COM 657 Southern New Hampshire CH26 Crisis Communication Strategy Report Instructions Describe the campaign redesign for the organization that you chose,

COM 657 Southern New Hampshire CH26 Crisis Communication Strategy Report Instructions

Describe the campaign redesign for the organization that you chose, including the response strategy. Detail the technologies and tactics to be used. The details on contingency theory (Chapter 26) and crisis-adaptive public information (Chapter 27) will be useful for developing your redesign draft.

GUIDELINES ATTACHED

ORGANIZATION: TACO BELL

FILES ATTACHED FOR TACO BELL RESPONSE STRATEGY: “CRISIS COMMUNICATION STRATEGY” AND “SWOT ANALYSIS DRAFT” COM 657: Milestone Three Guidelines and Rubric
Overview: Develop and describe a communications campaign redesign for the organization that you chose, including the crisis response strategy. Detail the
technologies and tactics to be used. Consider social media use and different cultural perspectives.
Format: Written components of projects must follow these formatting guidelines: double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and
discipline-appropriate citations (APA format), two to three pages.
Critical Elements
New Campaign:
Overview
New Campaign:
Rationale
New Campaign:
Technologies and
Tactics
Articulation of
Response
Exemplary (100%)
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
description is clear and
compelling and demonstrates
creativity in the redesign of the
crisis communication campaign
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
provides a clear and compelling
rationale for the redesigned
campaign, well supported by
evidence from real case studies
and potential scenarios relevant
to the specific organization
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
provides a thorough description
of recommended digital media
platforms/technologies and
communications tactics,
supported with relevant,
concrete examples to justify
choices
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
submission is free of errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and
organization, and writing style is
professional and fluent
Proficient (90%)
Succinctly describes or provides
a synopsis of the redesigned
crisis communication campaign
Needs Improvement (70%)
Provides a description or
synopsis of the redesigned crisis
communication campaign;
however, it is not clear and lacks
sufficient detail
Provides some rationale for the
redesigned campaign; however,
it is not well supported by
evidence from real case studies
and potential scenarios relevant
to the specific organization
Not Evident (0%)
Does not describe a redesigned
crisis communication campaign
Value
30
Does not provide a rationale for
the redesigned campaign
30
Provides a good description of
recommended digital media
platforms/technologies and
communications tactics,
supported with examples to
justify choices
Provides a description of
recommended digital media
platforms/technologies and
communications tactics;
however, it lacks sufficient detail
or supporting examples to
justify choices
Does not provide a description
of any recommendations
30
Submission has few errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and
organization, and writing has a
logical and clear flow
Submission has major errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
that negatively impact
readability and articulation of
main ideas
Submission has critical errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
that prevent understanding of
ideas
10
Provides a rationale for the
redesigned campaign, well
supported by evidence from
real case studies and potential
scenarios relevant to the
specific organization
Earned Total
100%
Running head: CRISIS COMMUNICATION EVALUATION DRAFT
Crisis Communication Evaluation Draft
Kayla Naz Taheri
COM 657
Southern New Hampshire University
Crisis Communication Evaluation Draft
1
CRISIS COMMUNICATION EVALUATION DRAFT
2
Introduction
A crisis is a very critical time in an organization that can affect the organization
drastically, and as such, managers in an organization need to come up with measures that are
based on evidence on how to handle a crisis when it happens. Crisis communication to ensure
that people are aware of it is important. Having an organized plan entails having knowledge of
the type of crisis and the factors that are identifying to it that the organization could be facing so
as to establish the correct measures for protection, as well establish the level of responsibility
that is attributed by stakeholders to such crisis event (Coombs & Holladay, 2011). The purpose
of communication is to help people cope physically e.g., by evacuation, and psychologically by
telling them how it will be controlled. This paper aims to describe an actual crisis in an
organization as well as address the weaknesses and strengths the organization has in terms of its
crisis communication strategy.
Crisis description
The crisis topic I have selected is Taco Bell’s “seasoned beef” meat filling lawsuit (2011).
The crisis happened in an organization called Taco Bell. The actual crisis that the organization
encountered was a lawsuit where they got sued by a law firm in Alabama for misrepresentation
and false advertisement of beef in which they claimed that the beef in Taco Bell could not be
defined as beef because of the percentage of beef in the product they were selling. According to
the plaintiffs, the seasoned beef by Taco Bell only contained 35% of beef, yet the government’s
beef definition was that a product has to contain 70% of beef to be called beef. The new classaction suit further stated that Taco Bell made use of the term meat in defining its meat products
when they did not contain enough meat to have them legally referred to as meat. These were the
grounds for their false advertisement suit against the Taco Bell Fast-Food chain. The issue to be
CRISIS COMMUNICATION EVALUATION DRAFT
3
determined by the court was whether or not the seasoned beef by Taco Bell fulfilled the legal
requirement of being called beef. The intention of the suit was to ensure that Taco Bell correctly
labeled its product in accordance with the percentage of beef it contains. They would either call
it Taco burrito with no or less than 70% beef or Taco beef burrito with 70% beef.
The crisis, in this case, was a situational crisis in which the organization was the victim of the
crisis that created a bad reputation for it. Because the organization did not priory have a bad
reputation, the stakeholders would then not hold the organization responsible for the crisis. The
organization was a victim of a crisis that could potentially lead to the loss of the business. There
is a possibility of such a crisis happening, and as such, the communication strategy for the
organization was supposed to entail how they will handle the crisis if it ever happened again and
what they would do to prevent it from happening again. This crisis is preventable.
Crisis communication strategy
The communication strategy that the organization used to respond to the matter was
social media, their Facebook and YouTube walls, by exposing the facts of the composition of
their products by indicating that they were meat because they used 88% of beef, this information
was based on evidence (Steve, 2011). Incorporating social media made it possible for the
information to reach a wider variety of people who are its target customers. The communication
was aimed at helping their customers cope with the psychological distress that they got exposed
to by being made to believe that the product they loved did not actually contain meat. Reassuring
the customers based on evidence would help the organization earn back the confidence their
customers had in their product before the crisis occurred. The purpose of this strategy of
communication by Taco Bell was to ensure that they get to clear the taint in their reputation that
had been caused by the crisis. They defended the company by stating, based on evidence, that
CRISIS COMMUNICATION EVALUATION DRAFT
4
their product contained a percentage of beef above the required and that they were not going to
change anything. They also asked the law firm that sued them to apologize.
Strengths and weaknesses
My thoughts on the strengths of Taco Bell’s communication strategy include the fact that
it seemed to understand its customer base, which gets determined by the manner in which they
communicated their proof that the law firm’s speculations were wrong. The use of social media
was an advantage, especially the channels with high numbers of users, making it possible for
their message to reach a wider audience. The contents of their communication, for instance,
asking the law firm to apologize was also a smart move as it provided the basis of the fact that
the law firm was wrong and created an element of reasonable doubt in the reader’s minds so that
they doubt the information provided by the firm. Having the matter taken to court actually
created more popularity for the organization when they came back with a set of facts explaining
why the law firm was wrong potentially turning the negative publicity the lawsuit created into
positive, with a whole new bunch of curious customers about what the Taco meat burrito tastes
like and confirm the meat composition in it.
However, I also noticed some weaknesses in their advertising with regard to how the
communication was done. It was obviously not enough to just issue statements on social media
about how wrong the law firm that sued them was. They should also have provided a public
tutorial as to how their tacos get prepared and have a group of people who had had them before
establish whether there is a difference in the meat composition as compared to the previous times
they had it. The organization should also have gone as far as threatening to file a lawsuit against
the law firm if they did not apologize. This would have made their customers believe them more.
Conclusion
CRISIS COMMUNICATION EVALUATION DRAFT
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Based on the sensitive nature of situations of crisis in an organization, it is critical that
managers create a proper crisis communication strategy to manage such situations as if
mishandled, they could pose damaging consequences to the progress of the organization. Taco
Bells’ crisis communication strategy played a significant role in helping the organization restore
its reputation and grow a bigger customer base despite the few weaknesses it had. It was
important that the organization should have told its customers about how it was working towards
preventing a similar crisis in the future.
References
Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (Eds.). (2011). The handbook of crisis communication (Vol.
22). John Wiley & Sons.
Situational Crisis Communication Theory. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/2zctIlJUeoA
CRISIS COMMUNICATION EVALUATION DRAFT
Steve B. (2011). Taco Bell’s Great Crisis Management. Retrieved from

Taco Bell’s Great Crisis Management

(2011)Taco Bell Faces Lawsuit over ‘Seasoned Beef.’ Retrieved from
https://www.npr.org/2011/01/25/133218485/Taco-Bell-Faces-Lawsuit-Over-Seasoned-Beef
.
6
Running Head: SWOT ANALYSIS DRAFT
SWOT Analysis Draft
Kayla Naz Taheri
COM 657
Southern New Hampshire University
SWOT Analysis Draft
1
SWOT ANALYSIS DRAFT
2
Introduction
The Taco Bell firm had a crisis when they had a lawsuit filed against their seasoned beef
product. The firm was sued for misleading the customers with the false advertisement of their
alleged product of seasoned beef. According to the law, a beef product should have 70% beef,
yet theirs had 35% of beef hence not fit to be called beef. The SWOT analysis would help in
solving the crisis that the company was facing.
Crisis communication strategy: Strengths
The strength of the firm during the crisis is the communication strategy used. The firm
used social media platforms in clearing the air regarding the alleged accusations on their product.
Social media helped in spreading information to a large group of people at once. The firm
managed to reassure its clients and maintained its potential clients.
Crisis communication strategy: weakness
The weakness that the firm has was that it did not check on the effect of the crisis and
communication on its clients for future reputation. Instead of trying and solving the issue
amicably, they went out to defend themselves regarding its products that may result in affecting
the firm’s reputation negatively.
Crisis Communication Strategy: Opportunities and Threats
Some of the opportunities that Taco Bell had include looking into improving its products
included seasoned beef. The firm had the opportunity to venture into new markets and advertise
its products for those who are new to their products and retain the existing customers (Coombs &
Holladay, 2011). It would help increase the firm’s revenue ad growth of the firm. Some of the
threats that the firm faced include threats include the firm being sued for their seasoned beef
SWOT ANALYSIS DRAFT
3
product. At this time, the firm was vulnerable to its competitors; they would thrive due to the
obstacles that the firm was going through.
Conclusion
Generally, the firm would use the SWOT analysis in its operations to help get through the
situation. The strengths of the firm were important in reining its customers; the firm would have
worked on the weakness to improve customers’ satisfaction. The opportunities, such as venturing
the new market would be essential for the growth of the firm. The threats that the firm is facing
cannot be made away with. For instance, the intentions of the competitors and the obstacles that
it is facing in the services it is dealing with.
SWOT ANALYSIS DRAFT
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Reference
Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (Eds.). (2011). The handbook of crisis communication (Vol.
22). John Wiley & Sons.

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