Category: comms

Rejecting the evidence

Iconic Australian italian food brand Leggo’s has been accused by the ABC of mislabelling Chinese produced tomato paste as being Australian or Italian made.

Worse, the tests indicate the products were produced in Xinjiang, where – if the allegations are true – it’s highly possible forced labour was used to manufacture the products.

The company’s response? They reject the test results.

Leggo’s owner Simplot declined an interview but, in a statement, said it rejected the test results and said it had a trusted supplier and did regular due diligence.

Supermarket chains Aldi and Coles were also called out in the report and they too rejected the claims.

Rejecting the evidence is a high risk move as a comms strategy. You need to be 100% certain you have your facts right or the brand damage is going to be far worse.

Time will tell if Leggo’s, Aldi, and Coles’ strategy works out, but one imagines there’s a lot of paper work being checked by their suppliers right now.

Introducing The Comms Minute

Recently I launched a little social media experiment, The Comms Minute.

The accounts – on YouTube, LinkedIn, Tik Tok and Instagram – are quick sixty second (ish) clips on my thoughts about comms, media, management and business.

Each one is pretty much a hot take on my part as I’m walking around – often on my way to the station, taking a break in a park, or walking the dog. If you notice me stopping or doing a weird pirouette, then it’s because my puppy had decided to stop and sniff something.

The aim of The Comms Minute is about sharing ideas and discussing what works in the modern comms world.

It’s also to experiment with what business content works online and how the different platforms work, along with sharpening my ad-hoc mobile video skills.

Because the posts are all hot takes, I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with plenty of my ideas – heck, there’s a few I’ll object to when I re-watch them – so I’d be delighted to hear your thoughts on the how the channels work and my ideas.

Visit The Comms Minute at the following platforms.

In comms, culture wins every time

It’s always tempting to think you can change an organisation’s culture, particularly when it comes to comms.

The comms team is particularly prone to believing perceptions can be changed. After all, isn’t messaging our speciality?

Sadly, the market’s or community’s perception of an organisation is always a reflection of its culture – if a bank has a reputation for being rapacious, an airline for not giving a damn about its customers, or a radio network for its presenters’ loutish behaviour, those perceptions have almost certainly been well-earned.

For comms people, if the culture is rotten then the best they can do is put some lipstick on the pig. There really is little even the best PR person can do.

It’s even worse for the poor internal comms person as an organisation that genuinely doesn’t care about its staff will never take employee satisfaction seriously. You can have all the cupcake teas and pizza evenings in the world but it won’t change a horrible place to work.

The only thing that can change an organisation is wholesale change of its leadership. Even then, cultural change is a huge task for even the smallest organisation, let alone a large corporation or agency.

If change is going to succeed it has to come from focused leadership that’s determined to change the organisation – if the board and senior executives aren’t on board, then there is no chance of success.

For comms people, it’s best to remember our limitations and how demoralising it is to be constantly smearing lipstick on ungrateful farm animals.