On Brand Reputation - Meghan & Harry VS The Royal Firm

Meghan and Harry were asked if they would still be in the palace if given the proper support and they responded, “Without question”.

Welcome to the inaugural LinkedIn Newsletter of Deborrah Ashley, The LinkedIn BlackBelt

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To have integrity with consumers what you produce should be in line with their expectations, especially in the digital space.

Brands, both well-established and growing, understand the perils of inconsistency. However, it is important to avoid the pitfalls of confusing growth with inconsistency.

Choosing to stick with doing things a certain way because “it’s the way that it has always been done,” or “it works this way” is a surefire way to guarantee your brand will not reach its full potential.

In Oprah’s interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan and Harry speak about the lack of support afforded to Meghan because she did not fit the royal brand.

While we must take the interview at face value and not jump to our own conclusions about the lives of a family, we do not know personally, there are important lessons we can learn about online brand reputation from Meghan, Harry, and their time as part of the Royal brand.

Consistency in Your Word is Essential

Within the span of the interview, Meghan told Oprah several times that she was disappointed in the royal firm (which is the Monarchy as a government department) because they failed to protect her and refused to protect her son Archie.

This comes after several defamatory articles were released by the British tabloids about Meghan’s time within the palace.

She was told to ignore them and not to read them and the Firm would protect her, but Meghan states that they only allowed the stories to continue without anyone disputing them.

She claims she lost faith in the Firm after that. This presents an essential lesson about consistency with your word while building your brand.

If your service is subpar and you promise specific results without delivering on that promise, your brand will become known for that unreliability.

If consumers wait three months for an item or order a service that does not meet their expectations, that will also become a part of your brand.

Like Meghan who portrays the Firm as unreliable because they were consistently unreliable for her, word of mouth can paint a similar narrative for your company on LinkedIn.

Anyone can find out just about anything with a short google search, so your brand’s integrity is what can set you apart in an oversaturated market.

That is the Way We’ve Always Done This

Brands usually cite consistency when asked about lack of diversity, when what is really at fault is insipidity.

“We use the same models and they just happen to all look a certain way because that’s how they’ve always looked”. “We’ve had the same families on our board of directors for years and that is the reason for a lack of diversity”.

For the Royals, according to Meghan, they did not support her or her child because they did not fit the Royal brand.

She was American, mixed-race, and completely unknowledgeable of the royal family and their duties until she was introduced to it.

Archie would be the first mixed-race Royal born into the family. In attempting to keep with the tradition of the way the Royals have always looked, the Firm was willing to break traditions of how the Royals were treated.

This is a lesson that you should always be open to growth and diversity within your team and your brand. In a world with constantly shifting views, interests, and perceptions, change is inevitable.

To stay on top and continue to thrive in this market, you must be able to adapt and incorporate new things in an on-brand fashion. Consistency should never be an excuse for intolerance.

Support Matters Internally

Meghan and Harry were asked if they would still be in the palace if given the proper support and they responded, “Without question”.

Let's say, you have a favorite restaurant that you swear by and take all your friends to. One day, you get your food and something is off.

Because you like the restaurant so much, you know it is just a fluke. So you ask to send it back.

If the wait staff supports you and offers an alternative or a refund, and does what they can to make sure you know this does not happen all the time, that one experience will not change your five-star opinion.

However, if the wait staff yells at you for calling them over just to send food back, argues that there is no way your food tastes bad and tells you to get over it because you ordered it and should have known better, you will probably stop going to that restaurant.

That was a dramatic situation, but a very real lesson. You must support your team, your clients/consumers, and yourself. Your team should be uplifted when they have ideas and acknowledged when they have concerns.

Your clients/consumers should always feel like they are speaking to a real person online with their compliments and their complaints, and you should always believe in your vision before you continue with any aspect of it.

Support can be the tipping point of any successful brand.

While we may never really know what goes on behind the walls of the Palace, we can still learn important lessons from a brand that has been maintaining itself for generations.

Most important is not to hold so rigidly to what you know about your brand that it prevents you from seeing what it could become.

Your Turn

The LinkedIn profile and presence of an organization’s leaders is often the first contact a potential customer, employee, or client makes with your organization online. It’s your digital handshake.

What they discover may directly influence their decision to do business with your organization or instead opt for a competitor. Additionally, a positive brand reputation can increase consumer trust, improve client acquisition, and attract top talent.

Want to know how your online presence affects your organization's brand reputation?

Take this no-cost assessment for a brand reputation report. Using a 20 point system, it will rate your online presence and share how to strengthen your brand reputation and relevance online to attract and retain loyal clients, partners, and top-tier and diverse talent.

ABOUT DEBORRAH

Deborrah is a LinkedIn Thought Leadership Marketing Strategist and the author of the book InSIDER- How To Leverage LinkedIn To Stand Out As The Industry Leader. 

With over 20 years of brand-building experience, she is obsessed with helping companies shape brand perception to engage audiences online.

To inquire about working with Deborrah directly, please email [email protected]

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