While I’m far from liberal on most issues and certainly animal rights, when I read the story of Michele Leqve’s cold-blooded pursuit of a Polar Bear, in Augie Rays blog post, Your Brand and Employees’ Repugnant Hobbies: On Delta Air Lines and Dead Polar Bears, I was thoroughly revolted.
At first glance, I agreed with Augie’s analysis. Her behavior was legal and though offensive to me, it was not something that should affect my impression of Delta Air Lines (her employer) as a brand.
But, on second thought, I wondered if it should.
In an age of social, we expect all employees to ask as marketers and brand ambassadors, to live the brand. Perhaps it is right to judge a brand, in part, by the value of the people they choose to hire?
If you, as a company, see fit to hire people who think that is is ok to hunt Polar Bears for sport so that you can have bragging rights, well, then, perhaps I don’t want to do business with you.
And that’s my right.
If the requirement today, in a social world, is to be an authentic brand, we want to know that we are doing business with people and organizations who share our values. Michele Leqve doesn’t share mine.
The story of how people found out that Michele worked for Delta is cautionary because it’s going to happen more and more. I’ve already seen it in a few other examples.
The age of transparency, accountability, and authenticity means that companies/brands are going to be called to task for the way that they behave.
Whom they hire is a conscientious choice.
I realize it’s dangerous and potentially even illegal (it’s not a far stretch to believe people will boycott companies that are perceived as too liberal.. too conservative..ect, since these groups already exist), but I think it’s inevitable and brands are going to have to think long and hard about how they deal with it when the PR challenge comes, because it will.
- Blog by Jeremy Epstein, Sprinklr VP of Marketing.
The majority of survey respondents, 78%, said CEO participation in social media leads to better communication, while 71% said it leads to improved brand image and 64% said it provides more transparency.
