The ongoing issues of violence, long lines, customer response along with positive and negative publicity to Popeyes Chicken Sandwich continue to play in social media and the news. It’s a good example of why an organization needs to have advance planning for its positive marketing, and also needs to plan for what can go wrong. Read more
CommCore Blog and News
Changing Roles for the CCO
Private sector organizations, non-profits, associations and government agencies face big issues from disruption, transformation and reputation challenges. The impact on their communications teams is formidable.
A recent article in PRWeek by editor Steve Barrett, chronicled multiple changes of Chief Communications Officers in big organizations over the past several months. Read more
Boeing and SoulCycle: Which was a Flash, Predictable or Chronic Crisis?
In order to learn from any crisis, it’s important to understand how the events and reactions fit into broad categories. One of our PR colleagues, Jim Lukaszewski, developed a set of criteria that includes Natural Disasters, Cyber/Hacking, Ethical lapses, Operations Failures, Human Error and Terrorism. Read more
The Message of Hurricane Barry
The hurricane season is heating up, and Louisiana has taken a hit from the season’s first named storm. This Observer can’t offer too much comment to Mother Nature; rather we’ll send a shout-out to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), which has upped its game when communicating important messages. Read more
Sephora: Caught by the Reputational Radar Gun
Contributor: Gabriela Deno
If you know there’s a radar gun up the road, there’s a good chance you’ll slow down to avoid a ticket. In fact, behavioral scientists tell us that learned behavior is developed from experience. Read more
CEO: Crisis Executive Officer
Last year more corporate CEOs were ousted for either personal or organizational ethical lapses than for any other issue. That’s one of the key findings of the latest annual CEO Success Study by Strategy&, a division of PwC:
- The study defines CEO dismissals due to ethical lapses as “the removal of the CEO as the result of a scandal or improper conduct by the CEO or other employees.”
When can you pivot in a reputation crisis?
The ongoing Boeing 737 MAX crisis raises the dilemma of when to pivot messaging and how not to over-promise. Buying time is tricky when the heat is on from the media and stakeholders.
Read more The College Admissions “March Madness” Scandal: Implications for Any Organization
If you’re a student applicant, professor or alumnus, you’re probably wondering which university will be implicated next in the admissions scam scandal. The lessons from this expanding crisis extend beyond academia:
- Regardless of industry, any organization’s reputation is at risk from potential unethical behavior by an executive, employee, investor or other stakeholder.
Apologies: Navigating the New Normal
The recent spate of public apologies in the political, business,religious, education and entertainment arenas provides plenty for crisis communicators to analyze. It’s easy to start with “I’m sorry.” Read more
Viral Videos of Workers Behaving Badly… Again and Again
The latest edition comes from a Little Caesars restaurant in Roswell, NM. A video is trending of workers playing indoor baseball with pizza dough. Unless the employees were aliens from the alleged Roswell UFO crash of 1947, the incident may pass quickly since the general public has become more desensitized to these videos. Read more