Crisis Management Examples
What is the worst nightmare for a business? A crisis that gets out of hands and worse, with no planning was in place. A company without a crisis management strategy and team is not a good idea at all.
Typically, crisis management is a corporate strategy that helps organizations deal with a negative event. A negative event can be anything from a small PR crisis on Twitter to an incident involving serious injury or death. Managing a crisis means to develop a plan and coordinate with the resources. This is to address the needs of the affected parties while simultaneously repairing the brand’s reputation.
Crisis management prepares managers and employees to face unforeseen situations and circumstances in the organization. Having one in place allows the best advertising agencies in Delhi NCR and around the country to manage their emotions, minimize risk, and respond effectively to the changes in the moment while under pressure. It’s also necessary to prevent the situation from getting worse for customers and for the business.
Many big brands have once or twice fallen into deep crisis and managed to combat the situation to emerge victorious. Let us have a look at few of such examples:
KFC: Imagine you go to a chicken restaurant and learn that they are running out of chicken! KFC in UK landed themselves in a similar situation called ‘Chickengate’. They simultaneously had significant problems with suppliers, logistics companies, and other supply chain issues, causing chicken not arriving at restaurants resulting in closure of outlets. However, KFC dealt with the crisis in a rather humorous way. They made the situation light and were honest. They made clear that they would not sacrifice quality. Evidently, they prioritized their customers and reputation by conveying their standards. They even followed up on this announcement after few days with a hilarious campaign to poke fun at themselves. The ad was an apology for needing to close some stores and was published in the UK newspapers. It also worked in increasing their brand recognition. One would think that they came out of this better than before the chicken shortage started.
Pepsi: Pepsi launched a campaign with a television commercial featuring Kendall Jenner. The storyline had Jenner casually leaving a modelling shoot tojoin protesters whose banners display the Pepsi logo and hands a Pepsi can to a policeman. Much to the delight of the protesters, the policeman opens the can and drinks it. However, things didn’t go as anticipated and this campaign with the social justice element was widely mocked and came across as superficial and insincere. Understanding the damage, Pepsi sprung to action to handle the situation. Pepsi initially stuck by it with a statement mentioning the importance of harmony. However, they went back on it by pausing the ad entirely, and apologized for missing the mark. As a result of admitting the error early on, Pepsi showed that they got it wrong and managed to save themselves from any long-term damage. People soon forgot about the incident, and Pepsi carried on being the giant it is.
Tide: The Tide Pod Challenge was an online challenge that involved eating washing detergent Tide in the form of pods made by Procter & Gamble. The craze sent some teenagers to the hospital. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission had to appear on television to address the dangers of ingesting laundry detergent. Using football player Rob Gronkowski as a spokesperson, they launched a campaign to prevent this dangerous behaviour. This is an example of crisis communication done well. Tide required to shift the narrative to make the challenge seem uncool by leveraging the popularity of a well-known sports celebrity.
Burger King: In an attempt to celebrate and draw attention to its female chefs, Burger King offered this tweet that says, “Women belong in the kitchen.”However, things went downhill immediately as the general public did not take the tweet well. Though the intention was to make fun of this sexist phrase and evoke a sense of equality. But unfortunately, the tone got lost on Twitter. Burger King UK deleted the Tweet and immediately posted an apology and an explanation of their intentions, quickly calming the fallout.
Johnson & Johnson: An extensive healthcare and pharmaceutical manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson landed themselves in trouble. One of their products, Tylenol, was found to contain cyanide, causing the deaths of seven people in 1982. The cause of the tampering was never solved. Not only Johnson & Johnson halted advertising instantly but also sent nearly half a million messages to healthcare facilities. A safety warning was also issued to consumers. It needs to be understood that the brand could have attributed the incident to one-off sabotage and kept the products on the shelves. But instead of doing that, Johnson & Johnson removed all of the products off the shelves, which costed them millions. But this was done to to protect the public and avoid further outrage. In addition, they established a hotline for worried customers to address any concerns they may have regarding Tylenol capsules. Johnson & Johnson’s response trulycreateda benchmark in crisis management. As such, their products are still everywhere around the world today.
Nike: In a rather unfortunate incident, where Nike shoes fell apart mid-game, caused an injury for Zion Williamson live on television. As expected, Twitter erupted, and the stock price fell by 1.8% the day after. Nike’s competitors also jumped on the bandwagon of criticising the brand. Nike wished Williamson all the best in an official statement and company representatives even stated they were looking into the matter to identify the problem to assuage concerns. They wasted no time in doing so. An investigation team was dispatched by Nike to the stadium the day after the incident followed by a visit to Nike’s factory in China. The company also developed a unique pair of shoes for Williamson in response as well. Owing to the swift movement and tad bit of thoughtfulness, the company demonstrated a commitment to improvement, problem-solving, and personally resolving the situation for Williamson.
