Finger-Licking Crisis Management

Whether you’re Mark Zuckerberg or Colonel Sanders, the CEO of a charity, traditional corporate or tech disruptor, negative PR has the potential to cause serious harm to your brand. In this blog, I’ll be looking at how crises emerged and were (mis-)handled at United Airlines, Pepsi, Dove, Oxfam, Uber and Facebook. In contrast, the “great fried chicken crisis” of February 2018 saw KFC rise to the occasion with a public relations masterclass.

I’ll conclude by suggesting six key lessons that arise from these case studies, with a particular focus on how KFC got it right where others go it so wrong. As PR guru Leonard Saffir advises, “In crisis management, be quick with the facts, slow with the blame.”

United Airlines

After video emerged showing a passenger being brutally dragged from a flight, the initial response of the CEO was to defend the actions of his crew and denounce the passenger. A classic instance of defending the indefensible. By the time the CEO eventually apologised, more than $800 million had been wiped from the value of United Airlines stock.

Pepsi and Dove

Pepsi’s spectacularly ill-conceived campaign with Kendall Jenner, and Dove’s ad appearing to show a black woman transforming into a white woman, both point to the first rule of crisis management – try and avoid the crisis in the first place. Better internal checking and challenge ought to have scuppered these ideas long before they reached the light of day. Whilst the content was removed relatively quickly, the classic ‘non-apology apology’ – “we’re sorry if we’ve offended anyone” – rankled with many consumers, as did Pepsi’s overblown protestation that it was “trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding”. Amidst all the negative social media noise, the Dove model’s supportive comments about the campaign got rather lost.

Oxfam

Revelations about sexual misconduct by Oxfam workers in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake have led to a seemingly constant flow of bad news stories over the last six months and new evidence that similar issues were covered up in other regions. With a leadership reeling in the wake of these scandals, and seen to be slow to respond and sometimes defensive, the damage is hitting Oxfam’s “bottom line”. The CEO has admitted that the charity has lost thousands of regular donors, and that its corporate partnerships are at risk.

Uber

Uber may still be the first word in peer-to-peer ridesharing, but the last eighteen months have seen a series of damaging PR developments about data breaches, surge pricing, driver vetting, and employment practices in the gig economy. But perhaps the most enduring image was the video of the (now ex-) CEO, Travis Kalanick, berating an Uber driver over pay. Here, the person at the top was seen to embody all that was wrong in the culture and values of the organisation.

Facebook

In the most high-profile and current of the case studies shared here, a whistle-blower has revealed that 50 million Facebook files were harvested by data analysts from Cambridge Analytica, which worked on the Trump and pro-Brexit campaigns. Facebook initially threatened legal action against The Observer. Whilst in time it apologised and promised change, and Mark Zuckerberg has taken responsibility, there is a consumer backlash and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are gunning for the company. Fundamental questions are being asked about data, privacy and the legitimacy of the political process.

KFC

And, finally, a bad-news-to-good-news story! When KFC switched suppliers and ran out of chicken, things looked pretty bleak – from TV to social channels, the media were awash with anguished customers. Yet as the crisis unfolded, the organisation gave a PR masterclass in its response, culminating in the much-praised “FCK” print ad. Expert commentators have concluded that the brand will suffer no lasting damage, and may even enjoy an upside.

How did KFC get it so right when others got it so wrong? And what are the potential learnings for how to handle negative PR?

1. Address the problem head-on. “A chicken restaurant without any chicken. It’s not ideal.”
2. Apologise and mean it. No non-apology, no blaming the supplier. Take ownership and say “We’re sorry” as quickly as possible.
3. Be transparent. An emergency website was set up to provide regular updates to customers on which sites were currently open. Misinformation was tackled robustly.
4. Keep employees and other key stakeholders on-side. A key part of the ad read “And endless thanks to our KFC team members and our franchise partners for working tirelessly to fix the situation.”
5. Humour. Not appropriate in all the PR crises outlined here, but in KFC’s case it demonstrated humility and warmth.
6. Leadership. From the top down, make a genuine apology, and commit to fix the issue fast and ensure it doesn’t happen again.