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Why effective crisis communications require strong fundamentals in practice every day
Journal of Brand Strategy,
12
(4),
345-354
(2024)
Abstract
Public companies make substantial investments each year in brand awareness, promotion and reputation initiatives to grow their business, attract investors, customers and employees and create a favourable business climate. Yet external events or internal shortcomings that lead to organisational crisis can quickly undercut those investments in brand reputation. The management of those incidents most often falls to the communications and legal functions. It is important for marketing and communications executives to be attuned to the need for a rapid and effective response to such crises and to ensure that the natural competitiveness between communications and marketing is not a distraction during a crisis. The authors present an approach that relies heavily on everyday best practices, trust and relationship building to optimise an organisation’s ability to respond to crisis quickly and effectively and that provides a road map for senior executives to build a strong communications culture that can adapt to business challenges quickly and successfully.
Keywords: crisis communications; reputation management; communications leadership; marketing; crisis
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Chris Chiames is Chief Communications Officer for Miami-based Carnival Cruise Line, which sails the most ships and the most guests of any major cruise line in the world. Chris joined Carnival in 2018 and previously held senior communications roles across travel, including American Airlines, US Airways, Orbitz and Sabre. He also led the travel and tourism public affairs practice at Burson-Marsteller (now BCW) during the 11th September, 2001 terrorist attacks and the subsequent financial crisis. During his career he has managed numerous crisis communications tasks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the 11th September, 2001 terrorist attacks, major airline accidents and labour strikes, corporate financial restructurings, mergers and transactions and cybersecurity attacks. Chris holds a BA in journalism from California State University, Fresno, an MA in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is a frequent guest speaker to professional and academic audiences on corporate reputation and crisis communications and sits on the advisory board for the University of Florida Department of Public Relations. He and his teams have been recognised by the Public Relations Society of America and PR Daily, among others, and he is a member of the Arthur Page Society for senior communications executives.
Brandon Smulyan is a partner at LDWW. He develops, implements and executes strategic communications programmes with an emphasis on corporate and consumer communications within the business, travel, real estate, sports and technology industries. He provides strategic counsel and account operations and services management to meet the goals and objectives of the clients. He oversees the firm’s Account Service group, manages staff resources and serves as a project manager on short-term engagements. Brandon’s Account Service group is responsible for the agency’s work with Cars Commerce, Carnival Cruise Line, Comerica Bank, Greyhound, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, LegalShield, National Football Foundation, Southwestern Medical Foundation, Varsity Brands and Varsity Spirit. Brandon has worked on some of the nation’s most recognisable campaigns, including Carnival Corporation’s launch to Cuba with its Fathom brand in 2016. As an important member of the team, he was responsible for helping plan and execute the media strategy for the first American cruise ship to sail to Cuba in nearly 50 years. His vast crisis communications experience spans the spectrum of aviation incidents, natural disasters, hostage situations, mass shootings and more. An 18-year veteran of the communications industry, Brandon has worked at two of the world’s largest firms — Weber Shandwick and H+K Strategies — where he served as a media relations specialist for some of the world’s most notable brands.
