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About this lesson
Press releases can be a very effective crisis management strategy. Inadequate response to a crisis can make stakeholders and customers lose faith in the company, so responding adequately to crises is a must.
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Quick reference
Effective Crisis Management with Press Releases
Press releases can be a very effective crisis management strategy. Inadequate response to a crisis can make stakeholders and customers lose faith in the company. So responding adequately to crises is a must!
When to use
Press releases can be used when there’s a threat is to the reputation of a company, to its financial viability or more generally to human life.
Instructions
The key is being prepared for a crisis before it happens. Here’s what you should do:
- Appoint a crisis management team;
- Organize a meeting in which the team identifies the top potential threats related to their business and premises BEFORE they happen;
- The team considers how to deal with each potential threat;
- The team drafts a press release for each potential threat, so, if the threat does materialize, you simply need to add the specific details of the event.
Here’s how to use press releases to deal with different types of threats:
|
Threat to… |
Subtype: |
Use a Press Release to… |
|
1. the reputation |
false statements about a company’s product or activity |
rectify false statements |
|
|
true statements about a company’s product or activity |
apologize and announce what your company is going to do to improve a product or remedy the situation |
|
|
rumors are unverified and spread through unofficial channels |
issue an official statement to stop the rumor |
|
2. the financial viability |
inadequacy or mismanagement of working capital |
communicate that a company has new investors lined up or inform about which measures have been taken to better manage working capital |
|
|
uncertainty from within or without |
reassure stakeholders |
|
|
a threat to the company’s reputation |
(see above) |
|
3. human life |
external (i.e. natural disasters) or internal circumstances (i.e. faulty equipment in a factory or a leak of toxins) |
state exactly what you are going to do to protect both workers and civilians |
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- 00:05 Earlier in the course, we considered some of the topics that are appropriate for
- 00:09 press releases.
- 00:10 For example, product launches and company events.
- 00:14 Now in this lesson, we're also going to look at how press releases can be very
- 00:18 effective as crisis management tools.
- 00:22 First of all, what is a crisis?
- 00:26 Broadly speaking, a crisis can be classified as falling into one of three
- 00:31 categories and it will really depend on the threat that it poses.
- 00:36 So firstly we've got threats to the reputation of the organization.
- 00:40 Then we've got threats to the financial viability of the company and
- 00:44 then threats to human life.
- 00:46 Either to people's health or to public safety.
- 00:50 Let's explore each one of these individually.
- 00:53 Threats to reputation as Benjamin Franklin put it, it takes many
- 00:58 good deeds to build a good reputation, but only one bad one to lose it.
- 01:02 So how can repetition be damaged, or altogether be lost?
- 01:09 Let's look at how repetition can be damaged then,
- 01:11 starting with false statements about the company or
- 01:15 even false statements about its products or the activity.
- 01:19 You can use a press release quite effectively
- 01:22 to rectify any false statements.
- 01:25 Now, true statements about a company's product or activity is interesting.
- 01:29 In this case you can use a press release to apologize and
- 01:33 to announce what your company is actually doing to remedy the situation.
- 01:39 Then we've got rumors which can lie somewhere between a false and a true
- 01:43 statement because they're unverified and they spread through unofficial channels.
- 01:48 So press release is an opportunity to issue an official statement that can
- 01:53 actually stop the rumor.
- 01:55 We've also got inadequate responses, to a crisis.
- 01:59 Which can make the stakeholders and the customers lose faith.
- 02:03 So really, not responding or responding inadequately, is an issue.
- 02:09 You've got to respond adequately to a crisis, to manage it better.
- 02:14 Now, let's explore threats to financial viability.
- 02:19 A threat to a company's reputation can also affect the financial viability if
- 02:23 you don't deal with it very effectively.
- 02:26 The inadequacy or
- 02:28 the mismanagement of working capital can effect the financial viability.
- 02:32 Communicating by a press release that, for example, a company is got new investors.
- 02:38 Which can take measures to make them manage the working capital.
- 02:43 This can actually restore trust in the financial viability of the company.
- 02:48 Uncertainty can also be a threat.
- 02:50 So when uncertainty comes from within the company.
- 02:53 For example a change in top management, effective communication
- 02:58 via a press release can reassure all of the stakeholders.
- 03:02 Now we've also got internal and external threats to human life.
- 03:07 The external circumstances can be things such as natural disasters.
- 03:12 Or internal circumstances can be faulty equipment or
- 03:16 a factory leak or even toxins that can pose a threat to human life.
- 03:21 In either case, a company can issue a press release, stating exactly
- 03:26 what they're going to do to protect both the workers and the civilians.
- 03:30 The main things is, we're gonna be prepared when crisis happened.
- 03:35 Bottom line is that a crisis will happen.
- 03:37 They do always happen, so you've got to be prepared.
- 03:41 Each company should have a crisis management team or plan.
- 03:45 The crisis management team should take time to identify the top
- 03:49 potential threats related to the business and the premises before they happen.
- 03:54 Each potential threat should be closely considered to identify ways of
- 03:58 dealing with it.
- 03:59 A press release should be drafted for each potential threat.
- 04:02 So if the threat does materialize,
- 04:05 you simply need to add the specific details of the event.
- 04:09 It'll make it so much quicker.
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