Big Tech - Big Scandals - Little Responsibility

A segment from the book’s conclusions regarding “Tech Crisis Communication” (pages 91-92).

 

Tech PR Template for Crises

To summarize the various crisis responses, they were grouped into three main themes:

(1) The SERV combination.

(2) Pseudo-apologies/we need to do better (but we are still the victim).

(3) Corrective action messages (but our work will never be done).

The result is the “Tech PR template for crises,” illustrated in Fig. 11.

 

The companies presented the initial crisis responses, including the instructing and adjusting information (basic details about what happened). They also gave the corrective action messages: laid out the short-term and long-term actions to minimize the chances that the problems would happen again. This standard strategy appears in the “Tech PR template for crises” in strategy number three.

The other strategies that stood out in their responses (summarized in numbers one and two) were aligned with theoretical PR guidelines in general, and with image repair strategies, corporate apologia, and SCCT (Situational Crisis Communication Theory), in particular.

Overall, the tech companies tried

- to impact the perceived offensiveness (image repair strategies),

- to impact attributed responsibility (SCCT),

- and to reduce the companies’ guilt (corporate apologia, disassociations).

Specifically, the tech companies combined diminish crisis response strategies, excuse (good intention), bolstering crisis response strategies, victimage (victims of the crisis), and reminder (past good work), with a deny crisis response strategy, the scapegoat (blaming others) and emphasized their suffering, since they were “an unfair victim of some malicious, outside entity.”

• For more details: TechlashBook.