Crisis Communications

Reading
⚫ Tench & Yeomans, Chapter 20, Crisis Public Relations
Management
Murphy’s Law

⚫ If something can go wrong, it will!

⚫ Crisis PR is one of the most critical aspects of

modern communications
⚫ Helps to protect companies, their reputations
and sometimes their survival
Lerbinger (1997)
⚫ Eight types of crises
1. Natural (e.g. Asian Tsunami)
2. Technological (Mercedes A class crises)
3. Confrontation (Shell Oil & Brent Spar)
4. Malevolence (product tampering, animal rights campaigners)
5. Skewed management values (Barings bank crises – rogue
trader)
6. Deception
7. Management misconduct (Enron scandal)
8. Business and economic crises
Where do crises come from?
⚫ “It is not what you now, but who knows it.“
(Information age makes it impossible to keep things
confidential)
e.g. Lost government disks with peoples data on it /
Tax scandal in Liechtenstein

“You won’t believe what so and so just told me” (rumours

by employees are one of the largest sources of crises)
The cost of a crisis
⚫ Employee concern
⚫ Legal actions
⚫ Customer reactions
⚫ Market confidence and reputation
⚫ Management distraction
Why the media love a crises
⚫ Crises fits news values of the media (Drama, excitement,
surprise, people, controversy)

THIS MIGHT LEAD TO:

⚫ Initial media reports might be speculative, infactual,
exaggerated and sensationalised
⚫ Experts will be called in to comment on why things went
wrong, they’ll speculate on possible causes
⚫ Opinions and rumours
⚫ Someone might say this was a disaster waiting to happen
How organisations
prepare for a crises
⚫ Conduct a crises audit (for your
organisation/event /campaign)
⚫ Prepare a crises manual
⚫ Conduct crises simulation and training.
Identification of crisis
⚫ existing situations and problems that might develop into a crisis.
⚫ crisis and problems the organisation (or the industries e.g.
competitors) may have had in the past
⚫ planned activities that might lead to opposition from groups within
society such as pressure groups
Two important questions to ask when planning
for crisis management are:
⚫ 1) How likely is a crisis to happen?
⚫ 2) How disastrous is this crisis threatening to be?
⚫ Fearn-Banks recommends to use two scales to answer
those questions (Fearn-Banks, 1996: 20).
⚫ Probability
O-Impossible, basically no chance of
occurring
⚫ 1-Nearly impossible
⚫ 2-Remotely possible
⚫ 3-Possible
⚫ 4-More than possible, somewhat
probable, has happened to competitors
or similar companies
⚫ 5-Highly probable, may or may not
have previously occurred in company,
warning signs are evident
⚫ 5-Devastating, front page news, can
⚫ Potential damage to the company:
⚫ 0- No damage, not a serious
consequence
⚫ 1-Little damage, can be handled
without much difficulty, not serious
enough for media concern
⚫ 2-Some damage, a slight chance that
media will be involved
⚫ 3-Condsiderable damage, but still will
not be a major media issue
⚫ 4-Considerable damage, would
definitely be a major media issue
⚫
put company out of business
Crisis contingency plan
A contingeny plan's aims and objectives are mainly to:
⚫ remove ambiguity and confusion during a crisis by determining
response and communication procedures and responsibilities
⚫ provide guidance for personnel who manage major crisis events
⚫ offer guidelines for company spokespeople who communicate with
the media and key publics during a crisis
⚫ state the organisation's policies towards its publics
Identifying Key Publics
⚫ Which audiences are the most likely to be affected by a
potential crisis?

⚫ What are we going to do to communicate effectively with

them during the duration of the crisis?
Crisis team
⚫ PR people need to identify a group of people (with
backups) who will be dealing with the crisis. This includes
⚫ crisis communications manager plus assistants
⚫ crisis communications coordinator (control room???)
⚫ spokespeople
⚫ media contact people
⚫ legal advisors External personnel (fire brigade, police,
paramedics, hospitals, health and safety people,
government officials and union officials)
Selection of spokesperson
⚫ Comfortable in front of a TV camera
⚫ Preferably skilled in handling media
⚫ Able to speak without using jargon
⚫ Respectful of the role of the reporter,
⚫ knowledgeable about the organisation and the
crisis at hand
⚫ Able to establish credibility with the media,
⚫ Suitable in regard to diction, appearance and
charisma,
⚫ Sincere, straightforward and believable,
⚫ Able to remain calm in stressful situations.
Problem of Regulation
⚫ Unregulated nature of internet gives concern
⚫ Rumour mill and free for all
⚫ Mobile phones allow for footage direct from
the scene to journalists or the Internet
Dealing with the media
⚫ "no comment" to the media is a bad step
⚫ Getting the message out quickly
⚫ The need to be assertive with the media
⚫ “Tell it all, tell it fast and tell the truth”
3 ways of dealing with the
media
⚫ 1. We know what happened and here is all the information
⚫ 2. We don't know everything at this time. Here is what we
know. As soon as we know more we will let you know.
⚫ 3. We have no idea but we will find out and tell you.
Dealing with the media
⚫ Remember: journalists have the right to interview anyone they want to
⚫ If they don't get the answers they want from you they will get them
somewhere else.
⚫ They all want a different angle than the reporter standing next to them.
They will try for that scoop with you.
⚫ If the possibility is there to provide them with what they want, consider
it very carefully.
⚫ All media should be treated equally.
⚫ What is given to one (such as access to an area effected by the crisis)
should be available to all media.
Testing the crisis plan
⚫ Playing through scenarios
⚫ Getting all the people together
⚫ Checking whether you are reaching publics
⚫ Updating crisis scenarios in light of environmental
changes
Key principles of crisis
management
⚫ Be sympathetic / apologetic
⚫ Centralise or manage information flow
⚫ Get together crisis team to focus on the event
⚫ Assume the worst case scenario
⚫ Have a media trained spokesperson
⚫ Resist the combative instinct
⚫ Understand why the media are here
⚫ Remember all audiences (different types of
communication)
⚫ Recognise the value of short-term sacrifice
References
⚫ Cutlip, Scott M., Center, Allen H. and Broom, Glen M (2005) Effective
Public Relations, London: Prentice-Hall.
⚫ Fearn-Banks, Kathleen (1996) Crisis Communications: A Casebook
Approach, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
⚫ Grunig, J.E. and Repper, F.C. (1992) 'Strategic Management, Publics and
Issues' in: J.E. Grunig (Ed.) Excellence in Public Relations and
Communication Management, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp.
117-157.
⚫ Lerbinger, Otto ( 1997) The Crisis Manager: Facing Risk and
Responsibility, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.