The damage done on the local restaurant
and on Starbucks could cost them a lot
of money in just a few days. A brand will
recover quickly if it accepts its wrong
doing and owns up to its mistakes. A
flimsy or delayed apology will not be
tolerated by online users neither will a
display of arrogance be accepted.
The most interesting aspect about online
crisis communications is the customer.
Loyal customers have proven to be the
best back up in a crisis. They work better
than a plan that is written years before
the crisis happens. Consider the Pepsi ad
that threw the internet into a frenzy. An
ad that was trying to portray unity and
empathy ended up irking the internet
users.
The ad which features Kendall Jenner of
Keeping up with the Kardashians show
has her walking out of a fashion photo
shoot to join a protest. Jenner throws off
her wig and walks off the photography
set to join a marching crowd. Her model
outfit is transformed into a full denim
outfit.
She shares nods and fist bumps with fellow
protesters managing to bring everyone
together and hands a policeman a Pepsi
10 MAL24/18 ISSUE
Proactive risk management has become
extremely critical for all brands in business
today. Smaller organizations run a greater risk
of suffering brand damage. No matter the size of
an organization, all employees need to be made
aware that their actions, even when they are
just following company policy as in the case of
Starbucks, may land the company into a crisis.
in a complete show of unity that Pepsi is
a factor of unity that ends protests. The
imagery Pepsi used in its ad was a replay
of the protest around the Black Lives
Matter campaign that sparked global
conversations on racism.
Pepsi’s tone deafness is what the whole
internet eventually agreed on. While Pepsi
was innocently trying to project a global
imagery of unity, peace and understanding
around a subject that once brought the
online ‘war’, it instead managed to unite
the same followers against its own brand.
Social media users accused Pepsi saying it
made light of a weighty situation.
In no time the internet was full of memes
with pictures from the World War and
Cold War with accompanying tag lines
like, ‘If only Daddy would have known the
power of Pepsi’ and ‘If only Martin Luther
King would have had that Pepsi.’ Not one
Pepsi drinker supported the ad.
Days following the offensive ad by Pepsi,
Clutch, a research company conducted
a survey and found a slight drop in
willingness to buy Pepsi from 58% to
55%. In just a month following the launch
of the ad the customer willingness had
moved back up to 56%. Most customers
said the news coverage did not affect