Page 32 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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No Thrillers, but Hard Reality 13
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Crises are challenges

Johnson & Johnson used a well-considered approach in dealing with
the crisis. The company positioned itself to the public as a defender of
consumer interests and behaved as a good citizen by effectively
assuming its responsibilities as a company. Furthermore, Johnson &
Johnson communicated openly, directly and rapidly throughout the
crisis.
How did Johnson & Johnson do that precisely? There is, after all,
no guarantee that you will be able to turn a crisis into an opportunity.
Johnson & Johnson acted on the basis of the worst conceivable sce-
nario and applied all of the principles of successful crisis communica-
tion. To start with, the pharmaceutical company did not lose any
valuable time: Tylenol was immediately recalled from all points of sale.
All those who prescribed the drug – physicians, health insurers and
pharmacists – were alerted and informed of the dangers of the
product. By putting the consumer absolutely and unconditionally
first, Johnson & Johnson took a great, but calculated risk. The
company owed that to itself morally: its creed mandated that top pri-
ority always be given to the safety of the consumer. There is, of course,
no guarantee that the corporate creed would be translated effectively
into practice. The recall of all Tylenol tablets could, after all, have led
to major losses. Johnson & Johnson remained true to its mission state-
ment at all times, however.
The Tylenol affair is a perfect illustration of the expression that
‘crises are challenges’: regardless of how large the problem was,
Johnson & Johnson discovered the opportunity that it contained. The
company believed that the large-scale recall operation it had decided
on could also be played out as an excellent marketing component after
the fact. Johnson & Johnson quickly found a way to do this: when it
reintroduced the product, it was the first in the pharmaceuticals
industry to do so with safety packaging. Furthermore, the company
was the first to put into practice the provisions of several pieces of leg-
islation that had recently been introduced by the Food and Drug
Administration, the US government standards body for medical prod-
ucts.
By removing Tylenol immediately from all sales points, Johnson &
Johnson clearly communicated that the company was really concerned
about public health. It would have been a painful mistake if the
company had chosen the other option: to turn away, to stick its head in
the sand, thinking, ‘This, too, shall pass.’ Exxon, for example, made
precisely that mistake after the disaster with the Exxon Valdez in Alaska
on 24 March 1989.