Page 59 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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4 40 Crisis Communication

More communication notes – who are your
customers?

Be conscious of who your customers are. Most companies sell
through a channel of some kind: a property developer sells
through real estate agents; a computer company may have dis-
tributors and resellers. You need to be aware of all channel part-
ners because each will have their dedicated media and
messages will eventually have to be tailored for each target.

Once you have a list of your targets, you need to pass this to your press
contact team. They need to draw up a list of all media within each
group. There will be multiple media types (newspapers, trade publica-
tions, TV, etc) and cross-over (same media for multiple groups – often
with a different contact point, for example, both the business and local
news editors of a newspaper).
It is now the job of the press contact team to prioritize this list. In the
midst of crisis communication, whilst it may be possible to send a news
release to everyone on a list, it may only be possible to speak to the
most important by phone. Prioritization will be a factor of:

reach (number of people the media reach);
speed of broadcast (web pages are often posted within minutes, a
TV station in a matter of hours; obviously a daily newspaper will
be slower, and a monthly trade title slower yet);
importance (some titles are considered more important than
others – that’s just the way it is);
existing relationship with the media (if you have a good long-term
relationship with an editor, you had better keep him or her
updated if you want to continue the good relationship through the
crisis and beyond).

Tools
For each target that has been identified above, your press contact team
will be able to draw up a full contact list – office phone numbers (with
extensions or direct numbers), mobile phone numbers, e-mail, fax,
etc. As with regular media relations, each press member has a pre-
ferred method of communication (this should be noted).
You should also be aware of what type of information they will want
to receive. A newspaper, for example, will want to have still images.