The Real Chocolate Caper

Nestle is taking a quite beating over what is nothing short of a complete PR disaster for them.  So much for the good old comfy notion of a Kit Kat or Nestle Crunch.  The company recently attempted to censor some information about its use of palm oil in its products and got caught red-handed.  To make matters worse, they got caught by the one organization you don't ever want to get caught by: Greenpeace.  They are the defenders of the whales and watchdogs of the endangered Orangutan. They are extraordinary in their passion about their work and their beliefs, and don't take lightly to those who beat up on our planet.  While they can be extreme at times, I have tremendous respect for their dedication and their perseverance to the cause of saving our precious planet.

Nestle's poor handling of this social media debacle, however, is a lesson that every organization should be extremely mindful to as their blunder highlights the biggest faux pas that companies make in social media: lack of transparency and disingenuity.  These are the two most important ingredients in any social media recipe.  Forget about chocolate and crispy wafers, let alone the evil palm oil.  The bigger mistake was thinking that you could censor or even worse, fool your community.  People know when they are being duped and quite frankly, they really don't like it.   They can read signals and know when you are being dishonest.  Alex ("Sandy") Petland wrote a wonderful book about this; Honest Signals.  It's a bit of a scientific read but at its core, the essential premise is that humans are extraordinarily adept at picking up subtle signals and more importantly, they know when they are being lied to.

 Nestle would have done far better to face the criticism head on, admit their mistake to their 90,000+ Facebook fans, and try to make amends to their community.  They should also start to talk about alternatives to their use of palm oil in their products and identify projects where they can start giving back to the rapidly disappearing rain forests in Indonesia.  They could have completely turned this around and used it to their advantage but instead, tried to brush it under the rug.

No one wants to be associated with destroying rain forests or dramatically reducing the Orangutan population, let alone be associated with a company that blatantly lies to its community about its dopey chocolate wafers.  People care more than you think, and never under estimate the power of the people in their willingness to express their discontent.  Nowadays, they have an even more instantaneous and more powerful way to do it.

Companies be ware!  The chocolate caper could happen to any company.  Respect and understand your audience and more importantly, be honest and sincere with them.  I guarantee the rewards will be endless and more meaningful than any management-book ROI equation.

Value, generosity, and giving without expectation are concepts we need to embrace with greater enthusiasm because the rewards and benefits are limitless.