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  Potential damage to the company:
O-Impossible, basically no chance  0- No damage, not a serious
of occurring consequence
 1-Nearly impossible  1-Little damage, can be handled
 2-Remotely possible without much difficulty, not serious
 3-Possible enough for media concern
 4-More than possible, somewhat  2-Some damage, a slight chance that
probable, has happened to media will be involved
competitors or similar companies  3-Condsiderable damage, but still
 5-Highly probable, may or may not will not be a major media issue
have previously occurred in  4-Considerable damage, would
company, warning signs are evident definitely be a major media issue
 5-Devastating, front page news, can
 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.