Crisis Management-3

One more example of Crisis management was Nestle-Coke fiasco. In this case, worms and use of insecticides were found inside the bottles. Consequently, their sales took a great dipping. Apart from sales, their images went for a toss. People stopped drinking colas. Sales of chocolates were greatly affected. What followed afterwards was first major instance of crisis management in India. Image building exercises were carried with aplomb. Their products were endorsed by famous celebrities. It was followed by major PR blitzkrieg. The resulting effect was palpable after few months. All these frantic activities helped in damage control. It has been said that in times of crisis companies should never get defensive. Companies dealing the crisis situations with a proactive approach have better chances of emerging on top when the dust is settled.

Similarly in case of automobile major Honda, it had to face huge public embarrassment due to some technical snag found in its automobiles. It was forced to withdraw its vehicles from all over the world because a particular engine part was malfunctioning. This one incident dented Honda’s reputation like never before. It also had to face financial, legal, environmental and political implications. Thereafter, it was a huge exercise for the crisis management team of the company to rebuild the brand image or else the company ran the risk of losing its reliability. These examples prove that, the complete build up towards contingency plan is not easy but forecasting disaster and being prepared for it with convincing solutions helps a lot in the long run.