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Welcome back to Communication Breakdown, a weekly podcast from the Observatory on Corporate

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Reputation.

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Thanks for joining us.

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I'm Steve Dowling in Silicon Valley.

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And I'm Craig Carroll in New York City.

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Each week, Steve and I take a look at strategies companies are using to shape headlines and

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sometimes save their skins.

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It's a post-game show for PR Pros.

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This week, Tariff Turmoil upends earnings season, but first a deep dive on Amazon's indecent

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proposal on pricing.

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And Tuesday was one of those mornings for the Amazon Comm's team.

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Waking up to a Punch Bowl News headline,"Amazon to display tariff costs to consumers."

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The reported plans seemed designed to match what Chinese discount retailers Temu and

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Shien had started over the weekend, listing those new import charges alongside retail

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prices on their website.

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Punch Bowl's story said it all: Amazon doesn't want to shoulder the blame for the cost of

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the Trump's trade war.

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And that would over like a lead trial balloon with the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:

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"I will take this since I just got off the phone with the president about Amazon’s

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announcement.

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This is a hostile and political act by Amazon."

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Minutes later, and I do mean minutes later, Amazon was out with the statement saying that whole

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tariff listing idea had only been kicked around for Amazon Hall, which is their low-cost

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section, built to compete with the Temus' of the world.

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But in Amazon's words, it was never a consideration for the main Amazon site, and they said nothing

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has been implemented on any Amazon properties.

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Apparently, that wasn't enough because the company updated its statement about an hour,

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later, adding, "This was never approved

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and it is not going to happen."

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Turns out, President Trump had called Amazon executive chair Jeff Bezos,

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Trump's campaign trail punching bag turned million-dollar inaugural donor, to express his

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displeasure with that kind of price transparency anywhere on Amazon's website.

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What happened next, we can only guess, but we can guess.

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The message got more emphatic.

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The idea now clearly dead on arrival.

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Trump later filled out his customer survey.

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[inaudible]

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[reporters shouting questions] Great. Jeff Bezos was very nice.

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He was terrific.

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He solved a problem very quickly. And he did the right thing, and he’s a good guy."

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Craig,

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It's important to keep in mind the backdrop for that Tuesday episode.

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It was the 100th day of this Trump administration, and a raft of polls are showing pretty much

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across the board dissatisfaction with the way things are going under the new regime, especially

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on trade and the economy.

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And dominating the conversation coming into the week, a steady stream of warnings that

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things are going to get worse, higher prices, and a lot more talk of shortages.

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It's putting American companies in a really tough position, and this episode with Amazon

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really illustrated both the sensitivities of the White House and the heightened sense

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of alert, shall we say, in the private sector.

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We don't know if Bezos asked how high, but the president clearly said, "Jump," and

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"Jump" Amazon did.

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The swiftness of their response was noteworthy, and then the second statement emphatically slamming

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the nail in the coffin.

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Right.

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And what makes this moment so instructive isn't just how fast Amazon moved.

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It's what they were managing.

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Not just the pricing issue, but a symbolic power signal, right?

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In this environment, transparency isn't just a policy.

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It's also positioning.

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If your transparency offends the wrong power center, it doesn't matter how accurate it is,

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the question becomes, "Who are you aligning with?"

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And that's where alignment signaling comes into play.

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It's how companies stay close to sources of power without crossing the line, without betraying

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their values or integrity, or the expectations of their stakeholders who might see that proximity

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is complicity.

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You need access, but you also need insulation.

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As one CCO told me, "If you don't have a seat at the table, you're

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probably on the menu."

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Yes, so we're going to come back to this idea of Alignment Signaling throughout today's

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episode.

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And we're going to cover some of the moves that we've seen in the automotive industry as well,

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which are very noteworthy.

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I think about what must have gone on behind the scenes at Amazon.

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Their responsiveness was really impressive and really, really fast.

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So it was probably a tight loop.

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And it worked.

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They contained the story to one news cycle, half, I mean, half a news cycle, really.

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And maybe that's to the chagrin of the White House because I think they would have liked

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to beat up on Amazon a little more, judging from that swift and furious response that you

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heard from Karoline Leavitt in the briefing room, but they handled it, I think as well as

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could be expected.

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But there was a quote in the middle of all of that that didn't get a lot of attention,

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but it really resonated with me.

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It was an unnamed White House official who was quoted in CNN's online story.

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And CNN, by the way, was also the outlet that broke that Trump had called Bezos.

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But before that, this quote really reflected this outrage at the White House over the report

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of what Amazon was planning.

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And the quote was, "naturally, Trump was upset.

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Why should a multi-billion dollar corporation shift costs onto consumers?"

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That was the quote.

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And I think that's a pretty remarkable, pretty unreasonable expectation that companies

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are faced with right now from this White House.

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But the White House knows this is coming

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and so they jumped all over Amazon at the first sign and they wanted to make it Amazon's

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fault.

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It's a political act, but that's not a political act.

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The political act is politicizing the business decision.

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So this is what companies are going to be up against, but I think the pricing transparency

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is not going to go away.

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It's already all over social media.

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Yeah.

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And I think what Amazon showed here was something that most companies, hopefully, never have

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to face- a full operational, rapid response chain of command. And that tight loop you mentioned.

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You know, that's a reputational infrastructure.

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No layers, no leaks, just the size of motion.

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And you're right, you know, this was about facts.

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This was about narrative control.

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The first statement was corporate.

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The second was political.

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And the audience for that wasn't the media or the market-

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It was one person. But here's the bigger takeaway:

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Pricing transparency is now a reputational trigger.

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You show your cost structure and suddenly you're accused of taking a side.

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And I think that's the new terrain. Even though neutral facts can be politicized, silence

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can now be recast as blame.

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So companies just can't manage communication,

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they also have to manage interpretation.

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I think that's a different game.

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Yeah.

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No, I think that silence definitely in this environment definitely opens you up to the

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risk of being blamed.

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So I think it is as much a defensive move as proactive to be out there explaining yourself.

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And I think I'm sure in hindsight that's something that Amazon would have, you know, preferred

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to have done or probably preferred to have put a halt to this before it ever got out.

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I think about it also, just as an aside from the West Coast perspective, because this punch

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pool news report came out at 2.45 a.m. here on the West Coast.

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Of course, Amazon is headquartered in Seattle and Amazon has a great sort of news tracking

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operation historically.

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So I'm certain that somebody somewhere in the globe knew about it, but I'm guessing also

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that there was a lot of operational control in the time zones that were awake and to their

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credit, they handled it, I think as well as could be expected... and swiftly.

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That puts a bow on the Amazon story just as they did on Tuesday with their quick response.

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I think I have another good example of what you've described as Alignment Signaling.

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Let's talk about it then.

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I know you have given some thought to a framework of concepts that companies should be thinking

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about in these situations.

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But let's take a look at the automotive industry this week.

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General Motors reported earnings on Tuesday, but they did not give guidance because of the

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tariffs.

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And they postponed their conference call to Thursday because the tariff situation was so

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fluid in that moment.

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Trump, remember, on his 100th day did a rally in Michigan and he gave the car makers some

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relief on these stacked tariffs, which clearly they were appreciative of as we'll talk about.

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But on Thursday, when GM did have their conference call, they lowered their guidance for the year.

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And CEO Mary Barra released her quarterly letter to shareholders, which began with a thank

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you to President Trump for what she called his "support of the US automotive industry."

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Stellantis, which makes Chrysler and other models, they also suspended their financial guidance

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for the year.

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Ford is not scheduled to report until next week, but their CEO Jim Farley went on Fox Business

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Wednesday morning, the morning after that rally by Trump and the morning after Trump gave

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the auto sector that relief on the tariffs.

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Farley's on Fox and his message is pretty clear-

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He wants to remind us that Ford makes over 80% of his vehicles in the US.

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He's going to praise the Trump administration for making the tariffs more reasonable.

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He still needs some relief on auto parts to keep US made cars affordable.

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And some other steps. About halfway through the Fox interview, Maria Bartram Ramos says,

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basically says "we get it.

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Our audience gets it.

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Ford is the most US centric automaker."

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I don't know if that flipped some kind of switch in his brain, but Farley's sound by Kixin

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and he says, Ford is the most American company.

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10 minutes later, he's on CNN and maybe he's had a little bit to think about it.

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Maybe someone from the comms team has said, "Hey, that most American thing really worked."

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But see if you can detect the messaging thrust of this CNN interview.

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We've clipped together the highlights for you.

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"Ford is the most American auto company.

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We make 80 plus percent of our vehicles here.

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And Ford is an American company.

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You know, we're the most American company.

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So if there's any company that can manage through these tariffs, it's Ford.

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You know, next week I think we'll be able to tell people kind of what the tariff bills

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for Ford would look like the most American company.

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So we're building two brand new factories in the US and we're the most American already."

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Okay.

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So clearly he made his point and everybody got it.

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But should also we can spend some time contrasting this with Mary Barra who this week was on

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Thursday on CNBC following that shareholder letter and the earnings call they had.

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She said on CNBC that she shares the president's goal of having a strong manufacturing base.

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You know, she talked about GM being committed to increase manufacturing jobs in the country.

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It's not committing exactly to what Trump wants, which I think is new plants, which is

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something that as you heard, Farley already has them in the pipeline.

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Barra was also last week at the Semaphore conference in Washington, which seems to have really

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made us splash by the way as conferences go.

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And similarly taking a very diplomatic approach.

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So we have a contrast here of two CEOs where you've seen, I think, Farley go much farther,

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much more animated than he has been in the past and very much embracing this idea

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of Ford as the most American company.

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What does this tell you about the Alignment Signaling that Ford is doing and there's lots more

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to talk about in the automakers?

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Yeah, yeah.

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I'm going to contrast it with Mary Barra's response.

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So she's taking what I call an institutional approach.

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She's respectfully nodding to the president.

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No clear alignment on policy goals, manufacturing jobs, stability and all that, but no personal

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language, no promises and definitely no sound bites.

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She's signaling the alignment without stepping into performance.

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It's very careful, composed, very stakeholder-safe.

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And her styles were restrained.

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She's leading with things.

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She's echoing Trump's manufacturing goals, very policy-focused.

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She's signaling respect for the office, but not necessarily allegiance with the person.

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Farley on the other hand is a little bit more about cultural alignment.

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He's leaning into American identity.

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He's talking US production and he drops the sound bite that Ford is the most American company.

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Look, that's what I'd meet for the current environment.

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But again, he's stopping short of over-comittng.

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No promises, no plans, just signals.

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And I would say his version is also identity-forward, saying that Ford is the most American company on repeat.

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That's not just signaling alignment.

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I think he's draping in a flag.

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He's speaking to Washington, sure, but he's also trying to speak to consumers, workers, and competitors.

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So he's trying to make it play across networks.

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Look, it's two different styles, but it's the same function and the same message.

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Stay close to power without looking like you've been captured by it.

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That's at the heart what alignment signaling is about in a Trump 2.0 world.

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Proximity without submission.

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It's alignment signaling in stereo, but the styles couldn't be more different.

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Yeah, I think what we're seeing from both car makers is not actually an effort to communicate

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to that broader audience beyond the business eyes.

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I think they're communicating to an audience of one.

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And in both the automakers and the Amazon example, I think the executives and the comms teams

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have figured out that there are no points for subtlety these days.

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We're not leaving anything to chance.

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But Farley, I think, does deserve credit for going out there and making a strong effort

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to explain Ford's position, remind people of what they do.

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I don't know where that message has been for the past six months.

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Maybe I missed it, but Farley's reputation in the industry (is) that he's a car guy.

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And when he talks about his company, he brings tremendous credibility.

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He's a leader.

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And being able to take the role of educator is a really powerful one.

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And in those clips, yes, he got repetitive-

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We make a little fun of it-

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I think he's pretty effectively trying to influence the definition of 'American' in this case.

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What it means to be an American company.

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Barra, unfortunately, I think, has not done the same this week.

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The expression to Trump and her letters didn't land with me.

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It didn't feel like a position of strength.

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But both car makers, I think, are doing their best to make the message something other than

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uncertainty.

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I think that's what you're seeing.

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Yeah.

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They're talking about how they want to hold the line on pricing, no one's making any promises.

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They want to increase production in the US.

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Ford has two plants in the works.

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I'm sure Trump will take credit for that.

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Farley is happy for GM to take some more heat and pressure for that rather than Ford.

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But the situation, as fluid, changing as quickly and unpredictably as it is, the clear and consistent

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voices are the ones I think who will best define the debate.

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Steve, I agree.

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I mean, Farley's not just defending Ford.

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He's actually shaping the narrative.

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He's trying to define what 'American company' means under pressure.

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And because he's a car guy, right,

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it lands with credibility.

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He's not just reading a script.

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He believes it.

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That gives him the runway.

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In contrast, Barra plays, I think, a shorter game, gratitude, but no real imprint.

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It looks, tone matters.

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Gratitude without grounding certainly feels like posturing.

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The audience doesn't feel the conviction.

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I think they just hear caution.

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The stability and messaging becomes a competitive advantage when everything else is unpredictable.

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But in this environment, in this media environment, the loudest voice doesn't just interrupt the signal,

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it tries to override it.

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So you've got to speak early, got to speak clearly and often, or risk being spoken for.

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But I also think, Farley speaking a little too loud personally.

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He says "the most American company," like five times across two networks, it starts to feel

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a little like over-signaling.

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And there's a moment here where clarity can cross into the performative zone.

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Say it once, its conviction.

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Say it five times (and)

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it starts to feel like it's a test that you're trying to pass.

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So I think there's a little bit of a volume dial here.

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I agree.

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That's sort of what is annoying about this environment is that it sort of has to play

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out on TV and in the messaging like this, like these over-the-top displays.

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But, and I do think at some point you put your credibility at risk.

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But I think that's clearly what Trump wants.

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Like he wants people out there, you know, parroting his ideas and praise to the point of obsesqueousness.

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That's not a good look for business leaders in the long term.

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But I think what people have figured out is that that's what works.

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And maybe that's what Farley was leaning into this week.

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Maybe he sort of tested the limits of it.

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But if we think coming into this week, we would have said that GM has played it better because

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Barra has been working behind the scenes, very little public exposure. Spoke at a

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conference last week, but there was no recording of it out there.

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And that Farley had tried earlier in the year, remember, he had his famous quote of costs

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and chaos, which we have reported many times on this podcast.

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But I think that we would have said that Barra was being more successful.

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And this week Farley comes out and he really leans into what Ford has done.

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He's trying to redefine what it means to be an American company, the most American company

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in the eyes of, I assume, the White House.

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And I think he has flipped the script.

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Yeah.

298
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Well look, he came out swinging, you know, he framed the issue

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as causing chaos as you mentioned. It makes Ford look proactive, even bold.

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But I think that framing also locks you in.

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You know, once you name the problem that directly... But that's the old Ford position.

302
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I think they have, they have changed.

303
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Now, now he's, "we're the most American."

304
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He's gone from a critical posture earlier when he was just a warning posture before.

305
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And he was out further than any other car makers on that.

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Now he's saying like, we're the ones to beat.

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We're the ones who are clearing the bar, Mr. President.

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We're the ones who are the most American.

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We have the two plants in the pipeline.

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And he's saying explicitly in that CNN interview, if you listen to it, he says, why aren't

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our competitors doing the same?

312
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So he's trying to shift the pressure to specifically, I assume, GM and Stolantis.

313
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Well, you know, most of these companies don't support the tariff policy, but they also can't

314
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afford to look oppositional.

315
00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:56,720
Yeah.

316
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So they're hunting for shared ground, saying things like, you know, we believe in manufacturing

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or we want American jobs.

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It's safe.

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It's broad and it gives White House something to clip.

320
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But as pressure mounts and Trump starts looking for symbolic wins,

321
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:12,880
broad values won't be enough.

322
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He'll want action, not applause and headlines, not handshakes.

323
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So I think the real challenge for CCOs is threatening that line, you know, signal enough alignment

324
00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:26,400
to stay in the room without signaling so much that you lose your base.

325
00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:27,400
Yeah.

326
00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:28,400
I think that's right.

327
00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:31,120
And Alignment Signaling is a good calm strategy.

328
00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:36,360
It's a good tactic in any circumstance, just as generally being aligned is a really good

329
00:19:36,360 --> 00:19:37,360
thing.

330
00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:42,200
But I think the reason so many are just signaling alignment, as you say, is that they're

331
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really not aligned with the terror policy.

332
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:48,960
They're trying to make the best of it and figure out a way to steer the administration into

333
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something that's more palatable.

334
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:51,480
So they've got to find--

335
00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:52,480
And to stay in the room.

336
00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:53,480
Yeah.

337
00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:57,120
Well, you can't make any change if you're not in the room.

338
00:19:57,120 --> 00:20:00,720
So they've got to find some common value to build on.

339
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:05,720
It's a tough spot to be in, but I think Jim Farley of Ford kind of found it this week and

340
00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:07,640
we'll see how that plays out.

341
00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:11,320
Let's talk about your thinking on alignment signaling.

342
00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:16,000
And you have developed this framework, which has a handy acronym.

343
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:21,600
Tell us about what the thinking is here and how companies can apply it when they need to

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signal positions that might be as you have described a little awkward because you don't

345
00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,160
agree, but you need to stay engaged.

346
00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:30,160
Yeah.

347
00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:35,720
Look, so this is the beautiful thing about getting to talk to senior executives every day, right?

348
00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:40,720
I mean, something that we've always been doing forever is addressing multiple audiences.

349
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But I think what's different now is that in some respects, it appears that companies are

350
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in a spot of where it looks like they're backtracking on their commitments.

351
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So the challenge is, how do you signal allegiance and agreement or your participation

352
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:05,400
with the administration without undermining your history, your relationships, your integrity

353
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:07,640
and keeping your commitment to your core groups?

354
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,760
I think that is sort of the challenge right now at the heart of it.

355
00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:17,200
And so this acronym that we came up with was all about the heart of what Alignment Signaling

356
00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:19,200
is all about.

357
00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:20,600
Access, right?

358
00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:24,240
You have to be able to stay in the room as you know, as we talked about earlier in the

359
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:27,480
podcast, if you're not, if you don't have a seat at the table, you're probably on the

360
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:28,480
menu.

361
00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:30,600
That's the heart of the idea here.

362
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:37,000
So ACCESS is keeping front and central what the ultimate goal is here.

363
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,720
So it's also an acronym, right?

364
00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:48,360
A: Acknowledge the environment, C: Calibrate public proximity and Contain the message.

365
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:52,040
E: Gott engage with policy, not via personality.

366
00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:58,040
And then the two SS's: Signal stakeholder awareness and Scenario test the blowback, because there

367
00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,120
will be blowback.

368
00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:04,400
As we have seen. Okay, there's a couple here that I think are really interesting as we apply

369
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:10,120
it to what we've seen this past week with both the Amazon situation as well as the

370
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:16,000
car makers, but acknowledging the environment, I think is a really, really interesting one.

371
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:21,680
Talk about how, I think the car makers are the best example here, but how they've demonstrated

372
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,400
that aspect of your framework.

373
00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:25,400
Okay.

374
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:30,720
So, I think this idea of acknowledging the environment is recognizing that this

375
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:32,720
is not all good news right now.

376
00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:37,320
In a Trump 2.0 environment companies are being pulled into the spotlight pretty fast.

377
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:42,560
The loyalties are getting tested in public and neutrality can get framed as betrayal.

378
00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:47,040
So every business decision, you got to be aware of... it can be politicized.

379
00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:52,520
So this idea here is that, acknowledging the environment, you can't pretend that the

380
00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:54,640
political climate is neutral.

381
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,160
You have to name the pressure.

382
00:22:56,160 --> 00:23:00,360
And that means, inTrump 2.0, everything from pricing, the hiring, the philanthropy

383
00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:03,800
can be turned into some type of loyalty test.

384
00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:08,240
So you know, acknowledging the environment means being honest internally and externally

385
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:11,240
about the symbolic risks you're engaging.

386
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:15,760
And for Ford, I would say they did that fairly loud and early, you know, Farley names the

387
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:16,760
chaos.

388
00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:17,760
He hits the cost.

389
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,040
He made the environment a key part of the story.

390
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:27,240
And GM did it very slow and cautious. Barra stayed quite early and then eased

391
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:29,800
in with language like clarity and consistency.

392
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:36,400
I'd say Ford named the storm and GM waited to see if the forecast was going to change.

393
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:42,600
And so much of these calculations, I think, are about balancing how you present the issue

394
00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:44,880
because you need to maintain credibility, right?

395
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:48,600
The easiest thing in the world, we just go all in and say whatever it takes.

396
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,600
But in the long term, that's not going to go well for you, especially when you're

397
00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:57,160
in a situation like this where you know the policy is not good

398
00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:01,040
and you'd rather that it be something different.

399
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:06,600
But I think what Ford did really well this week is they leaned into stuff that nobody could

400
00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:07,600
really argue with.

401
00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:12,560
I mean, this is one of the things about alignment signaling is that you look for the common

402
00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:13,560
ground.

403
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:17,360
It's the basic concept.

404
00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:22,120
And you accentuate the things, you know, this, ideally there's, we have more things in

405
00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:24,800
common than we, than we differ on.

406
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:30,640
But Ford really found stuff that I think is hard for anybody to argue with.

407
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:35,400
The jobs that they have here, the efforts that they are making, the factories that they are

408
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:36,400
going to add.

409
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:41,040
So it's, it goes beyond what we've seen with a lot of companies where they say, 'we agree

410
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:47,520
with the idea of leveling this playing field, we agree with the idea of long term boosting

411
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:48,520
manufacturing.'

412
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:51,360
But Ford's able to do is say, 'we're already on it.'

413
00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:52,360
Yeah.

414
00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:55,760
The message that would have served them well, I think before now, but what the heck, they're

415
00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:56,760
here.

416
00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:57,760
Yeah.

417
00:24:57,760 --> 00:24:58,760
Look, I think that's a good example.

418
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:02,320
This idea of the first  calibrating public proximity.

419
00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:07,240
Ford leaned in close- Fox, CNN, the whole circuit - proximity is presence.

420
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,280
And in contrast, right, GM kind of kept distance.

421
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:15,000
They let the earnings do the talking, used more formal channels like the shareholder

422
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:16,800
letter and semifor.

423
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,480
So yeah, you know, Ford stepped into the spotlight.

424
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,520
GM stayed behind the curtain.

425
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:28,120
You still got to decide how close you want to peer to political power and how far you need

426
00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:29,120
to be seen.

427
00:25:29,120 --> 00:25:33,360
And with Trump back in the arena, you know, even showing up in the wrong photo can be a headline.

428
00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:38,000
So, you know, calibration largely about visibility management who's in the room who's watching

429
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,880
from the hallway and what your presence communicates.

430
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:45,080
Well, let's talk about one more of the letters in your acronym.

431
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,480
And that's the next C, which is "Containing the messaging risk."

432
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:55,000
Yeah, I think that Amazon really did a good job of this sort of reactively.

433
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,200
I mean, ideally, you would have contained the messaging risk by, you know, looking at this

434
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,320
potential proposal, but who knew that it was going to become public?

435
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:06,120
Because we don't know how fully baked that idea was.

436
00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:08,920
They were very emphatic that it had not gone up the chain.

437
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:13,760
I don't know what the reality was, but talk a little bit about what we've seen in terms

438
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:16,840
of containing messaging risk this week.

439
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:21,640
So, yeah, this idea of containing the message risk means basically tightening the loop,

440
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:22,640
right?

441
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,920
Limit who speaks, align quickly, avoid statements that can be reframed as pledges or

442
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:28,920
attacks.

443
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,680
And for Amazon, they issued two statements within the span of an hour.

444
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:36,560
The first said the tariff display had been kicked around, but not implemented.

445
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:40,560
And the second slammed the door: not approved and not going to happen.

446
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:45,360
And that, that second statement wasn't just corporate cleanup, it was political containment,

447
00:26:45,360 --> 00:26:46,360
right?

448
00:26:46,360 --> 00:26:47,360
It wasn't aimed at clarity.

449
00:26:47,360 --> 00:26:49,240
It was in a Trump and it worked.

450
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:50,240
But here's the risk, right?

451
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:56,440
In trying to kill the story fast, Amazon left a room for nuance and no signal to stakeholders

452
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,360
who might have appreciated the transparency.

453
00:26:59,360 --> 00:27:03,440
So, you know, Amazon contained the blowback, but they also muted the message.

454
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:07,520
I think the fix worked, but the story got flattened.

455
00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:10,280
I think this is a really interesting framework that you've come up with.

456
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:11,280
I'll go over it again.

457
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:17,960
You said ACCESS six letters: A- acknowledge the environment, C- calibrate public proximity,

458
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:20,120
C- contain the messaging risk.

459
00:27:20,120 --> 00:27:23,600
E- engage via policy, not personality.

460
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:25,840
S- signal stakeholder awareness.

461
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,880
S- Scenario test the blowback. Really interesting stuff.

462
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,960
Any final thoughts on that framework?

463
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:38,000
If you're going to use this framework, there's certain conditions that have got to be in

464
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:40,320
place.

465
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:45,760
You got to know what your floor is, when you're not going to fall below no matter what the

466
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:46,920
pressure is. You've got to recognize that trust has earned through behavior, not crisis statements.

467
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:52,120
You got to be able to engage from policy, not personal loyalty.

468
00:27:52,120 --> 00:27:55,520
I think a big one is you also, if you're going to employ the strategy, you're going to have

469
00:27:55,520 --> 00:28:00,720
to make space for internal dissent within your company.

470
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:01,720
So certainly the long game anchored in values, but whatever your next move is, it's got to be anchored in

471
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:04,480
principles and you got to have the courage.

472
00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:06,480
I'm going to say moral imagination to look beyond trade-offs because trade-offs is what

473
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,360
first comes to mind for people.

474
00:28:09,360 --> 00:28:15,680
They're balancing stakeholders here and you've got to find a way to think beyond the balance

475
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:20,120
and to think about how you can transcend the conflict that is facing us during this particular

476
00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:22,080
moment.

477
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,400
No small feat, but always, always food for thought.

478
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:29,120
Craig, I think it's a really interesting one and it's definitely something that is going

479
00:28:29,120 --> 00:28:31,600
to be a lot of opportunities for comms leaders to apply in the coming weeks and months.

480
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:35,600
That's our show for this week.

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00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:40,400
We want to thank Shawn P Neal and the team at AdvoCast as well as the People Forward

482
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,400
Network for making our podcast possible.

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00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:44,400
If you have comments or suggestions for the podcast we'd love to hear from you, our email

484
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:48,280
address is podcast@ocrnetwork.com.

485
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:54,360
Communication Breakdown is a production of the Observatory on Corporate Reputation.

486
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:58,360
I'm Steve Dowling.

487
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:02,320
And I'm Craig Carroll. Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week.

488
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:08,280
#Amazon #Ford #GeneralMotors #Stellantis #Tariffs #TradeWar #CorporateReputation #PRStrategy #CrisisComms #AlignmentSignaling #TrumpAdministration #BusinessLeadership #ReputationManagement #MediaRelations #CommsStrategy #SupplyChain #Transparency #EarningsSeason #AutoIndustry #PublicAffairs #ShawnPNeal #AdvoCast

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