Komen and Carnival—Crisis Management and Corporate Reputation

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When is a corporate crisis over?

When the media stops calling? When the angry emails, tweets and phone calls trail off? When the legal ramifications are settled? When your crisis management team vacates the war room?

From a reputation management perspective, a crisis is only truly over when the negative impact to corporate reputation is mitigated.  Think about it — when you hear Carnival Cruise Lines or Komen, do you think about your summer vacation and breast cancer awareness?

Or, do you think about the Carnival’s overturned cruise ship and Komen’s defunding of Planned Parenthood?

According to brand reputation research from Harris Interactive, the latter is far more likely. Here’s the data:

  • Carnival Cruise was ranked the number two overall cruise line in 2011, but doesn’t rank in 2012.
  • Susan G. Komen for the Cure was ranked number two overall in 2011, among the top five nonprofits in any category. In 2012, when the categories were split up, Komen ranks 56th of the 79 surveyed. According to Harris Interactive, this is a 21 percent drop in brand equity.

It’s not an earth-shattering revelation that a crisis can have a long-term impact on corporate reputation. But this data showcases the extent to which a crisis can damage an organization’s standing among competitors.

When a consumer is booking a cruise or deciding which organization to support, reputation matters. Think of a crisis situation as a reputational disease. Treating only the symptoms of the crisis (media calls, legal ramifications, etc.) isn’t a cure.

Long-term, holistic corporate reputation management means rebuilding trust with your customers, donors, employees and other stakeholders.  It means looking at why the crisis happened and how it can be prevented in the future. It means that the company continues to ask itself the hard questions – even after the media stops. The news cycle may shift quickly — but consumers have a longer memory. 

At Standing Partnership, our approach to corporate reputation management consists of helping our clients build, maintain and restore their reputations.  Learn more about our approach to issues and crisis management.

  • Gini Dietrich

    WOW! I hadn’t seen those stats, but I’m not surprised. The thing that is so disheartening about both of those instances is they could have been avoided. Sure, you can’t avoid a cruise ship crashing, but you can avoid the crisis in how you react to it. It’s pretty frustrating to watch companies fail because of stuff like this.

  • Ashlyn Brewer

    I completely agree, Gini. I understand the impulse to just move on as though nothing has happened, but clearly consumers haven’t forgotten. Crisis management is just one of those things you have to get right. Sure, restoring a reputation takes work, but clearly it’s worth it.

  • Maggie Brandt

    Ashlyn, I love how you refer to a crisis situation as a reputational disease – we absolutely have to think beyond just treating the crisis symptoms. A big part of that is also preventative care, which means organizations should take the time to consider how they will need to respond, both externally as well as within the organization, should a crisis arise. Planning ahead means you will be better prepared to handle a crisis and come through it with your reputation intact.

  • Rob Burton

    Organizations must conduct realistic and engaging crisis management simulations to really test their state of readiness. Only through corporate war games (tale top exercises) can they truly uncover gaps and evaluate operational and communication capabilities. Good post.

  • Ashlyn Brewer

    We agree, Rob.  Standing often helps our client with table-top exercises or full-on simulations as part of our crisis planning efforts!

    In general, I think most traditional crisis planning efforts look at a crisis as a short-term situation, and don’t adequately prepare organizations to consider the long-term impact a crisis can have on their reputation.  Komen and Carnival are probably both out of the war room, with key learnings drawn up, but that doesn’t mean it’s really over.

  • Ashlyn Brewer

    Maggie, I love your point about preventative care! It really is the most important part. It’s much easier to maintain a good reputation than re-build one that’s been dismantled.

  • Rob Burton

    Ashlyn – I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn. Please send me your email address and I’ll send you an invite.

  • Ashlyn Brewer

    Rob, my e-mail address is abrewer@standingpr.com.

    I look forward to connecting!