As a form of protest, and as a PR stunt, Schaefer has been 'chalking' outside banks in the US.
And he's done it again...
I give this guy big props because from a PR perspective this has a great ROI. For a couple of bucks (for the chalk) he's making one heck of an impression on YouTube. And setting a great example for kids in my opinion... you can protest effectively while remaining peaceful.
This is also a great example of how you attack a brand (so essentially the reverse of what most PR folks engage in, which is building up a brand). Michael Moore is famous for attacking brands also. And while we don't traditionally think of it as a brand attack - we tend to use the word 'protest' - in reality it's an effort to degrade brand equity in the market.
How should the banks respond to this attack on their brand?
To be honest, there isn't much they can do. Given the activities they are engaged in, any attempts to address the brand attacks of folks like Schaefer only draw more attention to his message.
What the banking industry should have done years ago, from a PR perspective, was create two classes of banks. Come up with some term like - Community Only Bank (COB) - such that any bank using that term to describe itself, identifies itself as a bank that is about the pure business of lending money to businesses and citizens in a given community. Such attributed banks would not be engaged in the whole derivatives and investing side of things that has caused the world economy to blow up and hence would not be branded as 'villains' as banks today most often are.
This at least would protect the 'brand' of a good number of banks.
But such as the banking industry is, no one really gave much consideration to the PR side of things (banks are far more focused on the lobbying side of stakeholder and reputation management; external brand considerations tend to be limited to television ads). Or perhaps it was even considered, but ultimately was viewed as taboo given to protect the brand of some banks, you inherently would be hurting the brands of the other banks.
Either way the banking industry has essentially done nothing to protect its brand during this crisis.
So the banks today don't really have any options in this from a PR perspective. All they can do is stay quiet and hope that those attacking their brand never reach critical mass in terms of awareness.
And he's done it again...
I give this guy big props because from a PR perspective this has a great ROI. For a couple of bucks (for the chalk) he's making one heck of an impression on YouTube. And setting a great example for kids in my opinion... you can protest effectively while remaining peaceful.
This is also a great example of how you attack a brand (so essentially the reverse of what most PR folks engage in, which is building up a brand). Michael Moore is famous for attacking brands also. And while we don't traditionally think of it as a brand attack - we tend to use the word 'protest' - in reality it's an effort to degrade brand equity in the market.
How should the banks respond to this attack on their brand?
To be honest, there isn't much they can do. Given the activities they are engaged in, any attempts to address the brand attacks of folks like Schaefer only draw more attention to his message.
What the banking industry should have done years ago, from a PR perspective, was create two classes of banks. Come up with some term like - Community Only Bank (COB) - such that any bank using that term to describe itself, identifies itself as a bank that is about the pure business of lending money to businesses and citizens in a given community. Such attributed banks would not be engaged in the whole derivatives and investing side of things that has caused the world economy to blow up and hence would not be branded as 'villains' as banks today most often are.
This at least would protect the 'brand' of a good number of banks.
But such as the banking industry is, no one really gave much consideration to the PR side of things (banks are far more focused on the lobbying side of stakeholder and reputation management; external brand considerations tend to be limited to television ads). Or perhaps it was even considered, but ultimately was viewed as taboo given to protect the brand of some banks, you inherently would be hurting the brands of the other banks.
Either way the banking industry has essentially done nothing to protect its brand during this crisis.
So the banks today don't really have any options in this from a PR perspective. All they can do is stay quiet and hope that those attacking their brand never reach critical mass in terms of awareness.
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