Effective strategies when confronted by crisis - KFC and Marie Clarie

I agree with him to a certain extent, the crust of the matter is that we live in a real world, whereby we can't always predict what will happen today or the day after, thus our best defense, individual or brand ambassadors it is to respond and act wisely in the event of some unforeseen circumstances which can be potentially damaging to the brand at hand. This is where marketers, PR companies or brand reputation specialist as part of a crisis management team comes in, to come up with strategies and an action plan in the event of crisis management.

In May of this year, we saw the reputation of a global food franchise being tainted, KFC takes immediate action after a video emerged of the Braamfontein franchise where some KFC staff were seen washing their chickens on a dirty concrete floor. The message quickly sent consumers in a state of panic, about KFC; almost shutting down the social media networks.

The response actions taken by KFC included a number of steps as part of their crisis management plan:

• Firstly, the Braamfontein restaurant was temporarily closed and the message was that KFC was working on getting to the bottom of the incident.

• KFC also took to social media and ran a full page print advertisement in the Sunday Times newspaper to apologise to consumers and give their view on what actually happened.

• KFC Africa Managing Director, Doug Smart was interviewed by the media, where he apologised and used the platform as an opportunity for him to explain the company's standpoint, he mentioned that KFC has a standard process for discarding chicken; the franchise owner in SA introduced further measures which were not in line with the global standard.

All these measures did a good job in redeeming the image of KFC to consumers, and that is because they didn't discard the negative publicity, but they were transparent, responded carefully to the allegation on all platforms and this shows that they had a crisis management team in place and the matter went as far as getting their top management involved, which is the type of behaviour that its consumers would expect from a chicken producer.

Marie Claire is another prime example of excellent crisis management, which the magazine demonstrated when their campaign received bad publicity. In honour of Women's Month, Marie Claire invited 18 local male celebrities to endorse their campaign, #MCInHerShoes, which portrays powerful photographs of the men wearing stilettos, taken by South African photographer Steve Tanchel, the pics are to appear in the August issue of Marie Claire, to encourage the fight against gender-based violence in South Africa.

The mismanagement on their side, was when they used popular DJ Euphonik as part of the 18 celebrities, Euphonik was previously linked to a case of assault against Bonang Matheba in 2012. The campaign received further debate after comments made by the celebrity pair on the social media networks.

The best way to approach any complaints or scandals is to:

1. Be transparent - Companies/people brands can't pretend it didn't happen or pray and hope it will simply go away, and can't even laugh about it in public when there are people or stakeholders upset or offended by the scandal/ publicity.

E.g. look at how our president responded to the Nkandla allegations. Maybe if his team managed the issue differently from the onset, South Africans and the international community would have a different outlook about him and his image.

Looking at the magazine issue, Marie Claire editor, Aspasia Karras was transparent in the magazine's role to hand pick the DJ. "The vital debate #MCInHerShoes has generated is crucial and important - we need to make violence against women central to the public debate. I thank the men who stood up for our cause - a brave act in our chauvinist society. I stand by the men who chose to participate. We welcomed @Euphonik into this campaign and view his participation in the spirit it was intended as an important declaration," she stated.

2. Respondent thoughtfully and acknowledge your role in the matter - In an interview with eNCA, editor Aspasia Karras noted their dismal failure to see what's at stake beforehand. "We made an error of judgment in our choice of personality for this campaign. Being a magazine with a legacy of supporting women's issues, we should not have approached someone with a history of alleged abuse. We realise our mistake. We will do better."

3. Manage all communication platforms including social media accounts carefully at during the crisis period - The magazine also posted the apology on their social media networks, after respectfully responding the negative allegation from the public. Which is what KFC also did.

4. Ignoring strong public digital voices isn't an option any more - Companies have to learn to not only communicate effectively in the social media age, but to truly listen to the social chatter and respond in the way that align with both brand and customer expectations.

Everybody makes mistakes. But having a solid plan in place to address the negative publicity or complaints in a timely and transparent manner will not only help preserve your company's reputation, but confirm yet again that you are a business that cares about its customers and is willing to go an extra mile to have happy customers who are proud to be associated with your brand and that live up to your brand promise, values and ethics.

In the true words of Martin Luther Junior, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy".