Corporate Crises — and Reputational Recovery — Have Changed

Corporate crises — and reputational recovery — traditionally have been shaped like a U. Companies who refocused on their core competences started rehabilitating their reputation within two to three years and experienced a full recovery within three to four years. In today’s polarized landscape, a new type of corporate crisis is becoming more prevalent: the Crisis L. These L-shaped crises are more severe because they are driven by politics and culture wars, and so the long tail of reputation damage is unknown. In such a polarized country, brands that face political backlash can alienate up to half their customer base. Their reputation score does not recover because support from one side has cratered. Those customers refuse to accept an apology because to them it is an issue of values, not of products.