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How To Fireproof Your Brand

In today’s world every brand has a crisis plan in place. Before launching a new product, commercial, campaign – it’s imperative to be prepared for the worst. With New Orleans & Company (formerly New Orleans Convention and Visitor’s Bureau) we worked to develop a vulnerability audit associated with their New Orleans WILL campaign. Simply because it just makes sense.

So, you’ve done all of this, you taken in consideration every single thing that can go wrong, now what?

One key step in crisis planning is mitigation. Not only looking at what could go wrong, but how to prevent those things from going wrong. While we cannot control the crisis, through preparation, process and open communication, we can create the best opportunities to respond and manage challenging situations.

Recently, DEVENEY embarked on a crisis mitigation project with a brand who was releasing a new toy for children. To do this, we followed our four-step process to ensure the best results were delivered.

Step 1: Research

The process began with a complete understanding of the launch and mission; in-depth, in-person discussions with the brand’s launch team; followed by the exploration of partnerships and research.

Step 2: Analysis

The vulnerability audit was conducted to inform our report with industry experience, crisis scenarios and case studies. These insights were then incorporated into the overall strategy and mitigation plan. DEVENEY leveraged primary and secondary research to analyze consumer goods released to children, associated crises and best practices as shared by industry experts.

Step 3: Strategic Planning

Then came the fun part, diving into how to prevent the crisis from ever happening to begin with. This effort included proactive actions such as the development of a parent and corresponding child coloring instructional book, development of spokesperson council followed by media training, direct mail, landing pages, standby statements, legal counsel, talking points for employees, partners, etc. and much more.

Each scenario, and there were over 100, was discussed, explored for proactive action and then assessed for reactive action needs. The scenarios were also grouped into exposure areas, to help guide the brand’s internal communication team with knowing how to react when an incident falls within one of those areas of threat.

Step 4: Execution

The final result was a full-fledged crisis mitigation plan, rule book and guide for the brand to consider and execute well in advance of the product launch.

Want to learn more? Get in touch with us to discuss how DEVENEY's crisis services can benefit your business.