It is as if an extra chapter has been added to last year’s controversial best-seller Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, the author of No Logo. Just as rescue workers were sifting through the rubble in search of bodies in Sichuan a fortnight ago, foreign investors were pouring in to buy stocks in Chinese construction companies.
The earthquake that shook central China on 12 May may have left more than 40,000 people dead and many more injured and homeless, but for shareholders of the likes of Sichuan Road and Bridge Group, cement producer Sichuan Golden Summit and Panzhihua New Steel & Vanadium it is inaccurate to describe the disaster as disastrous. All three companies have posted healthy jumps in shareprice since the giant earthquake struck.
Of course to most people with a conscience, to profit from disaster is a dirty business, even for companies with a legitimate role to play in picking up the pieces. But what about marketers? Could the Sichuan earthquake, or the cyclone which tore through Burma a fortnight earlier, present marketers - inhuman though it may seem - with an opportunity? Has the industry stumbled upon an unsavoury new discipline: disaster marketing?
Jim Goh, the regional managing director of OMD Southeast Asia, would argue that it is inevitable that some brands will turn tragedy to their advantage. Ads for brands of bottled water, bandages, medication and antiseptics have started popping up in China and Burma, he observes. A similar thing happened across Asia after the Sars outbreak in 2002.
Some say this sort of thing is cold-hearted commercialism. Others would call it opportunistic, says Goh.
Marketers of all product categories have two very clear options in a disaster situation, he advises: stay put and help, or get out of harm’s way.
Coca-Cola is doing both. The company has already pledged Rmb 5 million (US$716,000) to support relief efforts and provide clean drinking water. It has also withdrawn its advertising in China as a mark of respect for the earthquake victims during a three-day national mourning period.
Not that it was given much choice. CCTV has canceled all advertising on its airwaves during the mourning period.
Which calls to question whether Coca-Cola is using the earthquake as a platform on which to sell the world its virtuous nature. For the most prominent Olympic sponsor, the timing couldn’t be better.
Moralistic fingers have been pointing at CCTV, too, for its publication of an earthquake ratecard.
Stephen Drummond, the planning director at Y&R China, reckons that how brands behave in difficult times boils down to what he calls ‘brand karma’.
Corporates trying to capitalise on disasters through PR initiatives disguised as CSR, quite rightly, risk and deserve a backlash, he says.
People are on to this. The media and savvy consumers have exposed this approach particularly over the last decade. So commonsense says help out honestly without ulterior motives. Donating $100 and then spending $1,000 on an ad promoting the fact that you donated $100 (a phenomenon which reared its head post 9-11) will be almost certainly be exposed.
The best brands can hope for in tragic circumstances, concludes Drummond, is to quietly help out and hope it gets noticed.
Live Issue... The murky rise of disaster marketing
How corporates behave during times of tragedy has come under the spotlight.
