When crisis planning hits a snag
The recent Bunnings onion snafu is the perfect example of a crisis you could never anticipate. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to plan for it anyway, writes crisis comms expert Gerry McCusker.
Lest you missed it, Bunnings’ issues management plan had to be activated after the leaking of a company stakeholder communication on BBQ sausage sandwich protocol: When serving barbie’d bangers, onions are to be placed on the bread before the sausage to minimise the threat of onion-based spills that could result in personnel slips and falls, it intimated.
So really, what was so terrible about this sensible stakeholder suggestion?
When Bunnings’ issues and risk team was scenario planning for business or PR threats, they could have been forgiven for not serving up a crisis simulation based on a sausage and onion PR disaster that would propel them into the world media spotlight. In truth, even a crisis simulation sage might slip up on not envisioning such a left-field scenario.
Was it really bad PR for Bunnings? None of their products or services were called into disrepute. Not even the quality of their sizzles (whose profits go to the community anyway). The story seemed to be more about the Australian’s publics reaction to the trivial change. The onions should definitely be on top of the sausage though.
The ‘bad PR’ – reputation damage – for Bunnings was the result of a poor communication process in both the policy and the communique. Organisations need to rethink their communication process with their PR people, rather than issuing them through HR, OH&S and other functional area channels. As JMcC points out, we are in a ‘new media’ environment and a ‘PC sensitive’ culture, both of which are very important to reputation, issues and crisis management today.
The issue of how and where you put onions on a barbecued sausage is only one of the issues relative to the Bunnings charity sausage marquees. The bigger issue for us, the great unwashed Ozzies, is why we can’t get a pork sausage? Apparently Bunnings decided some time ago to ask charities not to sell any pork products for fear of upsetting our Islamic population. Another example of the minority rules !!!
I can’t get a chicken sausage at Bunnings either. Just beef in a bun, with or without onion.
Almost like the reason for not having multiple choices is based on service simplicity, not because Muslims / Jews / a range of Orthodox Christians don’t eat a particular type of meat.