Emergency Communications Plan for Sabre Insurance

This document discusses the potential emergency communications plan and crisis management plan for Sabre Insurance. It also explores the role of marketing in improving the firm's reputation and contributing to emergency communication planning.

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Brief:
The company which has been chosen for the research and analysis can be stated to
be the Sabre insurance. The firm is one of the most popular insurance companies as present
around the United Kingdom and has various offerings present which can cater to all kinds of
audiences. However, the company choses to specialize in the car insurance market. In line
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of this, it can be mentioned that the firm, is listed on the London Stock exchange and also
forms a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The company has been found by Angus Ball
and Keith Morris back in the year 1982 (Sabre.co.uk ,2019). The company underwent
various transformations and in line of this, it could also be understood that it was in the year
December 2017, that the company decided to undergo the Initial Public offering which will
help the firm in becoming public. Moreover, the firm comprises of various brands as well like
the GoGirl, Insure2Drive and the Drive Smart which will assist in ensuring that the firm will
successfully be able to cater to all the targeted audiences. Additionally, the company has
also registered to have earned an income of £49.6 million back in the year 2018.
Introduction
As understood previously, marketing forms a crucial aspect of the organization and
with respect to this, it becomes considerably important for any firm to ensure that they are
successfully able to incorporate the function of marketing in the overall objectives of the firm
(Bundy et al., 2017). Hence, in addition to catering to the overall needs of the product or the
service which the organization caters to, it is important that the marketing function of the
organization, caters to the overall needs of the workplace and its related operations as well
(Bundy et al.. 2017). Hence, in line of this, it can be mentioned that, marketing can be a
useful function which can be used to protect an organization and help it in its time of need
along with contributing effectively to the overall communications planning along with crisis
management. The given section of the report will be analyzing, the potential or actual
emergency communications plan of the firm along with its overall crisis management plan.
Along with this, the importance or rather the role of marketing in improving the overall
reputation of the firm will be analyzed along with certain recommendations to improve the
same.
Analysis
Potential emergency communications plan along with the crisis management plan
Introduction
The Emergency marketing and communications plan has been designed by the marketing
department of the company in order to manage the operations and all the data during the
time of a crisis. The Director of Marketing as well as communications will be rightfully
designated as the official spokesperson for the crisis.
Crisis situation
 The crisis situation can be described as any scenario whereby:
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 Immediate as well as coordinated action is required to take place
 An action which tends to have a significant impact on the operations or the
overall reputation of the college.
Purpose
Although every type of crises or an emergency scenario will require a unique response from
the public, the crisis communication plan aims to provide the firm with a set of policies as
well as procedures which will assist them in coordination of the external as well as the
internal communications which takes place for the Sabre Insurance in the case when a crisis
arises. In case the determination is up by the organization`s management team or the
manager and that there is an emergency or a crisis which makes it considerably important to
initiate the communications then in this case, the particular plan will be implemented by the
main Office of Communications and Marketing as directed by the head of the firm.
Action Plan
In order to ensure that the firm`s response of public information is quick in case of an
emergency then, in that scenario it needs to be seen to it that the main office of
communications as well as marketing will be coordinating all the crisis communications with
the different media outlets and related channels. In case an emergency arises then, the
Director of Marketing and communications serves as the spokesperson of the firm. The
Spokesperson will be referred to in case of the other staff issues.
A. Immediate Response
 The director as well as the head of the particular firm will be the actual
decision maker and will be required to ensure whether an official statement is
to be prepared or provided.
 The director or the assistant director will be responsible for the formation of
the message which needs to be transmitted in the crisis or the emergency.
 The director will be required to brief the different marketing as well as the
communications personnel who will be assigned to answer the phone and to
provide response to the different emails as received.
 In addition to this, it will be the decision of the director and his responsibility to
determine the most effective as well as the efficient method and the statement
which has to be disseminated to all the relevant stakeholders in the case of
the crisis.
 However, it is important for the Director to discuss the particular statement
with the President before the dissemination actually takes place.
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 The administrators as present in the office and the overall regions of the firm
will be required to forward the statement formed to the different division staff
as present along with the departmental faculty, on campus students, the
customers as well as the other stakeholders associated with the firm.
 Additionally, the director will be responsible to coordinate the off campus
distribution of the important information through the medium of media, the
website of the college, direct mails as well as publications.
B. Ongoing response
The director and the other staff members will be required to ensure that they are able to
update the different departments and branches of the firm about any additional details
which they accumulate during the general course of business. In addition to this, they will
be required to communicate by making use of e-mail, campus e-news, faxes, information
hotline, press conferences, media contacts and other similar sources and related
publications.
The frequency of the messages which will be sent can be decided with the help of the
decision making of the manager and the directors as involved in the firm as they will
have to continue to do so till they have recovered the pre-crisis status.
The marketing and communications staff will be required to ensure that the correct
information is disseminated as quickly as possible.
The plan shall be evaluated continuously in order to ensure that the correct type of
revisions are made throughout
Incident management team
The particular plan will be designed and completed by the Incident management
team of the firm, who will thereby provide the communications strategies as required
by the particular scenario. The office of marketing as well as communications as
mentioned earlier, will be working with the Incident management team in order to
ensure that the information is disseminated effectively.
Media relations
Media relations form an important constituent who are required to be managed adequately
during the time of a crisis. This is because the media forms the point of control between the
firm and the stakeholders and hence, in relation to this, it is important to understand that,
Sabre Insurance is required to maintain effective relations with the media who will help them
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in disseminating the information correctly and maintaining a positive relations throughout the
organization and its related stakeholders who in this case can be stated to be the investors
and the policy holders (Coombs & Laufer, 2018). Hence, from this, it can be understood that
the media forms an essential aspect of the organization and that, during a crisis it is
important that the media is dealt with effectively. In addition to this, it is important that the
Sabre Insurance always remains honest as well as courteous when dealing with the media
as present.
The incident management team members are crucial members of the organization and it is
important for them to be present in order to answer all the questions which the media seeks
from them. In addition to this, they are required to remain honest as well as courteous when
they are dealing with the media. In addition to this, they are also required to ensure that they
get involved in a crisis which will ensure that, they will inform the director of Marketing and
communications about their progress which takes place.
Analysis of how the marketing function projects the firm/s reputation by contributing
to the emergency communication planning
The role of marketing in managing a crisis or an emergency, can be considered to be
very relevant, because, the marketing goes a long way in letting the firm know what is
important and how do they have to handle the overall situation (Reuter, Hughes & Kaufhold,
2018). This is because, the function of marketing involves the overall strategic planning
which goes a long way in assisting the organization to find a remedy for the crisis. Hence,
marketing has a great role to play in the time of a crisis and the role has been outlined as
follows:
I. Communicating the vision of the firm: The main role of marketing during the
time of a crisis or an emergency, can be stated to be communication of the
vision of the firm. In this aspect, it needs to be understood that it is through
the overall procedure of marketing, that the company goals as well as
objectives get communicated to the stakeholders and it is through this, that
the different individuals are able to understand the founding vision of the firm
and are able to gain an understanding of the firm was formed and how it will
enable the firm to survive during the time of the crisis (Coombs, 2018).
II. Defining the course of action to be adopted: Through marketing, the firm will
successfully be able to identify the course of action which needs to be
adopted by the firm and the manner in which, this course of action will be
identified and then communicated to the different members. Once this is
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done, there exists a certain level of clarity which helps to build the trust of the
members in the different activities and path as undertaken by the firm
(Pursiainen, 2017).
III. Taking responsibility: Marketing also goes a long way in assisting a firm to
ensure that they are taking responsibility for the actions (Morden, 2016). This
means that, the firm will be required to accept that a crisis has taken place
and that, they have to communicate to the stakeholders that they accept the
crisis which has taken place and that the firm is taking certain steps to ensure
that they are able to overcome the crisis effectively.
IV. Reflecting positivity: Marketing also helps to reflect positivity throughout the
particular crisis (Ghahremanlou, Sherchan & Thom, 2015). This means that, if
the firm is undergoing a hard time and the image of the firm has been going
down in the eyes of the customers, then the activity of marketing helps to
reflect positivity and remind the different customers of the good times the firm
has witnessed and helps to uplift he image of the firm in the eyes of the
different investors.
V. Resolve queries: The function of marketing, also goes a long way in resolving
the queries of the firm by regularly communicating with the different
customers and resolving any doubts as possessed by them (Fischer,
Posegga & Fischbach, 2016). In this way, the firm will be able to ensure that
they are successfully able to maintain a strong bond with the different
consumers.
Hence, from the given section, it can be largely understood that Marketing has a
great role to play in the overall business and it not only helps in ensuring that the firm is able
to present the best product in the eyes of the different customers but also ensure that the
firm is able to manage their operations during a crisis as well (Fearn-Banks, 2016). This
means that, marketing can be stated to be a rather comprehensive function with its branches
spread out in the entire structure of the business. In the section, we understood the manner
in which the firm will be able to ensure that, they are able to maintain strong relations with
the different members of the firm and the investors through the marketing function (Oswald
et al., 2019).
Recommendations for the firm to improve the overall marketing function`s
contribution to the potential communication planning
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1. Communicate more often
It is important for the firm to understand that if it wants to handle the different crisis
which takes place smoothly, it will be required to ensure that, they are communicating with
the different customers more often (Fehervari, 2018). This is because, the stakeholders who
are lying outside the firm have no idea about the crisis which has taken place and in line with
this, they would be required to ensure that, they communicate with them as often as possible
and are able to maintain a good rapport with the different members of the stakeholder group.
2. Maintaining the tone and tenor of the communication
The next recommendation which is being provided to the company can be stated to
be maintaining the tone as well as the tenor of communication (Farazmand, 2017). It must
be the motive of the organization to ensure that they are being able to transmit the
messages of the organization to the different stakeholders easily and let them not get
extremely panicked. This will help in ensuring that, the different customers maintain their
trust within the realm of the firm (Christensen, Lægreid & Rykkja, 2016).
3. Use social media
Another recommendation which can be provided to the firm is to make use of the
social media in order to ensure that the firm is successfully able to communicate with the
customers and get into an interaction with them (Lachlan et al., 2016). In addition to this, by
making use of the social media the firm will be able to ensure that, it can track all the
conversations which take place in the firm in regard to the organization and what has been
the overall reaction of the different customers to the particular crisis which takes place of the
firm (Boin, Stern & Sundelius, 2016). By using the social media, the firm will be able to
ensure that they get into an interactive relationship with the customers and are able to use
mediums like Facebook, Website, Twitter and Instagram.
4. Respond with clarity and not impulsiveness
The last strategy which is being recommended to the firm is to make use of clarity
while communication with the stakeholders (Booth, 2015). This means that, if the firm is able
to maintain clarity with the different stakeholders throughout the organization, then they will
be able to ensure that their messages are getting communicated with clarity and they are
able to see to it that the different customers become consistent with the organizational goals
and objectives.
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Hence, if the Sabre Insurance is able to follow the particular recommendations which
have been provided then in such a case, it will be able to ensure that, the crisis
communication takes place effectively and that the different stakeholders are satisfied.
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Referencing must be completed before submission
All sources must be referenced in the body of your answer as well as in your reference list. See
the 945 Specimen coursework assignment and answer for examples of how to reference
correctly in text and in your reference list.
References
Books
Boin, A., Stern, E., & Sundelius, B. (2016). The politics of crisis management: Public leadership
under pressure. Cambridge University Press.
Booth, S. A. (2015). Crisis management strategy: Competition and change in modern
enterprises. Routledge.
Coombs, T. (2018). Crisis communication. Encyclopedia of public relations, 2.
Farazmand, A. (2017). Crisis and Emergency management. Crisis and Emergency
Management: Theory and Practice, 1.
Fearn-Banks, K. (2016). Crisis communications: A casebook approach. Routledge.
Fehervari, Z. (2018). Crisis management. Nature immunology, 19(6), 510.
Fischer, D., Posegga, O., & Fischbach, K. (2016). Communication barriers in crisis
management: A literature review.
Morden, T. (2016). Principles of strategic management. Routledge.
Pursiainen, C. (2017). The Crisis Management Cycle. Routledge.
Reuter, C., Hughes, A. L., & Kaufhold, M. A. (2018). Social media in crisis management: An
evaluation and analysis of crisis informatics research. International Journal of Human–
Computer Interaction, 34(4), 280-294.
Journals
Bundy, J., Pfarrer, M.D., Short, C.E. & Coombs, W.T., (2017). Crises and crisis management:
Integration, interpretation, and research development. Journal of Management, 43(6), pp.1661-
1692.
Christensen, T., Lægreid, P., & Rykkja, L. H. (2016). Organizing for crisis management:
building governance capacity and legitimacy. Public Administration Review, 76(6), 887-897.
Coombs, W. T., & Laufer, D. (2018). Global Crisis Management–Current Research and Future
Directions. Journal of International Management, 24(3), 199-203.
Ghahremanlou, L., Sherchan, W., & Thom, J. A. (2015). Geotagging twitter messages in crisis
management. The Computer Journal, 58(9), 1937-1954.
Lachlan, K. A., Spence, P. R., Lin, X., Najarian, K., & Del Greco, M. (2016). Social media and
crisis management: CERC, search strategies, and Twitter content. Computers in Human
Behavior, 54, 647-652.
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Oswald AJ Mascarenhas, S. J., Kills, G. P. B., Pearson, C. M., & Clair, J. A. (2019). Reframing
crisis management. In Corporate Ethics for Turbulent Markets: Executive Response to Market
Challenges (Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 151-182). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Internet Websites
Sabre.co.uk (2019). Sabre Insurance UK. [online]. Available at: https://sabre.co.uk/ (Retrieved
on: 26 April. 2019).
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Glossary of key words
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