PR‘S GROWING ROLE IN MARKETING Pertemuan 21 – 22 By: Dr. Drs. Dominikus Tulasi, MM. Mata kuliah: 00324 - CRISIS COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC RELATION Tahun

PR‘S GROWING ROLE IN MARKETINGPertemuan 21 – 22

By: Dr. Drs. Dominikus Tulasi, MM.

Mata kuliah : 00324 - CRISIS COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC RELATION Tahun : 2010

Bina Nusantara University 3

Learning Objectives Understanding the crisis communication List the key components of crisis

communication Understand the diversity of crisis

communication Start to build a crisis plan Understand how communication convey

the right messages at the right time to the right people.


WHAT A CRISIS PLAN PROVIDESWhen you find yourself in a crisis communication situation you have one goal: to protect the reputation of the organization by:

� communicating the right message; � at the right time; � to the right people. Responding quickly and with confidence is the only way your organization can seize control of the crisis communication and turn it to your advantage. Look on it as a wise investment.


ELEMENTS OF A PLANWhat you’re developing is quite simple, really. To have a clear and concise, proactive crisis communication plan you need guidelines for: � the right message; � to whom that message should be told; � who should tell it;� the right time to tell it. As part of that plan, you also need to understand how you will communicate internally and agree on the above elements as quickly as possible, ensuring that everyone within your organization has the correct authority and sign-off.


ANNOYING THREATSMost crises develop with great alacrity, and news of the crisis travels around the world with the same speed. Companies that have not equipped themselves to deal with a crisis risk being confronted with a whole series of particularly annoying threats: � boycotts of the company’s products or services;� collapse of the share price; � serious legal claims; � the loss of credit;


� possible bankruptcy; � serious damage to the company’s

image and reputation; � threatened loss of corporate senior

and middle management; � possible closure of the company or

parts of it.


WHAT IS A CRISIS We’re not necessarily talking aircraft falling out of the sky or ocean liners hitting icebergs. These are certainly disasters that call for crisis communication, but people’s lives do not need to be in danger for there to be a crisis. For the rest of us who have an interest in protecting a professional business reputation, far lesser events can become crises.


For example, in a period of three weeks, three clients at Nick Leighton’s agency, Net Results, have each had a crisis:

� A new business in the area of media: their very visible general manager quit after one month in the job.

� A real estate developer about to launch: their CEO left and defrauded the company of millions of dollar

� A technology company: its CEO was questioned by police after the death of an employee, whose remains were found washed up on the local beach.


COMMUNICATION FLOWin the crisis communication plan. The flow is as

follows, and is shown in Figure 2.2: a. A crisis is identified and brought to the

attention of the crisis communication point person.

b. The point person informs or brings together the complete crisis committee.

c. While the crisis committee is in discussion, the communication point should inform the press contact team in case they are needed (at this point the information dispersed may be on a ‘need to know’ basis and may just be an alert that their time could be needed).

d. The crisis committee communicates the plan of action to the communication point.

e. The communication point briefs the press contact team and the spokespeople.


COMMUNICATION FLOW

Crisis is identified Calls a meeting of The Crisis Committee

Decides Best CourseOf Action

Takes Action

‘Heads-Up’ To PressContact Team


MORE COMMUNICATION NOTESGETTING TOGETHER

If the crisis team members are not located in the same place then there may be a need for more sophisticated communication than all walking into the same office. More critically, the crisis committee (the brain) needs to be in a situation in which they can discuss the crisis and the suitable communication. If dispersed and your office phones do not support conference calls (or if there is a chance that no one will be in the office at a time that a crisis hits) you might want to prepare a conference-call facility. There are a number that are secure and free to use on the web. The crisis communication point is responsible for carrying out the research in the planning stage in case it is called


KEEPING TRACK OF THE PRESSWho are the stakeholders of your organization? Basically, when you find yourself in a crisis, who will it affect? We identify these groups now because, 1) we don’t want to forget a group in the heat of the moment, and 2) the better we can target groups of people, the better we can target the correct press to communicate with them.


Most usually, an organization will want to take care of the following people:

� employees; � customers; � prospective customers; � suppliers; � investors (both private and institutional); � community members.


THE PLAN

Crisis is identified Calls a meeting of The Crisis Committee

Decides Best CourseOf Action

Groundwork For The Crisis Team

Internal Communication:

The Planning process:

During A Crisis:


MORE COMMUNICATION NOTES—WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?

Be conscious of who your customers are. Most companies sell through a channel of some kind: a property developer sells through real estate agents; a computer company may have distributors and resellers. You need to be aware of all channel partners because each will have their dedicated media and messages will eventually have to be tailored for each target. Once you have a list of your targets, you need to pass this to your press contact team. They need to draw up a list of all media within each group. There will be multiple media types (newspapers, trade publications, TV, etc) and cross-over (same media for multiple groups – often with a different contact point, for example, both the business and local news editors of a newspaper).



Prioritization will be a factor of: � Reach (number of people the media reach); � Speed of broadcast (web pages are often posted

within minutes, a TV station in a matter of hours; obviously a daily newspaper will be slower, and a monthly trade title slower yet);

� Importance (some titles are considered more important than others – that’s just the way it is);

� Existing relationship with the media (if you have a good long-term relationship with an editor, you had better keep him or her updated if you want to continue the good relationship through the crisis and beyond).


TOOLS:For each target that has been identified above, your press contact team will be able to draw up a full contact list – office phone numbers (with extensions or direct numbers), mobile phone numbers, e-mail, fax, etc. As with regular media relations, each press member has a preferred method of communication (this should be noted). You should also be aware of what type of information they will want to receive. A newspaper, for example, will want to have still images.


Documents

PR‘S GROWING ROLE IN MARKETING Pertemuan 21 – 22 By: Dr. Drs. Dominikus Tulasi, MM. Mata kuliah: 00324 - CRISIS COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC RELATION Tahun