Printed
with permission from TCI
Management Consultants. A group of senior-level management
consultants, offering strategic planning and marketing services
to a wide range of public and private sector clients.
Crisis
Marketing - When Bad Things Happen to Good Companies
by Joe Marconi
NTC Business Books, American Marketing Association, 1997
ISBN 0-8442-3237-8
This book is about what a company should do when facing
a public relations crisis - be it an oil spill, a product
recall, exposure of wrongdoing by a highly placed executive,
a product that has become socially unacceptable to a large
sector of the population, or some other headline story that
throws the company in a bad light. The author defines a
list of do's and don'ts that make fundamental sense for
a company in such a situation. He also equates crisis marketing
with crisis management.
"Crisis
marketing - crisis management - like the on-going management
of the business itself should be based on honesty, integrity,
and on being a good corporate citizen. It is not based on
a systematic plan to deceive the public." (p. 218)
However,
before a company faces such a crisis, Marconi advises it
to concentrate on building up a reservoir of goodwill that
can be draw upon in bad times. This essentially consists
of undertaking a variety of initiatives that will generate
positive public attitudes towards the company and build
trust. These sorts of initiatives include sponsorships of
various community initiatives, involvement in charitable
activities, placement of 'advertorials' that explain openly
and honestly the company's position on potentially controversial
issues, etc. (Even if there is never a crisis, this will
probably be an astute marketing move.) The premiere example
of this that Marconi uses is McDonald's, which has built
up such a huge fund of trust through public service initiatives
that when the occasional accusation does appear - like the
company using worms in burgers or supporting the Church
of Satan (both actual incidents) - the public response is
to dismiss it as being beyond credibility.
Once
actually in a crisis situation, though, Marconi offers the
following advice to companies:
"- Prepare a situation analysis. Determine what might
need to be added or changed relative to your original marketing
plan.
- Select a single spokesperson, someone who understands
the art and science of effective communication, to provide
information and answer questions for your side.
- Don't
exceed credibility. Be honest.
- Go
public with your problem before someone else does. Be honest.
- Acknowledge
what you're doing about it. Ramifications of crisis are
increased when the subject compounds the problem by lying
or trying to minimize its importance.
- Anticipate
the worst-case scenario and plan for it, if only as a contingency.
The motto "be prepared" is no less a good strategy
for the marketer.
- Advertise
your position through letters, paid ads, press releases,
newsletters, and the availability of a speaker.
- Control
your crisis by taking a leadership position in public. Be
first with the statement; don't wait to be asked or for
your critics to shape the story.
- Don¹t
let your spokesperson upstage your message. Attempting to
buy an outsider's credibility is a risky and misguided strategy.
- Create
and draw from a reservoir of goodwill. Be well positioned
before the crisis.
- Accept
the counsel of professionals. Look for objectivity to be
certain you haven't overlooked any possible strategies.
- Be
willing to put your message in writing as a way of reinforcing
your integrity. And be honest." (pp. 45,46)
The first of these points he stresses throughout the book
- which is to place the company or industry under fire within
a broader context - that is, to talk about its economic
role (jobs created, other businesses supported, customers
who depend on its products, etc.). This will help present
both sides of an issue, and will show the company or industry
within the context of the positive contributions that it
makes to the economy and to society overall.
Elsewhere in the book (pages 154 to 157) he summarizes these
principles in seven rules:
Rule 1: Get your comment out first and fast.
Rule 2: Show concern.
Rule
3: Pledge cooperation.
Rule
4: Take responsibility.
Rule
5: Tell what you're doing about the problem.
Rule
6: Discuss the crisis in a larger context.
Rule
7: If you're wrong, apologize.
The
book contains several examples of companies and industries
that have found themselves in 'crisis management' mode.
These include:
- the
person, product and brand named Donald Trump (an example
of not building a base of trust and goodwill that will help
carry one over the bad times)
- contrasts
between two oil companies: Mobil (a company that builds
a tremendous amount of goodwill through activities such
as sponsorships of various cultural activities and the placement
of advertorials) and Exxon (a company that did just about
everything wrong in the Valdez oil spill disaster) - Marconi
goes through an interesting exercise in the book where he
shows how Exxon violated every one of the seven rules articulated
above
- the
fur industry, which is under fire for cruel and unethical
treatment of animals
- the
tobacco industry, which is under fire for cruel and unethical
treatment of humans
- the
masterful response of Johnson & Johnson to the Tylenol
incident
- Pepsi's
positive response to the 'syringes in pop cans' scare (which,
as it turned out, was entirely unfounded)
- Volvo's
sloppy response to the leaked news that some of its ads
were faked (a Volvo car used in a live product demonstration
of strength and resilience was in fact reinforced, and the
cars that it was being compared to in the demo were weakened
- this fact was leaked out to the media, to the great embarrassment
of the company)
- the
highly-respected brokerage firm of E.F. Hutton's disastrous
response when it got caught engaging in the very illegal
practice of cheque-kiting (where uncleared cheques are shifted
from one account to another for the purpose of showing big
balances against which cheques are written before the funds
are actually available)
Crisis
Marketing is a very useful book, full of good advice and
examples, and is the kind of thing that every company -
whether currently in a crisis situation or not - should
be aware of.
The
above summary has been provided to you compliments of TCI
Management Consultants
