I’ll start from far away.
There are certain mechanisms so enormous that we are unable to influence them. In my younger days (huh), it took a while to accept this (‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is my favorite but still the most difficult piece of literature I’ve ever read; over the years, I haven’t been able to make myself read it a second time).
However, now, thanks to the absence of pink lenses glasses (watch the pic enclosed till the end:-) and a certain emotional indifference to what I cannot influence, any processes are perceived more pragmatically (and, paradoxically, more professionally).
With that being said, I understand the rules of business, especially when it comes to scaled one. You won’t read this in any official statements, this truth is not selling:
Businesses will always try to cut expenses to achieve more profit
When there are thousands employees, it’s hard to perceive every single person as an individual. For scaled businesses, employees are seen as the workforce and an extra space to cut expenses
I look at the investigation of Italy’s competition watchdog on Dior over alleged labor exploitation over this lens. Like it or not scaled luxury businesses are the same no matter what craftsmanship videos are being posted on their social media pages.
I was not going to write on the case, but Google trends made me do this. I was checking all the different things to stay updated with search trends and came across an interesting observation.
In the last 30 days there is a growing worldwide trend for search request “Dior Scandal” in Google
Financial Times published an article on allegations over Dior and Giorgio Armani
*Giorgio Armani is also under investigation over the same matter, but I didn't follow their communications that much.
In other words I can’t ignore:)
Let’s review the communication of Dior and LVMH over the matter.
While there is no official statement published on any official Dior or LVMH communication channels, there is a statement published in Financial Times.
This is the second exploitation scandal LVMH is getting into in 2024. The first one was with Loro Piana, when “quiet luxury” status turned into “quiet slavery” one as per social media.
The communication for both scandals is similar:
silence at first
an aggressive minor update when the snowball is too big to ignore
avoidance of responsibility later
If I were asked about the worst crisis communication, I would recommend looking at both these cases:)
*click on img to expand
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