Crisis communication is a branch of public relations and failure can result in harm to stakeholders, losses to a brand or maybe even the end of a brand. We're going to talk about the difference between an issue in a crisis in this video and think about issues management as proactive communications strategy to avoid crises. There are many definitions for a crisis, how do you define a crisis? The Institute of Public Relations defines crisis as a significant threat to operations that can have negative consequences if not handled properly. In crisis management the threat is the potential damage a crisis can inflict on an organization, its stakeholders and an industry. A crisis can create 3-related threats public safety, financial loss and reputation loss. A crisis reflects poorly on an organization and will damage a reputation to some degree, effective crisis management handles these threats sequentially, the primary concern and a crisis has to be public safety. A failure to address public safety intensifies the damage from a crisis, reputation and financial concerns are considered after public safety has been remedied. All crises are problems for sure but not all problems are crises, we want to identify the issues manage them before an issue becomes a crisis, some issues turn into crises, but some crises are unexpected and we couldn't have seen them coming. However, no matter what, we should always have a plan in place that helps us act immediately upon crisis. Issues management is an anticipatory strategic management process that helps organizations detect and respond appropriately to emerging trends or changes in this sociopolitical environment. Issues are commonly described as having a life cycle comprising five stages early, emerging current crisis and dormant in simpler terms as the issue moves through the four stages, it attracts more attention and becomes less manageable from the organization's point of view. We want to manage issues early, but sometimes an issue matures and as it does, the number of engage stakeholders publics and other influencers expands, positions on the issue become more entrenched and the strategic choices available to the organization shrink. If and when the issue becomes a crisis for the organization, the only available responses are reactive and are sometimes imposed by external parties such as government agencies. Not all issues reached the crisis stage and many crises are not the result of an underlying issue. Let's look at the issues management side by side with crisis management issues management anticipates issues proactively this function works at risk management and protecting the organization's reputation. Crisis management is reactive we didn't plan for this, but it is happening prepared PR practitioners will have a crisis communication plan and we'll talk about that later in this module but a crisis situation calls for immediate reaction. We can manage issues are restaurant received a scathing review by the local food critic who writes for the local newspaper the customer service was exceptionally slow at our store today and customers went on twitter to talk about it. The head football coach accepts a new job during the current season, our company accountant embezzled $50,000 last year and was arrested in front of our headquarters these are issues, we see them emerge and we manage them. Crisis situations call upon us to react in our decisions in this moment can have long lasting impacts on the organization, crisis threatened the brand's reputation and the bottom line, we want to handle the crisis as quickly as possible so that we can move on to the dormant phase in the life cycle of an issue. We have a lot of examples of brand crises BP and the horizon oil spill, Volkswagen's emissions scandal, Harvey Weinstein's inappropriate and illegal behavior, chipotle and foodborne illnesses, Boeing and the 737 max, Purdue pharma and opioids, Johnson and Johnson and the COVID-19 vaccination there are so many examples out there. Here are some broad ways that we can categorize the types of potential crises, natural crisis and we are in the midst of a pandemic many brands are experiencing crises right now litigation, technological crises, rescued, management values or management misconduct, how we react can determine the future of the brand. The cost of a crisis depends often on the depth and length of the situation we have to always remember that employees are important in the list of key stakeholders to communicate with. Employees can be valuable to a brand during crisis, but only have kept informed legal action might keep an organization in the courts for years and this could wreak havoc on a brand customer reactions from the crisis. But even more so from your response to it crisis situations can also shake market confidence and impact our brand's reputation we don't want crises to occur it distracts upper management and takes away from the ultimate purpose of the brand.
