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Crisis communications: How to avoid BP’s mistakes

Written By: Traci McMillan on August 12, 2010 No Comment

Traci McMillan/MEDILL Critics say they will most likely use BP as an example of what not to do in a crisis situation.

What is it about BP’s oil spill response through TV and newspaper adds and direct apologies that makes me feel uneasy? Can a company do anything in this kind of crisis to salvage its reputation? Why do some tactics work and others do not?

For answers to these questions, I decided to turn to experts in the public relations and marketing world to find out what companies can learn from the BP nightmare. I sent a questionnaire out to these folks for the top recommendations for dealing with a crisis. What follows is a compilation of the 16 responses I received:

1. Find a spokesperson who can accurately and comfortably represent your brand.

The major mistake BP made was putting Tony Hayward as the face of the company in response to the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Hayward’s choke response of “I want my life back,” made public relations teams across the world cringe.

Though Hayward has decided to step down from his post as CEO, there are still a few more things BP might want to consider before finding a new face for the media.

A company must always have in mind who would be the best person to address the public. You want someone who is sincere, honest and will not break under pressure. If a company does not have a spokesperson trained and ready for any possibility, complaints will be heard more clearly than the company’s response.

Evan Bloom, management supervisor of public relations at Eric Mower and Associates, said BP lost control of the situation by not responding to the public quickly enough. “Affected citizens and communities took their own control by talking about their pain, suffering and inconvenience – and their voices were heard quicker and more often because they were louder than BP’s,” he wrote.

Thomas Madden, CEO of Madden Company Inc., thinks BP should take a different tack in its TV ads. Instead of showing BP employees praising response efforts, he said the company needs “to start putting previously skeptical locals, people who have been harmed and their livelihoods ruined” in its commercials.

Madden said the company could show how these people “have changed their attitude toward BP from wrath, to mistrustful, to now maybe nearing open-minded.” When the public sees these people on TV, they will start to listen to the company’s message.

2. Speak to the worst-case scenario, do not plan on the best.

Tony Hayward tried to convince the public that damage from the explosion would be “very, very modest,” said Fraser Seitel, president of public relations agency Emerald Partners. He called that remark a “suicidal slip-of-the-tongue.”

“BP consistently overpromised,” added Jonathan Jaffe, principal of public relations company Jaffe Communications. BP set itself up for failure when it put its own bar too high. By attempting to minimize the problem, BP just ran into more scrutiny for failed attempts.

“It is better to be straightforward,” Jaffe said. “It might even be better to under-promise a little.” That way the media and public are happy when things go better than planned.

Bottom line: don’t say that everything will be okay when you don’t know that it will.

3. Start preparing for future problems now.

Expect the unexpected and invest in a strong public relations team. Believe me, it hurts to admit this as a journalist, but most of these people are experts in what questions the media will ask because they used to work for a news organization.

Although public relations and crisis trainers may be expensive, they are worth the extra buck. Put leaders through crisis training. Everyone needs to be prepared for something to go wrong. That way you will have a handful of people to choose from when someone needs to go on TV and address the public.

Susan Tellem, partner of Tellem Worldwide Inc., advises, “There should be an annual, dedicated real life drill so when the bad thing happens – and it always will – the people in charge will know what to do within the first ten minutes.” A company cannot just have a crisis plan, it has to rehearse it, Tellem said.

4. Give problems immediate and undistracted attention.

“They needed to treat it like a plane crash, not like a kite that got stuck in a neighbor’s tree,” said Patrick Taylor, communications vice president of Meredith Corporation’s National Media Group.

Almost all of the professionals who answered my questionnaire said BP did too little, too late. The company needed to immediately respond to the problem, addressing potential future conflicts such as not knowing how to close the hole spitting millions of gallons of oil into the ocean.

Taylor said many have learned the hard way that a crisis situation is not a time to disappear. “You need to be where the accident happened,” he wrote.

According to Seitel, one of Hayward’s missteps was going to watch a yacht race in England during the spill. This disappearing act, especially if for leisure purposes, is bound to not only get bad publicity, but make any apology or crisis response seem less genuine.

5. Create a thoughtful response campaign

BP came under a lot of scrutiny not only from the media, but also from President Barack Obama when word leaked that the company was planning to spend $50 million on an advertising campaign to salvage its brand. During a trip to the Gulf Coast, Obama said the company had “moral and legal obligations” to address the damage that had been done to the region first.

Some of the public relations professionals said the company could have saved a lot on its full-page newspaper ads and spots on TV by using tools that would address the public more effectively.

Taylor said the company “missed the opportunity to use social media to engage their critics and correct misconceptions.” He thinks this could have been a way for BP to respond in conversation rather than as a “detached voice” in newspaper ads.

Josh Sternberg of Sternberg Strategic Communications agrees the company needs to engage in conversations with the public. He said that in order for BP to build trust, it should be using Twitter as more than a “broadcast mechanism.”

Another idea was for the company to host a town hall meeting. “They know they screwed up and they should take their licks,” Sternberg said. “Having a town hall where they’re knowing they’re walking into an angry mob, and then addressing people’s concerns while also talking about the future, is a step in the process.”

6. Remain committed to your actions

“Saying that you are committed to the Gulf Coast is one thing. Committing to the Gulf Coast is another,” Jaffe said. The company should make sure the public knows that it will fix up everything that was damaged, and that it will be there for the long haul.

BP needs to make itself a clear presence in the clean-up effort and recovery for Gulf Coast businesses.

Shel Horowitz, an ethical marketing author, wrote, “What *might* help, and I don’t expect to see it, would be a genuine corporate apology accompanied by drastic changes in operations, of the sort that Marks & Spencer, Nike, and other brands have undertaken successfully.”

In other words, BP cannot just say it’s sorry, the company must demonstrate it’s taking specific steps to prevent other disasters from happening in the future.

Joe Marconi, author of “Crisis Marketing: When Bad Things Happen to Good Companies,” said the difference between companies that struggle through crises and those that emerge from the muck okay, is a good, long-term reputation.

Marconi said a company that has long-satisfied customers, such as a Toyota, can usually convince consumers that it was merely a bump in the road. If the company has a long-term trust built up, and admits to its mistakes clearly and effectively, the news will quickly lose traction.