northwest client
DESCRIPTION
Mock situation that helped us utilize efficient and effective crisis PR managementTRANSCRIPT
Impact Image PRNorthwest Airlines
Crisis Management Plan
Hypothetical Client Scenario and Strategy
April 14, 2009
SPCM 481 – Cases and Campaigns
Dr. Bardhan
Bill Cozzie, Ryan Ederer, Craig Ramsey, Dominique Wash
In 1927, Northwest Airways began their first flights holding passengers.
Since then, they have changed their name to Northwest airlines and has
operated continuously under one name longer than any other U.S. airline.
The fifth largest airline in the world and was the first to ban smoking on its
flights.
Each year it operates 1,500 flights to more than 1,000 destinations
worldwide. These destinations include 120 countries on 6 continents
transporting over 52 million passengers a year.
“Red-Tail” Logo recognized globally
Bridged the technological gap by:
Allowing E-ticketing passengers to check-in and obtain boarding passes in as little
as 30 seconds.
Allowing customers to receive tickets and notifications via email.
Ensures the safety of children flying alone, and offers a guarantee on
unaccompanied children on flights around the world.
Relax, It’s not that bad!
The story reaches many homes, but is not a regular household
discussion or concern across the United States
Biggest problem is Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse
They have several different chapters across the nation
They have editorials submitted to newspapers 15 major cities
nationwide, but other than that, the news trail ends.
Daytime talk shows pick up story
Includes two very popular shows, Oprah and Ellen.
Ultimately, The story stems to only about 75% of consumers who
are aware of the situation as well as asking more questions, but
besides MAMA making a big deal about it, no sales have been
affected heavily.
Problems:
Controlling MAMA and the audiences they reach.
Daytime talk show hosts instigating negative attention.
News outlets making this information easily accessible.
Opportunities:
MAMA isn’t a large activist group and not well-known.
International regulatory organizations aren’t as concerned with the
use of the drug as U.S. organizations, making it easier to control
an International Media Crisis
Mom is interested in incentives potentially offered by Northwest to
compensate for the current situation.
Goals and Objectives:
Gain mother’s alliance.
Limit amount of international media attention.
Make audiences aware of MAMA’s lack of credibility.
Make audiences aware of the initiative Northwest has
taken towards the situation.
Firing of flight attendant.
Further investigation into the case.
Gaining mother’s alliance with incentives and/or compensation for
her troubles throughout this ordeal.
Financial Settlement
Free flights for immediate family for life.
Further medical and legal research reveal the drug is only of
concern to U.S. regulatory programs.
Easy to make it of little or no concern to International Media.
Publically question the credibility of MAMA
Small size
Not affiliated with any other national organizations.
Has known to be radical in the past.
Publically terminate Flight Attendant
Make consumers and the public aware of the termination.
Make public aware that Northwest does not condone that sort of
behavior whatsoever and the investigation is on-going.
Evaluating mother and her reactions
Face-to-face interview.
Following her reactions and interviews through the media.
Hiring media watchdog group to monitor International
media.
Evaluating primary data received will help us analyze the
threat, or lack of, an international media crisis.
Random surveys to NWA Customers on the termination of
the flight attendant as well as their overall awareness and
attitude about the situation.
Food and Drug Administration decide to examine situation further and publically announce their investigation. They find evidence that consumption of antidepressants can lead to a rare
but serious lung disorder called: persistent pulmonary hypertension.
FAA holds national news conference involving all major media outlets.Media questions Northwest and their flight attendants demanding answers
if drugging of infants occurred on regular basis.
Media also questions how Northwest is dealing with their delinquent employee.
This scenario results in severely negative media attention as well as: Suspension from major travel seasons
Severe loss in ticket sales
Re-evaluation of hiring process and training of Northwest employees by FAA.
International and national scrutiny.
Scenario causes an outrageous uproar amongst travelers and parents worldwide thus resulting in sever damage done to the reputation and image of Northwest Airlines
Northwest needs to separate themselves from the
flight attendant who committed the alleged crime.
This is crucial because we need to isolate the incident to
one person and stray away from NWA’s reputation
We plan on doing this by:
Publically terminating flight attendant
Inform public that NWA doesn’t support or condone this
behavior
Create a public investigation by NWA looking into several
aspects of the incident including hiring process and
evaluation and flight attendant supervision.
Following the implementation of our goals and
objectives, our team hopes to turn public image by
creating positive partnerships to help diminish these
incidents. Possible partnerships include:
Teaming up with the FDA researching prescription drugs
with infants specifically designed for flights.
Joining with the FAA developing government regulated
training programs for professional flight attendants
A Large donation from NWA to a hospital prenatal
wing/facility.
Keep it simple and straightforward:Hold a press conference immediately to announce the flight
attendant has been terminated and investigations are on-going.
This is a one-time, isolated incident that will never happen again.
Deeply regret this unfortunate situation by reaching out to mother publically, apologizing and claiming full responsibility.
Approach the FAA and propose joint partnership in launching mandatory training process for flight attendants.
Promote campaign world-wide through major news corporations to reach many different publics.
These will help eliminate this from ever happening again
Ultimately, we want the public to see that Northwest is taking a proactive approach to the situation and will do whatever it takes to make sure this sort of problem doesn’t happen again.
After implementing the proposed strategy, we plan on evaluating the campaign by:Analyzing and evaluating the financial return of NWA.
Assist in removal of travel season suspensions and return to or near the average ticket sales of previous fiscal year.
Poll major news stations, especially ones that were heavily included and interested in the situation.Detect the number of positive media that NWA has received following
the implementation of the FAA partnership
Ideally we would like to have turned 75% of nationwide media into positive attention, rather than negative and also eliminate connection of flight attendant and NWA.
Conduct survey to random sample of the general public about NWAWill include several different aspects to be polled by consumers and
the public which will be analyzed by our firm to give us a strong sense of public opinion
Will help us determine if strategy was successful or unsuccessful.
Situations happen and Impact Image PR understands this.
Regardless of each scenario given, Impact Image PR is
confident that we can control this crisis. We are confident
that we can completely rebuild the image of Northwest
Airlines and allow them to be a successful, reputable and
prominent leader in the aviation industry.
Impact Image PR