BP’s communication missteps

Last spring the “green” profile, that BP was launching over the last years, collapsed on account of a disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the company’s own omissions on safety measures, followed also by big communication transgressions. The company was left looking so unprepared and unable to deal with a corporate crisis and obviously lacked of a communication strategy. It seems that BP was swallowed by its own reputation. The company’s green logo has since become synonymous to the biggest environmental disaster in petroleum history.

But what went so wrong with BP’s communication strategy?

The company’s CEO Tony Hayward, that was BP's spokesperson at the time of the crisis, seemed totally unprepared to deal with the situation, since he proceeded in making some provocative statements. The company lost control of what was being said or written in the media about its role in this tragic incident. Let’s not forget that a corporate crisis with such big environmental and financial dimensions is always newsworthy to the media, which as third party endorsers influence public opinion.

Instead, in a period of crisis the spokesperson should constantly be present in the media and deal with the interviews in a way that the company can send clearly the right messages to the audience. Therefore, it is essential for companies to identify potential  scenarios of corporate crisis in advance and have a rehearsed plan on what to say in the first place.

Public outrage kept growing when BP did not seem able to manage with people’s expectations. The company should immediately proceed in every possible action to reduce the oil spill consequences on the environment and the local residents that were strongly affected. Unfortunately, BP failed to prevent the oil spill promptly and did very little to clean and revitalize the affected area. Useful communication channels with the public were also foolishly cut down. Instead of listening to the audience’s thoughts and expectations through social media and respond to them, BP tried to shut down a parody profile that was created in twitter for the company, while at the same time was buying Internet search terms that were related to the disaster by the oil spill.

Will it ever be possible for BP to regain its reputation? There are people saying that it is never too late to admit your mistakes and implement an effective communication strategy, while others believe that even if BP financially survives, it will never be trusted again. With a big trial for this disastrous oil spill ahead pending, I guess this is something we will find out in the future.