Mastering PR Crisis Management: Insights from a NY Agency
- Ari Zoldan
- Mar 24
- 19 min read
Scaling a company comes with its various pitfalls. Due to the dynamic ecosystem where information travels faster than light, shielding a company from a big PR crisis is next to impossible.
In fact, according to a survey conducted by PWC, nearly 70% of business leaders experience a crisis within the first five years.
Additionally, Brand24 reports that 78% of consumers use social media to gauge a brand’s response to a crisis.
All this signifies that PR crisis management is crucial for businesses to navigate crises, all the while maintaining consumer trust in today’s social media-driven landscape.
However, managing crises while the eyes of the world are on you is pretty much like walking on thin ice. One wrong move, and the crisis will become your Waterloo.
That’s where this PR crisis management guide comes in.
In this guide, you will learn:
Different kinds of crises
How to swiftly assess potential threats before they escalate.
Effective communication strategies to maintain transparency with stakeholders.
Media monitoring tools and techniques
Best practices for controlling the narrative and protecting your brand's reputation.
Methods to restore public trust after a crisis.
By mastering these techniques, you’ll be better prepared to protect your brand's integrity and emerge stronger from any crisis.
Let’s start.
What is PR crisis management?
PR crisis management focuses on communicating effectively to safeguard an organization's reputation during tough times.
When a company faces adversity, maintaining credibility becomes the first and most important task. Picture it like keeping the crisis at bay while protecting the intangible value of your brand from further harm. That’s crisis management in a nutshell.
Effective PR crisis management requires fast, clear, and honest communication to preserve public trust towards your brand.
Types of public relations crises
A public relations crisis can rear its ugly head in various forms in an organization. As an efficient PR crisis manager, you should be aware of its different faces and tactfully handle them.
Let's discuss the three main types of crisis an organization might encounter:
1. Reputational crises
A crisis hurting the goodwill of the business is a reputational crisis. This kind of crisis is the hardest to recover from. Let’s understand some common types of reputational crisis:
Scandals
Scandals stem from unethical behavior by executive management, such as a sexual harassment case, racial prejudice within the company, and more.
The fallout from a scandal can spread very quickly and leave the company playing catch-up to fix its reputation.
Operational failures
Operational failures occur when companies fail to meet their product standards or to fulfill commitments due to mismanagement or supply chain failures.
This kind of failure has a profound effect, as a single bad experience can cause a company to lose masses of long-standing customers. It is not so much about immediate failure as it is about losing the customer's hard-earned confidence.
2. Public safety crises
Public safety crises are one of the most dangerous types of crisis a company can encounter, as they directly threaten the safety and well-being of your customers.
Here are some examples:
Unsafe products
This deals with mistakes in production leading to products becoming inconsumable or dangerous. Swift product recalls are the need of the hour here.
Data breaches
Data breaches are especially a looming threat for online businesses. Customers trust you with their data, like credit card details, so if a breach happens, it can lead to serious consequences for your customers. As a company, you must maintain clear and consistent communication regarding the mitigation steps to fix the issue.
3. Financial crises
Financial crises can attack an organization's very existence. It is important to know how to manage such an existential crisis.
Market crashes
Market crashes are beyond your organization's control. Crashes like these can badly hurt investor confidence in your company as they see the share price fall.
In times like these, you must reassure your investors by sharing details about your operating cash flow buffer and other relevant financial metrics.
This will assure investors they can ride through the crash and keep investing in your company.
Insolvency
Insolvency can be a looming threat to your existence. In situations like these, you need to communicate to your stakeholders how you are cutting costs and finding other revenue streams to stay afloat.
Fraudulent activities
This is the worst kind of PR crisis a company can deal with. Not only is your credibility at stake, but the financial impact cannot be undermined either.
To mitigate this, companies must take full responsibility immediately without resorting to blame games or stonewalling tactics.
Next, you can address the situation by severing ties with the bad actors in your organization and announcing the launch of an internal investigation to further study the matter.
The goal of crisis management
Crisis management can be complicated, but at its core, it is all about navigating tough situations effectively.
Here’s a closer look at its multifaceted nature:
1. Mitigating damage
The first priority is to be a firefighter and minimize the harm. Timing is the key here, as the more we let the crisis burn, the more it will spread, ultimately taking the whole company down with it.
To make mitigation effective, you need to assess the situation and find any potential threats right away.
For example, if a faulty product is discovered, you should immediately recall it.
2. Restoring public trust
Once the immediate crisis is under control, we must focus on rebuilding stakeholder trust.
This means issuing sincere and unconditional public apologies and laying out clear action steps as solutions. This shows that you are a responsible company that owns its mistakes or failures and takes active steps to address them, restoring confidence.
Media plays a crucial role here, as you can use it to disseminate and broadcast your corrective measures swiftly and effectively.
3. Stabilizing the situation
One aspect that often gets ignored in crisis management is stability maintenance.
A crisis can take a great toll both on internal and external stakeholders. The primary goal in these emergencies is to maintain consistency both internally and externally.
Internally, you need to prioritize employee morale to keep them productive. You can do this by first acknowledging the issue and telling how the company is taking proactive steps to safeguard employee interests and protect them from the fallout.
For example, if it is a financial crisis, you can address the fears of your workforce by sharing that their salaries will be paid on time and explaining the measures you are taking to fix the issue.
Externally, you must provide clear and consistent information about how the issue is being dealt with.
Aim to maintain uniformity of message throughout the management team. This reduces confusion and maintains consistency.
Importance of PR crisis management
1. Reputation protection
Protecting the reputation is far easier than recovering it, which can take decades.
So how can companies be ready?
The answer lies in effective PR crisis management that focuses on being prepared rather than being reactive.
Organizations need to set up pre-established protocols that serve as a roadmap during a PR crisis.
Everyone should be drilled on what their role should be when the public relations crisis actually surfaces. Regular training ensures that your team is not caught off guard.
2. Control the narrative
Controlling the narrative shifts the power back to you.
Instead of letting the crisis shape how stakeholders perceive you, a PR crisis management system helps you take charge of the story and turn the issue into an opportunity.
By using the crisis to showcase your brand reliability, you can turn an organizational plight into an advertisement for your company. You can also transform it into a showcase of your company ethos and mission, guiding the public perception in your favor.
By walking the talk and staying true to your brand ethos, you can sway the narrative into a positive one that shows your brand as trustworthy and credible.
3. Minimizing rumors and speculation
Another vital role of PR crisis management is minimizing rumors and speculations.
Rumors and hearsay often do more harm than the initial crisis as they hype things up more than they are.
If your company functions in a cutthroat industry, you can expect your competitors to play an active role in amplifying the negative speculation and hearsay. All this can lead to a loss of company valuation and shareholder value.
A powerful PR crisis management plan deals a decisive blow to this threatening aspect by sharing timely news and updates in a consistent manner.
A company should share swift updates acknowledging the issue and covering all the angles related to it — so no meat is left for speculative hearsay.
4. Demonstrating accountability
A good PR crisis mitigation plan can be an advertisement of your organizational reliability.
When you address an issue effectively, it shows you are a reliable company and can be trusted when the chips go down.
This image perception can be a game-changer for future crisis mitigation.
5. Maintaining stakeholder confidence
When a crisis hits, stakeholder sentiment is the first to get affected, reducing your organization’s worth and shareholder value. This is where PR crisis management plays a crucial role, as it acts as a barrier between the crisis and the stakeholder interests.
With regular updates acknowledging the issue and laying out the action steps, you can restore stakeholder confidence towards your brand.
Proactive anticipation of PR crisis: risk management
1. Anticipate potential issues
A PR crisis manager needs to be hawkish about potential crises.
The main skill set here is the ability to foresee problems in advance and then put maneuvers and plans in place on how to deal with them.
This process starts with a detailed risk assessment in which the crisis management team evaluates the company’s current internal and external ecosystem and identifies potential trouble areas that can cause problems in the future.
These assessments help a company to identify and address any organizational underbellies and put crisis management standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place if things start to go south.
To do this effectively, organizations must keep themselves up to speed about industry trends, external factors, and internal employee sentiments.
Additionally, fostering a culture of vigilance across the organization can enable employees to recognize and report issues on time before the matter goes public.
This kind of shared responsibility strengthens the organization’s resilience toward a crisis and proactively prevents it from happening.
2. Communicate in advance
By now, you know that communication is the key factor in PR crisis management.
By informing stakeholders about potential risks and the organization’s readiness to handle the issues, companies can showcase their reliability.
An organization can do this by first acknowledging the potential risk, highlighting its commitment, laying down risk management strategies, and showcasing its preparedness.
Additionally, the PR crisis team can open the lines of communication with stakeholders in advance so that there is a constant touchpoint — even before the crisis arises. This alone can quell all the rumors and hearsay that can emerge when the crisis plays out in public.
3. Control the narrative early
By addressing the issues before they escalate and become public, the company intentionally takes control of the narrative and will not be a victim of the fallout.
When organizations take the onus of acknowledging the risk, it showcases transparency.
This timely and accurate control of the narrative helps organizations frame the situation in a way that aligns with their values and mission.
4. Cost-benefit analysis of preparation
The proverbial “prevention is better than a cure” applies best in crisis management.
A simple cost-benefit analysis can reveal the importance of a risk management plan.
Let's understand the various benefits of a risk management/crisis prevention plan:
Legal costs
Take legal costs, for instance. If a crisis is ill-managed, the organization could be staring at multiple lawsuits and millions of dollars in legal and regulatory fees.
If a crisis prevention plan is put in place for a fraction of the cost, the company can be free to focus on the core operations and not be under the burden of lawsuits.
Investing in crisis planning helps mitigate these risks by ensuring the crisis management protocols are well in place to respond to issues promptly.
Operational costs
Next, think of the downtime that a crisis causes and the corresponding operational costs due to the decreased productivity. All this can have a lasting impact on the bottom line.
By having a robust crisis management plan, organizations can minimize production disruptions and maintain continuity.
Insurance for your reputation
A good way to convince management to implement a PR crisis management plan is to make them think of it as insurance for their reputation.
Think about it. Once a reputation is lost, it is very expensive to rebuild.
Companies build their reputation over years of goodwill and hard work. Rebuilding it again (if even possible) will cost dearly.
A timely investment in crisis management can save significant resources in the long run by putting preventive measures into place.
How do you identify a PR crisis?
Telling the difference between common problems and real crises
Before we go into the various plans and techniques of crisis management, it is important to identify a crisis and give it a clear distinction from other everyday problems. It is vital to gauge the temperature around an issue by studying how the ecosystem reacts.
First, we need to see if there is a strong buzz regarding the issue.
Ask yourself: is there a growing chatter around the issue with its frequency increasing, or is it just a minor thing?
Next, we need to see the sentiment surrounding the issue. Is there a supportive sentiment or a backlash? If there is a backlash, how severe is it? Has the media picked on it yet?
If these analyses and checks reveal a light ecosystem reaction, it is best to not highlight it as it can be counterproductive. It is best to brush it under the carpet and continue with business as usual.
Handling everyday problems well can stop them from becoming emergencies.
Here are some additional frameworks to consider in identifying a problem from a crisis emergency:
Severity
Emergencies pose serious threats to the organization's reputation and existence.
On the other hand, common problems might have a negligible impact on the ecosystem.
You can filter them by simulating scenarios where the issue/problem remains unchecked. Will it threaten the ecosystem and organizational reputation with irreparable harm? If not, then it is a minor problem and not a crisis.
Urgency
Emergencies need quick and immediate decision making and mitigating steps to quell the damage.
With common problems, there's usually time to think things through and plan carefully.
Duration
Common problems can drag on for a while, demanding ongoing attention.
Emergencies usually start suddenly and need fast responses, even if dealing with them takes longer.
Business Disruption
Emergencies require dropping everything to focus on fixing the issue.
On the other hand, common problems can often be handled alongside regular business activities.
Media monitoring tools
Media monitoring tools help you get a feel for the sentiment and frequency of a topic, helping you understand how fast and severely an issue is being spread in the media.
Let’s go over the various media monitoring tools in detail.
1. Social media listening tools
These software tools provide instant alerts about brand mentions across social media platforms. You can use this intel to address issues related to your brand in real time.
Tools such as Hootsuite, Awario, or Brandwatch enable organizations to track brand mentions in real time, helping them identify emerging issues and gauge public sentiment.
2. News aggregators
News aggregators make the process of news sifting easier than before. Instead of going through separate media websites and journals, you can use platforms like Google News to monitor how the media reports on the crisis.
You can set niche and brand keyword-specific alerts to streamline the whole process and catch emerging discussions impacting the organization.
A pro tip can be to monitor niche-specific forums and subreddits apart from the mainstream business media to catch emerging discussions regarding your sector or organization.
Next, you can double down by setting up Google Alerts for keyphrases like “Your Brand Name” “ Your Brand Name News” “Your Brand Name Breaking” (free checklist available. Read details below).
Enhance your brand's crisis management with a free discovery call from Quantum Corp. CEO Ari Zoldan.
Learn strategies to scale your crisis response, anticipate risks, and strengthen stakeholder trust.
Discover how to use real-time insights and media monitoring tools effectively. Control the narrative during crises to safeguard your brand's reputation.
Book a free discovery call now and receive an exclusive list of alerts to stay ahead — complimentary for a limited time.
Take action today for proven strategies and expert guidance.
3. Sentiment analysis
We even have tools that leverage AI to gauge sentiments and public emotions regarding a topic. This makes it remarkably easy to assess whether the issue is being perceived as positive or negative.
How to conduct sentiment analysis
1. Use analytics software
You can use platforms like Brand24 or Qualtrics to analyze data from social media and news platforms.
With Brand24, you will be able to measure the sentiments in real time via simplified graphs telling you the day-by-day frequency of positive, negative, or neutral comments.
Qualtrics uses a sentiment analysis model called Text iQ to measure written feedback from surveys and categorize them into positive, negative, or neutral. It also groups feedback into interrelated topics to spot common trends in sentiments.
2. Identify key triggers
Analyze historical data to find words or phrases that evoke strong reactions.
3. Utilize the data
Use immediate insights from sentiment analysis to adjust the organizational messages quickly if initial communications do not resonate positively.
Use it to identify specific concerns expressed by different stakeholder groups to enable crafting messages that address those worries directly.
Additionally, use it to shape your future communication strategies. Insights from sentiment analysis inform ongoing communication strategies, allowing for continual refinement of tone and approach.
Appointing a crisis response team
Let's get into the nuts and bolts of a crisis management operation.
A winning crisis management plan starts with an efficient team aligned with the organizational ethos and well prepared to react swiftly when a crisis breaks out.
When the hour of need comes, it is this team on which the company has to rely to provide clarity to the stakeholder ecosystem and prevent the issue from getting out of hand.
Here’s how you can establish and empower a crisis response team:
1. Define core values
The first step is laying out the core value commandments that your organization stands for. These ethos and values will be the decision-making yardstick during crises.
Why is this important?
Core values make sure that all communications and subsequent actions align with the organizational mission and ethical standards set in the company charter. These core values act as a moral compass that helps navigate the crisis response team through difficult decisions, maintaining organizational integrity.
2. Create response protocols
After the core values have been imparted to the crisis team, the next step is to formulate detailed protocols for communication flow.
These clearly laid-out and organized communication protocols will avoid any confusion in the future and prevent things from going haywire.
By having structured protocols, the team can move swiftly and decisively without any analysis paralysis and communication grey areas.
3. Empower your spokesperson
Training and preparation
You need to give full power to the spokesperson who will be representing the company to the media. You must train and prepare them with mock interviews and crisis simulations.
You should instill different response frameworks for media interaction. Through extensive training, you will build confidence in them to deal with intense scrutiny.
Establish clear messaging
The message going out from the spokesperson should be simple, clear, and effective. These message traits play well with consistent messaging.
When a message is simple, clear, and effective and it is consistently reinforced by the spokesperson, it starts building trust and maintains control over the narrative.
Availability and consistency
Finally, you need to ensure the availability of the spokesperson.
He has to be consistent with his availability throughout the crisis and briefed about this beforehand. This creates a subliminal sense of familiarity and assurance amongst the stakeholders.
Crafting a PR crisis management plan
1. Identify key stakeholders
Start by creating a detailed list of the key stakeholders who need to be informed during a crisis.
Consider and evaluate every stakeholder group, such as investors, employees, customers, suppliers, regulators, and media.
2. Develop customized messages for each stakeholder group
Different stakeholders have varying dynamics with the organization, making their concerns and interests nuanced. Formulating tailored messages for each interest group can mitigate a crisis effectively.
Typically, these messages should entail the following:
1) An acknowledgement of the issue
2) An unconditional, sincere apology
3) Steps taken to mitigate the crisis
4) What it means for them and how you are actively taking actions to safeguard their interests.
5) Informing them of your availability and open communication lines if they have further questions.
By being transparent and responsive, organizations build and maintain trust in difficult times.
3. Establish a communication timeline
Timing is the name of the game in crisis communications. You might have noticed the theme by now.
When a crisis hits, publish a preliminary statement that is released immediately to acknowledge the issue. Aim to launch this statement before the media picks up on the issue.
This will give you control over the narrative and demonstrate that the organization is proactive and aware of the situation, actively working to address it.
Following the initial statement, schedule regular updates to keep stakeholders up to speed and make them feel they are not alone. This can be especially useful during a financial crisis. You cannot imagine the power of regular communication in matters where stakeholder’s money is involved.
With regular assurances and availability, stakeholders will stop feeling uncertain and know you are there and actively working on solving the issue.
On the contrary, sporadic or negligible communication can lead to stakeholders thinking you are a fraudulent establishment that dumps the crisis on them and moves on.
Regular communication also highlights transparency, reducing speculation.
PR crisis management case studies: Exploring both ends
Successful PR crisis management case study (Johnson & Johnson’s)
One of the most-cited examples of successful PR crisis management is Johnson & Johnson's handling of the Tylenol recall in the 1980s.
In 1982, seven people died in Chicago after ingesting extra-strength Tylenol capsules produced by Johnson & Johnson’s. The investigation revealed a sinister act in which the Tylenol capsules in the packaging were replaced by cyanide-laced ones.
This was a severe existential threat for Johnson & Johnson as people’s lives were being harmed due to consuming its branded product.
In an unprecedented move not matched in corporate history, Johnson & Johnson’s issued a nationwide recall of 31 million Tylenol bottles. This was despite the data that the incidents were limited to the Chicago area.
This action cost the company over $100 million, but it also did one macro positive thing: it sealed Johnson & Johnson’s name as synonymous with responsibility and reliability in times of crisis.
The company showed that it was ready to deal with the financial fallout in order to keep its customers safe. Imagine what it does for long-term brand storytelling.
Also throughout the crisis, the company maintained transparency with all its stakeholders, communicating with clarity and consistency. It showed that it is available in this time of crisis and provides regular updates to consumers, media, and healthcare professionals.
To further prevent such incidents in the future, Johnson & Johnson swiftly introduced tamper-evident packaging with a plastic cap collar that broke when opened. The packaging had a clear warning not to buy the product if the collar was broken.
These practices are now industry standards, but it is Johnson & Johnson that pioneered this, all stemming from a horrible crisis.
This way, the company turned a ghastly tragedy into a long-term success story about its brand commitment, reliability, and responsibility.
Unsuccessful PR crisis management case study (United Airlines)
In 2017, United Airlines faced a significant PR crisis when a passenger, Dr. David Dao, was forcibly removed from the flight to accommodate an airline staff member.
As ghastly as it sounds, the incident was captured on video, compounding the damage due to public outrage.
For successful PR crisis management, United should have immediately acknowledged the crisis, issued an apology, and taken steps to rectify the issue, including compensating the passenger.
However, they did quite the opposite. United’s initial response was slow and inadequate, failing to address the urgency, leading to more public anger.
Later, CEO Oscar Munoz referred to the incident as “re-accommodating” passengers, triggering the public to call the reaction tone-deaf and lacking empathy and accountability.
Moreover, they did not provide timely updates or engage meaningly with customer concerns, thus leaving stakeholders fuming about the lack of corrective actions. This led to erosion of public trust and bankability, leading to a loss of $1 billion in valuation.
This crisis management failure highlights the importance of a rapid, transparent, and empathy-based approach to the PR crisis.
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Lessons learned from case studies
After analyzing the case studies, two key lessons stand out: 1) The importance of timeliness and 2) The role of accountability.
Let’s go through them.
1. Importance of timeliness
Without timeliness, crisis management loses its edge. A swift response mitigates the crisis before it spreads and thus prevents the damage by nipping it in the bud.
When you show timeliness, the stakeholders recognize your active commitment to dealing with the crisis. It also reduces hearsay and speculation, as you are already taking the narrative in hand and taking charge of the conversation.
On the other hand, delays can exacerbate situations, allowing negative sentiments and misinformation to wreak havoc.
2. Transparency and accountability
There is nothing like honest communication in a time of crisis. It fosters trust and strengthens relationships with the stakeholder ecosystem.
Additionally, when an organization is honest and takes responsibility, it showcases integrity and commitment to improve the situation. This can work great for a company’s credibility.
On the other hand, when a company resorts to petty blame games and excuses, it shows that it is not reliable and can shift blame for any mishap happening.
This can have far-reaching consequences, like the $1 billion loss of valuation for United Airlines.
Bringing it all together: Developing a PR crisis management plan
We discussed crisis anticipation, preparing a team, and crafting the plan. Let’s consolidate it all together into a PR crisis development plan and see how it all plays out together:
A) Preparation and training for crisis scenarios
1. Crisis team composition
Start by clearly demarcating the roles of the crisis management team. Include diverse perspectives to cover all aspects of the company’s operations.
By this, I mean including employees from various departments, such as communications, operations, and legal, so the team is well rounded and skilled to tackle any situation from multiple angles.
2. Communication protocols
Set clear lines of communication so that when the time comes to tackle the situation, every communication procedure is clearly demarcated.
Internally, ensure that everyone knows whom to report to and how information should flow across the organization.
Externally, you must have protocols and pre-written statement templates with information on how updates will be communicated to stakeholders. This clarity prevents confusion and ensures that accurate information is disseminated promptly.
3. Scenario mapping
Identify potential crises that can be relevant to your industry or business operations. Identify them early and develop customized responses for each crisis scenario.
This allows organizations to preemptively prepare for possible threats and craft effective responses beforehand.
4. Conducting regular training and simulations
Regular training drills test the efficacy of your preparedness. Scenario simulations are particularly handy as they can reveal gaps in readiness, allowing companies to re-calibrate their approach.
B) The response phase of crisis management
1. Swift acknowledgment
Organizations need to swiftly acknowledge the situation before the media does. This way, you take charge of the narrative before the media and public does.
By acknowledging the issue promptly, companies demonstrate alertness and responsive caliber.
2. Internal communication
Internally, employees need to be informed and kept up to speed about how the company is handling the issue.
This can ensure that all staff members are aligned with the company line and do not resort to panic or hearsay.
3. External transparency in communication
A company needs to provide frequent updates to show the stakeholders it is right with them through the crisis.
This removes uncertainty and doubt regarding the company and builds credibility.
C) Continuous evaluation and improvement
1. Conduct a post-crisis analysis
After the crisis has passed, a company needs to hold debriefing sessions where it can evaluate the actions being taken.
You need to identify what worked well and what areas of the crisis plan need improvement. This helps optimize the PR crisis plan for future crises.
2. Gather stakeholder feedback
You can use surveys to collect feedback on stakeholder perceptions. The responses can reveal stakeholder sentiment and open a dialogue on how the company can do better.
The next step
If you are serious about protecting your company’s reputation, you need to let the experts handle it for you.
At Quantum Media Group, we have 20+ years of experience handling PR crisis management and risk management for top publicly listed companies in the global markets.
You can schedule a free discovery call with our CEO, Ari Zoldan, as he guides you through a custom plan that will focus on creating an airtight plan to successfully steer your company through any crisis.
During this call, Ari will personally discuss how your organization can:
Scale your crisis management capabilities with tailored strategies.
Develop proactive protocols to anticipate and mitigate potential risks.
Strengthen stakeholder trust through transparent and effective communication.
Gain real-time insights using advanced sentiment analysis and media monitoring tools.
Control the narrative during crises to protect your brand's reputation.
That's not all! For a limited time only, if you book the call now, you'll receive the exclusive ultimate list of alerts that every smart management team relies on to stay ahead of crises and breaking news — absolutely free!
This is your opportunity to access actionable solutions and proven tactics to elevate your crisis management plan.
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