Managing issues and crises

Issues and crises come in many forms: recalls, lost court cases, negative research, unexpected side effects, consumer protests, scheduling upheavals and regulatory knockbacks. These are just a few that health focused organisations face.

The main thing your stakeholders and customers will remember about these moments is how you managed them. So its best get it right from the start.

Palin Communications works with a wide range of healthcare and wellness related brands to shape their image and manage their reputations. This becomes even more important than ever when disaster strikes.

We understand that acting quickly, yet calmly and strategically, is essential. We work with you to align the right approach and messaging to help put the issue into context and inject balance into coverage.

We have a history of supporting organisations navigate complex issues.

We’ve helped household brands like Panadol, Listerine and Ribena manage problems created by extortion attempts, reports of product associations with serious illness and product recalls. We’ve also supported organisations like Haleon effectively manage a national rescheduling.

Hiding from the truth and delaying a response is only going to cause you problems down the track. With this in mind our issues management philosophy is built around honesty and proactivity. We work with clients to put your side of the story forward in the most authentic, educational and realistic way possible.

The keys to issues management are preparedness, diligent stakeholder management, scenario planning and message rehearsal. Plus, nimbleness. When it breaks you need to move quickly.

With that in mind, Palin Communications will support you to:

• Quickly assess the current situation

• Advise on early communications options

• Draft position statements, holding statements, key message documents and media materials to manage the issue

• Develop a media relations strategy to manage news interest in your topic

• Train your spokespeople to deliver key messages under pressure

• Monitor the issue and advise on the ongoing strategy

• Develop a recovery plan to get the business back on track after the crisis.

Getting back to “business as usual” is the ultimate objective of any issues management plan.

We also run an industry-endorsed workshop that teaches your internal team best-practice crisis management and help to prepare them for any future crisis that needs to be managed.

Contact us to ask about the workshop or any other elements of our crisis management offering.