Assignment On Hm Online Crisis Communication

Running head: H&M ONLINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
H&M ONLINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1H&M ONLINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Executive Summary:
The purpose of the paper is to discuss about an identified problem by presenting its
background and presenting recommendation regarding handling the crisis situation. The
paper selected H&M communication crisis management as the case study. The paper
depicted the actual problem and probable reasons for the outraging issue, which caused
declining profit and customer turnover. The paper presented a detailed discussion regarding
the crisis handling strategies and actions adopted by H&M. The report explained the potential
actions and steps that can help in the crisis situation like H&M and alternative or ideal
responses.

2H&M ONLINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Issue........................................................................................................................................3
Reaction of the company:.......................................................................................................4
Analysis of the situation:........................................................................................................4
Recommendations:.................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6

3H&M ONLINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Introduction
Involving the process of formulation and execution of goals and objectives by the
efforts and resources of an organization is known as strategic management. Organizations
implements strategic management practices with the association of resources and analysis of
external and internal environment of business. The purpose of the paper is to present a
description about the issue or challenge faced by an organization through its marketing
communication strategy. The company selected for this paper is H&M, where the clothing
company have media/communication management crisis. The paper will present the problem
statement along with the assertion for the company. Swedish retailer H&M experienced
online backlash for the accusation regarding casual racism for including black child
promoting a hoodie with slogan ‘coolest monkey in the jungle’. The paper will focus on
providing background facts of the problem or issue experienced by the brand. The paper will
be concluded by recommendation for the experienced issues.
Discussion
Issue
In today’s world related of fast fashion and fashion retailing, shopping is majorly
concentrated on online stores. Online presence has become a significant strategy for clothing
companies. The Sweden clothing company H&M have experienced an online backlash for
the decision of including black child for a hoodie along with a slogan, which was considered
as a racist depiction (Mensah & Osman, 2018). The slogan was ‘coolest monkey in the
jungle’. The issue was a result of ineffective communication or product launch strategy and
was considered to be a major situation for crisis media management (Mensah & Osman,
2018). The issue accompanied the refusal from musicians called The Weekend for working
with the brand as well as the issue resulted in the shutting down of H&M retail store in South

4H&M ONLINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Africa in the form of protest (Beyer, Bierling & Öjerbrant, 2018). The backlash started due to
the inclusion of the black child who is modeling for a new product launch with the slogan
‘coolest monkey in the jungle’ in the online stores. The crisis will reflect long-term
consequences on the business. The boy selected for the ad was Liam Mango, the slogan on
the hoodie resulted on national attention (Beyer, Bierling & Öjerbrant, 2018). The image was
considered to be a complete racists comment. The crisis escalated with the increasing
awareness about the racist action. The Swedish clothing company reverted for the acquisition
and backlash by an apology (Coombs, Holladay & Tachkova, 2019). The clothing brand
experienced declining profit with the increasing awareness of the communication strategy.
Around 4.3 billion dollars of the products were found unsold after few months of crisis
situation, which marked 62 percent drop in sales. The case of H&M crisis is a live example
for ineffective social media monitoring (Mensah & Osman, 2018).
Fig. - Declining brand perception during and after the incidence
(Source: YouGov.co.uk, 2019).

5H&M ONLINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
The profit of H&M after the financial items post first quarter was 1.3 billion Swedish
Krona in comparison to 3.2 billion Swedish Krona (after the crisis situation) for similar
period in the last year (before the incidence). However, the brand perception started changing
post numerous apologies.
Reaction of the company:
H&M, the Swedish clothing company reacted to the backlash with a written apology
in the year 2017, where they apologized regarding the racist depiction of the image. The
apology of the clothing company stated, “We sincerely apologize for this image, it has been
removed from all online channels and the product will not be for sale in the United States
(Mensah & Osman, 2018). We believe in diversity and inclusion in all that we do and will be
reviewing our internal routines”. The statement can be considered as self-seeking or
inconsiderate in regards to the rate of disappointment and outrage in the market. The
apologies include statements like ‘anyone this may have offended’ and ‘could have been
perceived’.
Analysis of the situation:
The medium of issuing apology and the selection of statement of apology can be
considered failing the main objective of the apology. The selection of medium in presenting
apology was ineffective as it did not reflected improvement in the sales and profit figure of
the company. The content of the revert messages included statements like ‘May and if, which
reflect the customers’ perception about the ad rather than presenting regret for commented
error. The crisis handling ability of H&M was found ineffective for the audience as it did not
selected various forms of medium and strategies ensuring the low probability of the situation.
The apology for this situation was not empathetic at the initial stage, with the presence of pre-
preparedness for any crisis media management incidence (Beyer, Bierling & Öjerbrant,
2018). The communication decision of the clothing company to its customers after the

6H&M ONLINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
incidence depicted the promise of excluding the new product and image from all the H&M
channels of the company.
Although, H&M failed to handle the situation at first with unclear apologies and
ineffective revert strategies. However, the Swedish company transformed its action and
accountability measures for the crisis. H&M responded for the issue in their stores by
mentioning the removal of the picture and the product from their stock. The action of
removing the whole product line with the floating images was more effective than the choice
of apologetic content and channel (Beyer, Bierling & Öjerbrant, 2018). The brand also
ensured the review of the internal policies and procedures for preventing the same mistake
from happening in future. The final action for the issue included the strategy of recycling the
products that are already being manufactured by the company (Beyer, Bierling & Öjerbrant,
2018). The recycling strategy was an effective strategy for handling the crisis as it depicted
accountability for the resources used for products. Reflecting ethical and sustainability policy
through the decision was appropriate. In the series of responding to the product launch, the
company finally declared the mistake and took full responsibility for the issue.
Recommendations:
 Strategic communication channel: Selecting an effective communication network by
embracing the reach of the media for attracting customers should not be interrupted
by improper content or poorly reviewed product launch (Blakeman, 2018).
 Constructing revert plan immediately and effectively: Organization should plan the
revert plan for a crisis situation, which can majorly decline the profit margin and
customer turnover (Haider et al., 2019).
 Implement assessment function: Reviewing each step of supply chain and marketing
is very crucial for aligning the value proposition with the customers’ perception about
a brand (Haider et al., 2019).

7H&M ONLINE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
 Maintaining consistency: Consistency regarding value proposition, media selection,
content strategy can reflect effectiveness in attracting customers and in
transformation of the customer perception about a brand. H&M included unclear
media for responding to situation with confusing content. First apology was a
reaction to reporters’ request. Second apology was in the form of tweet and final was
in the website (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2019).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded by stating that H&M have responded to the identified
business environment issue adopting different message platform and recycling strategy but
the clothing company should have maintained consistency in the revert plan and should
implement a review plan for brand communication and social media strategy.

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References:
Beyer, J., Bierling, K., & Öjerbrant, F. (2018). Case H&M-(Un) coolest Monkey in the
Jungle-When Ads Turn Against Their Creators. LBMG Corporate Brand
Management and Reputation-Masters Case Series.
Blakeman, R. (2018). Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to
implementation. Rowman & Littlefield.
Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2019). Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Coombs, W. T., Holladay, S. J., & Tachkova, E. (2019). Crisis Communication, Risk
Communication, and Issues Management. Public Relations Theory: Application and
Understanding, 31.
Haider, A. A., Zafar, A., Khalid, A., Majid, A., Abdullah, M. A., & Sarwar, M. B. (2019).
Marketing Management.
Mensah, F., & Osman, T. (2018). Communicating through social media to regain
stakeholders trust during crises: A case study about H&M.
YouGov.co.uk (2019). H&M announces drop in profits, but its consumer perception holds up
| YouGov. [Online] Retrieved from https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-
reports/2018/03/28/hm-announces-drop-profits-its-consumer-perception-