Crisis Communication
Do you remember the 1995 food poisoning that has seen Garibaldi, up until that moment a successful and respected company, to fold and go bankrupt?
What brought them down was not food poisoning... but their unwillingness or inability to communicate the crisis to the victims and to the media. With their reputation in tatters, the company soon ceased to exist.
Crisis can strike at any moment, usually when you least expect it, and if your company is unprepared, the damage can be severe - und unnecessary because with the good crisis communication plan in place your company can even ENHANCE its reputation.
Here are some examples:
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A movie at Hoyts -- as experienced by Dr Alex
On Monday 3rd of November 2008 I've seen a movie at the Hoyts cinema complex, Tea Tree Plaza in Adelaide.
Everything went fine until the last 30 minutes, when the movie started freezing every 10 seconds. It would stay frozen for several seconds, then continue only to freeze again 10 seconds later. From then on things got progressively worse, and the rolling credits alone probably took another 2 hours - but luckily by that time most of the audience had already left in disgust.
No-one stopped to movie to explain to the audience what was going on.
No-one tried to fix the problem.
Perhaps Hoyts Cinemas were at fault, perhaps not. However, in this moment of crisis, their total lack of communication was, as expected, received badly by by everyone. To make matters worse, the movie, Aggi and Emma, was an opener for a 3-day festival, and the theatre was full of people, who all left angry and dissatisfied..
Result: heaps of damage for the reputation of Hoyts. Do they even have a basic crisis communication plan in place? I'd say not, and it tells - who knows if they are even aware how damaging it is for them to appear so uncaring.
Could this crisis be prevented? Well, despite best of efforts, mistakes do happen, technical problems are part of life... but if a Hoyts employee were to wait outside to say sorry and offer a free movie voucher, or at least stop the movie, talk to the audience and try to fix the problem, they would be seen in a completely different light.
They could have not only averted the crisis but emerged as a responsible, caring company.
As it is, for their handling of the crisis situation I give them a total ZERO. |
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Raifeissen Bank and the terrorism charges
As reported earlier, in mid-2008 Raifeissen Bank issued a statement, stamped and signed, that one of the founders of Underdog Marketing Challenge, Dr Alex Davidovic, was on their list of people involved in terrorist action (click on the image for full-size).
The whole ridiculous thing is now on the Internet, with people knowing Dr Alex from his childhood jumping to his defense and posting scores of blog messages.
By now Raiffeisen Bank must be well aware of their mistake... but what are they doing about it?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! NO COMMUNICATION WHATSOEVER! TOTAL SILENCE!
This follows the pattern of many companies, which are reluctant to own up to a mistake and go for a cover-up instead. The problem is, by continuing to now knowingly damage Dr Alex's reputation, Raiffeisen Bank has moved from making a mistake to committing acts of deliberate malice.
What is that doing to the reputation of Raifeissen Bank? The comments speak for themselves |
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Harry Kewell photo
In this newspaper photo Harry Kewell argues with Egyptian referee Abd el Fatah Essam (click on the photo for the full-size image).
What are readers going to conclude after looking at the photo?
The photo is potentially damaging for Harry's reputation - people may easily come to think that he has bad, short-fused temper.
The media holds considerable power - this example illustrates what just one photo can do. |
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Work delays anger Virginia farmers
Take notice of the explosive title - Flooding 'timebomb': combined with the farmers' outcry, the article is very damaging for the government (click on the image for full size).
Keeping silent in this situation would be a big mistake - with the government losing the endorsement and the votes. |
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Cancer fears over beef
This article spells DISASTER with capital letters for beef growers (click the image for the full size).
Without a swift crisis communication, this one has the potential to bury the entire industry. |
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Computer flooding bungle
A glitch in the fire alarm system - and the competency of the entire program is under the microscope!
[Click the image for the full size]
Damaging - you bet - and potentially a lot more than the physical damage caused by the sprinklers. |
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Sick and sorry
This turkey-slapping incident from Big Brother caused a humongous outcry. It brought bad publicity to Big Brother and damaged the reputation of two boys and the girl involved in the incident (click the image for the full size).
Was the incident blown out of proportion? If it was, it would not be the first time - the media will routinely sensationalize things. |
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Council 'palaces' outcry
This one is a classic. It shows how easily things can get overblown in the media - anything of size swiftly becomes a 'palace'.
The article is extremely damaging for the council, which is seen as self-serving.
It goes to show how important it is to have a crisis communication plan ready - because is a situation like this you need to act immediately, every delay compounds bad publicity.
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Handbook for terror
Notice how the media can use strong headings to make their points. With a provocative heading like this, this article is bound to attract attention.
[Click the image for the full size] |
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Have you got your crisis management under control?
You'd be surprised how much negative publicity can be generated by a single picture in the papers - even if the incident is unrelated to you, but shows for instance your company logo in the background.
Make sure you have a crisis management plan ready. The crisis may never strike, but if it does, you'll be glad you've taken measures on time to fight it off head-on.
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