Rejection? Face, process, learn, reboot

These four words are very powerful when a brand is hit by consumer rejection. And brands do tend to falter at each of the four stages.

When they are hit by a spate of complaints or early signs of rejection, they are not ready to face the incoming tidal wave. They dismiss it as “competitor’s ploy”, the “numbers are too small”, or better still, “our loyal customers will never leave us”. The first step, therefore, is to be ready to face rejection. Accept the fact that there could be some real issue out there that has missed all your so called 6-Sigma processes.

Then comes the way the company processes the rejection. Often everyone gets into a blame game. Manufacturing is to be blamed for the quality niggles. Manufacturing, in turn, will say that the cost and margin goals cannot permit better quality. Then comes finance, which will say that the product should not have been launched at all. Instead of all this, if the company creates an empowered group to process the rejection, there may be a way out. To process rejection better, here are a few ground rules: No witch hunting, no blame game, no turf and territory issues.

The third and fourth critical stages are where you capture the lessons and factor them into the reboot. What went well and what did not? Did the product fail on all counts, or were there some small issues that got blown up? Was it something that the company could have controlled, if it had listened to consumers more carefully? What can be done now to revive consumer sentiment?  And most importantly, what are the takeaways from this rejection story? What should we watch out for the next time we launch a new product?

If applied well, this simple four-step formula can help you revive the falling fortunes of any brand.

Take the example of Cadbury and the worm infestation issue. Cadbury was in a hurry to grow. It had expanded its product range and introduced smaller-sized SKUs at very attractive prices. Simultaneously, it expanded its distribution significantly. From just Class A outlets in the bigger cities, it expanded to smaller outlets and smaller cities. These small outlets did not know how to stock and sell chocolates. And before we start the blame-game, the company too may not have educated the small retailers to the extent required. So, the product whose packaging was good enough for the big outlets of big cities was inadequate in the smaller outlets. The company faced the rejection, processed the issues involved and learnt that it needed to do a serious revamp of its packaging. All this happened in a span of six to nine months. The brand went back to its dominant position, once again.

Or take the case of Tata Indica. It was launched with huge fanfare. But soon after the launch, the car came under severe negative word-of-mouth. The company could have attributed the negative WOM to competitor’s dirty tricks’ department. But instead, it did a deep dive into the issues. It conducted customer meets in 50+ towns where it met irate consumers. The truth was that of the 100,000 Indicas on the road at that time, maybe a small percentage had issues. Tyres were replaced, no questions asked. Several retrofits were done to the old cars. And the company launched the improved Tata Indica as Indica V2 in 2001, and it went on to become the largest selling car in its class -- helping Tata Motors launch a slew of successful products from the same platform over the next six years.

Again, a great example of applying the Face-Process-Learn-Reboot (F-P-L-R) formula.

In recent times, the fall and rise of Maggi is a great example of the F-P-L-R formula. Though it did stumble when it faced the issue, but then it managed to process and learn from the rejection.

So why is it that we don’t see brands that go into decline, that face rejection, rise back to their early glory? I suspect most companies have high inertia. And have a very poor way of handling information that filters up the hierarchy. Then comes the stage of total denial. This is often followed by the usual blame game. By the time all this has reached a boiling point, the brand is in steep decline and it will take a miracle to revive it.

Before you ask, “Do miracles happen?”. Yes, they do. Look at the way Royal Enfield has risen from the ashes.

What applies to brands also applies to all professionals. We, too, need to get adept at applying the F-P-L-R formula. If we master the formula, no rejection can set us back. We will bounce back successfully even when faced with the toughest of rejections.

The writer is an independent brand strategist, brand coach and Founder, Brand-Building.com