Question

Find a current organizational or business crisis in the media and discuss whether the organization seemed to have followed the five steps for planning crisis communication

Answer 1

A crisis communication plan is necessary to be formulated before the crisis occurs. During a crisis, time is of essence, and so, establishing a communication plan before hand will prove to be beneficial.

There are 5 steps involved in planning a crisis communication plan. They are:

1. Identify potential crisis
2. Identify audience
3. Designate spokesperson
4. Monitor all channels
5. Develop a crisis communication mannual

I'm taking Pepsi as an example here. Pepsi launched a new ad campaign with an advertisement starring top model Kendall Jenner. The commercial received a lot of negative attention with people criticizing Kendall Jenner and Pepsi for making such an ad. But the way Pepsi dealt with the crisis in an effective way is quite commendable.

Step 1: Identify Potential Crisis

The first step in formulating a crisis communication plan is to identify the potential threats and risks faced by the business.

The way Pepsi dealt with the crisis shows that they must have already anticipated such a catastrophe. With every commercial or campaign or any content they put out, they know that they are being monitored and continuously judged by the public. So, they had already assessed the potential crisis and hence reacted quite swiftly.

Step 2: Identify Audiences

The next step after identifying potential crisis is to identify the audience with whom to communicate and establish a media for carrying out communication with them.

In this crisis of Pepsi's, the target audience was huge. It pertains to all the loyal customers of Pepsi, and the people who were subject to that commercial on television, and social media.

Step 3: Designate a Spokesperson

At the time of crisis, it is important for the company to have a designated spokesperson, who can speak on behalf of the entire company.

For the ad campaign, the designated spokesperson was Kendall Jenner herself. She acted immediately and issued an apology to anyone who was hurt by the commercial, and made a statement that the ad was made with good intent.

Step 4: Monitor all Channels

Monitor all media and all channels including social media and respond accordingly with calmness, to not panick the general public.

Pepsi then made efforts to communicate with its loyal customers and the general public on social media and at press conferences regarding the issue, and assured them that they had taken down the ad.

Step 5: Develop a Crisis Communication Mannual

Developing such a Mannual will make the employees be ready in case of another crisis in the future. They will be well versed the next time and will work more effectively during the crisis.

Because Pepsi is such a well known commercial brand, and it keeps making ad campaigns and commercials, I anticipate it has a Crisis Communication Mannual that they use in emergencies like these to help restore the situation back to normal as early as possible.