A branding and marketing expert advises the under-fire rugby team to embrace losing as an authentic part of their brand story. 

The All Blacks, says Bodo Lang, have become boring. Over the past decade, New Zealand’s national team has won so much, so often and so convincingly that their performances have lost all meaning. “We’ve become blind to the fact that they’re always winning,” says Lang, a University of Auckland branding and marketing expert. “We just expect them to win. If somebody’s number one all of the time, that actually becomes boring.”

Lately, though, that’s changed. After late season losses to France and Ireland last year, a recent series loss against Ireland, and a major demolition job by South Africa, the All Blacks’ invincible tag has been shaken. Five losses in their last seven games is not something the team or fans are used to, and it shows. The response has been a mess, with cancelled press conferences, rumours of a showdown looming with coach Ian Foster, a lack of communication with fans and mixed media messages leading to headlines like this absolutely bonkers prediction of Foster’s imminent demise.

All of this is a sign of a team in disarray. From the outside looking in, it’s been tough for fans to watch. Sunday morning’s 35-23 win against the Springboks helped calm the storm, but there are tests against Argentina and Australia looming, as well as a UK tour including matches against Wales, Scotland and England. It’s unlikely, almost impossible, for the All Blacks to win all of those. “It’s quite an unreasonable expectation for a team … to always win,” says Lang. “Sport is unpredictable. At some point, everybody stumbles.” That means turmoil could easily strike again.

So how can the All Blacks turn their on-field losses into off-field wins? I asked Lang, who’s worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, to answer that question, because it’s something many businesses have to deal with. Any brand or CEO embroiled in a PR crisis (I’m looking at you, Simon Henry) has a lesson to learn. In Aotearoa, no brand is bigger than the All Blacks. Lang agrees their series of losses is damaging and could lead to a commercial crisis. “They’re becoming less attractive for sponsors in the future, because everyone wants to back a winner.”

Is it possible to turn that around? Yes, Lang says it is. It could even be good for them. “Having a series of losses could potentially add to the All Blacks [brand],” he says. To do this, they’d need to accept losing as part of their story by embracing their arc. Lang makes it sound like a movie plot. “Here’s a team that’s topped the world rankings for a long time. Here’s a period where they weren’t at the top. This is how they’ve dug their way out of it and they’ve come back to the front.” Lang believes this would shift the narrative and add “integrity and complexity” to their brand.

That, clearly, is not how the All Blacks do things. Winning is all they’ve ever done, so they haven’t had to embrace losing for a very long time. Lately, chaos has been their de facto response to a series of bad performances. Lang says a co-ordinated, honest and humble response to their poor results could go a long way. “Just say, ‘Mate, we’re not up to it right at the moment, we’ll be back shortly,’” he says. “Use some of those New Zealand values – hard work, calling a spade a spade – to indicate a bit of vulnerability. Acknowledge it, embrace it, and bounce back from it.”

That’s all well and good, but the All Blacks are supposed to be the toughest of the tough. This is a team with a legacy of giants like Colin Meads, men who farmed and played rugby and then farmed again, players like Wayne Shelford who thought nothing of staying on the field with missing teeth and gruesome testicular injuries, or Richie McCaw, who performed at the 2011 Rugby World Cup with a broken foot, players who pounded their opposition into submission while leaving everything they’ve got on the field.

Surely opening up and being vulnerable goes against all that? Lang believes if there’s ever a moment to do it, it’s now. “Times have moved on from the heroes you just described,” he says. He points to John Kirwan opening up about his mental health issues as one example. “We expect them to be tough, we expect them to be brutal at times, we expect them to be unrelenting on the field. Off the field, it’s permissible, possibly even desirable, to come clean and let their guard down.”

This doesn’t need to be a Metallica moment. Lang cautions against sending the entire team into group therapy and filming the results. He believes the power of just a couple of players getting emotional and maybe even shedding a tear would go a long way. “You just need a couple of big players to front up and say, ‘This wasn’t right, we’re not quite sure what’s wrong with us.’ It needs to be authentic, a sense of, ‘It’s not just the fans that are suffering – the players are suffering too.’ What’s it like when a world-beating team is suddenly getting beaten? What does that feel that like?”

It’s a big call. But five losses in seven games are unprecedented times, and that requires an unprecedented response. Lang believes it would work. It could help flip the script, stop the relentless demands for Foster to go, re-energise and re-engage supporters’ passion for the team. After all, even the best of us have off days. After the past couple of years, that’s an easy message to relate to. We’ve all been through some stuff. “I think people would respond to this,” says Lang. “They’d go, ‘Actually, maybe we have been unrealistic with our expectations and maybe let’s not tear them down, let’s back them up.’ It could turn the conversation around … I think it could resonate.”