Reputation Management and Crisis Planning

The given report analyzes the role of PR managers in maintaining a balance between crisis and reputation management. It emphasizes the need for a crisis management plan to effectively deal with crises at the right time. The report also highlights the significance of reputation management in maintaining a good image and reputation in the market, which helps develop a positive image of the company in the public's mind.

ADVERTISING AND
PUBLIC RELATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Crisis Management Plan..................................................................................................................2
Reputation Management Plan..........................................................................................................4
PR manager of the company might adopt some steps which are as follows:.............................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Advertisement or promotion of a product can be done through various mediums which
includes print media, online media, radio or many more. Advertising is a paid media as company
gives money to the sponsors in order to promote their products and services. On the other hand,
Public relations is a communication process used by companies to build positive relationships
between consumers and the organisation. With the help of effective advertisements and public
relations company can attract more customers towards their brands, as a result company can
generate more profit as well as gain competitive advantages. With the help of proper public
relation, customers will be able to understand about the products and services offered by them
(Austin and Pinkleton, 2015). In the present report, KEO plc- Greek is taken as the base
company which is a Cyprus beverage company. It was established in the year 1927 and
represents as one of the biggest company with more than 90 brands. Company operates in six
trading divisions which includes beer, wines, water, spirits, canned food, juices and soft drinks
with both local as well as international brands. In the present report, management of crisis and
reputation will going to be discussed. It will further include crisis and reputation management
plan and various ways through which PR manager can effectively control emerging issues of
company.
MAIN BODY
Advertisement: It is a process of communicating or promoting goods and services offered
by company to their customers. With the help of effective advertisement company can attract
more and more customers which will generate more profit for the organisation. Advertisement is
a process which help in creating awareness about the products and services offered by companies
to their costumers. In today's competitive world, companies adopt various methods for
promoting their products which includes radio, newspaper, internet, television and many more.
Public Relation: Public relation managers help in establishing and maintaining positive
relationships between customers and companies. It is a process of communicating organisations
messages to the customers at right time. Public relations is an art of of building positive
relationship which will aid the company in attracting more and more customers (Cortese, 2015).
Crisis: It refers to a critical situation which arises within the organisation and if it is not
handled in an effective manner, may create disasters for the whole company. Crisis is an
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unexpected situation which suddenly arises and affects the stability of a business organisation. It
acts as a negative situation for the company, where effective decision has to be taken within a
limited time period. A crisis situation can harm companies brand image and reputation which
negatively affects its financial condition. The whole process or a series of various steps
performed by the company in order to manage the situation in an effective manner is known as
crisis management.
Reputation: It refers to the recognition that has been created over a time. In other words
it is known as character of a person which is judged by others. There could be different opinions
or beliefs about an individual. In the context of a company, it is the goodwill which is reflected
through brand value and number of customers using the products (Doorley and Garcia, 2015).
Reputation management refers to the process which influence the thinking of people about a
particular brand or person. Reputation management can be classified in three main categories
which includes building, maintenance, recovery. Building: It is one of the type of reputation management, which help in building the
reputation of a new business enterprise. Maintenance: Under this type of reputation management, it is the work of an existing
company to keep the good image of organisation in public eye. This is used by already
established company and have good brand image. Recovery: It refers to those companies who have got very bad image among their
customers, by some kind of reason.
Crisis Management Plan
It is very essential for an organisation to adopt step by step approaches in order to handle
the critical situation in an effective manner. For every company it is very important to prepare a
management plan to solve the adverse situation in an effective manner. Crisis management plan
is a plan which includes detailed description about various measures or actions taken by
company during any critical situation (Ferguson, 2018). With the help of this plan employees of
the company adopts a focused approach while adverse situation. In addition to this, it will aid the
managers to take quick and effective actions according to the situation. Effective crisis
management plan reduce uncertainty and instability between the staff members of organisation
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and aid them to work effectively. In order to prepare an effective crisis management plan,
management team of the company should adopt following steps:
1. Assess risk: It is the first and basic step to create a crisis management plan. It is the
stage where risk of the company can be assessed by management team in advance. These
risk might includes various factors which as public relation blunder, social media
mishappening, cyberattacks and many more. It is the responsibility of the company to
prepare a plan for future in order to reduce the negative impact (Gregory, 2015).
2. Determine the impact on company: In the second stage of this management plan, it is
the responsibility of the team to determine negative impact which might affect their
overall revenue. With the help of business impact analyses (BIA) company will be able
to identify impact which affects the overall business. These negative impacts can be
dissatisfaction among customer, negative image in the public eye, loss of customers and
many more.
3. Identify contingencies: After analysing the risk and its impact, next step is to identify
what measures should company adopt in order to face these situations in an effective
manner. Arrangement of required resources, employees in advance in order to respond
effectively towards each situation.
4. Build a plan: After determining crisis situations, communicate plans with employees,
managers and with those who are investing in their business. This has to be done in order
to arrange materials and resources from outside parties. If company face any kind of
adverse situation, they require effective material in order to overcome with such
situations.
5. Familiarize users: It is very important for the company to communicate their plans with
staff members, in order to understand their roles and responsibilities during the time of
crisis. For every individual, it is very essential to have enough knowledge about their
responsibilities at the time of negative situation (Jugenheimer and et. al., 2015). If they
require any kind of training to handle such situations, it is the duty of the team members
to provide training sessions in advance. As a result, at the time of crisis employees
should perform their task in an effective manner.
6. Revisit the plan: Once the above plan has been approved by top management authority,
revisit the plan. In addition to this, it is very important to update their plan on a regular
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basis. If there is any changes occur in the company regarding technologies up gradation,
new employees and many more, it is very essential to keep your plan up to date and
communicate it with each individual.
Reputation Management Plan
Reputation management is the procedure which help the company in increasing their
brand image and goodwill of the company. In order to improve the reputation of company it is
very important to adopt a series of approach. It is very important for every company to have their
own reputation plan which will aid them in order to enhance their brand image over a period of
time (Kunczik, 2016). In order to build reputation, company required lot of hard work along with
continuous interactions with their customers. For preparing effective reputation management
plan, it is the responsibility of the management team to adopt following steps:
1. Examine current reputation: In order to prepare an effective reputation management
plan, it is one of the basic step. In this step, company need to listen about opinions,
thought and views of customers for products and services they offered to them. For this,
it is the responsibility of the managers to monitor and examine daily response of
consumers. People can talk about the products in various places, which includes social
media, newspaper, websites of the company, radio shows and many more. For this,
management team of the company should keep themselves up to date about the responses
of customers.
2. Devise a response plan: It is the next step where company should response towards
positive as well as negative comments. It is the duty of management team to figure out
who is actually responsible in order to response for reviews and comments. In addition to
this, company should hire a person for managing their social media pages and their
websites. With this, company will be able to solve queries and problems of customers and
provide them guidance (L'Etang and et. al., 2015).
3. Handle negative response with care: It is not possible for a company to get high rating
from each and every customers. It is the responsibility to handle negative comments with
care and try to covert their negative thoughts in positive views. With the help of negative
reviews, company get a chance to clear their bad image and gave them right informations
about their products and services.
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4. Build on the positives: As there are many negative comments on the company website,
there are some positive comments also which will help the organisation in enhancing
there reputation. Company should reward such customers by saying good things which
will retain them for a long period of time. It is the responsibility of a PR Mangers to
interact with customers on a regular basis which will increase their brand image and also
gain competitive advantages at the marketplace (Nolte, 2016).
5. Follow through as well as measure the results: It is the last step of the Reputation
management plan, where it is the role of the PR manager to follow through their
promises. If the PR manager made promises to their customers on a public platform, in
order to resolve their issues, it is their duty to satisfy their customers requirements. After
ensuring that the reputation of the company is on rise, they must measure their result.
With the help of crisis and reputation management plan, company can resolve their issues in a
positive manner. In addition to this, it is the duty of a management team to develop such plan if
there is any adverse situation arises within the organisation. For instance, in the present context
of Cyprus beverage company, management team of the company appoints a PR manager in order
to implement effective management plan related to crisis and reputation.
PR manager of the company might adopt some steps which are as follows:
1. Setting up realistic goals and expectations: Company should set such goals at the time
of crisis, which are realistic in nature. Examine the whole situation and then set goals and
objectives according to the situation face by company at the time of crisis. PR manager of
the company should enhance the reputation of the company, reduced at the time of crisis.
In the present context, PR manager of Cyprus beverage company set realistic and
achievable goals in order to improve their negative image (Qrunig and Qrunig, 2016).
There is a situation when raw material is not available at time for company in order to
produce goods and services. As a result, it is not possible for the company to supply
products on time which effects their brand image. With the help of proper arrangements
of raw material in advance company can enhance their brand image among their
customers as well as retain them for a long period of time.
2. Assess the damage: After facing the adverse situation, various damages happen within
the organisation. These damages includes loss of customers, reduce in brand image, loss
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of products of the company and many more. It is the responsibility of the management
team of the company, to assess the whole damage face by company at the time of crisis.
In the present case of Cyprus beverage company, after analysing the damages faced by
company, PR manager of the company is responsible to enhance their brand image at the
competitive marketplace (Schauster and Neill, 2017).
3. Thoughtfully plan your media strategy: After facing the situation of crisis it is the
responsibility of management team of the company to formulate plans and strategies in
an effective manner. It is the duty of a PR manger of develop plans in an effective
manner which will enhance the reputation of the company among the competitive
marketplace. Before formulating any media related strategy, it is the duty of a PR
manager to examine all negative as well as positive impact of that strategy. In the present
context of Cyprus beverage company, PR manager of the company should plan their
media strategy in an effective manner which will aid them in gaining competitive
advantages at the marketplace. By creating attractive online website company can
influence more and more customers towards their company. Along with this, company
can provide attractive offers to their customers with the help of which company can gain
their customers back (Schauster, Ferrucci and Neill, 2016).
4. Pick social media fights in a careful manner: In the today's competitive world, social
media plays very important role in building the reputation of a company. It is very
essential for an organisation to plan and operate their strategies in an effective manner
with the help of social media. Reduce in the reputation of a company can affect the
profitability of organisation. In the present case of Cyprus beverage company, PR
manager of the company handle all the situations relation to the customers and improve
the customer manager relations.
5. Be honest with yourself: The PR manager of the company should be honest and
trustworthy with himself and their clients. The clients of the organisation must be
trustworthy as this will lead to see a good picture. This will further help to retain dignity
and assert control on themselves and what they choose to show up in the world. This is
important to maintain the level of honesty as this further affect the goodwill of the
company (Stacks, 2016) In the present context of Cyprus Beverage company, PR
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manager must lay emphasis on maintaining the level of trust and honesty as this leads to
manage relations with customers.
6. Explore all the options: As the environment is dynamic in nature and world has become
more transparent. Every company should explore all the prevailing options and grab the
opportunities from the market. Exploring options leads to company to attain their
objectives on timely basis in effective and efficient manner (Austin and Pinkleton, 2015).
With reference to Cyprus Beverage company, the PR manager should conduct proper
market analysis and research to explore all the necessary options which will help to
generate more profits. Also, this leads to enhanced profitability because of adoption of
latest technologies.
7. Separate emotion from the necessary work: The clients to maintain the balance between
the emptions and work as this can hamper the reputation of the company and will lead to
generate the crisis. The reputation crisis is most important element which hampers the
public image of the company. In context of Cyprus Beverage company, the PR managers
must perform their task separate from their emotions (Cortese, 2015).
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been analysed that PR manager of the company
help in maintaining the balance between the crisis and reputation of the organisation. The
company formulates the crisis management plan which helps in dealing with the crisis at the
proper time effectively and efficaciously. This report also to gain the understanding about the
management of reputation of the company. The reputation management plan helps to maintain
the good image and reputation in the market which helps to develop the positive image of the
company in the minds of the public.
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REFERENCES
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managing effective communication campaigns. Routledge.
Cortese, A. J., 2015. Provocateur: Images of women and minorities in advertising. Rowman &
Littlefield.
Doorley, J. and Garcia, H. F., 2015. Reputation management: The key to successful public
relations and corporate communication. Routledge.
Ferguson, M. A., 2018. Building theory in public relations: Interorganizational relationships as a
public relations paradigm. Journal of Public Relations Research. 30(4). pp.164-178.
Gregory, A., 2015. Planning and managing public relations campaigns: A strategic approach.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Jugenheimer, D. W., and et. al., 2015. Advertising and public relations research. Routledge.
Kunczik, M., 2016. Images of nations and international public relations. Routledge.
L'Etang, J., and et. al., 2015. The Routledge handbook of critical public relations. Routledge.
Nolte, L. W., 2016. Fundamentals of public relations: professional guidelines, concepts and
integrations. Elsevier.
Qrunig, L. A. and Qrunig, J. E., 2016. Toward a theory of the public relations behavior of
organizations: Review of a program of research. In Public relations research
annual (pp. 37-74). Routledge.
Schauster, E. and Neill, M., 2017. Have the ethics changed? An examination of ethics in
advertising and public relations agencies. Journal of Media Ethics. 32(1). pp.45-60.
Schauster, E. E., Ferrucci, P. and Neill, M. S., 2016. Native advertising is the new journalism:
How deception affects social responsibility. American behavioral scientist. 60(12).
pp.1408-1424.
Stacks, D. W., 2016. Primer of public relations research. Guilford Publications.
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