Why it took a decade after the asbestos scandal for James Hardie to return to marketing
A decade ago building supplies firm James Hardie was arguably the most hated brand in Australia, engulfed in litigation around its asbestos products causing the deaths of workers. Marketing boss George O’Neil explains why the time is right for the brand to start marketing again.
More than a decade ago the James Hardie brand pulled all of its marketing in Australia, with the building supplies firm caught in the wake of an asbestos crisis that engulfed the business and resulted in it setting up a trust from which to pay the victims of dust-borne diseases more than $1b.
But now its Asia Pacific marketing director George O’Neil, a former fast moving consumer goods marketer with Unilever, say the time is right to guide the 127-year-old company back into public consciousness, and he’s chosen social media as the way to do it.
O’Neil: Hardie’s will use social to allow customers to tell their stories
Speaking exclusively to Mumbrella, O’Neil said the time has come to support the brand again and tap into the goodwill that builders and home renovators had for its products, despite the long-term impact of the asbestos crisis.
“Reclaiming our narrative”?
A company that has behaved so disgracefully has no claim over the narrative. I can only hope this inspires those whose lives have been destroyed by Hardie’s to ensure the real story is never forgotten.
I thought EXACTLY the same thing. They have absolutely NO RIGHT to reclaim the narrative!
“What we are wanting to do is re-associate something positive. Now the fact is James Hardie is doing a lot that typically only comes up when there’s a results call. We are up over a $1b contribution to the asbestos fund, we are working with the asbestos awareness group that have an asbestos awareness month in November supporting medical research, so there is a huge amount that the company is doing in the background.”
I don’t envy his position but at the same time he chose to take this role – fuck James Hardie and fuck that attitude. How generous to do as what was court-mandated after they knowingly poisoned their own workers and tried to keep them in court until they died from the very disease James Hardie caused.
Simon, @james_hardie on Instagram only has 1428 followers (as of today), not 14,000. Willing to be proved wrong if you can point to another source, but that was the only major IG account I could find for JH.
The reality is that history is history, and the business has stood behind its obligation to contribute to the asbestos compensation fund. Hardies are only one of many business that manufactured asbestos containing products, yet is the only business thrown out into the media as the one responsible for the lot. I empathise with the victims, however holding on to the hate will not change anything
This is absolutely disgraceful. I cannot even believe James Hardie continues to trade in Australia. My Mum died of mesothelioma in 2010 after 9 months of suffering (the average time it takes from diagnosis to certain death). She lost a good 20 years of her life, and I lost my Mum, and my Dad lost his wife. We would have had to engage lawyers and participate in litigation during this brief, traumatic period to even access the compensation fund, and it would also come with the risk of having to pay costs. With the tens of thousands of lives of manual workers and their wives and children cut cruelly short thanks to asbestos, every cent James Hardie Australia had should have been directed into funds for these people who died a gruesome death, being slowly suffocated, in their final months. Taking the business offshore and then putting insufficient monies into a fund for victims is unforgivable. To then think that the passage of time means that it’s possible to waltz on back into the public eye as a brand identity is evil.
Here is an article I published on the day my Mum was buried: http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/q.....-lwpx.html
My father had died at 46 years after working in that factory in the sixties and seventies , and left my mother with 4 minor children , forgotten and alone. And my mother never was approached by anybody for compensation . Sadly .
The company fought tooth and nail against paying any sort of compensation even to those victims who worked for them.
If they had any branding sense they would have distanced themselves from the Hardie’s brand altogether. This deserves to backfire in the worst way.
On Pinterest I could find James Hardie Australia with 1.3K followers. On Instagram, only James Hardie America and 1.4K followers. How unfortunate that James Hardie are being allowed to get away with lying yet again.
Many brands that have had dark moments in their history. And many have succeeded after being plunged into a period of crisis. The most relevant example here would be Dow Corning silicone implants – a crisis that emerged 20 years after the product was introduced and went on to affect almost one million women, resulting in a multi-billion dollar settlements. 20 years on, Corning continues to be a lead producer of medical products. Given medical and healthcare industries are some of the most regulated in the world, and trust is paramount, it’s a staggering achievement.
What James Hardie is doing now effectively draws a line between the past and sets a new agenda for the future. But I don’t think anything JH is doing now is attempt to hide from its past. Far from it. The fact they haven’t rebranded is perhaps a tacit acknowledgement of this. It’s a process of restoration of a once great Australian brand.
Hi Joel and Jack,
The numbers quoted are from James Hardie’s Scyon branded social media sites which has 14.4KL followers on Instagram and 10.5K on Pinterest.
Hope that clarifies
Simon
“We were surprised when we started doing focus groups, there is actually a huge amount of love out there for the brand and for the products we make…”
Newsflash – people lie during focus groups because they want money.
I’d love to see the ratio of people who said “I’ll go to pretty much any focus group, but I’d rather eat glass than turn up to one for James Hardie.”
Your brand is hated. It destroyed lives. You can marketing speak the hell out of yourself until the cows come home but that doesn’t change this fact.
But thank you for opening up the opportunity to discuss one of the wholesale screw ups of human life and creation of suffering in Australian history. I relish the opportunity to explain to young marketers why you make the list of “I’d rather sell my soul to satan then sell those guys” products for pretty much anyone 35 and over.
So they’ve gone back to marketing but with a sub-brand that most consumers (the audiences for Pinterest and Instagram) wouldn’t associate with Hardies. Right. Brave decision that.
Scyon Walls (one of JH’s brands) has 14.4K followers on Instagram.
I lost my dad in november to mesothelioma after a 2 yr battle. It was heart breaking seeing an otherwise healthy independent man at 78 become so weak tired and torn both physically and emotionally. I grew up with the james hardie asbestos story not realising one day i would live it too. The company will always be known for its history, and a bad one it is
‘Using social to allow customers tell their stories’ – for any brand associated with JH this has total disaster potential.