Place Marketers Take Note: Lessons from Recent
Community Crises
At the
IEDC Annual Conference today, someone asked a site selection consultant panel
whether the acts of violence occurring in cities in response to police shootings
would have an impact on companies considering expansion or relocation. The consensus
was that because they tend to have short term impacts, the effects would be largely
minimal.
Still,
a community crisis certainly has the potential to damage the place brand and
identity if not handled correctly. As
recent events in El Cajon, Tulsa and Charlotte have shown, the media attention
given to a community can go national and international in its scope of coverage.
Place marketers must understand that when a crisis arrives, having a strategy
in place is essential in limiting damage to the place reputation.
Here
are three steps for addressing a crisis situation in a community that can help create
positive PR and content after a negative situation has gained momentum:
1.
Be
honest and authentic. It is critical that the community be honest and upfront
about the issue at hand and to release as much information as possible. Tulsa avoided civic disturbance by issuing a video
of the sequence of events surrounding a recent shooting in their community and charged
the officer in question promptly. Charlotte,
on the other hand, delayed such actions, allowing civic disturbances to germinate
and grow in intensity.
2.
Address
the issue thoughtfully. - If mistakes were made, admit it, apologize and do everything
possible to correct it. Develop a
dialogue with the offended parties and invite their collaboration in
establishing new protocols or programs to ensure the issue never happens again.
Communication is key to managing the crisis and producing positive results
through improved practices and community involvement.
3.
Communicate
with key audiences. As one site selector on the panel responded, “make it personal”. You need to tell people what is going on, how
you are responding and how your community plans to mitigate the problem. You
need to assure companies or consultants that you may be working with that the instance
is isolated and your community has a plan to prevent it from happening again in
the future.
Most people will understand that incidents of
this type are mostly outside of the control of your community. Getting out in front of the issue and demonstrating
openness and concern for the interest of your existing and potential businesses
will help to establish trust and repair any potential damage before it has time
to impact their decision making process.
Warren Buffet once said: “It takes 20 years to build a
reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do
things differently. Likewise, years of success and building a brand identity for
your community can be severely damaged by a community crisis. EDOs would be wise to prepare in the calm
before the storm to ensure they are not caught off guard should such an incident
occur in their community.
