Managing Crisis The Do’s and Don’ts of a Public Relations Crisis - Crisis: any situation that can affect the well-being of an organization - Crisis v. Emergency (there IS a difference) o Will the org/company go out of business because of what happened? o Emergency: All lights go out during our final exam = emergency because school will still be open the next day o Crisis: Business located on 100th floor of World Trade Center – lost most of employees, a lot of information/paperwork, etc. Those people were in the middle of creating projects and proposals that no one else knows about and can continue to finish for the client Timeframe of a Crisis *crisis can either be quick or it can drag out for a long time - Shock – can’t believe it happened - Anger – get mad - Siege mentality – shut out the rest of the world o “hunker down,” “naval picking,” “close ranks” After 9/11, many restaurants went out of business because no one wanted to leave their home - Adjustment – do things differently Airport security: take shoes off, belt, etc. Adjustments may last forever. - Adaptation – you’ve adopted to it now Types of a Crisis *If you do the right thing, you CAN recover. - Fire - Explosions - Product tampering o Tylenol (classic good case) Someone took the capsules, poured out the medicine and replaced it with poison. People bought the product and died. Johnson & Johnson immediately took ALL capsules off the shelves everywhere. They adjusted to the crisis: Have codes on bottles now that tell you where it’s made and when, wrapped cap, etc. Outcome: They did the right thing and are still #1 selling headache medicine today. o Gerber Baby Foods (bad case) Found slivers of glass in their baby food jars (this happened after Tylenol so that had them as an example of how to react). Media did report about it and company said it was just an accident, didn’t do anything about it. Outcome: Sales went down. The private company had to go public just to survive. - Law suits o Asbestos chemical companyTheir buildings were full of asbestos which causes cancer. Trial bar put a bunch of companies out of business when they found out. o Tobacco companies Tobacco litigation continues since cigarettes cause cancer. People saying they didn’t know it would make them sick. o Alcohol companies Companies are learning from others past experiences. Starting to dodge the possible future bullet of people suing them. Budweiser: Campaigns about “Don’t drink and drive.” – On New Year’s Eve they paid for all taxi services to promote responsibility. If people try to sue later down the road, they can say, “Well look at all that we’ve done.” - Environmental damage o Exxon Valdez Spilled oil in pristine area killing tons of animals. It took two weeks for the CEO to get to the crisis area. Outcome: 25 years later and law suits are still occurring. o BP Oil Spill CEO said, “I’d like to get back to my life now.” - Product defects o Ford Pento (car) Car tended to flip over. Wasn’t really the car though, it was how they were testing it. - Terrorism **Whole DIFFERENT set of project management/different circumstances than other types of crisis. Can happen domestically or internationally. 2 things can happen: 1. they can threaten & never take action; 2. Take action & threaten to do it again. o PETA Org. They don’t think we should use monkeys to experiment vaccines, even though we have medications now because of them. PETA goes into experiment places, break in, and let out monkeys into the town that are infected with HIV/AIDS since they were being tested. o People who “spike” forests with steel nails to “save the environment” – loggers can’t cut trees down and many have died trying. Other types of crisis he only mentioned in class: - Labor actions/strikes o Eastern Airlines – unions wouldn’t budge so company went down - Cover ups o Watergate Scandal - Extortion/Sabotage o Coors – guy bought 6 pack of beer and stuff a mouse into one of the cans. Got the company’s attention and basically said, “If you give me $10k, I’ll stay quiet” Company knew he was lying. (extortion) o Pepsi – someone found syringe in can and company knew it couldn’t have happened at the manufacturer plant so invited all of the media to look around and inspect since they knew they were innocent- Takeover battles o Companies taking over companies - Management continuity o Lose all of management - Regulations o From government trying to help – creating new regulations Ramifications of a Crisis (after) - Stock devaluation o Stock will go down since no one wants to buy anymore, company may not be able to survive - Decrease in consumer confidence o Don’t want to buy product anymore since company doesn’t care - Loss of the public trust o People don’t believe you anymore - Lawsuits (costly) o Quicker you write the check, smaller it’ll be - Government may come in to help Types of Crises - Immediate – here right now, in the middle of it - Emerging – isn’t here yet, but you can see it in near distance o Ex: Alcohol companies - Sustained – won’t go away, still in litigation o Ex: Exxon Valdees, BP spill Communicating during a Crisis - Do not speculate on the cause of the crisis o 11 different questions are asked when a crisis occurs (who, what, when, etc.) o Create sound bites for TV since you know what they’re going to ask o DON’T speculate about whose fault it is or why it happened, say “I don’t know” – buy yourself time because you may be wrong and then will have to spend time undoing who/what you accused. - Make your point and repeat it often o Talking points – KEY POINTS that you repeat over and over – commit these to memory Ronald Reagan = good example - Establish yourself as the most authoritative source o PR practitioner = most authoritative source; media will want to talk to CEO Tylenol = antithesis of this; CEO was very intellectual and well spoken, could talk to the media himself - Stay on the record o There’s no story off the record Characteristics of Today’s Reporters *Newspapers/TV rely on ads to make money; don’t sell as many ads so have to lay off people- Young – left with new, young people - Inexperienced – probably didn’t go to journalism school - Not well trained in journalism - Don’t understand organizations and
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