From CEO’s Communication Crisis to Corporate Reputation Damage: The Patiswiss Case
Öz
Crises, particularly when directly triggered by senior executives, pose existential threats to brands. This case study examines a communication crisis at Patiswiss, sparked by the former CEO’s inappropriate response to a customer complaint on LinkedIn. The study aims to analyze the brand’s crisis response strategies and their coverage in online media, within the scope of Coombs’ three-stage crisis management model (pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis). Theoretical grounding is provided by corporate apologia and image restoration theories, which serve as frameworks for evaluating the brand’s reputation management efforts. From an initial pool of 354 online news articles, a purposive sampling method was employed, and after eliminating duplicates, 244 articles were analyzed through thematic analysis using Nvivo14 software. Results show that the most frequently covered theme in the media was the resignation of the former CEO and the appointment of a new one, appearing in 28.69% of the coverage. This was followed by themes related to the Patiswiss incident itself, allegations of a fake diploma, the former CEO’s background, and product withdrawals from store shelves, collectively accounting for 23.37% of the coverage. In contrast, themes such as the CEO’s apology and expressions of remorse—key components of reputation management—received only 3.69% of media attention. Mentioned percentages indicate that the brand’s post-crisis communication strategies achieved limited public visibility. The case study findings show that the CEO exhibited a controversial communication style before the crisis and that the brand tended to ignore user reactions on social media, setting the stage for the crisis. Moreover, the inconsistency between the CEO’s aggressive and dismissive tone, and the company’s formal apology and prolonged silence strategies, was hard to be unnoticed. Through highlighting the impact of leadership communication style in case of a crisis, and on public perception, this study contributes to the crisis communication literature and underscores the critical importance of consistent and empathetic messaging in crisis management.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Crisis Communication, Patiswiss, Case Study, Leadership Communication, Corporate Apologia, Image Restoration Theory
Kaynakça
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