[To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]
Chapter 14 in the newest edition of The Public Relations Practitioner’s Playbook for (all) Strategic Communicators is devoted to crisis communication. Here is just a snippet of what you will find:
Hindsight is 20-20. But one thing has been proven time and again; the lesson
to be learned when dealing with a crisis is to adopt a philosophy similar to
that of Delahaye Medialink Worldwide headquartered in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire.
• Don’t duck the issue – Every time a company tries to “stonewall” or
deny the story, the media will gather information and print or air it.
Companies that take a forthright approach to their crises reduce
publicity almost immediately.
• Take responsibility – It is important to accept responsibility
immediately and offer to fix the problem. Take a page from Johnson &
Johnson. In the midst of tragedy, while it searched for a cause, J&J
yanked all Tylenol products from store shelves worldwide, instructed
consumers to flush any they had at home down the toilet and offered
replacement products with or without proof. That’s the kind of
decisive action that must be taken.
• Cover all bases – In the Tylenol tragedy, J&J removed its product
from store shelves and warehouses nationwide, absorbed the losses,
eventually developed an improved product with several safety devices
on the packages and offered consumers “gift certificates” for any
product they disposed of. Simultaneously, J&J, through its corporate
public relations office, cooperated fully with the news media (using a
single spokesperson).
• Offer to make good on broken promises – During alleged “profiling” of
minority drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike, Gov. Christine Todd
Whitman promised to correct it. When it became apparent that wasn’t
happening, she called for the resignation of the state police
superintendent. (He sued the state and governor for forcing him out of
office. The courts found in favor of the governor.)
• Measure results – Monitor the news media. Press clipping services are
more efficient than ever. This is also a wonderful opportunity to tap
your key communicators (feel their pulse) to help determine whether
your approach is on course. Kathryn Paine of Delahaye Medialink
Worldwide, reminds us, “In a crisis, the goal can never be to squelch
negative coverage completely. Rather, it must be to shorten the life
span of the bad news, to minimize those messages you don’t want to
see in print and get as many of your key messages out there as
possible.
[To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]