Blog : Crisis communications

HOW CRISIS PROOF ARE YOUR BRAND COMMUNICATIONS? A GUIDE TO CONFRONTING UNCERTAINTY HEAD ON
Hilary Joiner

HOW CRISIS PROOF ARE YOUR BRAND COMMUNICATIONS? A GUIDE TO CONFRONTING UNCERTAINTY HEAD ON

One of the many observations noted in these strange and unprecedented times is how quickly we can all adapt in an emergency.

As a result of this particular emergency most businesses in IT, finance and HR provisions have spun into meltdown to catch-up with the concept of lockdown while we moved ourselves into an almost entirely digital space.

Our customers and employees are now all better connected than ever before, yet they have never been so isolated or remote to any real tangible outcomes. Secure in our virtual bunkers, staff and consumers alike are looking for any answer that offers intelligence, insight or empathy.

Step aside for the 4th emergency professional service, Brand Communications.

Proactive budgets can be the first to get slashed in changeable financial situations, however, once the reactive piece is complete, provision to deliver your message now and, perhaps more importantly, in the future is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity.

If you need to be reminded of how receptive the public is to concise and logical messaging, just look at the reaction the other week to the government changing their messaging from ‘stay at home’ to ‘stay alert’.

Everyone has woken up to realise how important is to be seen, understood and believed as individuals and collectives. From an audience perspective we’re craving information inside and outside of work and in a world where we can no longer touch, we’re looking at everything through a digital filter.

With huge swathes of our workforce working distantly or remotely – if at all – the only real thing that holds them together is understanding what they belong to, how and why.

 

So where do you start crisis proofing your brand?

Well, as Walter Landor once said, ‘Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.’

So, let’s start there.

Brand Communications is all about telling a story. Not just any story – your unique story. Generating and perpetuating your myth that will engage, endorse and activate.

This isn’t just about good looks, it’s the blueprint for your business and a guide to being heard. In an ever-fluctuating situation, done well, it is one of the most real assets you can own.

You can’t prepare for what you can’t see but you can prepare for what you might, and without knowing who you are, you can’t prepare at all.

It goes without saying that brands are based on what you do or sell pulled together with research and strategic insight. Those two aspects are what define your unique proposition. However, there is a check list of must-haves that formulate that information into a complete Brand Communications piece for now and the future…

Here’s our top 6:

  1. Clarify your (new) mission and vision

    This is your purpose and ambition: why you are here and where are you going – medium to long term. Most businesses have or will need to adapt their offering and plans, and it’s vital that everyone understands and aspires to what these are.

  2. Define your core values

    So everyone is clear how to do what you do, from an internal and external perspective. From making decisions to interacting with colleagues. Behaviours can vary and are guided by values, and in a crisis they will bond and include.

  1. Set short term goals

    Time bound objectives can be managed and completed. People want to be part of a success story, but they need to know how and it needs to be practical.

  1. Demonstrate present, accessible and insightful leadership

    This is a battle of sorts. Leaders need to be seen and they need to be relevant. Create regular and structured forums to share information, inspire and unite. People are more likely to worry if they are given random bouts information and if their leader is aloof or mysterious. Include opinion where you can but make clear decisions and deliver them with assurance and empathy.

  1. Define your communication pillars

    Have a clear understanding of and format for what you want to say and what you need to say. Both proactive: brand building and selling; and reactive: crisis management and risk minimising / avoidance.

  1. Digitise

    Your brand needs to be appropriate and useful to deliver messages within a digital interface. This is more than a cosmetic refurb, it’s updating your look to really belong within this space. Understand and utilise platforms, ensure positive user experience and create and provide content that engages on the right level at the right time.

Nobody panic – helping you manage out of a crisis
Juliet Simpson

Nobody panic – helping you manage out of a crisis

Despite the fact we are in the middle of a huge crisis, from a comms point of view things have been relatively straight forward. The Government has led the way and businesses have followed.  No one is alone, we’re all in it together, which in many ways has made it easier to message and deal with.

But as we start to see things transition into ‘next normal’, businesses have to be prepared for managing their own news and reputations. The media are going to switch their attention away from the Government and will be looking for stories about the fallout. So, everything – from financial struggles to redundancies, closure of offices, pulling back from investment, employees not being supported or treated appropriately, to additional spikes in infection – will prove challenging to manage. Whilst much of this is unavoidable, brands and businesses will be held accountable for their actions during this time, and even the mighty can fall with one wrong move.

Last week, myself and Scotland MD, Morna McLelland, sat on a Marketing Society Inspiring Minds panel to discuss managing comms during a crisis; here’s a summary of some things for brands and businesses to think about.

1. Be Prepared (and know when an issue becomes a crisis).

None of us ever saw ‘global pandemic’ on the risk register of any business we worked with, but every business should be thinking about the potential risks and challenges facing them.  These could be financial, operational, people, product or customer related.  Prepare your own risk register, work through the scenarios, and ideally, plan how you would respond.  If you know something significant is going to happen, take as much time as you can to prepare.  Think about who in your organisation will need to be involved, what are the key stages or dates you need to work around, how will you make decisions, and how will you communicate with each other?

2. Understand your audiences

Who are the people you need to influence and communicate with?  These could include investors, stakeholders, politicians, customers, and employees.  Map out your audiences in relation to your issue.  Who is most important, what do they need, what do they want to hear, and how will you reach them?

3. Make your message relevant

Ideally you should boil your comms down to four key messages. When you write them, remember your voice, keep them short, and ideally work with a PR professional to ensure that the words you use can’t be edited down by a journalist or taken out of context in any way.  Revisit your audiences and then make sure you tweak messages depending on who you’re talking to – tailored comms will go down much better than one size fits all.  Be consistent.  Admit mistakes, be clear, and show empathy.

 

4. Don’t believe your own hype

Of course you believe in the business you work in but that can sometimes cloud your judgement on how people externally will interpret your message. Use someone external to stress test your messaging and approach, and get a real-world view on things.

5. Be clear on your voice and who is representing you

When you speak, how do you sound?  If a brand is talking, make sure you don’t ignore your brand personality but be flexible.  Even the most irreverent brands need to know when to play it straight. Be real, be authentic, and above all else be honest.  The brands who fare best in a crisis are those that are relatable and real – hiding behind corporate masks will do very little to engender any kind of empathy. Get clear on who is going to be your voice. There is of course a role for the CEO but it’s important to consider different people for different roles and to ensure the most effective communicators are used at key moments.

6. Join things up

Make sure that your communications response looks at all the comms channels at your disposal, from PR, internal channels, customer newsletters, social media, stakeholder comms, third party networks and direct communications (picking up the phone or sending someone an email).  Timing and the sequence of this is especially critical and will be dictated by your audience mapping.

 

7. Use third parties to provide a different voice

Is there a third party that could support your story? Can you signpost existing help and information resources?  Or similarly, if you know someone is going to be especially negative then you might want to brief them directly in advance.

8. Understand the mood, and how it changes over time

How your story lands will have as much to do with what you say as the context in which it is landing.  Make sure you have a good read on the external environment and are sensitive to what’s going on around you. At the moment we are ‘all in this together’ with a collective goal, but that’s unusual. Be aware of wider economic factors that are influencing opinion – both good and bad – and how your messaging might need to change.

9. Communicate often and think ahead

Keep people updated (even when you have nothing to say).  Never stick your head in the sand or ignore questions. Review your social content and frequency of communications as people hunger for information, reassurance or guidance. And while you’re in this now, and will undoubtedly be focused on getting out of it as quickly and painlessly as possible, think ahead…what could be the future implications; unemployment, shareholder unrest, staff well-being and mental health, and are you equipped for that too?

 

10. Get specialist help

Managing reputations in a crisis is something that can’t be taught in a book or by reading a blog. The process and nuances come from years of experience so get someone in that knows what they are doing and absolutely have them at the top table throughout.  If you manage something badly then it’s going to take five times longer to clear up and by then your reputation could be severely damaged. Surround yourself with experienced experts that can help you and provide calm and confident support.

As a final thought, while no-one loves a crisis, if handled correctly they can define a business and the leadership team within it. Even when delivering the toughest of messages, if you are relatable and act with integrity and compassion then things might not end up quite as bad as you think.

 

Crisis Communications: Is it too little, too late for United Airlines?
Clara Eldridge

Crisis Communications: Is it too little, too late for United Airlines?

Just a couple weeks after a public outcry following United’s refusal to let two children board a flight as they were wearing leggings, the world looked on in horror as a video went viral showing a 69 year old man being dragged bloodied and seemingly unconscious from an airplane – for no other reason than refusing to give up the seat he had reserved and paid for.

What unfolded in the following 72 hrs will no doubt go down in history as how NOT to handle a crisis situation. The reputational damage to United Airlines is already huge with many individuals and businesses threatening a boycott, Chinese media accusing racism and questions asked at the White House press conference. Whilst United’s share price was not initially hit on Monday by close of markets on Tuesday it had lost 4% equating to around $1.4 billion in market capitalisation. If you add to this the cost of long running legal proceedings and the accompanying negative media coverage the damage will run deep.

From a communications point of view the ill-thought-out response from United and its CEO, Oscar Munoz, is unfathomable. The initial statement from Munoz completely lacked any humanity, centred around United not the affected customer, was not a proper apology, didn’t accept responsibility and used a combination of corporate and legal language guaranteed to ostracise the average consumer.

United_meme_2

Talking about the incident as ‘upsetting’ to ‘all of us’ at United immediately focused the statement around the business rather than the individual. The phrases ‘re-accommodate’ and ‘reaching out’ were immediately seen as corporate euphemisms completely lacking in any compassion for the customers involved and the company has been widely derided on social media.

The statement was followed by a leaked email from the CEO to United staff in which he said “I emphatically stand behind all of you, and I want to commend all of you for continuing to go ahead and beyond to ensure we fly right” and described the passenger as “belligerent” this compounded the crisis into an even worst scandal scenario.

By Wednesday morning, a new statement had been issued with much more conciliatory tone (maybe the lawyers had finally let the PR people into the room?) and the CEO did an exclusive interview with ABC News. However this could be viewed as a bit too little, too late, although there was an admission of guilt, an apology and commitment to never let something similar happen in the future there were a few slips into corporate language and phrasing that would certainly grate with a UK audience. Munoz refers to “my messaging” (classic PR jargon), United staff as “our family” and the incident as “a bad moment” and a “systems failure”. Perhaps most revealingly was the very long pause after the interviewer asked him whether the passenger was at fault before Munoz said “no”. If United truly want to resolve this situation they not only need to say they are sorry but be seen to really mean it.

If nothing else, this whole incident is a good prompt of some of the basic rules for handling a crisis situation:

  • Time is of the essence
  • Express empathy
  • If you have made a mistake – own up and take responsibility
  • Don’t submit to the urge to be defensive – blaming others gets you nowhere
  • Talk as if talking to your grandmother – in polite plain English
Crisis communications: preparing for the worst
Shaun Bell

Crisis communications: preparing for the worst

“You just have to deal with the situation. It’s not until afterwards that you realise how much it affects you emotionally” said one participant at an event Stripe was hosting this week.

In the wake of a tragic accident at a primary school, she was the local authority’s communications specialist – briefing councillors, consulting with emergency services and arranging plans for the school’s memorial. She was following protocol and process in the midst of a community’s grief.

This is surely the dark side of PR and comms if ever there was one: planning for worst case scenarios, considering how an organisation could respond, and pre-empting the emotions and sensitivities involved. Nothing prepares you for the reality of being at the centre of a real crisis, but having communications plans in place can be the difference between offering heartfelt condolences and being swallowed by your own emotions and negative media coverage.

Last week, CIPR Scotland hosted an event on ‘using digital channels in crisis communications’. The speaker talked about research from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer that showed 40% of organisations don’t have plans in place in case of a crisis.

The CIPR event focused on developing digital procedures for crisis situations. This included:

  • Act immediately – even if you need time to develop a public response.
  • Push pause on all planned content, including scheduled social media posts. Ask yourself “is this content suitable in the current circumstances?”
  • Integrate all parts of your communications structure into the crisis plan. This should range from social media and website content to SMS services, telephone hotlines and email bulletins.
  • Review your organisation’s tone of voice and spokesperson – sometimes the response needs to come from the CEO. No one else.
  • Start monitoring online discussions immediately – you need to understand what people and saying and why it’s being said.
  • Ensure internal communications is included at all stages. Getting your staff to understand the situation and how to correctly respond is vital.
  • Update your website. Add relevant information and check the tone being used on the homepage.
  • Engage your stakeholders and keep them updated. We develop these relationships and networks for a reason.
  • Always remember the emotions involved and act appropriately.

These considerations apply to brands not directly involved as well, as was demonstrated on Friday evening as the world watched and mourned for Paris.

As news poured in about the atrocities, many brands continued to post scheduled or automated content. The public reaction was disgust, even by those in the communications industry itself. Ad Week has run an article on how brands showed support without being insensitive. Facebook, Airbnb, Google, Skype and Verizon have been recognised for their appropriate support.

We can’t always predict when a crisis will occur, but real-life dictates that it will happen. It’s up to us to know how to respond, react fast and hope we never have to.