{"id":333,"date":"2010-01-07T09:21:52","date_gmt":"2010-01-07T14:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prssa.org\/blog\/?p=333"},"modified":"2018-08-15T22:12:54","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T02:12:54","slug":"managing-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/2010\/01\/07\/managing-a-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing a Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today’s 24\/7 news cycle, it seems companies and organizations are facing crisis situations more often. Yesterday, popular clothing retailer H&M<\/a> began coping with a crisis threatening the brand’s reputation and contradicting a corporate policy.<\/p>\n

According to an article in \u00a0yesterday’s New York Times<\/a>, a student in New York found bags of brand new, yet slashed clothes that had been thrown out near an H&M store. A spokeswoman for H&M said it was corporate policy to donate unworn clothes to charitable organizations, yet these clothes seemed to be ripped apart on purpose. The Huffington Post<\/a> picked up the article, as well as dozens of mainstream and blog outlets, and comments on H&M’s social media sites have turned against the company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Because this crisis threatens the integrity of the organization, it is the role of the public relations practitioner to guide the organization to a resolution. So, what do you do in such a situation?<\/p>\n

I pulled out a checklist I received from Kelly Rossman-McKinney, APR, Fellow PRSA, CEO of the Rossman Group<\/a>, an issues management firm in Lansing, Mich. Kelly serves as Michigan State University PRSSA’s<\/a> Professional Advisor and gave our Chapter advice on how to respond to a crisis. Below are 10 principles to remember while executing a communications plan:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Choose a messenger that is credible, such as the CEO.<\/li>\n
  2. Make sure your message fits the context and the environment in which you are located.<\/li>\n
  3. Make sure your message is relevant to your audience.<\/li>\n
  4. Craft a clear, simple, straightforward message that will be long-lasting.<\/li>\n
  5. The continuity and consistency of the message is key for audience penetration.<\/li>\n
  6. Choose the correct channels and tools to communicate to your audience.<\/li>\n
  7. Answer the question in every consumer’s head: “What’s in it for me?”<\/li>\n
  8. Make sure your audience knows you care about the situation.<\/li>\n
  9. Be sure to create a message your audience can understand.<\/li>\n
  10. Have a clear call to action. What is the audience supposed to do now?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you were heading up H&M’s corporate communications department, how would you respond to the situation? Keep in mind the principles above as you discuss a possible plan of action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In today’s 24\/7 news cycle, it seems companies and organizations are facing crisis situations more often. Yesterday, popular clothing retailer H&M began coping with a crisis threatening the brand’s reputation and contradicting a corporate policy. According to an article in \u00a0yesterday’s New York Times, a student in New York found bags of brand new, yet slashed clothes that had been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2892,1555,1],"tags":[154,153,156,91,160,159,158,155,157,2224],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}