Discussion:
Response with 2 to 3 sentence to each of these peer response
1. Chick-Fil-A went through a crisis when Dan Cathy, the COO made a statement to the Baptist Press reflecting that Chick-Fil-A is a family owned business and that they are the biblical definition of a family. Cathy's remarks, company's own policies, and history of donations to anti-gay causes triggered a boycott by the gay-friendly consumers. The statement was not intended to go as far as it did, but to keep Chick-Fil-A's motto of being a family owned business. Between social media and other avenues the one statement made by Dan Cathy escalated. Initially in order to appease the protestors Chick-Fil-A permitted and encouraged individual franchisees to distribute a statement distancing themselves from the corporate position.
Ultimately, the company welcomed customer appreciation day that was organized by their supports and reminding the public that it's important to stick to values rather than trying to please everyone. Personally, I believe that Chick-Fil-A did the right thing. Instead of going out and trying to make right of a situation that was totally misconstrued, they decided to remain showing their original values. Therefore, demonstrating that the statement was not intended to offend "gays", but meaning that they are a family owned company. I would not have done anything else differently because what Dan Cathy stated in his interview was not wrong in any way, shape, or form he just was reminding others what Chick-Fil-A stand for and did not say anything about gays.
2. Just recently the Blue Bell Ice cream company went through a multistate outbreak of Listeria linked to Blue Bell ice cream. A total of 10 people with listeriosis related to this outbreak were reported from 4 states: Arizona (1), Kansas (5), Oklahoma (1), and Texas (3). All ill people were hospitalized. Three deaths were reported from Kansas (3) (cdc.gov). When this crisis occurred Blue Bell communicated their crisis to the public on April 20, 2015, Blue Bell Ice Cream Creameries voluntarily recalled all of its products currently on the market made at all of its facilities, including ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet, and frozen snacks. The Blue Bell Ice cream Company use verbal and written communication to reach their customers. They used the CDC, phone calls, websites, memos, a spokesperson, the news, and retailers and released customer statements to get consumers to understand they should not eat any recalled Blue Bell brand products, and institutions and retailers should not serve or sell them.
The Blue Bell Ice Cream Company was effective in communicating their crisis while maintaining their image. Blue Bell took time to communicate with their customers and to the public that they were doing everything possible to provide consumers with safe products and to preserve the trust that they had built with families and the public for more than a century.
If I would have been in charge of the communication strategy at the Blue Bell Ice Cream Plant, I would have notified other Blue Bell plants that an outbreak is in occurrence and shutting down of all creameries until the source was identified much sooner than they responded. I would not have put other customers to the exposure of possibly getting ill.