Few appreciate a crisis more than me, which is why I was thrilled to give a presentation on crisis communications to Michigan and Indiana insurance providers as part of the Gibson Risk Management Forum in South Bend, Indiana. I spent the morning learning about brand management from Larry Linne – a former NFL player and author of Brand Damage.
Linne is a great speaker and offers refreshing insight into managing your “brand” – aka, your reputation. He focused on proactive strategies – i.e., how to prevent damage and minimize risk. He even tracks – on a daily basis – emerging risks, based on frequency, severity and new events. His favorite today is Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who is getting slammed for tweets with an Oregon stripper he has never met. As Linne pointed out, Cory was simply being cordial and responding to a fan. He had no idea she was a stripper.
I followed Linne with a quick workshop on crisis communications. My simple rule – which is ignored by way too many brands – is to be an OAF when it comes to a crisis: Own the situation, Apologize for it, and Fix it.
Turns out this simple rule is darn hard to follow. Even Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylonel, dropped the ball a few years ago. The company set the gold standard for crisis communications in 1982 by voluntarily initiating the first massive product recall in the country. And yet when there were complaints about a moldy smell coming from bottles of Tylenol, Motrin and other meds, causing temporary nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, it took the company a year to act. Ouch (or, in this case, barf).
Great examples of good and bad crisis communications abound – from the New England Patriots’ recent offer to exchange homicide defendant Aaron Hernandez’s #81 paraphernalia for any other number or player to Carnival Cruise’s numerous failures. (Here’s a tip: if you have product with a poop deck, don’t actually turn it into a poop deck.)
Here’s to finding a new crisis every day – let’s hope it’s not yours, and if it is, be an OAF!
