1. Suspend and/or review current and upcoming marketing

Badly timed ad campaigns, which in VW’s case turned out to be misleading, can do more harm than good. After news of the scandal broke, VW understandably suspended all their live ad campaigns to avoid further damage to the company’s reputation. This was particularly painful for VW’s campaigns in the US, where their cars are positioned as “clean diesel”. It is interesting to note however, that whilst VW suspended their “VW” ad campaigns, several brands that are part of the Volkswagen group (and make use of the same engine technology) did not. Perhaps this was a conscious attempt to deflect all brand damage onto VW and leave the other companies unscathed?

Four weeks after the scandal broke, the troubled company began to repair the damage by launching a campaign featuring the headline “We have broken the most important part in our vehicles: your trust”. The minimalistic ad appeared in most of the UK’s broadsheets, wholeheartedly accepting responsibility for the scandal. This kind of ad campaign is a risk - pushing your brand back into the public view too early can feed negative media attention or heighten brand awareness at the wrong time. In Volkswagen’s case however, their frank apology and promise to contact everyone who was affected directly, illustrates that the company’s current priority is their customers and a wish to demonstrate a more open, honest approach.

2. Take a stance

You have three options when it comes to responding to a crisis - you can accept blame and unreservedly apologise (like VW has done), you can actively defend yourself and your company, or you can try to divert attention away from a problem and hope it will fade away. Each tactic can work, but poor choices made at the outset can backfire.

Completely ignoring an issue is not often advisable. Certainly, this would have been a poor choice for VW, yet in some circumstances, there is certainly something to be said for the old adage of not adding petrol to the flames. If a few disgruntled customers are being vocal on social media, you may not need a press release and a full-scale media response - asking them for an email address or phone number so a senior member of staff can discuss issues directly not only demonstrates that you listen to your customer’s concerns, but can also help to contain a situation. Never remove posts or block users on any medium unless they are clearly inappropriate or abusive, as the modern consumer expects transparency first and foremost.

VW clearly have a case to answer but accusations can be inaccurate, or even fabricated. Unsurprisingly, left unchecked, these can still cause serious damage to your brand’s reputation, especially if left unanswered. This situation can call for an robust defence - in 2002 there were rumours of Pepsi cans being tampered with after a woman in Washington D.C. allegedly found a syringe after opening one. After both Pepsi and the US FDA were in agreement that the claims were false, the company began safeguarding its brand, producing multiple videos that demonstrated the safety of its canning process and making CEO Craig Weatherup available to various news stations for interviews. Pepsi also highlighted a surveillance tape of the woman in a shop putting a syringe in a can, which was compelling evidence that the report had been a hoax. By taking a firm, defensive stance immediately, Pepsi managed to quash the rumours, minimising immediate sales impact and reassuring customers.

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3. Brief your people

If your company’s crisis begins to attract media attention, you need to ensure that your company speaks with one voice and delivers a clear, consistent message. To this end, any staff expected to engage with the media need to be briefed properly. Volkswagen fell at this hurdle when they sent Paul Willis, the managing director of VW’s UK operation, to speak to the transport select committee about the scandal.

Although he could answer questions about how customers who were affected by the scandal would be treated, he struggled when asked technical questions. Mr Willis explained that he worked in sales, marketing and finance, and that engineering was handled by the firm's team in Wolfsburg, repeating "I'm not an engineer" many times during his interview. Had he been better prepared, he would have been able to answer these fairly obvious questions and been able to reinforce the idea that VW have identified the problems and have a firm plan for addressing them.

Having a company representative who is unable to answer questions central to the debate at hand will completely undermine any other efforts you have made to restore confidence and faith in your brand, and will only cause frustration for those that have lost their trust in you. It is absolutely crucial that following a crisis whoever is speaking on behalf of your entire company is able to answer the questions that matter to customers, the media and the government.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.

Warren Buffet

As Warren Buffet said; “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”. Whether or not Volkswagen’s brand can recover from these past few weeks remains to be seen, however the lessons from the scandal could help protect your company’s brand and reputation following a crisis - and prevent years of brand-building going to waste.