What do contaminated spinach and a big airplane have in common? Jay Chiat once told an audience that the average marketer has more in common with his or her counterpart in
Germany than he or she does with the next-door neighbor who's an auto mechanic - a lesson in international relations.
While it's likely that communications directors of organic spinach grower Natural Selections and airplane manufacturer Airbus will never meet, they had a lot in
common this month. Both were subject to hordes of reporters, questions in many languages and the whims of outside influencers. But the differences in how they handled the crisis
and press coverage were striking.
Airbus
When Airbus announced last week that there would be further delays in the delivery of the A380, they knew they'd get coverage, but the news practically sparked an international
incident. Customers, industry thought leaders and government officials all jumped in with disparaging remarks, and the only people quoted were Airbus spokespeople, whose comments
got lost in the fray. Airbus shares plummeted, and investigations were called for.
Natural Selections
Natural Selections faced a similar situation when news of an e-coli outbreak surfaced. Officials from the FDA and State of California were the only ones talking, since no one
knew where the spinach had come from. When fingers pointed to central California, farmers were in the hot seat. The Goodmans, Natural Selections founders, built the company from a
hobby to a $350 million enterprise with a good reputation in organic gardening and research. They first went the "no-comment" route, but within days put information on their Web
site, and a spokesperson articulated key messages. Their reputation weathered the storm, but the jury is still out as to when we will all go back to "eating our spinach."
Contact:
Katie Paine is CEO of KD Paine & Partners. She can be reached at [email protected].
| Airbus | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Criteria | Grade | Comments | Advice |
| Extent of coverage | F | Because Airbus is a European company, they
probably got more than their fair share of international media, and because the biggest customers for the new plane were in Asia and the UAE, AND because the logical comparison was US-based Boeing, the bad news was seen on virtually every continent. |
Bad news travels around the world faster
than ever before. The trick is to get it over with in a hurry. By letting everyone else speak first, Airbus pretty much guaranteed that the worst of the news was seen most frequently. |
| Effectiveness of spokespeople | D | When the CEO, Christian Streifff, was finally
heard from, it was to warn investors that it would take 15 years to catch Boeing, hardly a message to reassure shareholders or employees. Thomas Enders, CEO of Airbus parent company EADS, was just as discouraging, prompting shareholder lawsuits. |
Increasingly we see the success or failure
of a company tied to the communications skills of the CEO. No matter how great a manager the CEO is, if he can't communicate well with the media, he/she will be a disaster. |
| Communication of key messages | F | Granted, there was little good news in any
of the Airbus announcements, but because the analysists and other industry experts were the ones doing all the talking, who knew what the key messages were? |
In any crisis that prompts a lot of media
exposure, the go-to authorities will always be customers, industry analysts and financial analysts. In Airbus' case it was all three. Unfortunately none of them seemed to have clue as to what the strategy was, so all they did was speculate on Airbus failures. |
| Management of negative messages | F | All you heard were negative messages. And
to make matters worse, one of the EADS companies immediately announced that it would sell its share of Airbus. |
In any complicated ownership scenario, (in
this case Airbus parent EADS is a joint venture between several European defense companies) there are bound to be challenges in getting consistent messages, but make sure you are all on the same page before getting in front of the media |
| Impact on customers | F | Customers are already asking to be compensated
for missed deliveries, and other customers are looking to find alternatives, so the damage has been done. |
Customers are the ones that the media likes
to talk to the most, so try to identify friendly ones that you can send the media to. |
| Impact on employees | F | Delivery delays invariably reflect badly
on the work force, and this case was no exception. It didn't help that the present started taliking about moving production from Germany to France to solve the problem. Employees were so annoyed by the whole thing that THEY started badmouthing Airbus to the media. |
Employees attitudes need to be in aligment
with management goals, before any crisis begins, Otherwise whatever rifts and unhappiness exist, will only be magnified by the crisis. |
| Overall score | F | A classic case of run away bad news, fueled
by skeptical customers and industry analysits. If Airbus tried to educate the leading influentials, they clearly didn't hear ti. |
Bad news is never easy to deliver but with
good relationships with key stakeholders the bad news can go down a lot easier. Measure those relationships on a regular basis to make sure that employees and customers still trust what you have to say. |
|
Natural Selection |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Criteria | Grade | Comments | Advice |
| Extent of coverage | F | There probably weren't 100 people in America
that didn't see the story, but that's actually a good thing, given that the FDA was trying to warn people about the danger that spinach could pose. |
When the crisis involves food it SHOULD
get widespread coverage, since the idea would be to get the word out and stop people from eating contaminated food. The key is to get the right information out there. In this case a detailed explanation of how to identify spinach on their web site was pretty helpful |
| Effectiveness of spokespeople | C | Natural Selection's owners were invisible
to the media, and their designated spokesperson Samantha Cabaluna was overly vague in the early days of the crisis. However, she got better as the crisis went on. |
I've always thought that someone trained
in hostage negotiation would be the prefect spokesperson in a crisis. You'd know exactly what to say to talk the media down off the wall. Make sure whoever is in front of the media has the patients of job, the teaching skills of a university professor, and the sense of humor of Jon Stewart. |
| Communication of key messages | B | While Natural Selectiono's concern and compassion
for the victims eventually was communicated, it took several days to get out there. |
Make sure you have your talking points down
within hours, not days |
| Management of negative messages | A | Natural Selections did a great job of managing
the negatives. Despite the FBI and everyone else pointing the giant finger of blame in their directions Natural Selections managed to deflect it from their production plant to manure in the adjacent fields. |
There are complex nuances in any crisis
and the better handle your spokesperson ha s on it, the better off you'll be. Between the FDC and the folks at Natural Selection they managed to educate the public on what and why it happens. |
| Impact on customers | c | Needless to say, customers cancelled a lot
of orders, including national chains like Trade Joes. But this could be a temporary response to the crisis. In terms of the company's reputation, its extensive research and philanthropy in the organic gardening arena should help it sustain its reputation among its more important audience.. |
We're all vulnerable to crises and the more
deposits you've made in the "trust bank" the better you'll do. Your actions, such as corporate philanthropy, good corporate governance, transparency and strong ethical values will go along towards helping you weather a crisis. |
| Impact on employees | C | The drastic drop in demand for pre packed
spinach is killing the industry at the moment, and layoffs are in store thru out the valley, so employees have every right to e fearful However, NS is known for a being a good place to work, and so far everyone's agrees then, |
More likely than not, a crisis will affects
your entire industry so don't gloat over your competitors problem, |
| Overall score | B | Under the circumstances Natural Selection
weathered this storm in a way that would make Pop eye proud. It took them too long to get their act together but once they did, they were very good at mitigating the damage to their image. |
This crisis should serve as a lesson to
any of us, organic or otherwise in how a history of doing good, in this case investing in science and research, pays off in way you never imagined. |