There’s bad luck and then there’s the image and reputational hell that’s facing Corona Beer at the moment. 

While the brand is charging ahead with a $40 million advertising campaign, my gut (and that’s a Corona beer free gut, btw) tells me the iconic brew needs to kick back from the bar for a while, suspend all marketing and ride out the Coronavirus crisis.

Based upon the two surveys cited in the article I embedded, beer drinkers are avoiding Corona like the plague (my apologies for the inappropriate pun).

Depending upon how much global carnage the Coronavirus causes, Corona may eventually decide a name change is in order. That may seem extreme but, just like Boeing, the Corona name has become toxic.

That said, undertaking a massive name change and re-branding effort for either Boeing, Corona or both would be like manna from heaven for corporate ID firms such as Landor and SiegelGale (once again proving that one brand’s misery can be another brand’s windfall).

But what say you? Should Corona halt all advertising? Limit worldwide distribution? Or carry on as if the Coronavirus isn’t keeping billions of people awake at night?

And before I conclude, what are your thoughts about Boeing? Should they undergo a name change before re-introducing the forever troubled Super Max 8? Will all of those leaked employee e-mails calling out senior management for putting profits before safety force make the name change a fait accompli?

A rose by any other name may still be a rose but, for Corona and Boeing, the appropriate Shakespearean wording might be a thorn by any other name is still a thorn.

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We live in a world of personalized, micro-target marketing that, thanks to artificial intelligence, has become equal parts amazing and appalling:

• Amazing: Brand X knowing exactly what I buy and suddenly popping up on my IG feed with a way cool product I MUST purchase.
• Appalling: God knows who else, besides Brand X, has my personal information and what they plan to do with it? 

I mention hyper targeting because I must admit to being left completely dumbfounded (a state of mind with which I’m very familiar, btw) by a new campaign from the fine folks at TD Ameritrade (TDA).

First, click on this link to see their TV spot.

Now riddle me this: To whom is TDA aiming its commercial?

It has to be Baby Boomers since, aside from Steve Carell’s horribly bad 2008 remake of “Get Smart”, absolutely no one under the age of 60 will possibly understand TDA’s lame attempt to leverage a TV show that ran from 1967-1970.

From Gen Z types to Younger Millennials and from older Millennials to Gen X’ers, no one will “get” the subtle comedy thread embedded in the pitch (especially TDA’s use of “Would you believe?” in the middle of the 30-second commercial). For the uniformed, Would you believe…. was Special Agent 86, Maxwell Smart’s, signature line.

Getting back to the introductory paragraph, how could marketers who are armed with mountains of data explaining exactly how to reach younger and middle-aged audiences choose, instead, to play a nostalgia card that no one in their target universe will get (as in Get Smart)?

In closing:

• Would you believe smart investors will be befuddled by TDA’s tagline, “Where smart investors get smarter?
• Would you believe egregious target marketing mistakes such as this happen all the time?
• Channeling Maxwell Smart one last time, would you believe the TDA marketing types are anything BUT smart?

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I first became aware of corporate America’s willingness to cut corners in order to create a higher purpose at an industry event. 

The guest speaker was former United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz who, when asked how he planned to avoid the beleaguered airline’s spate of constant high-profile missteps, said he had it all figured out.

“This past weekend I created our corporate purpose. It will assure we won’t repeat past mistakes,” he said.

One could hear the moans and groans from the CCOs, academics and agency leaders in the audience, all of whom knew one does NOT create a higher purpose over a 48-hour time frame.

I share this anecdote because I believe it’s a key reason why a new survey shows only 27 percent of consumers can name a purpose-driven brand!

The shockingly low awareness level is, in my opinion, a direct result of the veritable stampede by organizations everywhere to tick off the box that reads, “Create corporate purpose.”

As a result, many such statements look the same, sound the same and include the same watered down, warm, fuzzy and, frankly, altogether forgettable phrases.

Mix in countless examples of purpose-washing in which a company boldly proclaims a purpose that fails to reflect how it operates in reality and is outed by a key stakeholder for doing so, and you have the answer as to why 78 percent of consumers don’t know your organization is purpose driven.

When it comes to purpose-washing in particular, we’ve helped many a client walk back a purpose until it’s been stress tested.

Case in point: One company was determined to lead with diversity and inclusiveness for their higher purpose.  After all, the company was about to introduce their services to several urban markets. But a quick look at the leadership team and board of directors on the corporate website revealed not one person of color in the entire group.

There was no doubt in our minds the client would sustain a serious backlash for not delivering on their higher purpose. As a result, we advised them to delay their launch until the C-suite and board better reflected the communities they intended to serve. FYI, Peppercomm’s Jackie Kolek provided tips for how companies can avoid making unintended missteps in a recent LinkedIn post.

Segueing back to creating a higher purpose, I interviewed 15 CCO’s for a co-branded research report with the Institute for Public Relations (www.instituteforpr.org). As a result, I know the very best examples of crafting a meaningful corporate purpose take months, if not years, to come to fruition.

In each case, the CCO’s with whom I spoke included the views of internal and external stakeholders before answering the fundamental question every corporate purpose should address: Why does the organization exist?

My personal favorite was Lowe’s which, after a lengthy process, declared their higher purpose to be, “Helping people love the homes in which they live.” Lowe’s delivers on that promise every day in multiple ways. And it’s the reason why employees are proud to work at Lowe’s. It’s a purposeful purpose. And I’d be willing to bet a year’s supply of lumber that most Lowe’s customers know the retailer is purpose driven.

So if you’re about to create a higher purpose, do yourself a favor: Slow down, include input from all relevant constituents and be sure you can live up to that purpose every day in every way.

If you already have a corporate purpose but haven’t yet stress tested it to ensure it rings true across all audiences, do so ASAP.

A rush to purpose can be a one-way ticket to anonymity, antipathy and, very possibly, anger.

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