When Volkswagen sputtered in September with dieselgate, we had little trouble finding PR pros to opine about how VW could use the crisis to remake the brand through trust and transparency ( PRN, 9/28/2015).
Similarly, trust and transparency were in play during a crisis management competition at PR News’ Digital PR & Marketing Conference on June 8 in Miami Beach. Crisis pros Pia De Lima, VP, corporate communcations, Western Union, and Allison Steinberg, communications strategist, ACLU, formulated a fictitious crisis scenario (below) and judged several teams’ crisis plans. The teams had 30 minutes to concoct their plans in pursuit of a $1,000 prize that PressPage—a sponsor of the conference, along with Business Wire, Cision and LexisNexis—provided.
The Scenario: “You work in corporate communications for Bull’s Eye, a company that sells goods from clothing and groceries to toys and household appliances, electronics and more. Highly visible, it is one of the most affordable one-stop shops for working-class families.
“During the Q&A portion of a recent quarterly earnings call for reporters, CEO Mark Douwrite decides to weigh in on a trending social issue about transgender people. He announces Bull’s Eye customers can use the restroom aligned with their gender identity and that the company is taking a stance squarely in favor of equality.
“A group that believes Bull’s Eye’s new policy is wrong starts a petition calling on people to boycott the store across the country. The petition garners nearly 1 million signatures and is growing. The group, One Trillion Moms, has come out swinging, publicly attacking Douwrite. “You and your team are asked to join the CEO for a strategy session in 15 minutes and present your recommendations for communication.”
The winning team, Starfish, took a proactive route, calling for the brand to issue a statement within 24 hours that it’s created a task force to focus on the larger issue of customer experience at Bull’s Eye stores. “We will show the brand is invested in creating an equal, all-encompassing environment,” Starfish wrote in its plan.
Creation of the task force will “shift the focus off the hot-button issue” of transgender bathrooms “to the larger topic of customer experience and how Bull’s Eye listens to its customers,” the team wrote. The plan called for Bull’s Eye to emphasize the task force will solicit public input before the brand makes policy decisions. An additional goal is to make customers “feel safe and comfortable” and demonstrate Bull’s Eye is “devoted to providing the best customer experience as well as affordable, high-quality products for working-class families.” The CEO and the chief customer experience officer would be the key spokespeople.
Starfish emphasized social media channels to spread the message. Social platforms would push followers to a corporate blog that emphasized the message. A Skype town hall also was mentioned, as were regular task force updates on social, monitoring and quick response to public comments. Traditional methods included reaching out to One Trillion Moms, transgender groups and media.
“Starfish transformed the challenge into an opportunity...they dialed down the focus on the [transgender] issue and sought to create a more inclusive environment for all their customers,” De Lima says. Starfish planned to “engage the public [via the task force] and be transparent,” Steinberg adds.
The winning team: Kaitlin Pickerel, Foundations Recovery Network; Jenna Overbeck, Abila; Nicole Cieslak, Tenable; Andrea Castleman, Pet Paradise; Jacquelyn Webb, McKee Foods; Jennifer Guerrieri, University Hospitals; Dave Solce, Houston First; and Mike Wilmering, O’Malley Hansen.