Crisis management with a sweet tooth

The public relations company for Leonidas is testing that most romantic notion, that you can say it with chocolate.

Following the Belgian food scare, Drury Communications is hoping the box of Leonidas Belgian chocolates it sent to selected journalists will help the luxury chocolate shop to convince customers that its products are safe.

The brief press release accompanying the box last week suggested in the headline that the chocolates might be a good idea for Father's Day, which made the communication seem like a run-of-the-mill PR shot and not the first salvo in a crisis management campaign.

The press release does go on to make some points relevant to the food scare, including the verifications of safety that the company got from "independent authorities in both Belgium and Ireland". The reassurance is somewhat diluted because the authorities are not named and no details are given.

According to Ms Tracy Nichol of Drury Communications, the PR firm sent the chocolates out in the hope that journalists would write about the safety of the product and that consumers would then be reassured.

Other elements in the campaign include signs in the 12 Leonidas outlets advising consumers of the safety of the product.

But is it enough, especially as the negative publicity surrounding Belgium has continued following CocaCola's decision to withdraw its product from the shelves? Leonidas is caught in a classic public relations nightmare.

Its chocolates have been certified as safe by the EU Commission, as well as the Belgian and Irish health authorities. And the shops have reopened after being closed for a week. But there's an old saying in marketing that for consumers, perception is 99 per cent of reality. Since all foodstuffs from Belgium will now be treated with suspicion, Leonidas will have to persuade consumers to perceive its product as safe.

Crisis management is something PRs love getting their teeth into and a brief canvass of other Dublin agencies came up with some suggestions for the Belgian chocolate chain.

Mr Ray Gordon of Gordon & Associates praised the chain's quick response in closing its shops. "They did absolutely the right thing by not trying to trade through the crisis," says Mr Gordon, "and now their biggest enemy is the element of confusion." He suggests it get involved in the continuing coverage of the story and that staff training is vital.

"The staff in the shops are the public face of the company and they should be trained to deal with any question the public might ask, not just about the safety of the chocolates but also any aspect of the Belgian crisis," he says, adding that they should even be prepared to answer consumers' questions about Coca-Cola. He also advises printing clear, informative leaflets for distribution through the shops, telling consumers why the chocolates are safe.

"The company needs to embrace the media because," says Mr Gordon, "they can't avoid association with the crisis and for that they need a public face, possibly the managing director to make himself available for interviews."

Mr David O'Brien of McConnells PR says it should not have closed the shops. "Pulling down the shutters is such a dramatic act that it is hard to recover from it," he says. "They should have remained open during that uncertain week but taken all stock from the shelves."

In that way, he suggests, its loyal customers would have had the opportunity to be reassured directly by the staff and the company would have been seen to have acted responsibly. He cites McDonalds' reaction to the BSE scare as the classic example of good crisis management. It did not close a single branch but took all British beef burgers off the shelves, which reassured the public of its integrity.

The three keys to good crisis management, according to Mr O'Brien, are "first, don't panic, second, keep public safety as the main focus and lastly, be as transparent as you can". He advises Leonidas to keep direct dialogue with its customers open by establishing a heavily advertised hotline.

He also feels getting in touch directly with every journalist who wrote about the Belgian food scare is a priority, to clarify the Leonidas position.