We haven’t quite made it a week since the last crisis management disaster involving a major US company and here’s The Consumerist at it again, this time with a doozy of a story involving sporting goods giant REI and Loomis security. While Shane was standing in the customer service line …
Don’t Be A Boob!
British retailer Marks & Spencer passed a public Crisis Management 101 pop-quiz with flying colors when, facing a campaign protesting its charging extra for bra sizes above DD, it decided to reverse the policy and issue a public mea culpa via full-page newspaper ad. Toting the bold headline, “We boobed.”, …
Kentucky Fried Crisis
Kentucky Fried Chicken is the latest big name to find themselves in need of some heavy-duty crisis management. Their super promo, a partnership with Oprah designed to introduce America to their new grilled chicken, seemed destined for success. A story from The Consumerist details what went wrong. What’s happening is …
One-Stop Flu Info
The smooth way in which the US government has handled the H1N1 swine flu, including the excellent flow of information and high level of transparency, can largely be attributed to the crisis management efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the CDC. Thanks to their careful …
Get Digital
Ask any crisis management professional and they’ll tell you, the absolute best way to handle a crisis is to prepare for it before it ever happens. With digital media fast becoming the standard, it’s critical to factor the Web into both your crisis prevention and crisis response plans. In a …
Message Timing Important During Crises
What exactly do pictures of children dangling from tire swings and teenagers surfing sand dunes have to do with the recent salmonella scare? That’s the question a recent article from TwinCities.com, and many consumers, are asking. “I thought it was an odd way to market peanuts,” says Mallue, a 32-year-old …
CDC Crisis Management
Successful crisis managers learn the most from studying real-world situations. This recent article from AdAge.com dissects the crisis management strategies used by the CDC when reacting to the recent “swine flu” outbreaks. Although the story is directed towards marketers, I believe the tips within apply to any organization’s crisis prevention …
Flow of Information
For effective crisis management, information needs to flow quickly to your target audiences. This past week communicators have done, by and large, a good job of using the various media channels available, especially social media. Relying on crisis communication protocols, the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, …
Communicating about Swine Flu
I’d like to let all of my readers know that I’ll one of the speakers at a Ragan Communications webinar entitled, “Communicating the Swine Flu Crisis to Employees and Stakeholders.” The primary goal will be to educate communicators who are charged with handling this crisis. All aspects of crisis management …
Swine Flu Resource
Worldwide health care provider International SOS has created a web site solely to communicate important info about recent the swine flu outbreaks. The site should be of great use to anyone involved in creating crisis management plans as it has all the current news and recommendations regarding the new outbreak. …
Get Networked
Before the digital age, the previous day’s happenings were often erased by today’s news. Now, the opposite is actually true. With so many people getting their news via the Internet, stories actually gather steam, being passed virally with opinions (both informed and otherwise) being tagged on willy-nilly. A recent article …
New Crisis Manager
The latest edition of Crisis Manager went out yesterday and is now posted to our site as well. I’ve still got Twitter on the brain and this issue features an article detailing my conversion from Twit-a-phobe to vocal supporter. We’ve also got a guest piece by Tony Lentini , President …
Preparation is Key
It can’t be said enough, thorough preparation is the key to successful crisis response. A reporter from Pacific Business News recently spoke to members of several crisis communications firms to prove this point using real world examples, including navigating clients through last year’s terrorist attack in Mumbai. From the article: …
Saving Face The Twitter Way
I couldn’t resist sharing this one after the way I finished Thursday’s post. I said having an open ear to social media outlets can only aid your reputation management efforts, and this story of a very angry Comcast Cable customers’ issue being resolved via Twitter proves that point beautifully. Setting …
That’s Not Sanitary
Domino’s Pizza’s crisis management team definitely earned their paychecks this week. Last Monday, two employees posted a YouTube video which showed one of them doing various disgusting things to a Domino’s sub sandwich, including sticking cheese up his nose and, ahem, “passing gas”, on the salami. With the video garnering …