Brand Strategy Helps During Crisis

Last week marked anniversaries for two tragic events in US and education history. The shootings at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech University are crises that we will probably never forget. Because of its one year anniversary, the Virginia Tech situation received more media coverage.

Reading about those two events also allowed me to reflect on other crisis situations, and how the organization's handled the events, such as the Exxon Valdez and Tylenol occurrences. Most graduate communications courses compare and contrast these two cases studies.

When we think of these two events, as well as the educational situations, even though it is difficult to do sometimes, we must not only think about how they were handled, but did the organization have a brand strategy in place that helped guide crisis communication, security, policies and procedures and other brand architecture aspects. An organization's name and what it stands for should help guide it before, during and after a crisis. Otherwise the crisis could determine the long range reputation of the brand.

I think in the case of Virginia Tech, Hokie pride and what that means not only helped the school through its most difficult period, but will define the school in the future. On the other side of the coin, think Exxon Valdez. Does your organization have a brand strategy that guides your crisis planning, if so, how?

Comments

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