Crisis is a natural occurring state which leads to utter disaster. That is why for every brand, crisis is an eye opener. The real question is – does a crisis wake you up or the sound of the crisis?
When there is no crisis, brands often tend to ignore customer feedback. They start to take Voice of Customer (VoC) for granted and when customers’ needs are ignored, this has a direct negative impact on the numbers, and ultimately to the brand image. A likely crisis can be prevented if proper evaluation of customer feedback is taken care of. Thus, a major crisis can be prevented by keeping an active eye and ear on the VoC.
Another issue, often taken too lightly, is when a brand is doing well and having enough target market share, it tends to start following a laid back approach. Usually when a product is launched companies do some aggressive marketing for a certain time to create a hype regarding their brand. Once a product starts bringing good sales numbers, the organization stops working towards innovation. The most commonly used phrase during such times is that ‘why disturb momentum when all is going well’. Especially in developing countries, innovative culture is not that much promoted. This leads to gaps widening and ultimately leads to crisis. Firms also face crisis situation when they stop working on new product development. Even adding new features in an existing product can serve as a value addition tactic. Take the example of Nokia; when Apple introduced smartphones, back then Nokia was the giant in cell phone industry. But since Nokia took too long to bring innovation in their cell phones, Apple grabbed a huge market share. This implies that an active eye on the market in terms of innovation can actually save a firm from a disastrous crisis.
It is essential to be able to forecast ‘what’s next’ in the industry … because increasing market share for one is a loss for the other. This implies essentiality of investing in human capital that makes them think beyond their conventional thoughts – creatively – to stay one step ahead on the upcoming crisis – to be able to foresee a crisis. Undoubtedly, crisis is an eye opener but not many get an opportunity to make a comeback once crisis hits them – they become cases and stories to learn from …
The real question is – does a crisis wake you up or the sound of the crisis?
