Crisis Communication Business & Marketing Essay Paper

Crisis Communication – Chipotle Crisis Communication
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April 14, 2020
Crisis management is an essential aspect of every organization. It allows management to be able to deal with circumstances and events that could lead to a bad reputation on the part of the company as well as mitigate any possible financial losses. Accordingly, this paper would discuss one of the well-known crisis that happened in 2016 – Chipotle’s Multistate E.Coli Outbreak. The subsequent discussion in this article would include the company’s manner and matter used during their crisis communication, which led to a relatively successful intervention against massive financial losses. All in all, the author believes that with the help of a timely, effective, and well-placed crisis response, dealing with possible setbacks of unforeseeable circumstances could be mitigated.
Chipotle’s Response to E. coli Outbreak
Back in 2016, around 55 customers from different states who ate at Chipotle’s were sent to the hospital for food poisoning. Upon investigation, the FDA found that most of the victims were infected with E. coli 026, which caused diarrhea, dehydration, and severe stomach aches to the patients. Fortunately, no patient died, and most of them recovered after a week of hospitalization CITATION FDA16 \l 1033 (FDA.Gov, 2016). This also led to massive losses in the company’s profits and valuations.
In order to buffer the effects of the outbreak, Chipotle utilized two significant steps, which are (1) Ellis’ speech to the media and (2) CEO Moran’s taking accountability for the action. Initially, Chipotle’s founder Steve Ellis held a press conference and boldly promised their customers that “The procedures we are putting in place today are so above industry norms that we are going to be the safest place to eat” CITATION Prand \l 1033 (Prater, n.d.). Even though this was considered by many analysts as a bold claim, subsequent reports show that the company was able to increase its stock valuations by 5% after the speech. Subsequently, during the reparation process, Chipotle’s CEO Moran stepped down aft...