The power of PR

For my Corporate Communication course I had to put together a crisis management presentation. I focused on Ford and Firestone’s recall in the United States in August 2000. Due to defected tires, Ford’s SUVs were crashing and rolling over which led to 134 deaths. However, both Ford and Firestone reacted differently to this crisis which I found interesting. After the recall Ford sent out press releases stating that their company had shut down three of their truck assembly plants to free up new tires and that Ford was dedicated to replacing these defected tires. However, Firestone continued to insist that there wasn’t a problem but stated it was due to hot climate and under-inflated tires that lead to these tire blowouts. Only a year later Firestone spoke to their customers through a website about the recall.

My first reaction was that Ford had done the right protocol by reassuring their customers that they cared about fixing their defected tires. Looking back at both of these companies reactions, people trust Ford again because Ford made it a point to speak to the media and through commercials stating that they were sorry and were making Ford safe again. This helped re-build Ford’s reputation whereas it seemed like Firestone only cared about the safety of their customers when backed into a corner and not because it’s a part of their corporate philosophy. Most Americans even today do not trust Firestone's tires although the recall was 8yrs ago.

Risk Issues and Crisis Management by Michael Regester and Corporate Communication by Paul Argenti give helpful tips and suggestions about how to prepare and react to a crisis. It looks like Firestone did a horrible job in dealing with this crisis since they ignored all the PR rules. I think if Firestone had followed these textbook suggestions of having an open communication and talking directly to their affected customers they would have rebuild their reputation. However, in my corporate class an interesting point was made, Firestone was probably in denial that after all their years of making tires that there will be a problem with their product. Also, I can read all these PR crisis management textbooks but it comes down to the fact if companies would actually listen to me. Someone working for Firestone might have suggested all of these textbook guidelines to help rebuild up their reputation, but it doesn’t mean that Firestone’s corporate executives will listen. This helped remind me that a PR team can be prepared for a crisis but we are not that powerful. It is up to the executives of a company to listen to the PR’s recommendation when a crisis occurs.