In PR a crisis is normally something that is unforeseen, except when you advise your client against something and they decide not to follow your advice.
Magenta has a national client whose product has become a household name in the last couple of years. Magenta has been looking after the PR for this client and implementing different strategies to help build upon on the brand.
Sometimes a client does not always listen to the PR professionals and decides to go against their advice. When this happens, especially with a well know brand, there could be public backlash, which PR professionals had been able to foresee.
This is exactly what happened with Magenta's client.
Immediately the strategy that was in place for client is stopped and crisis management comes into play. The main point of crisis management is to regain trust with the stakeholders, who in this case was the public.
Magenta's crisis strategy was to issue an initial press release about the crisis and then simply wait for the story to run it course. This means no pitching stories to the media or implementing new phases of existing strategies.
Once Magenta felt that the story a died down a little and public were feeling a little more forgiving towards the company, they created a new strategy that would be very public and bring back a lot of the good will that was lost by client in the crisis.
It was very interesting to watch how the Magenta girls responded to client especially when it was something that they had warned the client would happen. But once it happened they just got on with it, changed what they did and helped their client ride out the bad publicity the best they could.
This really helped me see that even with the best professional advice sometimes clients are still going to do what they want regardless, but that the PR company is always there with a solution to fix it.
Talk soon.
Jess
3 comments:
Hi Jess
Great to hear you are having some insightful experiences in your placement. Have to say I am personally very interested in Crisis Communications, this is something that I would like to get into when I complete my degree. It’s good to hear that the organisation was prepared and knew what they were doing in the situation, and it is great exposure for you to see exactly how they handle such a crisis and what can go wrong!
I had never really thought about what to do if the client didn’t listen or take advice! This has been a great insight, thankyou for posting.
Good luck with the rest of your internship!
Sam
Hi Jess !
Couldn't agree more. For us, we can only give our opinion but at the end of the day, they might follow it and they might not, and for your case, they didn't. This remind me of a saying, customers always right. And "PR company is always there with a solution to fix it." , thats the reason for why we (PR) are here for.
Thank you for the sharing. And this is definitely a good example for all of us. Hope you continue to excel !
Hey Jess,
Found this post super interesting to read about. Not having any real experience with crisis communication myself (my internship was fairly different, from what I can see) I've always wondered what the process is. I think this provides a comprehensive real life example we can all learn from and digest, when things go not according to plan. I wonder does this kind of decision making strain the relationship with the client?
Good luck with your internship
Billie
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