Term Paper

Jordan Hood & Mahesh Peddinti

Rosen College of Hospitality Management: University of Central Florida

HFT 3594: Entertainment Brand Relations and Publicity

Dr. Aysegul Songur

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Social media is a very complex tool that can be utilized for great benefit within a

company. However, oftentimes with improper usage, social media can inversely cause harm to a

company’s image. There are often many guidelines to each platform, as well as specific rules for

how they operate within the public space. In the current world setting, Social media is used

extensively by people to regularly get their news and information. With technology, information

can spread at a much higher and faster rate than any other time in current history. PR faces a

unique challenge in today’s world climate. Having to work in these situations, it is up to them to

find quick and effective solutions to complex problems, in order to mitigate risks and prevent the

image of the company from being harmed. Addressing these in a proper, professional manner, is

also very important. Issuing statements that arise within the company have to be done in this

manner in order for them to be highly effective. It needs to be stated on a site or source that is

trusted and credible, so people can directly get their information without any doubt and be

informed on current situations regarding the company.

While BMW did initiate the proper steps to create a Social Media Team to address the

situation first hand, the actions that followed didn’t result in an effective solution. The company

needs to set rules and guidelines when dealing with social media, such as specific times of

posting, proper and researched content regarding the company, and overall usage being regulated

and checked by the company. Utilizing proper training in PR to specifically deal with situations

that arise such as the one presented would also tremendously help the company overall. With the

current model they had, it would’ve been ideal to have more members take part, and take the
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practice of social media more seriously to start, informing the public immediately of any given

situation or statement.

II. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

On April 18th, 2011, the CEO of BMW, Jim O’Donnell made the statement: “Electric

Vehicles won’t work for most people. For at least 90% and maybe more of the population, an

electric vehicle won’t work.” This statement was reported in the Detroit News and the online

blog AllCarsElectric.com picked up the story and ran with it. Although this blog is confined to

the small electric vehicle community, it still has a large audience base with roughly 3.5 million

monthly users. People were not happy with O’Donnell’s lack of perspective and negative

comments, questioning BMW’s commitment to developing electric cars in the future. BMW

didn’t become aware of the problem until 3 days after the article was posted regarding

O’Donnell’s statement and then the Corporate Communications Department chose to sit and

watch the situation unfold to see if the problem would escalate to catch the attention of a larger

mainstream audience. On April 28th, ten days after the original statement was made by

O’Donnell, he responded with the following statement “On April 18th, I had a conversation

reported in the Detroit News that has caused a great deal of concern over the past week. I realize

I could have been clearer in my comments and I sincerely apologize if I have offended the strong

network of electric vehicle advocates whose support has been deeply meaningful to us at BMW.

First, I want to stress I am 100% behind our company’s plans to design, develop, lease and sell

electric vehicles. We are confident we are on the right path with the range and flexibility of the

all-new BMW ActiveE and the forthcoming BMW i3.” This response is ineffective in that it was

made too long after the initial statement was made. If Detroit News and AllCarsElectric.com was
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able to make an article within days of the statement being made, BMW should have made a

statement retracting the views that O’Donnell put forth in a timely manner as well.

The original article was posted on the Detroit News and then was picked up by

Wired.com / AllCarsElectric.com as well. The Detroit News has a wide audience base and as

previously mentioned, AllCarsElectric.com has 3.5 million monthly viewers. The blog that

BMW’s Corporate Communications department chose to respond on was BMW’s own blog

entitled “Activate the Future” which was created to allow for discussion and feedback related to

electro-vehicles (EVs) that BMW was testing out. This blog was created for a very specific

reason and had several thousand viewers, as opposed to the blog the initial statement was posted

on which had 3.5 million viewers. The appropriate forum to respond to any such scandal should

have just as many followers as the original forum that the scandal was introduced on. In this

case, the “Activate the Future” forum was probably not the most appropriate forum to respond

on, as it will not be seen by nearly as many people as the original statement. BMW should have

responded on the same platform as the initial article to ensure that it is reaching the same

audience that was impacted by O’Donnell’s original statement. While it makes sense for BMW

to respond on a platform that is their own to ensure that it does not get twisted in ways that

public media platforms often do, however it is reminiscent of an “echo-chamber”, in this case

BMW is making a statement to people who are already patrons of the company, not the entire

community of electro-vehicle enthusiasts.

In creating a social media policy, BMW enacted a new department called the “Social

Business Council” (“SBC”) which brought together many individuals to be the ones to call the

shots on policy decisions. This group outlined how to use social media to promote the company

and protect the company and its employees from crises that arise on social media. Some of the
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strategies this group had come up with was to monitor what is being said about the company

online and follow stories that come out about the company. Another strategic point was to

generate understanding of the platforms that are being used to uplift the company. Finally, this

group claims that they need to have the discipline to make the choice of whether it is appropriate

to act when combating a potential scandal. In this case, BMW chose not to act because they were

waiting to see if it would gain traction and progress from smaller communities to larger

communities. While they followed their policy, in this case it would have been more appropriate

to react immediately and on the correct and appropriate platform.

BMW’s social media plan should be considered on a case-to-case basis, and the policy

should differ depending on which platform they’re working with. BMW has established social

media accounts on the most popular social media platforms consisting of Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. On Facebook, BMW has multiple accounts each designed

specifically for certain products and geographical regions. These pages are mainly used to

promote their products, and not much interaction with consumers happens on this platform. As

for Twitter, BMW runs many accounts and posts just as often as they do on Facebook. While

many of the followers are interacting with the page, there are usually no responses from BMW

social media marketers, just like on their Facebook pages. The same goes for Instagram,

YouTube, and LinkedIn as well. While all of these social media pages are active, it is usually a

one-way conversation where BMW promotes and markets their new products to their followers

but does not often respond to inquiries and grievances from their audience (Pratap, 2021).

III. GOALS/OBJECTIVES

The goal of this Public Relations plan for BMW is to develop a better presence on

mainstream social media platforms. As mentioned previously, BMW has a large following on all
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social media platforms but fails to open the two-way conversation with their consumers using

these platforms. They can open this avenue for feedback from their consumers by opening their

Direct Messages and assign their social media marketers the task of responding to concerned

consumers on top of their task of promoting BMW’s new products. Since the initial incident was

posted to an article with a large audience base, it only makes sense for BMW to respond on a

platform with a relatively equal following to that of the original blog. By responding on a larger

social media platform such as Facebook, BMW can reach their entire audience, rather than a

small, confined community of electro-vehicle enthusiasts like the followers of their “Activate the

Future” blog.

Another main goal of the Public Relations plan is to prevent this situation from

happening in the future by implementing new departments and new strategies into BMW’s

corporate communications. By integrating a new team of people that are designed specifically to

respond to crises, the company can respond in a more timely and appropriate manner for future

situations. Along with this, BMW should put their CEO and other executives through media

training to prevent the situation from happening right at the source, rather than figuring out how

to handle it after the fact. A more in-depth description of these strategies is outlined below.

IV. STRATEGIES/TACTICS/ACTIVITIES:

● Implementation of a Crisis Management Team

While compiling the SBC was a smart decision on BMW’s part, the tasks they’re

assigned may be too broad and should be split up into different departments. The implementation

of a new department called the Crisis Management Team at BMW would put a group together

specifically for the purpose of analyzing and responding to individual situations and crises on all

social media platforms as they arise. A Crisis Management Team protects an organization from
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crises and to help develop strategies to respond to difficult situations in a timely manner. While it

is important for this team to have a defined leader, this is a job that cannot be done by one

singular person and should be a compiled team of people. This team should have the

responsibility and authority to come up with a response and relay it to the social media markets

to post to the public on a platform decided by this team (Juneja, 2022). The main task of this

group should be to create and develop a cohesive crisis management plan. Aside from this, other

basic tasks of this group should include monitoring and detecting early signs of an emergency,

analyzing and mitigating the risk associated with the situation at hand, communicating with all

individuals and stakeholders associated with the company, and training all employees on how to

handle a crisis. Once the plan has been completed and distributed, this group should review what

went well and what went poorly and learn from the situation to help prevent it in the future

(Marker, 2021).

● Media Training for CEO and Other Executives

For reference in future situations similar to this one, BMW could’ve prevented this issue

by putting their CEO and other higher up executives through what is called media training. By

implementing this, O’Donnell could have perfected his speech and allowed for his point to come

across in a way that isn’t viewed negatively by BMW’s large audience (Throughline Group,

LLC, 2022). A lot of executives may think that there is no need for media training, but that is not

true. There are many benefits to media training in and out of the workplace. Bad publicity always

occurs for any organization. By becoming a more effective spokesperson, CEO’s can come up

with the best approach to conducting interviews and giving quotes for news articles. In the case

of Jim O’Donnell, the message he wanted to convey was not the message that was given to the

public. Had he gone through rigorous media training, he could align his statements with the
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identity and values of the company and avoid any miscommunication with the media. As the face

of the company, the CEO is expected to respond appropriately in a clear and concise way that

will back the rest of the organization (Throughline Group, LLC, 2022).

V. KEY MESSAGES

Having a team that can specialize in Crisis Management would benefit the company

within this situation, as well as a Social Media Team who specializes within PR campaigns.

Having teams who can understand the complex issues Social Media presents, as well as solve

any issues that arise within it.

One issue that can cause problems to a PR team is the quick spread of information

throughout all platforms. Whether it be information putting the company in a bad light, or

misinformation that was not factually correct, it is often hard to stop it from spreading. PR

professionals must address these issues head on and immediately, in order to stop other people

from gathering this information.

BMW has multiple facets within its company, consisting of several different branches

and executive leaders. The company is also well known within the public, so many people are

able to hear about the news, whether good or bad. BMW must put much more effort to solve

situations like this, compared to a smaller business. Smaller businesses would only have to deal

with the local neighborhood with bad word-of-mouth, and the CEO of the company would have

to address it head on. With BMW, it is different, since the company is much larger and well

known within the public. BMW would have to put much more effort to overturn any PR issues

that arise within the company.

Providing each person with proper Media Training to deal with specific situations such as

this one and allow them to practice on addressing the public when major PR incidents happen
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within the company. The CEO, when issuing the press state statement, could’ve said the proper

statement regarding the future of electric cars with BMW instead of a misconstrued version that

was unclear from what was actually happening. When the situation did arise, those executives

could’ve taken to social media to address this misconception head on, instead of waiting to “test

the waters,” before the situation became out of hand. Having a team that is also skilled within

social media to mitigate these risks when bad PR occurs and stop the spread of negative

information with clear statements that reflect the company’s vision statement.

BMW is lacking the structure for a social media policy, but it definitely has the resources

to do so. BMW is a highly valued company with many funds to invest into a social media policy

for its workers to follow. Having a solid plan for specific rollouts, and/or situations when PR

press ends up not working, can benefit the company greatly. While in some cases it may not be

practical to do this due to underfunding, BMW is a well valued company. They are able to

allocate much of their funds to this specific need, and it could tremendously benefit them within

this specific situation they were dealing with.

VI. CONCLUSION

The main goal of this PR plan proposed is to mitigate the risks of any potential errors that

may occur with social media usage. As previously stated, having announcements addressing any

major issues that occur with the company overall will be discussed on the platform with the most

following. This will allow for the majority of people who are interested in the company (Ex:

stockholders, public officials, journalists) to be informed the quickest way possible, addressing

the public firsthand. Having a Crisis Management team for risks presented to harm the brand,

can help deal with these in an efficient manner. Individuals hired for this role are skilled in

dealing with the public, and those interested within the company, so incorporating individuals to
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deal with this specific situation can mitigate risks. Media training for executives of BMW can

allow those at the top of the company to speak on these issues when presented, without deeming

themselves unprofessional or add more to the situation. The public would often want those

running the company to be educated and responsible for these issues, so having the executives

able to respond to the questions the public has can ease tension and present the company in a

positive light.

Social Media is a very complex tool, especially when spreading information. If a crisis

were to happen, oftentimes it is difficult to manage and maintain it from spreading, as well as

prevent any misinformation, as shown in the case study. With this proposed plan, those working

on the Crisis Management Team, as well as the individual executives at BMW, are more

educated and prepared to use each platform that each Individual and BMW operated on. The

faster the team is able to act upon every social media, the quicker it is to prevent any instances of

misinformation being spread through it, causing harm to the company name.

Education is a big factor in terms of preventing future mistakes from happening. Having

the Social Media, Crisis, and Executive Team study the previous failures of social media usage

of BMW can greatly benefit the company. Those dealing with these subjects need to learn and

innovate from previous failures, in order to not make the same mistakes that were done prior and

offer newer solutions that can enhance the company's brand and public image on social media.

Having the team also check each social media post prior to posting, to ensure that the message

that needs to be conveyed is conveyed correctly and doesn’t cause any underlying meanings.

Prior press briefings before any major announcements or speaking events should also be done in

order to make the message being stated is efficient and correct. This will impact the future of the
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cooperation by preparing its Social Media team. With them being more familiar and trained for

situations of promotion, less mistakes will be made on behalf of the company image.

If BMW is able to learn from their prior mistakes by making right with future promotions

and PR campaigns, the general public will take note of the change in direction. People are fond

of any sort of positive change, and if BMW continues to utilize a positive social media campaign

rollout, more people will remember it compared to their older mistakes. Building a positive

image can also make others who are unaware of the brand's prior mistakes like the company

more. If the bad press is neutralized faster through positive word-of-mouth from the public, more

people who were unaware of the previous mistakes can hear positive feedback from BMW.
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References

Juneja, P. (2022). Crisis Management Team - Meaning, Role and its Function. MSG

Management Study Guide. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from

https://www.managementstudyguide.com/crisis-management-team.htm

Marker, A. (2021, July 23). How to Build an Effective Crisis Management Team. Smartsheet.

Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.smartsheet.com/content/crisis-management-

team-roles

Pratap, A. (2021, November 2). BMW Social Media Strategy. Notesmatic. Retrieved April 26,

2022, from https://notesmatic.com/bmw-social-media-strategy/

Throughline Group, LLC. (2022, February 17). Executive Media Training. Throughline.

Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.throughlinegroup.com/services/executive-

media-training/