OPEN

Cross-posted from Brand Republic…

Another example of a brand’s dirty laundry being aired on the web comes as Elizabeth Arden is accused of “stealing” a logo from a company called mondanation.

mondonation describes itself as a “a hybrid type of business model, mixing for profit with large charitable contributions”. One of its product lines is a customised T-shirt range called “I Believe”, with a logo which bears more than a passing resemblance to the new Britney Spears perfume’s logo. The deal seems to be buy the T-shirt and choose a charity to donate part of the proceeds to.  

The case against Elizabeth Arden is laid out at Young Together’s blog and discussed extensively in the comments section, which has this illustration to prove its point:

So a coincidence, accidental copying or blatant copyright infringement? We’ve no real way of knowing, of course, and that’s not something it would be useful for me to speculate on.

The fact is though, in an age of open networks, everyone and anyone who wishes to speculate will be doing so. In pre-social media times, this story might have warranted some press attention if it went to court or whatever issues were settled. It would have been a bit embarrassing, but most likely the big brand would already be launched and things could be “managed”.

This controversy is happening in real-time. The perfume is not even in the shops yet (although you can pre-order it until October, if you like to purchase scent un-smelled, as it were). There’s not even a public statement on the issue from the firm yet

The supporters of mondonation’s case are blogging, submitting complaints to the company via online forms and spreading the word through aggregators like Digg.

It will be interesting to watch how Elizabeth Arden responds to this growing. For what it’s worth, my advice would be as follows:

• Respond quickly: I think the online conversation about this problem will grow quickly and the momentum will be behind bashing the big brand. The faster that Elizabeth Arden gets its side of the story out there the better. Obviously, the faster it gets to the root of the issue, the better.
• Be open:  Closed and formal communication, legalese and spin will be fuel to the fire of the this particular “blog storm”. Find a way to start communicating in a human voice quickly.
• Keep the dialogue open: Elizabeth Arden has a corporate communications blog which so far has attracted little attention from bloggers and has really only been used to post summaries of press release. It would be a very good idea to dust this off and start using it to communicate the company’s position quickly and connecting with the debate about this issue directly.

The only was to deal with a communications crisis happening in real-time, is to move in real time yourself. Of course, very few brands are set up to do this – their contingency plans are wired for the age of industrial mass media.

The company would  do well at this point to take note of the Dell Hell saga and the way that its blog was pivotal in changing the relationship with its blogger critics. It may be a different industry, but the principles and approach are utterly applicable here.

I’d highly recommend reading Lionel Menchaca, Dell’s Digital Media Manager’s blog post summarising the lessons that a year of corporate blogging taught his team. Also you can listen to an illuminating  interview with Lionel by the For Immediate Release podcast team Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson brings the whole story of how Dell started engaging with online networks to life.

Meanwhile, mondonation, may not be a loser from this at all. The Vancouver Sun is already reporting that the firm is shifting more of its t-shirts as a result of the publicity…