed for encounters with
  journalists or important stakeholders

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Coaching (ii)

• There is a need to create a strong and flexible
  framework for any messages that need to be
  delivered. Typically this involves using a
  narrative device that provides a clear
  sub-structure for whatever the communications
  need and appears to work extremely well. E.g
  problem, solution, benefit
• It is useful to draw from the world of
  neuro-linguistics in terms of how people have
  different preferred ways in which they process
  the information e.g. visual, auditory,
  audio-digital or kinaesthetic

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Coaching (iii)
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Cadburys (i)

• As news of large amounts of contaminated
  chocolate leaked into the media many a seasoned
  corporate communications professional expected
  Cadburys to move quickly onto the front foot,
  issue a public apology and instigate an immediate
  product recall. That did not happen.
• Instead, something extraordinary occurred. A
  relatively junior spokesperson made a series of
  statements from outside one of the factories
  under suspicion. A poorly coached spokesperson
  showed no hubris and failed to understand the
  importance of finding ways to emotionally engage
  with a public that had in the past been deeply
  upset by salmonella scares, most noticeably with
  the Edwina Curry egg affair.
• Cadburys made a further mistake by suggesting to
  the media that the traces of salmonella were
  small and that as such they did not warrant
  further action.
• Moreover, it argued that no further action was
  required to eliminate contamination and that a
  major product recall was unnecessary. They
  further incensed the regulatory authorities by
  claiming that their approach was consistent with
  the existing food regulations. By overplaying
  their scientific hand they not only angered the
  public but quickly came to the attention of the
  official food and scientific regulators and
  officials.

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Cadburys (ii)

• By trying to resist a threat using a scientific
  defence, Cadburys was drawing on vast amounts of
  goodwill they had enjoyed in the past with their
  consumers. But, in todays referential world,
  consumers no longer trust the manufacturer and
  instead they seek other points of reference,
  especially when it comes to matters of health.
• The position Cadburys took did not work. Intense
  media criticism grew, the regulators became
  involved and advised Cadburys that their
  interpretation of the rules was wrong and that
  swift action was needed to remedy the situation.
  
• So, far from drawing upon their heritage,
  Cadburys found themselves publicly criticised
  and forced to act as a consequence of seeking to
  mount a scientific and rational defence and
  ignoring the mood of the media, the public and
  the Food Standards Agency.
• The companys actions left a huge dent in what
  had been a trusted brand and their actions
  alienated them from many loyal customers.

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iPod Nano (i)

• When Apple launched its new iPod Nano before the
  worlds media they triumphantly suggested that a
  new generation of portable music and video
  players had been born. The confidence in their
  technology was such that they could not
  countenance any suggestions that there may have
  been either flaws in the technology or the
  housing for the product.
• In many ways Apple created a strong emotional
  appeal around their new product and used
  advertising techniques with visual images rather
  than focusing on the products technical
  features. But it was their arrogance that cost
  them dearly.
• Within weeks of the launch, the early adopters,
  (who were particularly web savvy), began to
  express some concern about the new iPod screen.
  Details of how the screen was not sufficiently
  strong, and prone to breaking began appearing on
  a series of blogs and forums.
• Apple initially took the view that it was only a
  few isolated incidents and chose to play down the
  problem and not to emotionally engage with their
  critical early adopter group. They stuck
  resolutely to the rational argument that a few
  teething problems would always exist with new
  products to market.

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iPod Nano (ii)

• The consequent reaction of the Apple community
  was to become extremely concerned about the
  situation and a growing number of hostile
  comments began appearing on the web. Within a
  period of around ten days, an on-line expression
  of disapproval had reached an intense and angry
  level. However, still Apple refused to
  acknowledge the scale of the problem.
• Eventually, the conventional print and broadcast
  media identified the story after web concerns
  grew. They were quick to criticise Apple and took
  the side of the consumer as they believed that
  little had been done to address the problem and
  that Apple were trying to disregard what was a
  genuine complaint.
• By failing to look at how they needed to adapt
  their road map in light of early adopter
  criticism, Apple took an unnecessary and major
  risk with their iPod brand. Yet, thankfully, one
  of the great brands of the twentieth century
  eventually saw sense and recognised their need to
  apologise to customers and reconstruct a
  narrative that engaged quickly and honestly with
  the hostile on-line community.
• Finally, they engaged with the bloggers, publicly
  listened to them and took action to recall the
  product. Apples hubris and their eventual
  adoption of a corporate pathos approach averted
  major long-term damage to their iPod brand.

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Foxtons (i)

• The results of a six month undercover operation
  for the BBCs Whistleblower programme looking at
  the estate agency business was grim viewing for
  London-based Foxtons.
• A series of allegations in the programme about
  Foxtons acting without client authority, wrongly
  valuing properties and sharing confidential
  information, all of which were either
  misrepresentations or totally ill-founded, could
  not be countered directly and immediately. The
  sympathy of the public lay with the investigative
  journalists and the fact that far more serious
  accusations were levelled at other agents could
  not easily be used to deflect hostile media
  commentary.
• Foxtons themselves were extremely angry about the
  false allegations and felt that they had been
  treated extremely badly by the BBC. Instead of
  seeking to dispute the facts and publicly fight
  with the BBC and further risk damaging relations
  with the public, an entirely different strategic
  approach was adopted.
• It was important for Foxtons to undertake a
  thorough internal investigation of the issues
  identified and for an assessment to be made of
  whether there were problems in other branches
  from the one featured on the BBC documentary. The
  chief executive, Jon Hunt, therefore undertook
  600 face-to-face interviews across the
  organisation, including with those involved in
  the programme.

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Foxtons (ii)

• By using a calm and listening based approach a
  complete check of how the organisation was
  performing was undertaken before any external
  communications. Equally, following the audit, new
  training procedures were introduced to ensure
  that procedures legally and ethically were
  followed.
• It was only after this platform was solidly in
  place did Foxtons consider ways to reconnect with
  the media.
• But rather than attempting to a run a broad media
  campaign it was decided to instigate a series of
  carefully managed briefings to establish the
  integrity of the business. The founder, Jon Hunt,
  was used to talk about how the business was built
  up and subsequently run.
• By using Jon Hunt it was intended to show a human
  and fully engaged emotional figure behind the
  Foxtons business that, in the past, had been
  extremely media shy and often the victim of
  jealous criticism from rivals.

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Foxtons (iii)

• Prior to the first interview a lot of preparatory
  work was necessary to ensure that Jon Hunt had
  the right level of emotional engagement with the
  media and the ability to genuinely reflect how
  seriously he had taken the allegations and the
  actions that had since been taken.
• The corporate pathos approach was used with Jon
  Hunt, who undertook a series of detailed coaching
  sessions that sought to ensure the right balance
  between the emotional and the rational.
• The first published interview with the FT gave
  Foxtons an extremely fair hearing, countered many
  of the Whistleblower allegations and helped to
  explain the deep motivations of the man who was
  running Foxtons.
• Throughout the next 12 months a series of
  carefully planned interviews took place with
  leading correspondents prior to the recent
  agreement for Foxtons to be sold to venture
  capitalists.

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The Nuclear Industry (i)

• From the 1960s onwards there have been strongly
  contrasting views about the value and importance
  of nuclear power. From the 1970s onwards there
  has also been a highly organised Green lobby that
  has sought to challenge the need for nuclear
  power, and enjoyed widespread support from across
  the Labour movement and within the Liberal party.
  
• They have built a strong oppositionist agenda
  that, at its heart, argued that nuclear power was
  unsafe and harmful to the planet. Their arguments
  also contained a subtle blend of emotional and
  rational points. The strengths of these arguments
  meant that, until recently, the question of
  building new nuclear power stations was kept well
  out of the public limelight.
• Within the last five years a growing awareness
  for environmental issues, in particular the
  harmful effect of CO2 emissions and their
  potential impact on global warming, has meant
  that many people now have a new construct against
  which they assess the harmful or otherwise impact
  of technology on their lives.
• Alongside this shift in thinking, the current
  Labour Government also embarked on a new energy
  review whereby it was possible for the first time
  in a decade to take the opportunity to review the
  importance of nuclear power in light of a
  volatile energy markets and a greater dependency
  on energy imports.

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The Nuclear Industry (ii)

• In this changing climate the nuclear industry had
  the opportunity to rethink how it expressed
  itself and what arguments it needed to advance in
  order to regain wider appeal with both policy
  makers and the public at large.
• As a starting point, the industry recognised that
  the public was suspicious of the nuclear
  companies and the post-war faith in nuclear as an
  energy solution no longer applied. Furthermore,
  polling showed that there were on-going worries
  about safety and that there was a lack of trust
  in how the industry behaved. Equally, those
  representing the industry tended to be
  fifty-something scientific types.
• In light of an impending energy review, the
  industry moved in a number of ways that revealed
  they understood and appreciated the need to
  deploy an emotional dimension with the reframing
  of their reputation and their arguments for new
  nuclear build. Workshops were held with young
  engineers from across the industry to examine
  closely which arguments needed to be developed to
  reconnect with public and policy makers.

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The Nuclear Industry (iii)

• As part of this exercise, the perspective of the
  protagonists was adapted and their main arguments
  assessed for their rational and emotional
  components. Equally, in seeking to tell the 21st
  century nuclear story, the need to show how
  nuclear could be used to help save the planet was
  identified. In doing so, the intellectual link
  between zero carbon emissions and limiting global
  warming was reframed from an emotional
  perspective. For the first time, a serious
  emotional and rational counter to the
  environmentalists who had been portraying the
  nuclear industry as a harmful and polluting
  social force was developed.
• In the 12 month run-up to the Governments energy
  review, this new nuclear paradigm was developed
  and with the assistance of the industry, a wide
  range of spokespeople from across the nuclear
  supply chain were systematically identified and
  coached on the need to blend the emotional with
  the rational.
• When Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed at his
  Guildhall speech (2006), weeks ahead of the final
  Energy Review publication, that nuclear was
  firmly back on the agenda, he both expressed his
  emotional feelings about how it was now seen as
  politically acceptable to view nuclear as part of
  a balanced energy mix, as well as how socially
  and emotionally acceptable it now was to seek
  nuclear as a positive, rather than harmful,
  solution.

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Summary

• Research across a wide range of disciplines has
  now established that effective modern
  communications must take account of how emotional
  appeals can impact upon how messages are shaped,
  managed, delivered and responded to.
• PR practitioners now need to find ways of
  incorporating emotional appeals into their
  thinking. In order to do this the notion of
  corporate pathos has been developed to enable
  corporate communicators to carefully identify,
  manage, deliver and assess emotional appeals.
• Specific tools are being developed to help with
  this process, including emotion-based risk
  assessments, roadmaps to ensure positive
  emotional engagement, toolkits to provide
  communicators with the rhetorical skills to
  engage and coaching approaches that test and
  rehearse emotional engagement.
• With corporate threats to reputation coming from
  a far wider set of sources more quickly and
  intensely than ever before, the need to parry
  them with emotional engagement techniques is
  becoming more important.
• Failure to do so risks serious damage to
  reputation, but corporations that use a
  corporate pathos approach can achieve strong
  results with low levels of risk.

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Contact
Kevin Read Managing Director Bell Pottinger
Business Brand 5th Floor Holborn Gate 26
Southampton Buildings London WC2A 1BP Tel 020
7861 2506 Email kread_at_bell-pottinger.co.uk