Don’t panic – it’s the crisis management man
About this blog...Jonathan’s introduction to PR at a Midlands metal-basher was followed by senior positions at three PR agencies, including ten years as head of Porter Novelli’s global crisis practice. Here he advised organisations including Gillette, Disney, the NHS, Yahoo! and his dream client, the International Cricket Council, as it fought to preserve the good name of cricket following match-fixing allegations. With his crisis radar malfunctioning, he launched his own reputation management consultancy, Insignia Communications, one month before the global economy imploded. Insignia has been busy advising clients on crisis and issues management, change communication and online reputation management ever since. His personal blog can be found at www.insigniatalks.com
Costa Cruises adopts "brave" crisis communication strategy
TV pictures of the marooned cruise liner Concordia and interviews with survivors vividly portrayed the horror of those on board.
It's the kind of situation which no company wants to face, but is a crisis communication challenge presented to the travel and tourism industry on an all too frequent basis. Which is why it's so surprising that the company's CEO was quoted by Reuters as saying "These ships are ultra-safe. It is an exceptional event, which was unforeseeable".
Pictures speak louder than words so claims that the ships are "ultra-safe" jar with the images we all saw last weekend. And to say that the event was "unforeseeable" is questionable: the precise cause may have been unforeseeable, but the idea that a cruise liner could run aground and require evacuation is surely one of the first scenarios that might have been envisaged through crisis management planning?
I have also been surprised at the speed and openness with which the company has blamed its captain: in his press conference, the CEO Pier Luigi Foschi stated "we cannot deny human error", and this follows on from an earlier statement which laid the blame at his door. Please see my personal blog for more thoughts on this particular topic:
http://insigniatalks.com/2012/01/costa-cruises-blame-game-is-dangerous-c...
The biggest learning though is that all businesses - and especially those in high risk sectors - must plan for crisis, they must rehearse their plans and they must train their spokespeople if they want to protect their reputations.
Costa Cruises are learning this the hard way and in the words of its CEO "We have one million loyal customers and are hoping that the reputation of our company will be repaired.". This looks set to be a long journey.
Jonathan Hemus
www.insigniacomms.com
New to The Drum
You will be sent a verification email. Click on the link in the email to post your comment.
Existing Users Sign In
Knowledge Bank
It’s A Wonderful City
Have your say
Opinion, blogs and columnists - call them what you like - this is the section where people have something to say. You might agree or you might not - whatever opinion you have make your views known in comments. Views of writers are not necessarily those of The Drum. If you would like to contribute a comment piece, email your idea to opinion@thedrum.com.
Most Popular
Try The Drum free
Your free trial gets you:
- Two copies of The Drum magazine
- One month unlimited access to online subscriber content
- Access to reports, research and case studies
Comments
comments
I suspect the only long term solution for Costa Cruises is to rebrand. Even if they do manage to pin the blame on the Captain they still have to take the responsibility for appointing him in the first place. But what ever way this plays out the name Costa Cruises is likely to be in the headlines for a long time.
Write Your Comment