It's been ugly for some time now. Your clients' adversaries aren't just trying to win a lawsuit here or recall a product there. They've developed an ever-more-interconnected
skein of interest groups, public advocates and lawyers to wage all-out "issue wars" directly affecting every segment of the client industry.
It's not just Vioxx. It's the profit motive of drug companies that's under attack. It's not just mercury emissions. It's a concerted effort to swing the pendulum back from
the current trend toward environmental deregulation.
No doubt there are many causes that are legitimate and even critical to the legislative process, but there is a moral fault line. Self-justified by ideological rectitude,
anti-corporate and other adversarial groups often spill innocent blood. The shenanigans at an Enron or an AIG can ignite attacks on corporate good citizens.
Some corporations are fighting back, hiring professionals to conduct covert investigations and to scope out the forces arrayed against them. But the first objective of such
investigations is to find out who the enemy really is. The proliferation of blogs puts a fine point on this objective. An attack piece is posted against your client. Who's behind
it? What can the client expect next?
Professionals who conduct these investigations predict intensified adversarial efforts even beyond the industries under attack.
Expect stepped-up secondary and tertiary campaigns victimizing people who just happen to be associated, however indirectly, with the central target.
Secondary campaigns attack vendors and clients. The classic example is the animal-rights group that went after a company's insurance carrier so aggressively that the insurer
canceled coverage. The premiums simply didn't justify the ceaseless harassment.
Tertiary campaigns target family members, justified in the moral logic of true believers.
To understand the value of professional investigations, understand their scope. The basics include:
- Is an attack on a corporation secretly funded by a competing corporation?
- Does an attacker have a hidden personal animus against the company unrelated to the product or business practice under attack?
- Who is behind affiliated groups or sub-groups? Are they just shells contrived to make the adversary look stronger than is actually the case?
- Who are the principal players? Were they with an animal-rights group yesterday and an environmental group today?
You also also need to look for links between/among organizations pursuing separate objectives. Are there mutual funding sources? Are plaintiffs' lawyers representing both?
You may discover enemies you never knew you had.
Your strategy here can be two-pronged: First, alert other industry representatives that a broad attack threatens their own interests.
Create an industry-wide response that maximizes third-party support and paves the way for concerted action by, typically, a trade association.
Second, develop a story about the attacker - its sophistication, its funding, its methodology - that neither mentions nor defends your client's products or business
practices. In other words, go on the offensive with a totally fresh topic.
Professional investigators do not, of course, advertise. The really good ones don't even let themselves get quoted for articles like this one. Referrals are the way to go.
Evaluate investigators by their ability for analysis and their instinct to scope out interconnections among potential adversaries.
They might have moles inside enemy camps. They've developed these sources throughout the years and they have enough experience to separate usable disclosures from the
disinformation that double agents provide.
But remember: It's a very specialized business, so don't try it at home.
Contact: Richard S. Levick, Esq., president of Levick Strategic Communications (Washington, D.C.), is co-author along with Larry Smith of "Stop the Presses: The Litigation PR
Desk Reference and 365 Marketing Meditations: Daily Lessons for Marketing & Communications Professionals," available at Amazon.com. Levick can be reached at [email protected].