Your favorite company is NOT immune to a PR crisis. A threat, unpredictable event or surprise can send an organization into crisis mode (Olsson, 2014, p.114). It could be a boycott, a product recall or the CEO saying something controversial. No matter what type of crisis it is, the brand’s reaction can determine the future of its image. Image is a main concept in the public relations world. Knowing what theories to use and how to prepare and approach a crisis is essential to maintaining and repairing a brand’s image (Benoit, 1997,p.177).
Image Repair and Crisis Communication: Knowing the Best Response
Mid: Every move counts when crisis strikes. Responding too slow can be bad, but so can pushing out the wrong message too fast. Benoit highlights five image restoration strategies in his work for crisis communication. These strategies are:
- Denial: This strategy is simply denying what the individual or organization is being accused of. Another form of denial could be shifting the blame somewhere else as well (Benoit,1997,p.179-180).
- Evasion of Responsibility: There are four different versions of this strategy:
- Provocation: A response to something else
- Defeasability: Lack of information
- Accident: Just like it sounds, an accident
- Good intentions: Meant well (Benoit, 1997, p.179)
- Reducing Offensiveness: This strategy has six different versions that all aim to reduce how offensive the act is perceived to the public:
- Bolstering: bringing attention to the organizations good traits
- Minimization: acting like the offense really wasn’t that serious
- Differentiation: distinguish the act from other things found offensive
- Transcendence: trying to make the offense seem like there was a benefit or there was some kind of good to come out of it.
- Attack Accuser: make the accuser seem less credible
- Compensation: reimburse whoever was effected by the crisis (Benoit, 1997, p.180-181)
- Corrective Action: promising to fix the problem and also prevent future problems from happening (Benoit, 1997, p.181)
- Mortification: confess and apologize (Benoit, 1997, p.181)
An example of some of these strategies in use would be how Real Madrid’s president Florentino Perez was caught in an audio leak where he talked poorly about some of the team’s most iconic players and he used transcendence and attacking the accuser to try and extinguish the situation (Koa, 2022). He undermined the credibility of the accuser and used transcendence to view the audio clips in a broader/different context to make them seem less bad (Koa, 2022). Benoit’s work highlights the theory of image repair suggestions for crisis communication. Though his work is from almost 20 years ago it is still widely looked at and used today when considering how to analyze and handle a crisis (Benoit, 1997, p.185).
Don’t Wait Until You’re Already Behind: Preparation and Anticipation
There are many different strategies and typologies when it comes to image repair and crisis communication. Theorists have even developed guidelines that help us know when to use certain strategies for a crisis (Rowland, Jerome, 2004, p.193). One of the most important things to remember though, is the importance of planning ahead in case there is a crisis instead of just dealing with the repercussions after.
Lessons Learned (Even if it’s the Hard Way)
Issues can be created by what an organization does before, during and after a crisis. Sometimes issues even come from the efforts we put into solving the crisis (Yang,Shen, 2017,p.177). Organizations need to move fast and authentically to best attack crisis communication. Brands that highly value reputation and treat it as a long-term investment are the brands that will have the best chance of surviving a crisis.
Keywords:
Preparation, anticipation, crisis communication, image repair, response
References:
Benoit, W. L. (1997). Image Repair Discourse and Crisis Communication. Public Relations Review, 23(2), 177–186. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0363-8111(97)90023-0
Koa, M. (2022). Image Repair Strategies in Public Relations Crisis: A Case Study of Real Madrid’s Response Strategies to the Bernabeu Leaked Audio Scandal. Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations, 24(3), 25. https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2022.3.347
Olsson, E.-K. (2014). Crisis Communication in Public Organisations: Dimensions of Crisis Communication Revisited. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 22(2), 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12047
Rowland, R. C., & Jerome, A. M. (2004). On Organizational Apologia: A Reconceptualization. Communication Theory, 14(3), 191–211. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2004.tb00311.x
Yang, F., & Shen, F. (2017). Effects of Web Interactivity: A Meta-Analysis. Communication Research, 45(5), 635–658. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650217700748