Simply Put

What Happens if You Get the Finger?

By Ed Armstrong
President,
Armstrong Analytics

Rare is the day when the headlines don’t leave us slack-jawed. From the brutal to the bizarre, the hyper-speed news cycle never fails to titillate and outrage. The non-stop media frenzy is a well-spring of water cooler fodder, but for those caught in the whirlpool, it’s called a crisis.

Such was the case a few weeks back when Wendy’s found themselves in the middle of the mother-of-all tabloid stories, the finger in the chili caper.

By now we know that Wendy’s was the victim of a scam, and, as the courts will likely rule, extortion. So they’re vindicated, right? Tell that to the franchise owners and stock holders.

The company reported at 2.5 percent hit in sales immediately after the incident and, for the quarter ending April 3, a 2.8 percent decline in earnings over the same period last year.

By all accounts, Wendy’s has righted the ship. And that’s to its credit because, had they handled the public relations angle badly, it could have been much worse. Even catastrophic.

No matter the size of your enterprise or the nature of its business, it’s worth asking yourself a few questions about how your company would react under these circumstances. What if a Fox News or Associated Press reporter called and told you they were about to run a story about the nuttiest thing you ever heard, and your company was in the middle of the nut bowl?

• Who will speak on the record and how will this spokesperson get accurate information with which to respond?

• Since it’s never wise to issue a blind denial, and “no comment” is a terrible PR tactic, how would I craft a response and who needs to help do so?

• How will I monitor what the media are saying to evaluate its accuracy?

• Should I go on the media offensive or just react when called upon?

If you answered the questions with a shrug, you should seriously consider developing a “crisis communication plan.” The great myth about this activity is that it’s a huge undertaking requiring great sums of money. The reality is that it’s a one-day investment of your time that produces a concise policy that can do wonders should the need ever arise.

Unless you’ve worked as a spokesperson for Enron, odds are you’ve never been interviewed under the gun. The last place you want to see yourself do your first interview is on Sixty Minutes. For this reason, the Armstrong Analytics Media and Crisis Communication Academy also provides simulated practice sessions that allow spokespersons to critique themselves and receive seasoned advice from a guy who’s been on both ends of the camera.

The training sessions always culminate in a customized plan that contains vital information. This includes specific, common sense guidelines on what to do when contacted by the media and basic checklists that will spare you having to sweat every detail when you need to be dealing with the actual crisis. For example, how much thought have you given camera angles and what’s going on in the background of your interview? Trust me, the reporter will always try to line you up in front of the burning building—and that’s an image that won’t do much for your brand.

It’s important to understand what media and crisis training is and isn’t. It is a device to use to develop a competency backed by a set of best practices to use when beset by a media circus. It isn’t a substitute for adequate PR and legal counsel when the circus comes to town. Think of it this way, your organization takes steps to limit exposure to lawsuits, but you still hire a lawyer if you get sued.

Wendy’s will come through the finger frenzy okay. Bruised but not broken. They did a lot of things right in what for them had to be a terribly unfair situation. Among them:

• They didn’t hide under a raincoat and cry “no comment.” They confronted the situation from the beginning even though there was not much to say other than “we’re fully cooperating with the authorities and launching an investigation.”

• They leveraged the quality aspect of their brand equity to provide a positive and contrary image to that of digits floating in their food.

•They capitalized on the good will of local authorities once the incident was proven a hoax.

• They launched “offensive media” by creating and publicizing events such as product giveaways.

In short, they did what worked for them because Wendy’s had undoubtedly done some advance planning on the one thing that was most likely to launch a communication crisis: the deliberate or accidental adulteration of their product.
Could they have ever imagined that this would come in the form of a human finger in the chili? Doubtful, you find that out on that awful day the phone rings. But can you imagine how much worse it might have been if their operator had told Fox News, “oh my God, that’s the grossest thing I ever heard.”

For more information on Armstrong Analytics Media and Crisis Communication Academy please contact us.