Crisis Communications Case Study Ford Motor

Case

During the late 1980s into the 1990s, Ford Explorers equipped with Firestone Wilderness tires were linked to nearly 150 deaths and more than 500 injuries in the United States alone. Concerned about the company’s bottom line and its reputation, Ford Motor Company employed what might be called an “ignore it and it will go away” approach to crisis communications.

The lack of a cohesive crisis communications strategy, paired with poor management decisions, resulted in a stock price drop of $11.78 per share. Even greater was the damage to the company’s reputation. Today, the Ford/Firestone debacle is considered by many to be a textbook example of what not to do when facing a crisis.

So what did Ford do wrong?

• They didn’t put customer safety and needs first.
  • They covered up the safety defects for more than 10 years.
  • They didn’t immediately recall the product once it started to fail.
• They had no crisis communications plan in place.
  • And even when the situation continued drawing national and international attention, they held off on any formal plan.
• They were reactive, not proactive.
  • Once committed to a recall, they were slow in approaching the public and media.
  • They ignored a corrective engineering proposal to enhance the stability of the Explorer, cited among the worst vehicles for rollovers.
• They weren’t a resource for information on the situation.
  • Ford CEO Jacques Nassar didn’t attend early House subcommittee hearings on the issue.
  • They didn’t hold regular press briefings or press conferences.
  • They didn’t provide a way, place or site for consumers to find the latest information on the tires, the Explorers or the situation.
  • Consumers were left in the dark about how the company was going to fix the problem.
• They pointed fingers, rather than take responsibility.
  • Ford Motor Company repeatedly blamed Firestone tires, in spite of the fact that crash statistics showed that the Explorer had a higher incidence of tire-related accidents than other sport-utility vehicles, no matter the brand of tire.
  • Ford released documents showing that Firestone had received a disproportionate amount of complaints about the Wilderness series since 1997.
  • Rather than focusing on fixing the problem, they tried to pass the buck.

Sources: “Ford Motor Company: What Went Wrong,” MBA 645 Public Relations in Crisis Management, University of Montana, instructor Dr. Fengru Li, August 18, 2003.