Hailey Billings

PRL 368.N01

Best Practices

April 23, 2017

Emergency Public Relations Best Practice

A crisis is an event that occurs without warning. It may be out of the organizations

control and may cause harm to the organizations reputation (Rosser, 2013). Emergency public

relations is also known as crisis management. It is knowing how to respond to any type of crisis

within a company and it is very important to keep communication flowing when dealing with an

emergency. An emergency could a fire, crime or storm. It is important as a company not to leave

an emergency up to the police or fire department to report the emergency. Instead, make sure to

have your on-staff PR team immediately assess the situation. Before getting in front of the

camera to address the situation, plan ahead of time who will speak during a crisis and thoroughly

think of all who will be affected by this crisis. This can include employees, vendors or

customers. It is important to address these people once in front of cameras.

What will be communicated to the public will be unique to different companies and

different circumstances. Even if it is hard to do during a crisis, it is important to remember is that

in a true emergency, people always want to help anyway that they can. Without giving the public

a chance to help, it could hurt the companys reputation with those who are looking to do good

and see your company as a vital part of society. It doesnt need to be right away, but the best way

to give the public an opportunity to help is by creating a call to action. This shows that the

company is utilizing all their resources by reaching out to the community.

 Something to remember during a crisis is to not only run this public relations

information through your local media, but through social media and the companys website. By

doing so, it reaches a wider range of people letting them know what exactly is going on and what

the company is doing to fix the situation. By doing this it can buy the company some time,

restore confidence in the public knowing that actions are being taken and can get the company

moving back in the right direction. Without using social media, it allows individuals who might

have been there to see the crisis to tell their story instead of the organization. If employees of

corporations know how to use social media to deal with a crisis, they can respond quicker and

use their own words possibly saving their reputation.

Among crisis communication experts, its agreed that a written plan should be established

within the company long before a crisis rises (Rosser, 2013). Members of an organization need

to know the crisis communication plan, and if a company isn't responding to a crisis in a timely

manner it can be devastating. With this, one can be prepared for any crisis. They would only

need to add the important details to the pre-written release. This saves time on writing, editing

and sending out a news release (Braud, 2017).

Putting your leadership team through practice drills setting the scene in real time, putting

your team under immense pressure at least one time a year is a sure-fire way to know that they

are ready for any type of crisis the company can experience. Make your leadership team conduct

different news conferences that tests their ability to work under pressure while seeing who is

ready to be the voice of the company (Braud, 2017). A message map can make their leadership

team ready such as key messages or talking points. Also, specific answers to difficult,

embarrassing and negative questions that might be asked along with answers to additional

question that could come up during the investigation. This is important because it allows a
person to get feedback on how they answered the question. Something that they wont get during

the time of a crisis (Rosser, 2017).

Lastly, companies want to establish an emergency file with everything they need in one

place to refer to when a crisis arises. In this file, should be all the information needed to address

any type of emergency. Names, phone numbers, e-mails and other contact information of your

key persons. A copy of your talking points and all question along with the answers need to be in

the file. It is imperative to include any media releases that have been done for this specific

project. It is important to make sure this file is labeled and that no one, but the key personnel, as

access to this file (Rosser, 2017).

CarMax is a member of the Fortune 500, which is the nations largest retailer of used

vehicles. In 2014 CarMax went through a brand crisis when ABCs 20/20 called with questions

about the companys signature 125-point quality inspection, what their plan was to help the

customers who said they were having issues with the quality of their car, and a sales process that

was designed to be transparent. 20/20 said they had proof of these allegations based upon

undercover store footage, complaints by customers who have bought a car through CarMax and

an interview with an employee who was supposedly fired for going to the stores senior leaders

about concerns with the quality of the cars. After doing an immense amount of research CarMax

designed a response approach that would reduce the impact of the allegation. Research showed

that most of the discussion and accusations would come from social media. CarMax and their

partner with this crisis, PadillaCRT begin coming up with a digital plan that would involve both

a new stand-alone website for people to refer to and a social media monitoring and response

plan.
 CarMax did a perfect job at being on top of the situation once it began. They were

prepared after doing their research and ready for whatever 20/20 threw at them. Once the show

started and 20/20 advertised their social media, CarMax immediately started to engage with their

customers. Since CarMax knew it was coming their consistent monitoring on social media show

them when the discussion started and allowed them to join in and encouraged the audience to

view the CarMax website for any information they might want to know about along with

answers to questions they might have. CarMax also proactively used the 20/20 hashtag to make

sure they were directly engaged with the public on this situation. They shared customer

satisfaction and complaints to make sure everyone got the whole story, not just bits and pieces.

This showed people that they werent afraid and had nothing to hide. The best thing the company

did was have a around the clock monitoring team to make sure they continuously engaged with

the public even in different time zones. The steps and measures that CarMax took to ensure the

allegation against them wouldnt ruin their company potentially saved their company. CarMax

was never negatively impacted and sales at CarMax remained the same. Their objectives were

effective and the story was significantly reduced because of their efforts causing no negative

impact from the story (Carmax Responds to 20/20 Allegations, 2015).

Carnival Cruise line went through a rough patch in 2012 and 2013 when one of their

cruise lines sank, killing 32 passengers, and ultimately ruining their reputation. People lost

confidence in their cruise line bringing their revenue down to the lowest its every been causing

the CEO of the company to step down. A new leadership team was put in place and the

corporation brought in Roger Frizzell, a public relations professional, as Chief Communications

Officer help save the companys reputation. With their brand reputation dropping 50 points and
their purchase consideration dropping almost 20 points lower than the rest of the industry, it was

crucial that the new team tackle this crisis immediately.

There were two objectives that were set in place to restore the companys reputation. The

first was to decrease negative news coverage and increase good news stories about the company

and brand to gear conversation in a different direction. The second objective was to support

business demand-generation efforts by providing the public with information about how Carnival

is a safe and well-run cruise line ultimately to bring back loyal cruisers and attract first-time

cruiser. By directing conversations to good stories about the cruise line, and talking about the

safety of their ships it would create a pillow of good news to help soften the blow of any news

coverage that is damaging to the company.

CEO, Arnold Donald, launched a program across the companys 10 brands calling for

collaboration, cooperation and communication. With these three Cs, Donalds goal was to

create substantial savings in the money spent and to find new revenue sources. Donald also

wanted to improve the overall quality of their ships that blow their customers out of the water. It

was said that the three Cs built the foundation for their recovery and is what turned their story

around. In the end, all their goals were met and even exceeded their expectations. There once

50% improvement of brand reputation turned into 85.6% improvement in brand reputation.

There goals of decreasing Share of Voice by 50% resulted in a 75% reduction in negative Share

of Voice. Finally, their goal to Contribute to 10-point increase in purchase consideration turned

into a 16-point increase in purchase consideration which was 60% above their goal declaring

them the most-improved U.S. brand in consumer perception, according to YouGov's

BrandIndex (Carnival Corporation: Navigating the World's Leading Cruise Company to

Smoother Waters, 2015).

 Before a project is begun, the company needs to put together an emergency file with

news releases, questions and answers that could arise and chose who is going to be the

spokesperson in case of a crisis. This is the best way to make sure that if an emergency does

happen the company is ready to address the public. With the right team, and the right tactics a

crisis can just be a little bump in the road without being devastating to the company. Without a

plan, it is guaranteed to threaten a companys brand reputation, and in the end, ruin the entire

company.
 References

Braud, Gerard. "Crisis Communications & Social Media When." PRSay. Public Relations
Society of America (PRSA), 08 Mar. 2017. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

"Carmax Responds to 20/20 Allegations." 2015 Silver Anvil Awards. Public Relations Society of
America, Inc., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

"Carnival Corporation: Navigating the World's Leading Cruise Company to Smoother Waters
2015 Silver Anvil Awards. Public Relations Society of America, Inc., n.d. Web. 20 Apr.
2017.
Rosser, B. R. Simon, Gunna Kilian, and William G. West. "The Emergency Public Relations
Protocol: How to Work Effectively on Controversial Projects in an Academic Health
Setting." Sexuality Research & Social Policy : Journal of NSRC : SR & SP. U.S.
National Library of Medicine, 01 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.