University of Phoenix
COM 352
Stephen D. Kempisty
February 7, 2011
Crisis Communications
In time of crisis, a public relations specialist must pull a specific strategy for each audience and understand how each audience it is going to react to this strategy.
The public relations specialist needs to watch and analyze the audience to determine if its strategy is effective or not. If the strategy chosen it is not providing the results expected the specialist should make a smart move and change his plan.
For this reason it is extremely important to always have a public relations specialist in every organization because it is essential that in a time of crisis there is an expert who will know how to handle the situation.
In the case of Toyota, this is a company with a solid foundation that has been in the market for more than 20 years, but unfortunately last year had to face a time of crisis after a California Highway Patrol officer died along with his family because of a faulty accelerator pedals on the automobile.
Benefits and Risks of using Strategies
After the incident, Toyota tried to find a solution for the issue and its spokespeople sent messages out to the media assuring the public of the quality its products. These measurements were an effort to win back the good reputation that they had prior to this incident. Toyota felt it was necessary to suspend the production of eight of its most popular units to focus on finding a solution to the problem with its automobiles. Toyota Public relations campaign was considered a one of the best public relations campaign in years because their strategy was based on proper decisions and cautiousness to promote the peace of mind of its consumers.
When an organization is diffusing a crisis five paramount principles exist: (1) define the risk for each potentially affected audience; (2) describe the actions that mitigate the risk; (3) identify the case of the risk; (4) demonstrate
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