“Be Prepared” In a Crisis

By Sarah Hoffman, Senior Account Executive, Consumer

The Boy Scout mantra “Be Prepared” rings true not only for Scouting, but also crisis situations. (Disclosure: The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is an Edelman client.) Preparing for issues and potential crises surrounding a company or its products is critical to reputation management. Unfortunately, not every crisis can be anticipated. Nor is it possible to control all the factors that affect the severity of an issue.

When it comes to communicating in a crisis, the rules have changed radically over the years. Organizations under fire must contend with the issue at hand and the backlash that will occur if that problem is not properly addressed. It’s critical for organizations to have a comprehensive crisis communications plan in place and ready for implementation on a moment’s notice. A crisis communications strategy often includes a combination of the following tactics:

• Message Development: In today’s world of 24-hour news cycles and citizen journalists, it has never been more important for a company to communicate openly and transparently with ALL corporate stakeholders. More than simple talking points, messaging is the basis for telling your story; it captures what you are doing affirmatively, the steps you have already taken to resolve any issues, what you value, and why it informs and guides all future communications.
  
  
• Development of a “Tool Kit”: It’s important to have a tool kit of communications materials prepared to assist in the response, such as key messages, holding statements, Q&A, fact sheets and media lists. This will ensure consistency in message across the company.
  
  
• Primary Media Spokesperson: While multiple people within the company will need to be deployed to assist with various audiences, one person will need to be the “public face” - the person speaking to the media when you decide to engage publicly. Additionally, depending on previous experience of primary spokesperson, it may be necessary for the spokesperson to undergo risk communication training. Contrary to most media training models, risk communication training should concentrate on the personality type and specific nature of the individual. Risk communication training is an exercise in teaching persuasion, not confrontation.
  
  
• Third-Party Support: If possible, it would be greatly beneficial to leverage your organization’s affiliation with credible third-party organizations - both within your company’s industry and with external consumer safety groups - to build support and secure potential participation in media materials.
  
  
• Scenario Escalation Plan: In the stress of a crisis with multiple moving parts, it’s key to have pre-identified the types of anticipated issues, how impactful an issue can or will be (severity) and a tentative response plan (sample scenarios). Categories, severities and scenarios must be simple but also thoughtful and allow for flexibility. Frequently, the most impactful issues are those that can’t be anticipated.
  
  
• Media Monitoring: During and after a crisis occurs, it’s important to monitor and analyze all relevant media coverage in key markets and, depending on the nature of the coverage/crisis, provide detailed recommendations on response strategy.
  
  

Crisis and issues management can be defining moments for brands and industries. Left unmanaged or improperly managed, brand and market value suffers. Managed properly, however, crises become opportunities to demonstrate industry leadership, core values and to influence key stakeholders. Crisis situations can sometimes even have a happy ending.

A few weeks ago, I got a call from our BSA client. A Boy Scout troop in Louisiana went missing while hiking in Arkansas, and the story was quickly making national headlines. Edelman immediately drafted a statement, talking points and Q&A to help prepare local scout executives for media interviews. Fortunately, the troop was found unharmed nearly 36 hours after they went missing – they had been stranded by high water caused by heavy rains in the area. Afterwards, troop leaders conducted interviews with various media outlets, providing a great opportunity to discuss how BSA training prepared them for this type of trip.

Edelman was able to use existing health and safety messaging to develop a customized tool kit of materials that communicated the BSA’s health and safety policies, mission and training procedures. As a result, coverage of the BSA in this situation was mostly positive. Click here to read more about this story.

For more information about Edelman’s crisis and issues management capabilities, please visit http://www.edelman.com/expertise/practices/crisis/.