Your brand image is one of your most valuable assets. However, a poorly managed crisis can tarnish a company’s image and brand. In today's era of super connectivity and 24-hour news coverage, a minor brand crisis can quickly spiral out of control.

For instance, unconfirmed reports of poor working conditions, cyber attacks, an unsatisfactory client experience, or alleged theft can negatively affect your brand image.

Implementing effective measures to manage the crisis is critical to preventing long-term damage. In this article, we’ll discuss how to protect your brand in a crisis and maintain a positive brand reputation.

What Is a Crisis and How Does It Affect Your Brand?

A crisis is a situation where a negative event, such as a cyberattack, a scandal, a social media backlash, or even a lawsuit, threatens a brand's reputation or image.

When not managed properly, a crisis can result in a loss of credibility, customers, and market share.

The Attrock guide explored effective strategies for building brand awareness. However, you also need to learn how to protect your brand during a crisis.

According to Capterra, cyber attacks and technology failures are the leading causes of brand crises at 28% and 22%, respectively. The other common events that constitute a brand crisis include:

● Workplace violence or threats—19%

● Health-related crisis—16%

● Natural disasters— 9%

● Public relations crisis—6%

cyber attacks and technology failures | ProductiveandFree — *Capterra*

Depending on the nature of your business, you may encounter one or more of these crises. In the next section, I’ll discuss how to protect your brand during a crisis. I’ll also outline measures you can implement to prevent a crisis.

Top Strategies to Protect Your Brand in a Crisis

These strategies will help you protect your brand when faced with a situation that poses a potential threat.

Assess the Situation

During a crisis, many organizations often launch counterattacks as the first response to protect their brand's image. However, exercising caution and refraining from initiating a counterattack is often the wiser approach. It allows for a more informed and strategic response.

It is advisable to take a step back and assess the situation to determine the scope of the crisis. Take time to gather accurate and relevant information about the event. Also, evaluate the potential risks and the impact the crisis can have on the public's perception of your brand.

Understanding the crisis puts you in a better position to mount a solid defense for your brand. With the right information at your fingertips, you will know how to deal with:

● Media inquires about the crisis

● Social media chatter

● Negative reviews on customer feedback platforms like Yelp

Assessing the situation and reflecting on the crisis is essential. It enables you to implement effective measures to avoid its recurrence.

Communicate Effectively

When faced with a crisis, silence is not the best defense strategy. After assessing the situation, it’s now time to share your side of the story.

Your stakeholders want to know your thoughts on the crisis. It's crucial that you address them promptly to prevent them from forming their own opinions on the matter.

It is essential to establish a crisis communication plan when strategizing how to protect your brand during a crisis. A comprehensive crisis communication strategy helps to streamline the process. Unfortunately, only 49% of companies have a documented plan.

lack of a crisis communication plan | ProductiveandFree — *Capterra*

The lack of a crisis communication plan delays the process of developing an effective response to protect your brand. Speed is crucial in such situations, and any delays could escalate the crisis further.

Whether you have a crisis communication plan or not, your official communication following the crisis should address the following issues:

● What took place

● Who’s responsible for that event

● How that event will affect the company

● Actions you’re taking to solve the issue

With all the details in hand, deliver your official communication in a manner that demonstrates your commitment to preventing the issue from happening again. Use the right channels to deliver your message and the appropriate branding strategies to reassure your stakeholders.

Leverage Your Advocates

Engage your loyal customers to support and defend your brand as you strategize how to protect your brand during a crisis.

Implementing a brand ambassador marketing program is one of the key strategies that helps you identify and activate loyal brand ambassadors from your existing customer base.

When faced with a crisis, your loyal ambassadors can help advocate and share positive experiences and feedback about your brand. They can also amplify your message by sharing your official messages and countering negative opinions.

Monitor and Respond to Comments on Social Media

Social media provides a platform to defend yourself during a crisis. It allows you to share your online success story and protect your brand.

Critics will likely rush to social media to share negative sentiments about your brand following the crisis. As such, you should monitor these conversations and respond to any misinformation about the issue at hand.

For example, in 2018, Starbucks found itself in a social media storm after two black men were arrested in their Philadelphia store. The incident was captured on social media and shared widely online.

The brand acted quickly and issued a public apology on X. Starbucks’ prompt response helped to calm the situation and restore the public’s confidence in the brand.

engaging your audience | ProductiveandFree — X

Like Starbucks, engaging your audience and providing regular updates shows you’re actively working to resolve the crisis. It also restores confidence that such a situation will not reoccur in the future.

Wrapping Up

An unforeseen crisis might occur at any given time and pose a significant threat to the brand image you’ve worked so hard to build. In this modern era of social media, customer review platforms, and 24-hour news cycles, you need to address and resolve any problem that arises promptly.

In this post, I have discussed how to protect your brand during a crisis. Implementing the strategies outlined above will help you manage any brand crisis and minimize the negative impact it can have on your image.

Reena Aggarwal

Reena is Director of Operations and Sales at Attrock, a result-driven digital marketing company. With 10+ years of sales and operations experience in the field of e-commerce and digital marketing, she is quite an industry expert. She is a people person and considers the human resources as the most valuable asset of a company. In her free time, you would find her spending quality time with her brilliant, almost teenage daughter and watching her grow in this digital, fast-paced era.

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