Offense, Distrust, Hurt, Anger, Loss of Credibility, etc.
When problematic content/media is created or people take reasonable offense to the way representation occurs in media, it can be consequential in a number of ways. Here are just a few to consider:
- When problematic/offensive media is created, those that believe they were targeted, lose faith that a company can and does respect all consumers of its product or services.
- When problematic/offensive media is created, consumers can lose faith that a company appreciates all consumers who spend their hard-earned dollars patronizing and supporting the company/brand.
- When problematic/offensive media is created, consumers may look for other brands/companies to spend their hard-earned dollars with.
- When a consumer feels cause for offense, he or she may just tell the company about it--if the organization is lucky.
- When problematic/offensive media is created, there may be irreparable damage to the company.
- When problematic/offensive media is created, a product or a service's image and value might be reduced.
Causing offense in media-messaging is often unintentional. It can be hurtful to consumers and the public at-large, nevertheless.
In some instances of unintended offense, a company did not have access to the right competencies in the right consciousness for content creation and analysis. They did not have the right people who could demonstrate the right consciousness for content creation that could accurately analyze, inform and edit their content before they used their capabilities to disseminate it to large and diverse audiences.
Smaller organizations may not have the resources on staff to do a proper analysis of content/media to spot hidden biases or other elements that may cause offense.
As you're probably aware, even some larger companies that have the resources, did not have the proper analysis to check for hidden biases in their media-content-creations. Yes, larger companies also lack the right competencies in the right consciousnesses.
The consequence(s) of not having the resources or of having the resources, but not knowing how to utilize them in the right ways can lead to an organizational blind-spot of not knowing what one does not know, but needs to know.
Not having access to the right competencies, at the right time, to help develop media the right way, can be downright concerning! Not having the right consciousness demonstrated in content can ultimately be quite costly for a brand and a company. The brand may recover, but what lasting impacts impressions will it leave on the consumers impacted by the problematic content?
Let CMC, LLC guide your consciousness in content creation so your company/brand avoids problematic content!