Chapter 12: NEWS FLASH!!! Developing a Good Communication plan could help you avoid some contaminated beef, or diseased citrus!

Developing a communication plan, as those of us in public relations know, is of the utmost importance in any situation, especially when it comes to risk and crisis communication. An example from the one of the readings (not required) that my team distributed is when McDonald’s in the UK handled the Mad Cow problem in a timely fashion (Lanska, 1998). When it had been established that some of the UK’s meat may be contaminated, all the UK McDonald’s restaurants destroyed all of their meat products immediately. The following days they only served fish and chicken products to put the public at ease and ordered beef from Holland. In less than a week McDonald’s was selling non-contaminated beef and came out looking more responsible and more trusted in the public eye than they were before (1998). Obviously, McDonald’s had a communication plan in order before the outbreak of the crisis, or they could not have handled the situation as quickly and effectively as they did.
McDonald’s could not have done this without a communication plan for risk situations, and this risk turned into a crisis.

For those in the class not familiar with PR communication plans, there is a nice outline of one for risk situations on page 183 of L&M, Figure 12-1. L&M also give guidelines to developing risk communication strategies, storyboarding, the CERCLA approach, strategizing based on your specific stakeholder audience, and combining planning with the stakeholder public’s involvement (2004).

Storyboarding is a way to get the communication team’s creative juices flowing and “can also be used to develop the entire communication effort” (L&M, 2004, p. 185). It goes on to explain that this technique can probably not be used in a crisis communication situation because it requires time that may not be possible for all members to give in crisis situation. However, I think simulation is an excellent way to prepare for possible crisis communication situations and I’m surprised the book does not at least mention this here.
Basically, the storyboard itself is a bulletin board that ideas and paper can be attached to during the session. Someone not involved in the communication plan should facilitate the brainstorming session to be objective and possibly help the group to avoid groupthink. Then the facilitator categorizes the thoughts and weeds out anything that may not fit or contradict the purpose.
The CERCLA approach is from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s handbook on developing community relations plans, Community Relations in Superfund: A Handbook (EPA, 1992) (L&M, 2004). Here is a publication from the EPA called “What is a Community Relations Plan?” that all of you may find interesting, that is concise. http://ar.inel.gov/images/pdf/200402/2004022600577BAC.pdf The handbook provides communicators with examples of fact sheets, press releases, ect., public relations 101.
Identifying your audience is also another method that can and should be used, just as we have discussed that last couple of weeks. This should not be forgotten in the communication plan by any means! Part of the problem with the citrus canker communication was that health officials did not consider in as much depth a key audience, residential homeowners with citrus trees. People were not given enough information at first about the disease, how it was spread, and what the government was doing about it during the large outbreaks. They needed to treat the homeowners much differently than the orange grove workers.

Strategic planning is basically making sure your strategies line up with the organization as a whole’s mission and explain how these things will be accomplished. Using a SWOT analysis at this point would be a good idea. Then, once the strategies are developed, form a focus group from members of your audience. This can help the group of communicators fix glitches in the plan, and consider things that they may not have thought of before.