BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

When consumer product safety scares create reputational crises for companies, a priority goal is to reach the teachable moment - the point at which the public is satisfied that the crisis has been contained and the company can begin to regain consumer confidence by talking abou what it's doing to prevent similar problems in the future.

As we see in the chart below - which utilizes Levick' s own public opinion research to map consumer anxiety over time during recent spinach, toy, and pet food recalls - worry over the crisis rises exponentially until reaching its peak and then gradually subsiding. While this general pattern is by no means surprising, the events that caused consumer anxiety to ebb often are.



The points at which consumer anxiety began to abate in each case (marked by the yellow dots) were not "all clear" announcements reassuring consumers that the products were once again safe. Importantly, they were instead the points at which the cause of the crisis was pinpointed.

For spinach it was identifying the source of E. coli contamination as cattle ranches in close proximity to the fields where the spinach in question was grown. For toys, it was identifying two plants in China as the source of unsafe levels of lead paint. And for pet food, it was identifying Chinese manufacturers as the source of melamine adulteration.

The lesson from the teachable moment is that often in a crisis a final solution need not be found. Identifying the cause of a crisis is an important action step -- but not the only action step - that organizations can take to demonstrate their commitment to public safety.

Think of your trepidation upon hearing a dog growl in a pitch black room. Once the light was turned on and you could see the dog was a small white poodle, your level of fear would drop immediately. Even if it turned out to be a Doberman, you'd probably still feel better knowing what it was that you were confronting.

The same dynamic is at play in consumer product crises. Once the public knows "the why" (the cause), it is ready for the focus on "the how" (the solution). That' s the teachable moment. It marks the time when you can begin bouncing back with a vigorous marketing program to restore your company' s brand credibility and trust.