The Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Photo credit: Wikipedia
By Gabriel Sparks
No company or non-profit organization is immune from getting whacked by a PR crisis. Even companies with sterling reputations can get scorched.
Here are some recent crises affecting companies, not-for-profit organizations, celebrities, and government agencies:
Subway: Authorities seized the computers and files of Jared Fogle, the spokesman for Subway, because the executive director for his foundation was caught with child pornography.
BP: Responsible for a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that soiled coastal beaches and endangering wildlife.
Dominos: Video of workers spitting into pizza sauce went viral on the Internet.
Malaysia Airlines: Two planes crashed within a month.
Herbalife: Accusations by an institutional investor of improper business practices.
General Motors, Toyota, Chrysler, Takata, E-Z-Go, Yamaha, Lenovo: Product recalls by USCPSC.
New York Stock Exchange: Trading stopped as a result of a computer software glitch.
Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup and other major banks: Improper documentation of mortgages.
FIFA: High-ranking officials accused of taking bribes from tournament sponsors.
Bill Cosby: Sexual allegations.
TLC – 19 kids and Counting: Revelations of sexual misconduct by a Duggar family member.
Red Cross: Improper use of donations.
Amtrak, Metro-North: Multiple serious train crashes
Penn State University: Cover-up of inappropriate sexual activity by coach.
Chase Bank, New York Police Department: Started Twitter hashtags that were hijacked.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: Cover-up of long waits for treatment appointments.
Toshiba, Enron, Worldcom, Lehman Brothers, Tyco, HealthSouth, Saytam: Accounting irregularities
Hyundai/Kia: Improper claims on car mileage.
Blue Bell Ice Cream: Product tested positive for listeria bacteria.
NFL: Concussions/brain damage, bullying in locker room, assaults by players.
Sony: PlayStation network hacked; gamers couldn’t play games online; credit cards illegally charged.
Target Stores: Credit card information hacked.
Sony Films: Emails showed deceitful conduct by executives.
Four Distinct PR Crisis Categories
Each of the corporate crises falls into one of four distinct categories, as described by Cooler Insights, a boutique content marketing agency in Singapore:
1. Accidents and Disasters: These include terrorist activities, plant fires and explosions, vehicle crashes, disease outbreaks, and other man-made catastrophes or natural disasters. Corporate crises in this category can be “no fault” for the company or the organization may bear full responsibility. “No fault” and “full fault” require quite different PR planning and implementation. Often, fault cannot be determined immediately. (BP, Malaysia Airlines, NYSE, Blue Bell)
2. Product, Service or Staff Snafus: These are negative customer experiences caused by employees, usually reported on social media or captured by citizen journalists. The category also involves product defects. (Dominos, GM, Lenovo, many others)
3. Scandals and Shenanigans: “Shocking” revelations about a company most often implicate specific corporate executives or managers. They can involve any type of aberrant behavior including accounting mischief, safety practices, and sexual activities. (Sony Films, Bill Cosby, Subway, FIFA, Toshiba)
4. Antagonistic Attacks: Online or offline actions initiated by customers, competitors, activists or regulators who have a bone to pick with your business. (Chase, Bank of America, NYPD, Herbalife, Hyundai, Red Cross)
Corporate PR crises can be either totally unexpected or almost inevitable. A serious computer glitch as experienced recently by the New York Stock Exchange or theft of personal information as happened to Target will almost certainly happen to most major companies in time – and is likely to receive considerable public attention. Recalls are also inevitable for many major products such as automobiles and appliances.
Playbooks for PR Crises
Companies must prepare to handle the inevitable and predictable crises with comprehensive crisis management plans. Some expected crises are now so common and “ordinary” (such as recalls) that the PR departments of many leading companies have standard “playbooks” to implement a crisis plan based on what policies, decisions and responses have worked best or failed in the past for similar situations. The crisis plans are based on experiences of the company itself, its competitors and companies in other industries.
By definition, businesses can’t plan for specific unexpected events. But they can develop a general crisis plan to execute when something unexpected goes wrong. A terrorist attack or a regional electrical outage that affects company production both fall into that category
“It’s the unseen or unanticipated crises that are potentially the most dangerous,” says Rhoda Woo, a Deloitte Advisory managing director and leader of the U.S. Crisis Management practice at Deloitte & Touche LLP in a Wall Street Journal article.
Each of the four PR crisis categories requires different types of responses. Understanding and differentiating the crisis categories helps in planning and implementing crisis communications.
Part II will examine how PR planning, responses and approaches differ for each of the four categories of PR crisis.
Bottom Line: PR crises come in many forms, but most all of them fall into four distinct categories. In preparing for and responding to a PR crisis, identifying the category helps define the communications response.
