Nov
Crisis in Toy Town – A Special Report: Part 1
My PR Agency, Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc., and PR 101 Radio: Marketing Advice for Small Business have been blessed to work with a wide variety of brilliant college Interns. Marianna Moles, a PR Major at San Jose State University, got an ‘A’ on an extraordinary research paper about crisis communications – an area of PR that hopefully, you’ll never have to deal with!
She analyzed how international toy maker, Mattel, handled a major crisis last year, when lead was found in several of their children’s products. I was interviewed for the paper which sheds insight into the theories of crisis management, some of which all business owners and entrepreneurs should take note of…just in case you one day find yourself in a sticky situation.The following quotes are excerpts from Marianna’s paper:
WHAT IS A CRISIS SITUATION? “A crisis is a major occurrence with a potentially negative outcome affecting the organization, company or industry, as well as its publics, service or good name. A crisis [...] can sometimes threaten an organization.
There are several types of crisis. There is the natural disaster, the industrial accident, product failure, public perception, industrial response, business management, criminal events, management failure, and hostile takeover. As well as these types, there are two types of crisis that are differentiated by warning time:
A SMOLDERING CRISIS can be caused by internal problems, investigations by government, or customer issues, making a smooth recovery difficult.
The second type is SUDDEN CRISIS…there are no warning warning signs and the media coverage that comes with this territory can potentially impact everyone in contact with the company. A crisis can be anything from a natural disaster, a miscalculation error at a factory or a faulty product. And if not planned for correctly, it will blow up into great proportions and cause more damage than the corporation or organization can handle. But with good planning, excellent communication with the media, and a stable strategy, a crisis will become nothing more than a line in the sand.
In order to avoid ‘media may-day’ several steps must be followed.”
Watch for PART 2 of this Special Report, “The Crisis Life Cycle,” upcoming in the next several days, and thanks to Marianna for this valuable contribution.
- Erika
