Page 22 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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Introduction 3
nication team is the first step. Chapters 9 and 10 go into this in more
detail, but this chapter illustrates how media contact deserves special
attention. A media contact team is certainly not an unnecessary luxury.
If internal communication flows smoothly, answers to the four questions
above can then be sought.
The first step involves determining the targets. Who are the various
stakeholders? Thereafter, what sort of information is required by each
stakeholder and how can this be anticipated in advance? Furthermore,
each stakeholder requires a different message. As already illustrated in
the first chapter, a company must demonstrate its empathy with the
crisis. Subsequently, if it appears that the company has the situation
under control, then a certain reassurance ensues automatically. It is
implicitly understood that speed plays a prominent role in this
process.
A company with a good reputation has an advantage in times of crisis.
The third chapter shows how companies with an impeccable track
record and that make a positive contribution to the community are
given the benefit of the doubt under less favourable circumstances.
Building a good reputation is not something that happens overnight: it
happens in a number of stages. Primarily, careful consideration must be
given to the company’s desired image. What are its core values? Are
ethical standards of paramount importance? Or is the ethos all about
slashing costs, making as much money as possible and riding rough-
shod over staff and suppliers? Get the core values right and it is rela-
tively easy to devise and implement a strategy aligned to these.
Consistency and creativity are required to maintain and strengthen
these values such that the image becomes a part of the corporate
strategy. From research and the author’s own experience, we are
offered eight cornerstones to serve as guiding principles.
Unpredictability is a foremost characteristic of crisis. The fourth
chapter, dealing with calamities, makes this readily apparent. Natural
disasters and air crashes are good examples of this. In the first section,
we see that an airline’s communications are often erratic. The commu-
nications team is usually located at the company’s head offices. This
causes problems whenever an accident happens in another country,
and certainly whenever there are language barriers.
The lesson is that an airline or similar organization with far-flung
operations should have a crisis communication plan for every level
and every location. This chapter presents case studies on Alaska
Airlines 261 and Superquinn, demonstrating how the way in which a
company reacts to a crisis often has more influence on public percep-
tion than the crisis itself. Additionally, this chapter deals with how to
take into account the risks presented by natural disasters and the
weather.