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From Influencer Dylan Mulvaney and the Bud Light debacle to Target and so many other well-known brands in between, there seems to be a recurrence of issues that often have less to do with these companies making communications decisions that damage their brand from the onset. It’s how they respond.
There are countless things that a corporation can get wrong that could damage their brand, identity, and reputation when it comes to a message, advertisement or initiative. Mistakes and poor decisions are somewhat inherent in organizations consisting of thousands of employees. Things will always happen. But it’s how the crisis management is handled post incident that appears to be the fatal blow to so many well-known brands of late. It’s the response and lack of understanding in how to get out of the trouble they’ve made for themselves that has often caused their misery to last longer and at greater expense than it should. Sadly, and too often at the expense of their unsuspecting stockholders too. At last check, Bud Light, (AB InBev) said that U.S. revenue dropped 10% in the second quarter. The total losses thus far have been about $395 million./
Enter Solomon Carter. Released in the August 2023 edition of the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics (SCCE), Compliance and Ethics Professional Magazine, Carter released “Crisis management and the four pillars of communication” which serves as the platinum standard for crisis communications and management. The executive crisis communications playbook, derived from The PIERCE™ Model (Performance Improvement Ethics Risk and Communication Enhancement) seems to offer leadership at every level easy to read, easy to understand and most importantly, easy to apply techniques that mitigate issues pre-risk. And dramatically reduces and mitigates incidents post occurrence in a way that can save organizations heartache, embarrassment, brand and reputation damage as well as financial ruin.
Carter states “It occurred to me that there was a substantial void both fundamentally and at a very high level as it relates to the availability of proven best practices in crisis communications. The need for high level expertise and the methodologies derived from that expertise needed to be translated and distilled into a standardized playbook on crisis management and executive communications in general. Things like culture shaping, always providing a call to action, brand and identity protection and ensuring that all communications have a risk insulation consideration attached to it have been largely missing as foundational requirements. As a result, I published “Crisis management and the four pillars of communication” which is derived from the PIERCE™ Model. It is also a part of the course that I developed and teach to new and advanced leaders at Emory Healthcare, as well as what I offer in consultancy. I’ve been asked by various elements within the leadership and communications space to provide a public educational opportunity and resource through my written work in this area and so this, represents that.” Carter said.
Final Thoughts:
At this juncture it would appear that institutions from education to healthcare, and the money-making mega-corporations whose products and services we use every day would do well to read, learn from and use the new crisis communications playbook. “Crisis management and the four pillars of communication” is the best, most straight forward and easy to apply set of real-world standards I've seen in the industry in over 30 years. For the ones who use it, their brands, reputation, identity, and relationships will be better for it. This long overdue resource is a hidden gem that I can't recommend enough and should be a staple in every executive's library.
Barry Rubenstein
Metro News Pool (U.S./European writers/news pool)
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