It just seems like Boeing and the Royal Family just can’t stay away from bad press headlines. But there is a stark contrast between the two – And that lies in how each has handled the bad PR.
Reputation DOWN
Reputation is everything, especially in business. You’ve worked hard to build up your brand and when bad press puts it in jeopardy, there is no time to waste. You need to act fast. Any risk to your reputation could deliver a financial or legal blow. The public will be asking questions, and the media spotlight may even be shining brightly on you.
Strong leaders “don’t turtle” on the risk and hope it blows over, they face it head on and deal with it before it becomes a PR nightmare. You’ll need to put your crisis communication plan into action. What??? You don’t have one??? Every good leader knows that if you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.
Your crisis plan should include a written statement, a videotaped statement, social media posts, and feature a media interview with a journalist you trust. The crisis communication plan is the first step to countering negative PR. The next smart move is media interview training to learn the right key messages and how to deliver them to your audience so that you sound genuine and authentic.
Here are some recent examples in the news of epic fails
It seems even photoshop can’t erase the Royals’ latest PR blemish. The British Royal Family recently attempted to reassure the public that Princess Kate is on the mend and doing fine after abdominal surgery two months ago. The trouble is that a Mother’s Day photo of the Princess of Wales and her children had been photoshopped.
Wisely, the princess issued an apology, explaining that like many amateur photographers do, she casually dabbles in Adobe Photoshop from time to time and did make some tweaks to the original photo. Now the conspiracy community is having a field day with this royal blunder. Why not just put out the original photo to stop the speculation?
Boeing Wheel Falls Off
Both Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are experiencing some tough turbulence and media scrutiny after a series of recent mishaps. Thankfully no one was seriously injured or killed but it’s hard to assure the flying public when you see a video of a tire falling of the plane as it’s taking off.
Back to Alaska Airlines for another midair mishap. Key bolts were missing from a Boeing door plug that blew out in mid-air. Now comes a report that airline engineers were concerned about warning lights on that plane and had scheduled it for a safety maintenance check. However, that 737 Max was instead kept in service for a day instead of being immediately grounded.
But things kept getting worse for Boeing, as the wheels fell off a 777 plane just after take-off. This is just a latest of a long string of airplane incidents for the company.
To make matters worse, Boeing didn’t initially respond to any of the bad press. A Terrible idea. For days, news outlets were shaping the narrative and the longer you go without making a statement, the more the narrative becomes true in the public eye.
Corporate Media Training
I have conducted media and crisis communication training with executives of other airlines and leaders in other industries to prepare them to face the media spotlight with grace and confidence. In any high-risk situation, it is not if but when some sort of crisis will happen.
Forward-thinking companies bring in media trainers to help them prepare for worst-case scenarios with mock interviews to practice their delivery and key messaging. In our media training at Solv Communications, we work through realistic scenarios that you may face, have faced or are brewing in your industry. We conduct realists mock media interviews on camera and then playback your interview to coach you on key messaging, body language and tone. That way you are polished and ready if and when a real crisis strikes.
