Crisis Solutions in Marketing Week

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Brand and reputation

The Lizard has been reading an interesting article in The Marketer magazine on brand and reputation. It can be found here.

The article attempts, with some degree of success, to conflate many different marketing and brand ideas. One, which I would dispute, is that the Internet has changed everything when it comes to the consumer’s relationship with a product.

When Perrier had a problem with their bottled water in the 80s (benzene was found in the drink and the recall was handled very poorly) the consumer knew all about it and when Perrier brought their water back on sale, the bottles were smaller and the price higher. The customer appeared to be paying for Perrier’s mistakes and they weren’t happy. As a result Perrier was soon gulped down by Nestle. What’s different now, and it is largely a product of the Internet, is just the speed with which consumers can gather information and voice their opinion.

The other issue the article raises is M&A. Particularly when a corporate giant buys a boutique brand well liked by the public. It’s a tricky move for all sides to pull off as Green and Black and Innocent have found. As Ben and Jerry’s point out, when a small brand is gobbled up it must protect its own identity.

One example would be Pret a Manger. It’s an expensive but generally well-liked lunchtime grab and gobble food store that makes much of its green image. This is on the front page of it’s website: ‘Pret creates handmade, natural food avoiding the obscure chemicals, additives and preservatives common to so much of the 'prepared' and 'fast' food on the market today.’

In 2001 it was snapped up by McDonald’s the very antithesis of all that is ‘Pret’ and in 2008 it was bought by private equity house Bridgepoint – capitalists red in tooth and claw and very far from a small boutique brand. However because Pret have managed to keep clear blue water between their owners and their brand they haven’t suffered. A lesson for any corporate giant that wants to swallow a small but much loved minnow.

Maldives PR nightmare

I suppose couples who have just returned from getting married at the Vilu Reef Beach & Spa Resort on the Maldives must be wondering what was actually said at their ceremony.

Thousands have now watched the shaky YouTube video of the Swiss couple renewing their wedding vows at the resort where the celebrant calls them ‘swine’ and ‘infidels’ and much worse.

Opinion on the Internet seems to be equally split between those condemning the locals appalling rudeness and the foolish westerners wanting to attach some sort of faux spirituality to their marriage.

I suppose it’s the equivalent of a chef spitting in the soup at a posh restaurant, something we’ve all thought about but don’t want to dwell on.

Locals working for tourists the world over come to resent the incomers, but of course if the tourists don’t come the locals have no work.

This is particularly true of the Maldives, which contains many very poor people who as a matter of course rub shoulders with the super rich. These disparities have produced an ugly response.

The Maldives government is now engaged in damage limitation and the two local people seen on the video have been arrested. On the official Maldives’ website a government spokesperson says, ‘No stone will be left unturned to ensure that an incident like this never happens again.’

Well, they had better make sure it doesn’t because the Maldives have no natural resources outside of fish and banks of sand and no other industry except tourism. If the tourists stop coming then they really have nothing.

My bet is that the rich and those on a once in a lifetime trip wont be put off, but in future many will want their wedding vows in English or a language they can understand.

Big oil face off

It seems we have the oil and gas giants positioning themselves post BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. First we had Shell boss Peter Voser attacking BP over oil well safety saying, ‘Shell would have drilled this well in a different way and would have had more options to prevent the accident.’

Now we have Chevron hedging their bets and taking a more cautious approach. Richard Cohagan, managing director of Chevron UK, admitted their new deepwater drilling campaign off the Shetland Islands could cause an oil spill of greater magnitude than BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster. He went on, ‘Deepwater Horizon has given us a new perspective on how bad things could be.’

If you watch Chevron’s advertisements they tend to be very caring and sharing and this line from their UK Chief would seem to fit with this approach. Whether it amounts to anything more than spin over substance is another matter.

Facebook and Twitter in times of crisis

How can Facebook and Twitter best be used to overcome a crisis?

Twitter
The use of Twitter by newspapers and broadcasters is extraordinary, given that it’s all done in 140 character chunks. Your company must monitor Twitter mentions of your brands, products and services.

Have a Twitter account set up ahead of a crisis and use it – get conversant with what it can do, use it for marketing so that if a crisis does strike you’ll be ahead of the game and can get information out quickly.

Storm warning
You can’t defend a brand and its reputation if you’re not listening for signs of an impending problem. One under reported aspect of the BP fiasco was that they didn’t think to scoop up relevant BP ‘identities’ on Twitter.

@BPglobalPR sounds like a legitimate arm of BP’s PR machine, but it wasn’t. BP was ‘brandjacked’ on Twitter with tweets appearing such as:

‘Please do not take or clean any oil you find on the beach. That is property of BP and we WILL sue you.’

What does this say about the effectiveness of BP’s PR team in time of crisis? How did an enterprising joker on Twitter manage to fly under the radar using BP’s own name and logo?

Facebook
Facebook is a great tool for talking directly to all your stakeholders. Create a corporate site in “normal” times and get to know its uses and abuses. In a major crisis you may need a corporate response page where you can post comments and pictures that refer entirely to the on-going incident.

Social media crisis management must dovetail with any existing crisis management plans you have in place. In many ways traditional best practice in crisis management is reflected in the brave new world of social media - it’s just that it now all happens at the speed of light.

Communication Strategies: a new book from Jim Preen

To survive an incident, organizations need more than a successful communication strategy – they need an incident communication plan. This book helps organizations to take control and start planning their response immediately.

An incident is often provoked and inflamed by the media, and inept incident communications will only make things worse. Packed with case studies, this practical guide shows how it is possible to overcome and actually prosper in the full glare of the media.

Communication Strategies demonstrates how to implement and deploy a thorough incident media strategy. Based on BS 25999-1, the British Standard for business continuity management, this invaluable book covers diverse elements including:

* The importance of call cascades
* How to run successful press conferences
* How to set up and run an incident press room

This book would help communications teams in medium/large companies; risk managers; business continuity managers; and PR professionals.

Contents of Communication Strategies include:

* Introduction
* Types of incidents
* Determining the contents of your plan
* Press gang
* Strategy layout
* How the strategy migrates to a plan
* Press conferences
* Holding statements, press releases and templates
* Coping with the press pack
* Media monitoring
* Call takers
* Information, fact sheets and general know-how
* Post-incident evaluation
* Testing the plan
* Communication plan checklist
* References

Voted 'Book of the Month' by Quality World, the magazine of the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI)
"...provides a wealth of practical guidance to help prevent a stressful situation unravelling through poor information management in an unguarded moment."

Buy the book here

It’s good to talk when things go wrong, says CEO of Crisis Solutions Dennis Flynn

One of the most common problems in crisis management is poor communication. It’s not just communication to the outside world that catches people out; it’s often an internal communication breakdown that can turn a run-of-the-mill problem into a full-blown crisis.

If the operational staff that are solving the problem aren’t talking to the senior team tasked with updating customers and the general public, then everyone ends up with mixed messages and the crisis spins out of control. Just ask outgoing BP chief Tony Hayward. Practising the art of communication through proper integration of operational and communications teams before there’s a problem can help avoid this scenario, and minimise the consequences of the crisis.

It is not uncommon in companies to see board level members becoming isolated and out of touch with what is going on at operational level. When the appropriate communication channels are not put in place, responsibilities and expectations on all levels can become blurred, which can raise a state of panic when a crisis occurs.

It is very difficult for the head of comms at an organisation to be in two places at once and provide accurate information to the board while dealing with things at operational level. It’s important that employees on all levels train and practice communicating regularly to each other and that board level members proactively converse with operational staff.

Undertaking exercises that allow everyone to have a voice means that the senior team can become more in tune with the organisation’s operations, which can be vital in reacting to a crisis situation.

In order to create an effective link between the operational level and senior team, the logistics of an organisation’s communications channel needs to be considered. For example, using runners to gather news from each level of an organisation and provide updates to the senior level can be an effective way to improve the reactions of decision makers.

The role of a communications team can be vital in the event of a crisis, as messages need to be relayed to stakeholders as to the state of the business. However, a comms team can only be effective if it is in the crisis comms ‘zone‘. Communications teams are often accomplished at issuing good news about the business, but in order to cover bad news that can affect the company, they need to be aware of the nature of the industry they are working in and how to spot a crisis emerging. A fully proficient comms team can then have an advisory role in proceedings rather than simply delivering responses from senior management.

In order to minimise the effects of a crisis, it’s imperative that operational staff have a voice to influence senior level members. This can be achieved by putting the appropriate communications channel in place and making sure that the executives work with operational staff to train and practise communicating process issues.

Being able to spot a crisis is obviously important for both operational and comms staff. Having a comms team that is knowledgeable of the company and potential industry issues can ensure that accurate and timely information is given to senior management so that the correct decisions can be made when a crisis occurs.

Dennis Flynn is CEO at crisis management specialists Crisis Solutions