Crisis communication. Case study: Cadbury worm controversy

Abstract

Living in the age of technology, organizations, companies or public persons have to face multiple challenges. From time to time, the way an organization carries out its activities is disturbed either by events outside the organizations or by events happening inside. Thus, when certain events manage to damage and affect the way an organization functions as well as its image and reputation, the organization is facing a crisis situation. In this regard, essential for solving the crisis is the process of crisis communication and the activities that it entails. Crisis communication is an important component of public relations, and public relations play a vital role in establishing an effective communication plan that can help the organization restore its image and regain the trust of the public. Taking into account these aspects, the purpose of the paper is to assess the way Cadbury India handled its image crisis, in order to extract some guidelines that could be used as a frame of reference by organizations or companies for preventing or solving similar crises. In order to fulfil the purpose, specific objectives referring to the identification of the impact that the crisis had on the company, its activity and image, and of the strategies and tactics used by Cadbury India while trying to solve its crisis, were also established. In order to conduct the research case study was used as a method, and the necessary information about the crisis situation was gathered while analysing and consulting websites that addressed the subject and articles published online by various news channels such as BBC or The Times of India. The results of the research revealed that Cadbury India effectively solved its crisis by adopting a well - structured and consolidated communication plan. By having clear goals and objectives, by communicating concise messages, by collaborating with the media and public figures, Cadbury managed to rebuild its image and to repair the damage caused by the crisis. Even more, its communication plan involved both an internal and external response as well as an evaluation stage. Thus, the paper provides relevant information for the field of crisis communication and the research conductedallowed us to extract some guidelines and aspects that other organizations or companies can use as a frame of reference whenever they find themselves in similar situations.