The Asos returns controversy and media training for fashion brands
Asos seems to have upset a lot of its customers with its decision to charge some of them for returns. As the leading provider of media training for fashion brands we have complete sympathy for the company. Many of our clients have discussed this issue during our media training courses for fashion retailers.
We work closely with fashion PR consultancies and in house Comms teams to prepare senior leaders, designers, supply chain managers, sustainability specialists, retail staff and others to do effective media interviews. But we also help them to manage difficult situations, similar to the one that Asos currently finds itself in.
What is message development and testing for fashion brands?
We support the PR companies and inhouse media relations teams of fashion manufacturers and retailers when they have to make difficult decisions or have been forced to introduce unpopular changes and reforms. This understandable decision by Asos, is typical. It might make sense but it’s still going to upset a lot of people and cause a row on social media – as it has done.
In other situations, we provide media training and issue management for clothing companies because they’ve decided voluntarily to enter a hot debate or issue a comment because they believe that it’s important for them to do so. However, they’re understandably anxious about being criticised and suffering adverse publicity as a result.
We’ve worked with organisations to help them to articulate their sustainability policies – always topical for fashion companies. Other brands have launched campaigns around LGBTQ+ issues. They believe in a particular cause, but they don’t want to be accused of “pinkwashing.” In other situations, fashion companies have come to us because they’re undergoing restructuring, and they want to check that their corporate messages sound reasonable and sympathetic.
We help fashion and apparel companies
We’ve helped fashion and apparel companies explain why they often have to manufacture in countries which don’t have very good records on workers’ rights. We recently supported the media relations team of a major clothing manufacturer which is aware that it can’t yet meet its sustainability targets. We helped the company’s senior leaders to to put the situation into context and to tell a convincing story here.
It’s unlikely that the company’s staff are going to go out and do interviews on the subject. But they know that if their senior leadership team, designers, production managers are talking to journalists about a positive issue such as the latest collection or new sustainability initiatives they might well be asked about a difficult issue. Knowing what to say and how to say it really helps build their confidence and minimise the risk of an interview on a good news story resulting in negative coverage.
How does message development and testing for fashion brands work?
Like media training we support and enhance the role of fashion PR companies and the inhouse media relations teams of fashion brands and retailers. They like the fact that our trainers are working journalists (operating under strict NDAs) who can cast fresh eyes on an issue and show how the media would cover it. What might sound like a reasonable message to a fashion brand’s senior management team can fall apart when subjected to the tough questioning of a journalist.
We should stress, though, that during our issue management for fashion brands training courses, we aim to give spokespeople confidence rather than making anyone look foolish.
We work extensively with fashion companies
With our message development and testing we’ll start by taking a brief from the Comms teams and then do our own research into the issue to establish the broader context. We’re already ahead of the game on this because we work extensively with fashion companies.
We’ll then carry out realistic role play interviews with the key spokespeople of the brand. The difference between these sessions and our mainstream media training for fashion companies is that we’ll spend less time on how the interviewees came across and more about what they said. Does it sound logical? But does it also appear to be human, sympathetic and fair? (Fairness is huge when managing difficult issues.) We’ll also explore whether it makes the organisation a hostage to fortune and whether it might end up prompting more questions than it answers.
We’ll get the white board or flip chart out (we’re quite old school in this way) and we’ll start brainstorming with the PR experts. With major issues such as a company reorganisation we might use a message house or five act structure to develop and then hone down the message. This is how we ensure that the message is clear, simple and relevant to the audience. Once we’ve identified this message, we help the organisation’s spokespeople to find the words and phrases that they need to express it in a way that sounds personal and authentic.
How to answer difficult questions from a journalist
We provide the participants in our media training and message development and testing courses for fashion labels with ways of managing awkward questions and difficult issues. At Communicate Media we help organisations to put the situation into context and to explain why they are where they are. We work with their PR teams to create a narrative that sounds sensible and shows how the organisation aims to resolve this challenge.
Having developed these arguments and messages we then set about testing them, identifying weaknesses and counter arguments. Refining and fine-tuning the messages ensures that when the organisation uses them in the real world, they’ll hold water.
In a way it would be nice if we didn’t have to offer this service. But fashion brands have to take difficult decisions and accept messy compromises. There are trade-offs that have to be made between employees’ needs, customer demands, profitability and sustainability. Tackling these issues and having clear, concise and believable messages about them that everyone within the company can believe in and express with sincerity and confidence is increasingly important for apparel companies.
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We’d love to work with you – come and speak to us about our media training and message development and testing for fashion brands. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.
