The After-Crisis Analysis. Did it work?
It’s always easy to analyze a crisis in real time. But how do you measure the success of the crisis communications? Simple. Is the story still in the news?
A couple of recent examples…Former University of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino. A few weeks ago he lied about his unscrupulous personal and professional practices at the school. University officials fired him quickly. They also held a press conference, issued lots of statements and stayed really transparent. Do a Google news search. The story is out there, but the cascading river is down to a trickle.
Example two. A couple of weeks ago, Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen in an interview used the words “love” and “Fidel Castro” in the same sentence. Now the last thing you want to do is alienate Miami’s Cuban-American fan base. Huge protests were planned, people were screaming for his head. The Marlins issued all kinds of communications disavowing those statements. They made Ozzie stand alone in a press conference to take his lumps and suspended him for five days. It looks like the only fan protests now are directed towards the umpires.
The moral of the story is what we at CommCore always tell our clients: Act fast and decisive, and above all, be prepared.