Subject: Crisis Manager 07-15-08: Ferry Disaster Case History & No-Cost Media Leads Service
From: "Jonathan Bernstein" <[email-masked]>
To: "Crisis Manager Subscribers" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:55:21 -0700

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
                          ¤¤CRISIS MANAGER¤¤

             The Internet Newsletter About Crisis Management

            <07-15-2008/ISSN:1528-3836/©2008 Jonathan Bernstein>

   Editor: Jonathan Bernstein, [email-masked]

   "For Those Who Are Crisis Managers, Whether They Want to Be or Not"
  
                          Circulation: 4,500+
                      Estimated Readership: 17,000+                   
____________________________________________________________________

>>JUST A THOUGHT<<

In a crisis, don't hide behind anything or anybody. They're going
to find you anyway.

                                     Bear Bryant
_____________________________________________________________________

>>CRISIS MANAGER UNIVERSITY<<

[Editor's Note: A very useful case history recently published in
the Philippines and reprinted here with permission.]

SULPICIO LINES HANDLING CRISIS POORLY - PR EXPERTS
By Lala Rimando

As days passed after M/V Princess of the Stars capsized in rough 
waters during a typhoon, the public witnessed Sulpicio Lines' 
handling of the crisis - and it is proving to be another story of 
a tragedy.

"It's a classic case of a PR (public relations) disaster," said 
Greg Garcia, a marketing expert and an advertising consultant to 
political figures.

Except for an initial sympathy message that was sent to media 
outfits, Sulpicio Lines had neither a sympathetic-looking 
spokesperson nor a system to update and handle the grieving 
relatives as days dragged on.

Media interviews showed that instead of sympathy, distraught 
relatives who flocked to the Sulpico offices in Manila and Cebu 
cities had to hurdle irate guards and hostile company lawyers.

It was an opportunity missed, Garcia noted. "The company should 
have set up a holding area for these people who obviously belong 
to the lower classes of the society. If they were taken cared 
of - there was ample supply of water, coffee, biscuit - and the 
company also provided grief counseling, gave them free flowers, 
let them attend masses and offer tributes, they could have been 
a perfect PR opportunity."

[Extreme measure]

One of the initial statements of Sulpicio Lines was that P200,000 
was allotted for the families of each casualty.

"That was so insensitive," Garcia said. "It seems that they 
(Sulpicio Lines) are just equating the value of life with money. 
They are portraying themselves as a company with no heart, and just 
showing off their pockets," Garcia added.

Garcia pointed to how the agony of the ship passengers' relatives 
constantly figured in the media coverage of the disaster. He cited 
the case of Levie Padua who has two relatives onboard the ship.

Padua still could not mourn properly for his two missing relatives, 
both passengers of the capsized vessel. Four days after the tragedy 
and even after the capsized vessel has been covered by the 
international media and condolences to the victims' families have 
poured in from everywhere, he climbed a tower near Sulpicio's Manila
office to demand from the company that he and other companions, 
relatives of the over 700 unaccounted passengers, be brought to Cebu 
City to identify their loved ones among the retrieved dead bodies.

"This is a global tragedy, but a relative has to take extreme 
measures to get attention of the ship owners," Garcia said. 
"Something is miserably wrong,"

[Show sympathy]

How companies manage a crisis defines them as corporate citizens 
practicing their social responsibility. The stakes are higher when 
lives are lost.

With a number of tragedies in the country involving local companies,
crisis management experts in the Philippines have an almost standard
list of musts and shoulds in times of emergencies.

As soon as the incident occurs and is made known to the public, the 
crisis management experts say the first few hours are crucial. A 
credible representative from the family owners, the chief executive 
officer, or another high-ranking management executive should deliver
a sympathy message at once.

"It's not the time to reason out. Just be sympathetic. Show nothing 
but sympathy. Never mind first whether it was your fault or nature's
fault, just go out there and show sorrow for what happened," said a 
crisis management expert who has handled several high- profile 
corporate crises in the past 15 years.

Immediately after, a company spokesperson should be assigned to 
respond to succeeding queries. Garcia said the choice of a 
spokesperson is also important since he or she will be the company's
public face whose looks and demeanor during every media appearance 
will be scrutinized.

Future judgment on the company will largely be on his or her conduct
during the crisis. "Get the most sympathetic spokesperson who is 
effective in responding to questions from the press and the 
relatives," Garcia added.

In every interaction with the public, the crisis management expert 
who requested not to be identified said, "The spokesperson should 
credibly show that you are a caring and responsible company and you 
don't want people to die."

Projecting the company's "caring" side is crucial because it will 
have an impact on consumers' trust. "The spokesperson should explain
the side of the company and why they should be trusted again. "The 
message is: This incident is just a glitch. Give me another chance,"
added the crisis expert.

All these are efforts to hurdle the crisis because, as the crisis 
expert said, "You are still a going concern. After this crisis, you 
still want your customers to come back and patronize you again."

[Availability of information]

The spokesperson, however, is just a messenger, letting the public 
know how the company is handling the crisis.

"There should be an update every so often on the details of what 
the company is doing. Is it coordinating with the authorities, the 
divers, the local officials in the search and rescue efforts?" the 
crisis expert said.

Again, the "caring" company should project that "We are doing 
everything we can to find out what happened to your parents, 
siblings, relatives, loved ones," he said. "But don't give them 
false hopes. If you cannot do some things or provide certain 
information yet, explain that to the relatives."

What is important is that the company is accessible to those who 
need information the most. "In the absence of any information, you 
worsen the people's potential loss," he said.

Previous tragedies, which were handled well, proved how availability
of information from the company paid off. These include the 
Glorietta blast in October 2007, which killed 11 mall goers and 
injured more than a hundred, the Cebu Pacific plane crash in
February 1998 that killed all 104 passengers, and the "Wowowee" 
stampede during a February 2006 show of ABS-CBN (the parent company 
of this website) where more than 80 perished.

In these three instances, the companies followed the guidelines 
prescribed in crisis management: The top honchos were sympathetic, 
their spokespersons were capable and looked sympathetic, and 
mitigation measures were detailed out regularly.

Petron Corporation, whose contracted tanker ship sank in rough 
waters off Guimaras Island in 2006, learned these crisis management 
lessons when it corrected what was previously a defensive stance. 
They addressed the furious reactions towards their first public 
statement, which highlighted the legal veil between Petron and the 
ship owner, with a much improved media communication team, just to 
convince the public that it is a company that genuinely cares.

[Grieving relatives]

In the case of Cebu Pacific's 1998 crash, relatives were immediately
flown to the crash site in Misamis Oriental and were provided free 
accommodation

As for the Glorietta bombing, Fernando Zobel, chairman of the mall 
operator, Ayala Land, did not just provide monetary support but a 
personal touch too. Away from the media glare, he went to the 
hospitals to tend to the injured and attended wakes and personally 
expressed his condolences to the bereaved families of the victims. 
They were provided P1 million in cash assistance and assured of 
rental income from a donated residential property.

"The cash assistance was way beyond what the law prescribes. It was 
the compensation package to all the casualties' families, and we 
did not compute anymore based on their income capacity," said a 
source intimately familiar with the company decisions.

[Crisis management lessons]

Despite the risks involved in the business, the crisis experts 
noted how the ship's owners still seemed to be unprepared for 
eventualities like this.

Sulpicio Lines is no stranger to sea mishaps. The capsized M/V 
Princess of the Stars is their fourth tragedy at sea. The other 
major sea mishap was the 1987 sinking of the overloaded M/V Dona 
Paz, which collided with an oil tanker. The death toll was more 
than 4,000.

Sulpicio Lines is just one of the many family-owned companies in 
the Philippines that have not been proactive enough to consider 
investing in crisis preparedness, the crisis expert said.

Crisis preparedness involves building a reservoir of goodwill.

Goodwill is built from intangibles, like product and company 
awards, consumer trust in the company's brands, and consistent 
recognition of philanthropic efforts to reach out to the business' 
stakeholders.

Colin Hubo, who heads the University of Asia and the Pacific's 
Center for Social Responsibility, explained that "companies make 
the extra investment in doing philanthropy and engaging with 
stakeholders because they are building social credits. If something 
goes wrong, or when a crisis hits, they can draw on this reservoir."

In other words, it's much better to be proactive by building a good 
reputation now than try to fix it later.

[Reprinted with permission from ABS-CBN (http://abs-cbnnews.com)]

                                ###

WHO NEEDS PAID LEAD SERVICES?

A news lead service -- one that lets you know when reporters are
looking for certain types of stories -- is not only useful for those
engaged in proactive PR.  From such services, I've learned:

¤  When one of my clients is the subject of an investigative story,
   even before they've been contacted.

¤  When one of my clients' competitors is the focus of negative
   news inquiries, which may prompt internal review by MY client to
   ensure they don't have similar weaknesses.

¤  Categorically, what industries are currently attracting the
   most attention from reporters likely to damage reputation.

News lead services -- I'm not going to name them, but one of the
biggest rhymes with CostaLotNet -- are all fine and dandy for big
agencies or larger corporations that can afford them, but they are
notoriously pricey for smaller practitioners. not-for-profits, etc.

Along comes Peter Shankman, http://www.shankman.com, who
describes himself as "CEO, Entrepreneur, Adventurist."
He has started Help A Reporer, a FREE service based at
http://helpareporter.com.  And what he says on that
web page is worth quoting here:

"Each day, you'll receive up to three emails, each with anywhere
from 2-10 queries per email. They'll all be labeled with
[shankman.com] in the subject line, for easy filtering. If you
see a query you can answer, go for it! HelpAReporter.com really
is that simple.

"I built this list because a lot of my friends are reporters, and
they call me all the time for sources. Rather than go through my
contact lists each time, I figured I could push the requests out
to people who actually have something to say.

"These requests only come from reporters directly to me. I never
take queries from that other service, I never SPAM, and I'm not
going to do anything with your email other than send you these
reporter requests when they arrive in my in-box.

"So a few things about this list: First off, yes, it's free.
It takes me a few minutes each day to do this, and the good Karma
is immeasurable. So I'm not charging. If you really feel like
sending me a donation or something, why not just send a few bucks
to an animal hospital or animal rescue society somewhere. Some good
places are Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, or The National Search
Dog Foundation. That'll keep the good Karma flowing.

"Next: This is really the only thing I ask: By joining this list,
just promise me and yourself that you'll ask yourself before you
send a response: Is this response really on target? Is this
response really going to help the journalist, or is this just a
BS way for me to get my client in front of the reporter? If you
have to think for more than three seconds, chances are, you
shouldn't send the response.

"In the end, we could probably all stand to do this a bit more, huh?

"That's it. No other rules. Sometimes the journalists will request
anonymity, in which case, you'll email me directly, and I'll
forward. Otherwise, I'll include journalist contact info at the
bottom of the list."

I think Peter could well do to the high-priced lead services what
craigslist has done to the newspaper advertising business, make them
either find a better business model, or fail.

He already has 14,000+ members on his mail list, which was started
only a short time ago.  His leads are varied and good, and there are
sometimes more than the 10-lead limit he thought there would be.
Sign up!  Help a Reporter, http://www.helpareporter.com.

[Jonathan Bernstein wrote this article wearing his "Dances With Woofs"
t-shirt.]
_____________________________________________________________________

>>CRISIS MANAGER BUSINESS ANNOUNCEMENTS (Blatant Self-Promotion)<<
                   
KEEPING THE WOLVES AT BAY 3.0 REVIEWED

"Keeping the Wolves at Bay" is much more than another media training
guide - it is perhaps one of the most concise, insightful, useful and
savvy guides to strategic thinking about reputation issues available.
	Gerald Baron
	Founder & CEO of PIER System and host of Crisisblogger.com
                              
                              ---
                          
"It's like a Swiss Army knife -- lots of cool tools in a compact
package. In case of emergency, grab this."
	Steven R. Van Hook, PhD
	Publisher, About Public Relations

In addition to individual and business usage, the manual is now being
required as a textbook at Seton Hall University, Grand Canyon University
and Singapore Management University, amongst others.  It is
available in both PDF and hard copy formats at www.thecrisismanager.com,
with reseller arrangements available for collegiate bookstores.

Jonathan Bernstein also offers on-site and remote webcam media training
worldwide, using this manual as the basis for training.  Write to
[email-masked] for more information.

                                ###

INTERNET COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE CD-ROM

In a one-hour teleseminar recorded in December 2007, search engine
optimization expert Diana Huff interviewed Jonathan Bernstein, a
pathfinder and innovator in the field of Internet-centered crisis
management, who described how a wide range of companies have been
damaged by the Internet’s virtual terrorists, and how some companies
have been responding effectively.

In this one-hour session, you'll learn how to conduct your own
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for ensuring someone is monitoring the blogosphere, news, and Internet
forums every day; plan for an Internet crisis and, when one hits,
assess the situation to determine an appropriate response; develop the
action steps you can take to neutralize attacks, including starting
your own blog and developing collateral such as brochures, video,
podcasts, and Web links to other reputable and informative sites; and
effectively use search engine optimization tactics -- not just because
you want customers to find your products -- but so you can beat these
guys at their own game!

Available at www.thecrisismanager.com, as are other titles.

                                ###

DISASTER PREP 101

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____________________________________________________________________

>>PLAIN ENGLISH DISCLOSURE<<

Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. has formal or informal co-promotional
and mutually beneficial business associations with a number of the
services we mention periodically in this newsletter. No, we
can't go into details because that's confidential, proprietary, etc.
But our relationship is NOT "arm's distance" and you should know that,
since we regularly write about these services as we use them for
crisis and issues management or other purposes. That said, you should
also know that Bernstein Crisis Management sought the relationships
because its staff is convinced that these services are the best of
their kind for Bernstein Crisis Management's needs and those of its
clients. If you have any questions about these relationships, please
contact Jonathan Bernstein, (626) 825-3838. 
_____________________________________________________________________

>>ABOUT THE EDITOR & PUBLISHER<<

Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc.
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com, a national crisis
management public relations agency providing 24/7 access to crisis
response professionals. The agency engages in the full spectrum of
crisis management services: crisis prevention, response, planning
& training. He has been in the public relations field since 1982,
following five-year stints in both military intelligence and
investigative reporting. Write to
[email-masked].

Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. is located at 180 S. Mountain Trail,
Sierra Madre, CA  91024.  Telephone: (626) 825-3838.
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>>LINKS<<

When I find a site that I think will be useful to my readers or
site visitors, I put it here:

http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/links.html

If you have a site that would be of specific use to crisis managers
and want to discuss a link exchange or other cooperative effort,
please write to me, [email-masked].
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>>LEGAL DISCLAIMER<<

All information contained herein is obtained by Jonathan Bernstein 
from sources believed by Jonathan Bernstein to be accurate and 
reliable. 

Because of the possibility of human and mechanical error as well 
as other factors, neither Jonathan Bernstein nor Bernstein 
Crisis Management is responsible for any errors or omissions. All 
information is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. 
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including, without limitation, warranties as to accuracy, 
timeliness, completeness, merchantability, or fitness for any 
particular purpose. 

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Jonathan Bernstein and Bernstein Crisis Management shall have no 
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law, product liability), to the user and/or any third party. 

Under no circumstance shall Bernstein Crisis Management or Jonathan 
Bernstein be liable to the user and/or any third party for any 
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Bernstein Crisis Management or Jonathan Bernstein has been advised of 
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A service of this newsletter is to provide news summaries and/or 
snippets to readers. In such instances articles and/or snippets 
will be reprinted as they are received from the originating party 
or as they are displayed on the originating Web site or in the 
original article. As we do not write the news, we merely point 
readers to it, under no circumstance shall Bernstein 
Crisis Management or Jonathan Bernstein be liable to the user and/or 
any third party for any lost profits or lost opportunity, 
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whatsoever due to the distribution of said news articles or 
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has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Authors of 
the original news story and their publications shall be 
exclusively held liable. Any corrections to news stories are not 
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moderator after evaluation on a case-by-case basis.
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