Surely you’ve heard of the Red Hen restaurant in Washington, D.C., where Arkansas’ own Sarah Huckabee Sanders was ushered out by the owner, no fan of President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance border policy.
The White House press secretary tweeted about it, and so did her boss, igniting outrage and a social media firestorm, right? Wrong!
The Red Hen that ejected Sanders was actually in Lexington, Virginia, 180 miles from D.C. It has no affiliation with the Red Hen in Washington, which scrambled to correct the misidentification. Its public relations manager, Alysa Turner, struggled to make the public grasp the distinction between the two Red Hens, employing no small bit of humor.
Little Rock PR and reputation management professionals, lamenting Turner’s plight, see the incident and its aftermath as teaching moments. They’re lessons of the modern age, when social media can be judge, jury and reputational executioner in days or even hours.
“It’s challenging when a crisis occurs at another location yet the fallout affects locations in far-reaching places that are owned by others,” said Natalie Ghidotti, CEO of Ghidotti Communications in Little Rock. “It’s like the old game of telephone.”
Ghidotti faced a similar fix when a crisis occurred at a store in Benton, Kansas, and the online grapevine blossomed with talk about Benton, Arkansas.
“It took us days to right the ship on that one and ensure that customers understood it was a crisis elsewhere,” Ghidotti said. “Unfortunately for brands, social media has created the ultimate game of telephone, and it can be painfully challenging to rein that in at times.”
It also makes investing in PR strategies essential, she told Arkansas Business.
David Martin, a Little Rock specialist in managing and protecting reputations, advises investing early in trademark research. He’s CEO of Allegiance, formerly Martin Wilbourn Partners.
“Spend the money and register your unique name, and be sure to also register distinguishing graphic elements to both the name itself and any logo, image or mark that helps to distinguish your enterprise from any other similarly named entity,” he said in a brief critique of how the “assault” on the Washington Red Hen’s reputation was handled.
Turner tried to distinguish her restaurant clearly from the one in Lexington. Sanders’ own tweet had placed the incident in Lexington, but Turner was called a liar, and posts noted similarities between the two eateries’ logos.
“It’s almost like our logos are of the same animal we’re named after or something,” Turner archly replied on the @RedHenDC Twitter feed. (Remember, that’s the handle of the restaurant that DIDN’T run Sanders out.)
It’s almost like all of our logos are of the same animal we’re named after or something. pic.twitter.com/iFc33FQkGj
— The Red Hen (@RedHenDC) June 24, 2018
Martin praised Turner for engaging authentically with people who accused the D.C. Red Hen of intolerance. And for safety’s sake, he approved of alerting law enforcement and security personnel.
But Turner made a misstep, Martin suggested, when she faced questions about whether her own eatery would have served Sanders, a Hope native and daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Turner replied on Twitter that District of Columbia law requires serving all patrons regardless of politics. She would have done better, Martin said, by simply declaring that her restaurant serves all. A higher-ground reply? “We’ve been serving delicious conversations with sides of opposing points of view, drizzled with freedom of speech, since 1980,” or whenever the restaurant was established.
The D.C. Red Hen could have sold itself as a place to discuss anything, as long as the tone is polite, Martin said.
Let him give an example: “The best thing about dining at Red Hen-DC is that we never know who will be joining us or what conversations will ensue.” Better yet, “invite a friend, make a reservation and share your point of view over one of our chef’s politically agnostic creations. Coat and tie optional. Manners and civility required.”
A light, engaging tone is the key, Martin said. “If you can ride the wave with humility and a little humor, you will win the day and gain respect from your loyal patrons as well as those who become aware of your business” because of the misunderstanding.
Keeping things light also makes it easier for regular patrons to come to a business’s defense. “Nothing is better at shutting down the opposition than loyal customers,” Martin said.
These days, the Washington restaurateurs are leveraging the controversy by telling their story “as a case study” in publications their regular customers are likely to see, Martin said. “It is a great touch that was probably facilitated by a loyal customer and will likely have a positive impact. Nice work.”
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