The storm surrounding The Dorchester Collection shows the value of building goodwill with clients and the trade, says Brighter Group executive chairman Steve Dunne
Having pressure groups and individuals boycott your brand is never good news. And when influential opinion leaders such as Richard Branson, Stephen Fry and Ellen DeGeneres line up against your brand and urge a public boycott, you know you have a serious PR problem.
For the Brunei-owned Dorchester Collection, owner of iconic properties including the Dorchester and the Beverly Hills Hotel, the recent glare of the media spotlight in the wake of Brunei’s new anti-gay laws has created an uncomfortable PR profile.
Brand vulnerability
What has happened to the Dorchester Collection highlights the acute vulnerability that travel brands and destinations face.
Known as the halo effect, it’s where the whole reputation of a brand or country can be brought into disrepute by the actions of a head office or government insensitive, or unconscious, to how domestic actions will be perceived overseas.
The local-market team are then left to face an almost impossible task of justifying, apologising or even deflecting bad news or inexcusable events.
Loyal supporters
The best-practice PR strategy for any brand is to spend the good times building up a bank of goodwill. Using social media – not to sell but to build advocacy – is a cornerstone of this approach. Cultivating a programme of knowledge and goodwill among key opinion formers and the media is a prerequisite.
And, it goes without saying, drawing on the support of the trade is crucial. For when the bad times come, it is the trade and your fans that will fight your corner in a way that is believed by the consumer. It will be the media, armed with quality information, that will put the issue into a wider context, highlighting the good points and giving you the credibility of third‑party endorsement.
The Dorchester Collection faces perhaps the severest of all PR challenges, for the policies of its ultimate owners are absolutely abhorrent to UK consumers.
Dorchester Collection chief executive Christopher Cowdray has been quick to point out that investors with less-than-perfect reputations own many brands in hospitality and beyond. Those sentiments, at best, have fallen on deaf ears.
Reaction strategy
However, what the Dorchester Collection is doing is exactly the right thing from a PR stance. It needs to set its brand apart from its investors, to clearly illustrate its brand values and to use its own people to relay that message.
It must keep repeating its message and use every opportunity to show corporately that the brand’s outlook and beliefs are completely different from that of its owners.
And it needs to recruit its own fans; opinion leaders and third parties who can help it distance itself from its owners’ policies.
It won’t be easy – and it may well take several years.
It’s a cautionary tale for many travel brands. So if you are a brand vulnerable to these issues, start building that bank of goodwill – and start today.