What Should Boeing Do to Repair Its Damaged Reputation?

In April, whistleblower Sam Salehpour—a 17-year quality engineer for Boeing—took a seat before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs. The committee was investigating Boeing’s safety culture following several highly publicized incidents, notably the fatal crashes of Boeing 737 Max-8 planes in 2018 and 2019, and a door plug blowout on a 737 Max-9 in January.

Salehpour’s testimony was damning.

“I genuinely believe that the safety problems I have observed at Boeing, if not addressed, could result in a catastrophic failure of a commercial airplane that would lead to the loss of hundreds of lives,” Salehpour testified.

Boeing is not a consumer brand, but its public image has suffered to the point where consumers are treating it like one.

In the aftermath of Boeing’s high-profile mishaps, a January survey by JW Surety Bonds found that nearly half of Gen Z travelers are afraid to fly. A survey conducted by Pollfish for Casinos.us revealed that over half the traveling public would pay $50-$150 extra “for tickets on what they perceive to be safer aircraft than Boeing’s.” NBC has reported that travelers have gone so far as to rebook flights to avoid Boeing planes.

With the summer travel season in full swing, what can Boeing do to restore its good name?

“There’s no message, no slogan that will accomplish that,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told employees earlier this year. “It’s all about real, demonstrated action and absolute transparency every step of the way.” (A Boeing spokesperson referred ADWEEK to this statement when asked to comment.)

Boeing is expected to name a new CEO before the year is out. Meanwhile, ADWEEK reached out to some of the top names in rebranding and crisis communications to ask them what they think Boeing should be doing. Here’s what they told us.

David E. Johnson, CEO, Strategic Vision PR Group:

“Boeing needs to do numerous things to begin restoring its reputation and assuring stakeholders. The first thing is speed up the departure of the CEO. He is associated with the ongoing debate, and at this point the public and policymakers will not put much credence in what he is saying.

Next, bring in a highly respected individual to conduct an independent investigation of the company and make recommendations like the NFL did with Mary Jo White.

They must be out in front on their website and social media, admitting they had a problem, apologize and outline steps they are taking to ensure this never happens again. They must promise all company personnel involved in mishandling the crisis are removed.

Hit the media in making mea culpas. Address company employees and promise a new transparency. Address key legislators and policymakers on the steps the new Boeing leadership is taking. And realize this process of rebuilding will take time.”

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Eric Dezenhall, chairman and cofounder, Dezenhall Resources:

“This is an engineering-based problem before it is anything else. You have to be able to say, ‘We found the problem and we fixed it.’ Everything flows from that. Nobody wants to hear about complex interactions. The want the problem to have a name—like a disease—and they want to know it’s been cured.

Before the consumer public can be convinced of anything, the decisionmakers have to be impressed. Airlines. Regulators. Safety experts. Aviation journalists. A high-end campaign against savvy audiences that have an investment in this issue must be mounted before you can comfort the public.

There is no correlation between how much you communicate with consumers and a restoration in confidence. This is a long game. An advertising blitz saying ‘We care’ and ‘We’re committed to safety’ won’t cut it. The solution to a crisis like this is no incidents over time. In a sense, it’s the opposite of conventional PR: You want to bore people, not excite them. You don’t then run ads saying ‘Look, no incidents!’”

Evan Nierman, founder and CEO, Red Banyan:

“To regain trust, Boeing must engage more transparently and aggressively where customers are most active: social media. By strongly addressing safety and reputation concerns through robust messaging campaigns on these channels, Boeing can start rebuilding its reputation.

Releasing the results of independent safety reports and audits with positive findings while simultaneously engaging customers through open forums will play key roles in making the case that Boeing’s planes are safe and reliable. Touting its long track record of safety and engaging respected surrogates to validate their aircraft and a corporate culture that places passenger safety over profits will also be vital.”

Erich Joachimsthaler, founder and CEO, Vivaldi Group:

“Boeing needs to realize that this crisis is not just about Boeing, not just about engineering. This crisis is much bigger. Boeing is the poster child of evil corporations today. Boeing needs to involve a larger ecosystem to respond, and it needs to engage in a broader dialogue [with] different parts of the fabric of consumers, like Gen Z.

Boeing needs to engage, not just communicate. As the saying goes: Never let a crisis go to waste. This is an opportunity for Boeing to create a platform, a place—whether on YouTube or its website—where it can continuously engage with consumers and explain how it solves the many challenges it faces and how it reestablishes its safety standards.

Boeing needs to establish what we call at Vivaldi a new operating system to manage the brand. Today, you can measure the brand in real time, daily or weekly, and understand where a brand stands.”

Nneka Etoniru, EVP of global brand strategy, Avenue Z:

“There’s never a good time for a crisis—but the best possible time is an election year. Boeing has a short reprieve from media attention at the moment, but the company can’t rely on presidential debates to overtake the news cycle forever. It must address this crisis head-on—internally first, by conducting an evaluation of its brand character and culture, then by promoting a narrative of transparency, quality and trust.

Travelers are often price conscious. As long as Boeing can work on establishing a new path built on consumer trust, traveler confidence will follow. Consider all the influential channels that take part in the traveler purchase journey—that’s exactly where Boeing needs to be.

To get there, Boeing can’t rely on advertising or PR alone. To rebuild brand reputation, first, it has to think across all influential channels, PR and digital combined. Anything less would let the narrative spin further out of control.”