Is Any Attention Good Attention? 

I like Oscar Wilde. His best quote is, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Of course, there are times when people are talking so bad, one might wonder if it is worse than being ignored.

This episode of The Intuitive Customer explores if there are times when the bad press can be good news for your brand. In other words, are there times when bad news is good? Is any attention good attention?

The answer, for my part, is it depends. It turns out scientific research says the same thing. There are no absolute answers to this question. The circumstances of the attention, the bad press, and the goals for your organization all play a part in how you answer the question.

In the early days of our global Customer Experience consultancy, Wilde’s statement sums up the marketing efforts for my brand. We started back in 2002, when nobody knew who we were, or, frankly, what a Customer Experience was. To get attention, I published my thoughts on customer behavior and emotional experience anywhere I could.

Back then, the idea that customers had an emotional experience in business or consumer situations instead of rational ones was not widely accepted. (You might argue that we are still working on that one.) It was controversial, and many people in the industry thought I was mad and, well, wrong. The result was I debated a lot of people.

These disagreements were fantastic for us. Why? People knew who we were and what I did.

Now, in this case, the negative attention I generated from my views was positive for my brand. I needed people to know who we were and, based on my beliefs that few people agreed with at the time, they discovered us. However, this result is not always the case.

There are times when the bad press is good news for your brand. There are also times when it isn’t — knowing which is which and whether it’s suitable for your current marketing goals is essential to your brand message.

Do you and your marketing team know the answer? In this podcast we help you figure out how to get there and get the results you need.

 

The Intuitive Customer podcasts help you take your Customer Experience to the next level by unlocking the “hidden” aspects of your experience and determining what really drives value for your customers.

To find out more about how your organization’s marketing can improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com.

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