The Controversy Sweet Spot in Marketing & Public Relations

Wharton Professor Jonah Berger has conducted some fascinating research on the role of controversy in marketing and public relations.  Berger and his co-author, Zoey Chen, discovered that increasing the level of controversy can increase the volume of online conversation about a company or brand.  However, the relationship is not linear.  A moderate level of controversy increases conversation.  Increasing the controversy even further, though, starts to dampen the level of online conversation.  

In one study, they examined 200 articles posted on a particular online site, and they asked independent evaluators to rank them in terms of level of controversy.  Then they counted the number of online comments posted by readers.  They found that higher levels of controversy increased the number of online comments up to a moderate level of controversy (4.6 on a 7.0 scale).  Beyond 4.6, however, they found that high controversy articles tended to elicit a lower number of online comments.   In a series of experimental studies, Berger and Chen confirm this same curvilinear relationship. 

Berger notes that high controversy diminishes online conversation because people sometimes feel uncomfortable chiming in on a highly explosive topic.  Berger says, "“At the core, the key [question] is … how will talking about an issue affect how people see me?”  

Berger argues that the findings do not suggest that firms should avoid controversy.  However, they should consider the "sweet spot" for their firm.   That sweet spot will differ among firms.  In some cases, controversy quickly creates a great deal of discomfort.  Thus, the controversy doesn't create the online buzz that they seek.  People instead get quiet, for fear of how others will perceive them.  For other companies, it takes quite a bit to reach that level of discomfort where online conversation, buzz, and word-of-mouth actually becomes suppressed.  

JC Penney Reacts Quickly to Controversial T-Shirt

How quickly can and should companies react to a social media firestorm?  We have an interesting case study this week.   Bloggers and tweeters unleashed a barrage of criticism on J.C. Penney this week, after it began selling a back-to-school t-shirt that read, "I'm too pretty to do my homework, so my brother does it for me."  You can imagine how people reacted to this shirt.  To their credit, the retailer reacted within just a few hours to the controversy that erupted via social media, and they pulled the shirt.  What's the lesson from the story?   Most would say that you should anticipate such controversies and avoid them.  I would argue that it's nearly impossible to avoid all such controversies.  If you never experience one, you probably aren't doing anything fun or exciting with your products.   The key for any company is to TRY to avoid them, but to ACKNOWLEDGE that you won't prevent them all.  Then, you need to establish a monitoring process for detecting social media controversy and a rapid response mechanism for addressing such a firestorm.