Prevention is invisible: Branding and PR's impact is least apparent when it’s most effective

A key responsibility for branding, public relations, or other roles charged with serving as brand guardian is to anticipate potential harms. These roles advise against risky moves or identify ways to mitigate their potential downsides. But getting buy-in from other teams can be challenging because of how people think about events.

A problem of visibility

When branding or PR does their job effectively, nothing happens. It looks like this:

1. A product, service, or idea is proposed

2. Branding/PR identifies negative outcomes of the proposal

3. The proposal is abandoned or modified

4. The negative outcome is avoided

Because people are not good at recognizing events that didn't occur, this success often goes unnoticed. Most people see events as A happens, then B happens, therefore A caused B. They are unlikely to see the connection when A prevents B from happening. Instead, they tend to  assume B was unlikely in the first place.

Branding and PR professionals may have saved the day, but they rarely get credit outside their departments. Nassim Taleb, the statistician and risk analyst, describes a similar issue. Cockpit security was identified as a safety threat prior to the 9/11 attacks. Locked cockpit doors could have prevented the attacks, but if they had, the measure would likely have been seen as an overreaction.

This scenario is familiar to branding and PR professionals, who are often viewed as alarmists or worrywarts. They may seem like the organization’s helicopter parents, warning people about dangers that aren’t very dangerous at all.

Annie Duke, the former poker player and decision scientist, argues that quitting on time tends to feel like quitting too early. People are more comfortable deciding to end a course of action when they know it’s going badly, rather than earlier on when they merely suspect there’s an issue.

In the context of branding and PR, quitting is stopping a project that is likely to cause problems before the problems actually materialize. People in branding and PR tend to have the early quitting mindset that Duke is advocating. But it’s important to recognize that other teams are likely to favor quitting later.

While it’s easy to spot a shiny new project, spotting an averted brand or PR crisis is much harder. Branding and PR need to be proactive about communicating the why and how of their work.

Advice for branding and PR professionals

1. Embrace Invisible Success: Understand that much of what you warn against will never happen, and that's a sign of success.

2. Communicate Clearly: Explain to others that your role often involves preventing visible problems: "When I do my job and safeguard our brand, it looks like nothing happened."

3. Acknowledge Perceptions: Recognize that your work might seem alarmist but emphasize the cost-effectiveness of prevention: "It's easier and cheaper to avoid problems than to correct them later."

Organizations Need Guardians

Effective organizations need to harness creativity, boldness, and vision to create new ideas and offerings. But the brand and reputation of the organization also need protecting. It’s difficult for a single team or individual to attend to both of these objectives equally. That’s why it’s so valuable to have ideation and protection in separate teams.

Communicating with teams outside the branding and PR function can go a long way to increase awareness of branding and PR’s preventative work.