Page 199 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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1 180 Crisis Communication
What’s the impact of ‘slow eating’? Well it’s tough for fast food
chains to break into new markets, and it changes their entire economic
model when they have fewer customer ‘turns’ and have to build larger
facilities to accommodate more people. Yet, it’s easy to imagine how
the fast food industry at first readily dismissed this brewing crisis as
just something on the fringe.
The job of the public relations professional is to keep an eye on
these issues, big and small, and help management understand and
assess the business risks and opportunities. Which ones do we watch?
When do we respond? How do we react in the best interest of our
companies and our stakeholders?
Another common pitfall occurs when management tries to underes-
timate or devalue the issue or group by ‘name calling’ and stereo-
typing them. Even my use of the term ‘fringe’ implies that a problem
doesn’t merit serious attention. Who needs to pay attention to any-
thing labelled as ‘fringe’? It’s the same thing when we label those ‘tree-
hugging environmentalists’. Yet, the Sierra Club is one of the largest
private organizations in the United States. Our friends and neigh-
bours are members. Can we readily dismiss them?
So in the midst of a crisis or brewing issue, management want to
dismiss the groups with labels such as ‘fringe’, ‘non-mainstream’ or
even ‘the left’ or ‘the right’, as if we can somehow marginalize these
groups with a label. In fact, interest groups often represent the main-
stream, and are well organized, focused and able to deliver their clout
and constituencies to fuel a crisis or respond to an issue.
Management often underestimate the influence and impact of these
groups, but they know how to use new media and citizen journalism,
while corporations are just trying to figure out how to post a once-a-
month blog for the CEO. Their media and legislative contacts help
them make plenty of noise. Sure, maybe this issue may fade, but these
groups know how to make their case to the public in a way that has
long-term ramifications.

Averting a crisis by early action

‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening. What did you say?’

A crisis sometimes literally explodes on to the scene. Yet in most cases
there are usually early warning signs, small embers of concerns that
are fanned into a flame.
A major and vexing problem for corporate management is trying to
listen, or ‘pay attention’ at the early stages of these issues before they