A few thoughts on the dominant financial story of the last few weeks:
The Northern Rock’s communications style has always been self-assured, perhaps a little over-confident, for a financial institution. The relaxed manner that served it well on the way up is the exact opposite of what was needed in the face of the onslaught of the last week. Utter the words “bank” and “crisis” in the same sentence and it will expose our most conservative tendencies. What investors like is confident, earnest reassurance. Less of the entrepreneur, more of the judicious clerk, in other words.
For City commentators, the somewhat casual style will have encouraged perceptions that this is a business ill-equipped for a crisis (the “Bloody hurrah” memo will have done little to help). Adam Applegarth, the CEO, has also at times seemed uncertain of what style to adopt, flitting between the jargon-enriched (“It’s an astonishing thing to see the sterling three-month interbank market effectively not exist”) and the less-than-reassuring (“I’d love to be a part of rebuilding it, if asked to”). What nervous customers want is a consistent message. Another misjudgement has been the regular repetition of the levied criticisms in responses to questions. If you repeat the complaint, it’ll appear in your quote.
There have been a few scheduling gaffes as well. The CEO would have been better advised to honour all interview commitments, as a fuming Gavin Esler on Newsnight made clear.
Finally, Northern Rock’s position that it is a hapless victim has not washed with analysts or City pages who have been quick and thorough in their explanation of the flaws in the bank’s business model. Acceptance of some level of responsibility, combined with the intended response, would have taken some of the heat out of the issue.
(This analysis originally appeared in PR Week)
previous: Digital citizenship
next: Memory lane
RSS feed 