Fast response, genuine feeling, lead to success
In what can only be described as a crisis management nightmare scenario, popular beer maker Heineken was blindsided by a picture of a dog fighting ring surrounded by banners promoting its product. The photo quickly went viral, and looked to be snowballing into a massive dose of reputation damage for Heineken.
Fortunately for Heineken, its crisis management team stepped up to the plate and executed a near-flawless crisis response, pulling the brand out of the fire and likely gaining the respect of animal lovers everywhere. Kicking off their crisis management quite literally the middle of the night (its first response via Facebook was posted at 2 am Central), the Heineken team’s response speed put their peers in other corporations to shame without sacrificing a drop of quality.
Here it is, straight from their page:
Heineken is aware of a shocking photo of what appears to be a dog fighting match in a foreign country with Heineken branding visible in the background. We’d like to thank the community for bringing this issue to our attention.
We are as appalled by this image as you are and have asked the Heineken Global Office to immediately investigate the circumstances of this event and whether Heineken was involved in any way.
If you have any further information regarding this picture, such as the source, or the venue where it was taken, please let us know in this thread.
A carefully crafted statement that assured stakeholders that Heineken was not involved, denounced dog fighting and included a call-to-action asking readers to contribute information leading to the venue where the picture was taken, which turns out to have been a club in Mongolia (with which Heineken immediately severed ties). Follow that up with active response to questions and comments across its social media platforms, which the Heineken team handled thoroughly, and you have a crisis resolved. A fine example of crisis management, congrats Heineken!
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/
Comments 3
Hi Jonathan. I agree the Heineken dog saga was well handled but was it really a crisis? It was over very quickly and, as far as I can see, gained little real traction beyond some social media exposure. Embarassing? Yes. An issue? Perhaps. A crisis? I dont think so.
Tony, at Bernstein Crisis Management we define a crisis as follows:
“Any situation that is threatening or could threaten to harm people or property,
seriously interrupt business, damage reputation and/or negatively impact share value.”
By that definition, Heineken most definitely was in crisis mode; they managed it so well, however, that it was a very short crisis, instead of an extended one.
I agree Jonathan, If they did nothing and their competition brought this out in two or three years it would appear that Heineken didn’t care that there was dog fighting under their banner. The scrambling to correct this after it is used against you… I just shudder thinking about it.