DOLCE & GABBANA Provokes Public Outrage in China CMN 6050 Crisis Communication Ruihui Wang History of Company • Italian luxury fashion brand founded in 1985 • Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana • Brand value of $937 million • Annual turnover of $1.6 billion • The Chinese market accounts for 30% of turnover Crisis Summary • Videos launched on Nov. 17 to promote an upcoming ‘great show’ in Shanghai. • Controversy arose after Chinese watched the videos showing a Chinese model using chopsticks to try to eat a pizza, a cannoli and spaghetti, accusing D&G for trivializing Chinese culture and depicting Chinese women in a racist way. • Then, an Instagram direct message conversation between Stefano Gabbana and the fashion writer Michaela Phuong was shared on Nov. 21. In the message, Stefano called China as the country of shit. Apology video link Handling of the Crisis Theories Applied & Analysis • Apologia theory-redefinition: hacking • Apologia theory-dissociation: wrongly reading Chinese culture • Image Restoration theory: love and passion for China • Decision theory-satisficing: express respect for all cultures Targeted publics involved: • Chinese • Potential Customers from all countries Fox News BBC News Yahoo Finance New York Times Mass Media Coverage • the great show layout loss: nearly $1.5 million Results • Sales volume on e-commerce platforms loss: $1.5 billion • Asian market revenue in 2019 shrank to 22%, compare with 25% in 2018 • D&G drops from position 360 to 500 in 2019, which is one of the biggest falls overall in the 2019 list of Asia’s Top 1000 Brands ranking. • Dolce&Gabbana. November. 23, 2018. Dolce&Gabbana apologizes. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ih62lTKicg • Olivia Parker. June 18, 2019. Dolce & Gabbana Falls 140 Places in Asia’s Top 1000 Brand Ranking. Retrieved from https://jingdaily.com/dolce-gabbana-brandranking/ • Yuhan Xu. December 1, 2018. Dolce & Gabbana Ad (With Chopsticks) Provokes Public Outrage in China. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/12/01/671891818/dolcegabbana-ad-with-chopsticks-provokes-public-outrage-in-china References Crisis Communication Plan Jack Fulton CMN 6050 — Crisis Communication Dr. Powers The purpose of this plan is to give clear and succinct recommendations for Nike regarding crisis communications. The plan will cover the background of Nike, possible crises, key stakeholders, communications channels, messages, spokesperson, pre/post-crisis activities, and closing thoughts followed by an appendix. Background Nike began in 1964 in Beaverton, Oregon as Blue Ribbon Sports. They were started by a track-and-field coach from the University of Oregon, and his former runner, Phil Knight. The company began by mainly selling track-and-field sneakers, but by the late 80’s turned into a retail giant. Nike especially took off when they started sponsoring and branding world-class athletes like Michael Jordan. Today, Nike is recognized as the leading brand for athletic wear and athletic technology. At this point, Nike does much of its business internationally. In China alone, Nike reached $6.7 billion in revenue in 2020. In the past two years, Nike has been in the news on several occasions. Starting in 2018, Nike started facing public scrutiny regarding their treatment of women employees. A class action lawsuit that alleged Nike does not pay their female employees equally or give them advancement opportunities was filed. Following the lawsuit, former Nike athlete, Alysia Montaño wrote an opinion article in the New York Times that the company did not have empathy for their pregnant athletes. Employees even protested on Nike’s campus. Recently, the company has shifted their executive leadership to reflect a change in their strategic business objectives. Nike has been focused on the track-and-field industry since their founding. In fact, they are considered to be the ones who keep the sport afloat in the years outside of the Olympics. With the departure of global director of running track and field and vice president John Capriotti, CEO Mark Parker, and the hiring of former eBay CEO John Donahoe, Nike’s strategic goals have clearly shifted away from their track roots. Along with the scandal of Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar, which caused Nike to further shake up their company culture. Possible Crises Possible Crisis Pandemic/Epidemic Risk Level (0-10) Impact Level (0-10) 2 Details 3 • Pandemics are not • ff ff • frequent, but some diseases have spread to the level of epidemic in the last 10 years. The Covid-19 pandemic mainly a ected Nike because it forced the company to shut down its stores. Given another pandemic would force the same move, it would a ect the number of jobs they create for the retail industry and their company. Possible Crisis Scandals involving sponsored athletes/ company employees Risk Level (0-10) Impact Level (0-10) 3 Details 7 • Athletes, especially • • • • Changing Legislature 4 6 • Starting with the last • ff ffi ff • fl superstars, are notoriously unpredictable The same applies to powerful employees/ coaches The risk level is low because Nike takes caution with who they sponsor and hire The impact is high, however, since who they choose to sponsor or hire re ects their support for the individual. The impact is also high because scandals involving athletes and employees bring bad press and hurt the reputation of the company. political o ce in power, there has been an increased movement to manufacture more items in the United States. Nike is known for manufacturing their products internationally. If, for example, tari s or taxes increase on doing business internationally, that would a ect Nike’s operations. Possible Crisis Risk Level (0-10) Products being made out to be faulty Impact Level (0-10) 1 Details 8 • This crisis is best • • exempli ed by the ‘Shoegate’ incident with former Duke star Zion Williamson (See Appendix). If the public’s opinion of Nike is rooted in their products being made poorly, both sales and reputation will plummet. Nike stock could also lose value as well. Top Key Stakeholders Current Perception of Nike Key Interests in Nike Forecasting their Potential Crisis Reaction Women customers in the United States • After Nike named • Their key interest is • If more scandals fi fi Key Stakeholders 2019 ‘its year for women’, the company regained brand reputation with their ad campaign that focused on empowering women. • that Nike continues to deliver empowering messages to girls and women alike through their ad campaigns. Also that Nike continues to develop products that bene t women like the Pro Hijab for Muslim female athletes. • involving women and Nike were to break out, then Nike could risk being seen as hypocritical and thus lose reputation. In today’s age as well, scandals involving the mistreatment of women hurt brand reputations immensely. Top Key Stakeholders Current Perception of Nike Key Interests in Nike Forecasting their Potential Crisis Reaction Potential/Current Nike Women Employees • Nike has had issues • The employees who • If a similar crisis Nike Women Athletes in the past like the lawsuits led against them regarding unequal promotions/ opportunities and wage discrimination. • Nike has faced • treated fairly by the company. • Female athletes will be less likely to want to sign with Nike. • The U.S. Government • Depending on the • A crisis involving the Community Action Groups • Some groups may be • That Nike continues • If a report comes out ff fi ffi ff fi ff ff ffi • Making sure they are occurs at Nike, the company will risk losing current and potential female employees. The United States Government is expected to rejoin the Trans-Paci c Partnership, which eliminates the tari for importing shoes from Vietnam and other countries. • ff scrutiny from former athletes regarding their treatment of pregnant athletes. However, perception is better since the company changed its pregnancy policies. • work in Nike o ces are of course going to be concerned about their treatment within the company. Potential female employees will also be interested to see if Nike’s company culture has changed after the previous scandals. concerned Nike does business in places where labor laws and regulations are not as enforced. Other action groups may be concerned with issues like female mistreatment within the organization. political power in o ce, their interest lies in how Nike can help a ect the U.S. economy. • to increase their e orts of producing their materials in good working conditions. Also that Nike improves their internal environment. U.S. government and Nike will more than likely revolve around raised tari s or taxes on imported items. • that Nike seems indi erent about the means in which their clothes are produced, they could be criticized by community action groups. Similarly if more reports surface that they mistreat their female employees. Top Key Stakeholders Current Perception of Nike Key Interests in Nike Forecasting their Potential Crisis Reaction The Media • Depending on what • The media is always • The media will look to one searches about Nike, they will nd di erent media outlets praise and criticize Nike alike. • • most interested in promoting a story. Nike has been promoted positively for things like their support of the Black Lives Matters movement. They have also been openly criticized for their double standard of creating ad campaigns that look to empower women, yet also having major organizational issues with internal female mistreatment. • promote Nike in the news whether it will hurt the company’s reputation or bolster it. Nike is such a wellknown clothing giant that really any piece of news coming from the company could be a story. *Nike has many stakeholders they must keep in mind. These are the most key stakeholders to be fi ff aware of when thinking of potential crises. Communications Channels Speci c Channel Frequency the Channel is used Key Stakeholders Stakeholder Reached Activity Level Usability During a Crisis Commercials/ Video Advertisements • Nike frequently • U.S. Women • Nike uses their • puts out video advertisements. The company’s usual strategy is to promote speci c campaigns centered around a powerful message. • • • • customers Community Action Groups Female Nike Athletes The Media United States Government • Every Nike ad • draws a di erent amount of attention, but their ad campaigns are known to be impactful and widespread. Nike’s most viewed ad on YouTube has 117 million views. • • Instagram • The main Nike fi fi fi ff ffi • Instagram account posts ranging from once a week to once a month. There are other Nike Instagram accounts dedicated to speci c departments. • U.S. Women • • Customers Female Nike Athletes The Media • O cial Nike • page has 135 million followers The other Nike pages have a range of 5-10 million followers each. advertisements to promote individuals and their athletes especially. Therefore, it is unlikely Nike will use video advertisements to address the potential internal and external crises listed above in the plan. In the future however, given how receptive their stakeholders are to these ads, the company should consider at least the possibility of using them in the future. • Nike appears to • use their instagram page to promote their products and advertisements. Making it unlikely the company would suddenly use it to expand on a crisis they faced. Speci c Channel Frequency the Channel is used Key Stakeholders Stakeholder Reached Activity Level Usability During a Crisis Twitter • Tweets are • U.S. Women • Similarly to made at less of a frequency than Instagram posts. • The channel is Press Release Statements mainly used in light of crises that have a ected the company, like the Alberto Salazar scandal. • • Customers Female Nike Athletes The Media • Potential/ • • • Current Female Employees The Media Community Action Groups United States Government • Nike’s o cial • Twitter page has 8 million followers. Their other pages range anywhere from 400k-6 million followers. • The media is • most active in reporting statements made by Nike. Consumers may read press statements, however many rely on media outlets to explain what was said. Instagram, their Twitter page seems dedicated to promoting both their advertisement campaigns and certain new products. • Written press release statements seem to be Nike’s number one way of communicating during a crisis. Messages Based on Possible Crises Possible Crisis Message Response to Crisis Pandemic/Epidemic • ‘Here at Nike, the health and safety of our fi ffi fi ff customers and employees comes rst and foremost. As a result, we will be closing our retail stores. We will continue to sell our products online at nike.com, and we will be accessing our contingency fund in order to cover the wages of employees unable to work at our retail stores. We are committed to stopping the spread of any disease that endangers that will harm any of our consumers or employees.’ Possible Crisis Message Response to Crisis Scandals involving sponsored athletes/company employees • ‘We take great pride in, and discern deeply Changing Legislature • ‘Today we learned that the United States will when choosing athletes to sign to our brand. We have decided to part ways with Mr. Smith because his words and actions do not match what our company stands for. We would like to express our sincere apologies to those a ected and o er our full support. We will be bringing in an external investigation team to best understand what truly happened. In the future, we will reevaluate internal communication systems to catch this behavior before it ever becomes a crisis.’ once again be leaving the Trans-Paci c Partnership. Tari s will be increasing to the point where we as a company must shift our strategic focus in terms of manufacturing. We will look to cement our production in areas that will allow Nike to continue to produce high quality clothing and apparel while also practicing proper business ethics. We look forward to continuing to make great products for our consumers around the world.’ Products being made out to be faulty • ‘Very recently, a video clip surfaced where our shoes appeared to give out and tear due to poor quality. We see this is an incredibly rare occurrence. Our shoes and the rest of our products are made with high quality materials and assembled with proper care. For nearly 50 years, Nike has been focused on crafting the best products. We have already contacted and sent the individual seen a brand new pair of shoes. We are also instituting a new ‘Rip policy’ where if your shoes rip within 6 months of purchase, a full refund will be issued.’ Spokesperson Based on the possible crises, I believe CEO John Donahoe should be the company spokesperson. After watching an interview given by the newly named CEO with CNBC, Donahoe speaks with control, compassion, and credibility. At the same time, messages from the CEO of a company have a greater effect on employees and consumers alike. In the event of a ff fi ff ff scandal involving internal misconduct, employees will be more receptive to a CEO’s message. Likewise, if a Nike athlete has a scandal come about them, consumers and the media will carefully listen to what a CEO has to say. Because Donahoe will connect with both key internal and external stakeholders no matter the crisis, he should be the spokesperson consistently for Nike. Messages coming from Donahoe will boost credibility and rebuild company reputation more quickly than how the company currently releases statements without a chief executive as spokesperson. If he is not available, Nike should do what they use another executive to deliver their message. Pre-Crisis Activities Possible Crisis Pre-Crisis Activities Pandemic/Epidemic • Prepare a contingency fund for employees who work in the retail stores • Prepare a platform for o ce workers to work • Scandals involving sponsored athletes/company employees remotely like Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, or Skype Business. Prepare business plan to sell products using online platforms. • Perform thorough background checks on potential Nike athletes and employees • Create a hotline, or personal channel for all employees and athletes to report unwarranted behavior. Changing Legislature • Research new potential places to manufacture products if tari prices were to rise too high. • Hire a lobbyist to help persuade governmental • Products being made out to be faulty • Conduct thorough and frequent reviews of ffi ff • ff powers not to make a decision that would hurt a domestic company so much. Be on the forefront of changing trends like creating products using recyclable material since those e orts are likely to be more mandated in future years. manufacturing plants to ensure products are being made correctly. Investigate to make sure fake Nike items are not being sold at a much higher rate than expected. Post-Crisis Activities Possible Crisis Post-Crisis Activities Pandemic/Epidemic • Thank employees and consumers for adjusting to such unusual circumstances. • Keep plans in place in case of future crises that cause such a disruption. • Post a survey asking employees for their feedback and suggestions for how they handled the crisis. Scandals involving sponsored athletes/company employees • Provide direct support and counseling to those a ected. • Have an independent team investigate what happened. • Evaluate, based on the ndings of the investigation, if internal communication channels need to be improved. Then make proper improvements or adjustments. Changing Legislature • Evaluate manufacturing business strategy. • Evaluate lobbyists hired and their e ectiveness Products being made out to be faulty • Conduct investigation into where the product • • was made. Gift new products to those a ected by a seemingly faulty product, like Nike sneakers. Establish a new policy that allows customers to return receive a full refund if their shoes rip within 6 months of purchasing them. Closing Thoughts All in all, I believe Nike is in a good place. From 2018 until now, Nike has experienced their fair share of internal and external crises. From the United States leaving the TPP, to the resignation of CEO Mark Parker, Nike can hopefully learn from these experiences to build a proper crisis communication strategy. The plan is formatted this way to make it accessible to quickly review during the times these certain crises may come up. Further details about the many ff ff fi ff situations mentioned are included in the following Appendix section. Appendix Alberto Salazar Scandal: Alberto Salazar was a former famed Nike track coach. In 2001, he began the Nike Oregon Project which was an elite training group for long distance runners. In 2019, a former runner apart of the group, Mary Cain wrote an opinion article in the New York Times that highlighted the mistreatment she faced at the hands of Salazar. Stories of the pressures of weight loss and using tactics that damaged the mental states of many of his former athletes began to surface. Salazar was eventually banned 4 years for doping violations, which officially made Nike disband the Oregon Project. Pandemics/Epidemics: While pandemics do not happen very frequently or to the magnitude one sees with the Coronavirus, the reality is we live in a world where diseases are spread more than ever. In the past 10 years we have seen outbreaks for diseases like Swine flu, Ebola, Zika virus, and now Covid-19. The impact level is low with Nike since even closing their stores due to Covid-19 only increased their online sales 82% in the long run. Thus, the company clearly can still thrive even without their stores open. Shoegate: On February 20th of 2019, former Duke star forward Zion Williamson was attempting to stop and pivot his feet during a game against North Carolina. Upon impact of when Zion tried to change direction, his foot burst out and ripped open his Nike shoe. The internet instantly dubbed it ‘Shoegate.’ Nike’s stock also took a slight fall after the incident. Trans-Pacific Partnership: The TPP was a trade deal that involved the United States and 11 other countries, including Vietnam where 40% of Nike’s products are made. The deal heavily decreased tariffs on products from the member countries. The deal received criticism in the United States since it was argued that it hurt the domestic workforce. As a result, the United States pulled out of the agreement in 2017. There are reports that the current administration in office would be in favor of rejoining the TPP, however no one is quite sure of the time table. L Crisis Communication – Final Project (Signature Project) Description Drawing upon what we cover in the course, your final project is to develop a crisis communications plan for one of the companies listed below. See below the schedule of activities that will help you build your plan piece-by-piece. I plan to talk about the plan during each week’s class. Beneath that is the outline to use for your plan. As you prepare the plan, imagine that you will deliver it to the company CEO or president. Your goal is to have him or her say, ‘This is crisp, clear, and makes sense in terms of our being prepared.’ As such, the project has no specific length requirements. Keep in mind, though, that a CEO or president typically is extremely busy and does not want to have to review material that is extraneous. The rubric for how I will evaluate your plan is on page 3. Companies Disney McDonald’s Uber Bank of America Organization of your choice – must first propose to professor + Week Work to Perform on Final Project 1 2 3 Choose the company for which you want to develop your plan. Do basic research to provide a simple but thorough background description. Develop a list of possible crises that could occur at that organization. Also examine the organization’s current reputation. Identify the organization’s key stakeholders. Define what their key interests are. Predict how they might react in the face of a crisis to the company. Define the channels the company currently is using. Describe how actively the company is using the channel and for what purpose. Where available, provide information on number of users/followers and level of interaction. Identify channel strengths and weaknesses in the event of a crisis. Draft instructing messages that would be needed in the event of a crisis posing an immediate threat to people’s health and safety. Develop organizational messages that a) address the 3 Key Needs and b) describe the organization’s efforts to prevent the crisis in the first place. Choose the top 3 potential crises and identify who should be the media spokesperson for the organization and why. Develop a brief overview of key activities the organization should perform pre-crisis and post-crisis. Deliver the plan for review and grading. 4 5 6 L $ Outline for Crisis Communications Plan Cover Describe subject of the plan, include your name and class information Section 1 Background on the company. Who are they? What do they do? How well known are they? Have they been in the news in recent months? Etc. Section 2 Possible crises. Considering both likelihood and magnitude of impact, what could go wrong for the company? Given who they are, what crisis should they be prepared for? Section 3 Key stakeholders. What is their current perception of the company? What are their key interests related to the company? How might they react if a crisis occurs? Section 4 Communications channels. How does the company communicate information to its stakeholders? How active is it on these channels? How active are the stakeholders on these channels? Is the company ready to use the channels during a crisis? Section 5 Messages. Based on the possible crises, what kind of messages can the company prepare in advance? Give examples, both for instructing people in the event of a threat to health or property and for conveying the company’s response to the crisis. Section 6 Spokesperson. Based on the possible crises, who should be the main spokesperson for the company? Why? Should it be the same spokesperson for every crisis? What if the recommended spokesperson were not available, who would be next in line? Section 7 Pre-crisis activities. What 2-4 activities do you recommend the company perform before a crisis? What should the company be doing to prevent the possible crises from occurring? What should the company be doing to be prepared to respond if a crisis hits? Section 8 Post-crisis activities. What 2-4 activities do you recommend the company perform after a crisis is over? Based on the possible crises, what can the company do to maintain good relationships with stakeholders? What can it do to be ready for the next crisis? Section 9 Closing thoughts. Please add any thoughts you think will help the CEO or president in understanding key aspects of your plan. Appendix Please include any details you want the CEO or president to know but which are too long to include in the main plan. 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MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the MLA Handbook and in chapter 7 of the MLA Style Manual. Both books provide extensive examples, so it’s a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

BASIC IN-TEXT CITATION RULES

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations. This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS: AUTHOR-PAGE STYLE

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author’s name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).

Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263).

Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP, 1967.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS FOR PRINT SOURCES WITH KNOWN AUTHOR

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as “symbol-using animals” (3).

Human beings have been described as “symbol-using animals” (Burke 3).

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. University of California Press, 1966.