Deck 11: Bad-News Messages

Question 1

In an accident crisis, stakeholders hold companies responsible but understand that what happened was not intentional and was difficult to foresee.

Answer 1

True
Explanation: In an accident crisis, stakeholders hold companies responsible but understand that what happened was not intentional and was difficult to foresee.

Question 2

Once crisis communication teams have planned their messages, they must act under significant time pressures to compose them.

Answer 2

True
Explanation: Once crisis communication teams have planned their messages, they must act under significant time pressures to compose them.

Question 3

In a victim crisis, stakeholders generally hold companies responsible.

Answer 3

False
Explanation: In a victim crisis, stakeholders generally do not hold companies responsible.

Question 4

One of the primary goals of PR is to create distinctive brand value for a company.

Question 5

PR messages are viewed with less skepticism and distrust than most other business messages.

Question 6

Always respond to negative feedback defensively.

Question 7

In addition to crises that companies themselves create, crises created by unfounded rumors can also substantially harm corporate reputation.

Question 8

In the crisis response stage, the business has returned to normal operations and the crisis situation has been resolved or stabilized.

Question 9

Most people think social media messages are more reliable than messages in traditional media outlets and print.

Question 10

Companies should not publicize stories and articles about the good deeds they do.

Question 11

Since PR messages are often extremely consequential, and your company's reputation is on the line, you need to carefully review what you've written.

Question 12

Companies should create and update response plans immediately after a crisis occurs.

Question 13

Most PR messages are now distributed electronically via multimedia platforms, such as websites and even email.

Question 14

Managing negative rumors is relatively easy in the Social Age.

Question 15

Negative rumors often contain some elements of truth.

Question 16

The success of PR messages is far more easy to control and measure than just a decade ago.

Question 17

When a company is attacked unfairly through social media, it should rebut the charges with credentials.

Question 18

In the post-trust era (PTE), credible relationships are critical for creating effective PR messages.

Question 19

Companies that contribute to their stakeholder communities also gain brand value.

Question 20

In the case of a crisis, customers, employees, and other stakeholders are willing to forgive companies if they provide timely and accurate information.

Question 21

Stakeholders hold companies responsible but understand that what happened was not intentional and was difficult to foresee in a(n) _____ crisis.

A)debt
B)victim
C)accident
D)deception
E)preventable

Question 22

What is the advantage of implementing a consistent stream of public relations messages in the post-crisis stage of crisis management?

A)It helps a company repair its reputation.
B)It helps a company in developing a crisis management plan.
C)It helps a company monitor the situation carefully and stay updated with the facts.
D)It helps a company in developing sample responses to various types of crises.
E)It helps the company prevent a similar crisis in future.

Question 23

Earth Jump organizes bungee jumping expeditions all over the United States.It sources equipment from reliable vendors and has competent instructors.Earth Jump, in an effort to cut costs while operating in far-flung locations, decides to rent cheaper, used equipment and hire local instructors.After three jumpers are grievously injured while jumping (due to bungee cords that snapped), public outrage leads to an inquiry.It is found that the relatively inexperienced instructors are inept at securing safety harnesses and checking bungee cords for damages.What kind of crisis does Earth Jump face in this situation?

A)Debt crisis
B)Victim crisis
C)Accident crisis
D)Deception crisis
E)Preventable crisis

Question 24

Which of the following should a company do in the post-crisis stage of crisis management?

A)Help victims and ensure public safety.
B)Create crisis management teams and identify roles of key players.
C)Implement a consistent stream of public relations messages.
D)Create a crisis management plan.
E)Develop sample responses to various types of crises.

Question 25

Which of the following becomes a public record of companies' efforts to repair the damage they have caused?

A)Expression of sympathy by a stakeholder
B)Accusations leveled against a company
C)Excuses or justifications provided by a company
D)Apologies made by business leaders
E)Instructions provided to stakeholders

Question 26

What must a company do immediately after expressing concern toward the victims of a crisis?

A)Develop a sample response for future crises
B)Explain why the company should not be held responsible for the crisis
C)Create a crisis management plan
D)Describe what the company is doing to resolve the crisis
E)Assign and train a crisis management team

Question 27

Which of the following is the first stage of crisis management?

A)Crisis responses
B)Root cause analysis
C)Pre-crisis planning
D)Post-crisis actions
E)SWOT analysis

Question 28

Which of the following should a company do immediately after a crisis occurs when the company has little information about it?

A)Issue a statement explaining the cause of the crisis.
B)Develop sample responses to various types of crises.
C)Describe the process being used to investigate the situation.
D)Create a crisis management team.
E)Explain how the company will compensate victims and issue an apology.

Question 29

In which of the following stages of crisis management is the crisis situation resolved or stabilized?

A)Crisis response stage
B)Crisis prevention stage
C)Pre-crisis stage
D)Post-crisis stage
E)PR management stage

Question 30

Which of the following stages of crisis management involves rapidly confronting the crisis?

A)Crisis response
B)Crisis prevention
C)Pre-crisis planning
D)Post-crisis action
E)Root cause analysis

Question 31

Stakeholders believe the company is to blame and is completely responsible for the damages and losses to stakeholders in a(n) _____ crisis.

A)debt
B)victim
C)accident
D)deception
E)preventable

Question 32

Stakeholders generally do not hold companies responsible in a(n) _____ crisis.

A)debt
B)victim
C)accident
D)deception
E)preventable

Question 33

In which of the following stages of crisis management should a company create a crisis management plan?

A)Crisis responses
B)Root cause analysis
C)Pre-crisis preparation
D)Post-crisis actions
E)Corrective efforts

Question 34

In which of the following stages of crisis management should a company inform stakeholders about recovery and corrective efforts?

A)Crisis responses
B)Root cause analysis
C)Pre-crisis preparation
D)Post-crisis actions
E)Corrective efforts

Question 35

What is the importance of providing instructions to stakeholders during a crisis?

A)This shows a company's commitment to formulating a response as soon as it can.
B)It prepares stakeholders for an impending excuse or justification.
C)This helps stakeholders avoid any further physical or financial harm.
D)It reduces the number of claims against the organization.
E)It helps in developing a sample response for a similar future crisis.

Question 36

Arc Inc.manufactures music players exclusively for the U.S.market.Arc's previous model, Muse, could access the Internet and download music as an added feature.Muse would sometimes freeze between downloads and force users to restart the download.Arc failed to rectify the problem but promised users a huge discount on the next model in exchange for the Muse.Arc's new product, Jazz, rectifies the freezing problem and is available at a discount for Muse users.However, Jazz is not free of problems.It turns off due to overheating after simultaneous multiple downloads.Which of the following acts as an intensifying factor for Arc in this crisis related to Jazz?

A)Problems related to Muse
B)Problems related to Jazz
C)Arc's decision to develop another music player after Muse
D)Arc's decision to add music downloads capabilities to Muse and Jazz
E)Arc's decision to sell Jazz at a discounted price

Question 37

Which of the following typically takes place during the post-crisis action stage?

A)Conducting annual exercises to test the company's ability to respond
B)Creating crisis management teams
C)Identifying the roles of key players in the crisis management teams
D)Engaging in public relations to repair the organization's reputation.
E)Providing stress and trauma counseling

Question 38

Which of the following is most likely to be true of creating crisis messages?

A)Corrective actions are explained to stakeholders only in accident crises.
B)When stakeholders hold a company responsible for a crisis, the company should issue an excuse or justification rather than an apology.
C)Announcing compensations is a sign of guilt, so companies should refrain from announcing compensation in their crisis messages.
D)Crisis communication teams must act under significant time pressures to compose their messages.
E)Crisis messages are not required in a victim crisis since stakeholders do not attach responsibility to the company.

Question 39

What is the primary purpose of crisis communications?

A)To avoid reputation loss
B)To repair reputation loss
C)To help victims and other stakeholders
D)To inform stakeholders about the causes of the crisis
E)To develop a sample response for future crises

Question 40

During the crisis responses stage, a company is most likely to:

A)provide stress and trauma counseling.
B)create a crisis management plan.
C)regularly conduct exercises to test the crisis management plan.
D)develop sample responses to various types of crises.
E)assign and train a crisis management team.

Question 41

In the emerging _____, companies are less able to generate predictable media exposure due to the growing importance of online consumer reviews and activist blogs.

A)Social Age
B)Information Age
C)Industrial Age
D)Classical Age
E)Space Age

Question 42

In the context of developing credible relationships, which of the following types of responsibilities is similar to character?

A)Economic responsibility
B)Social responsibility
C)Ethical responsibility
D)Collective responsibility
E)Cultural responsibility

Question 43

Which of the following is most likely to be true of public relations (PR)?

A)Building relationships with employees is not considered a part of PR as PR deals with the parties that are external to an organization.
B)PR became a key component of the marketing mix in the social age.
C)The PR field is among the business areas that are slowest in adopting Social age practices.
D)PR has among the worst reputations of various business fields.
E)Reducing the number of crises that a company faces is a function of PR.

Question 44

Establishing credibility and showing sincere goodwill should be primary goals in your public relations efforts because:

A)PR messages form the largest chunk of routine messages.
B)PR messages, unlike crisis messages, are sent only to the most important stakeholders.
C)PR messages are viewed with more skepticism and distrust than other business messages.
D)PR messages become a public record of the companies' efforts to repair damage that they have caused.
E)PR messages reduce the number of crises that a company faces.

Question 45

Which of the following is true of responding to rumors?

A)Negative rumors contain no truth and can be denied instantly without any further investigation.
B)An effective and fair response requires minimal facts.
C)A quick response can make up for lack of facts.
D)Heavy-handedness needs to be avoided in rebuttals.
E)Rumors die out as quick as they emerge, so it isn't necessary to respond to them.

Question 46

Tasty EMC is a fast food chain with outlets in 32 cities.Recently, the chain's reputation took a hit when one of the customers went public with a complaint about food-poisoning due to under-cooked eggs.The dish in question required undercooked eggs as one of its ingredients.The customer, Mary, launched campaigns on Twitter and Facebook to deter others from dining at any of the Tasty EMC outlets.Which of the following media should Tasty EMC use to respond to Mary's accusations?

A)Blogs
B)Social networking sites
C)Television campaigns
D)Radio interviews
E)Newspaper reports

Question 47

Which of the following is a reason why companies are less able to generate predictable media exposure in the social age?

A)The redundancy of activist blogs
B)The lack of exploitable social media tools
C)The abundance of options in mass advertising
D)The increasingly fragmented media landscape
E)The decreasing importance of online consumer reviews

Question 48

_____ are viewed with more skepticism than most other business messages.

A)Routine messages
B)Bad news messages
C)Persuasive messages
D)Instructional messages
E)Public relations messages

Question 49

Which of the following is a reason why the field of public relations is rapidly adopting Social Age practices?

A)The abundance of options in mass advertising
B)The decreasing importance of online consumer reviews
C)The redundancy of activist blogs
D)The increased reliance of consumers on social media for information
E)The decrease in number of exploitable social media tools

Question 50

Which of the following is true of public relations (PR)?

A)The skeptical view of PR professionals and messages is new to the Social Age.
B)Developing credible PR messages is more challenging in the Social Age.
C)The primary goal of public relations is to avoid any corporate crisis.
D)The fragmented media landscape makes it easier for people to trust PR messages.
E)Increasing the fragmentation of media landscape is the primary goal of PR.

Question 51

Which of the following is a primary goal of public relations (PR)?

A)To shrink mass advertising options
B)To increase the fragmentation of media landscape
C)To highlight the importance of consumer reviews
D)To improve corporate reputation or credibility
E)To reduce reliance on social media for information

Question 52

Managing negative rumors is one of the foremost challenges to organizations in the emerging _____.

A)Social Age
B)Information Age
C)Industrial Age
D)Classical Age
E)Space Age

Question 53

During the Information Age, the scope of public relations (PR) broadened and it became a key component of the _____.

A)performance prism
B)balanced scorecard
C)marketing mix
D)value chain
E)total quality management

Question 54

In the context of developing credible relationships, which of the following types of responsibilities is similar to competence?

A)Economic responsibility
B)Social responsibility
C)Ethical responsibility
D)Collective responsibility
E)Cultural responsibility

Question 55

_____ means producing products and services that meet the needs of customers and clients.

A)Economic responsibility
B)Social responsibility
C)Ethical responsibility
D)Collective responsibility
E)Cultural responsibility

Question 56

Which of the following best describes ethical responsibility?

A)Ethical responsibility means producing products and services that meet the needs of customers and clients.
B)Ethical responsibility means that corporate activities comply with high moral and legal standards.
C)Ethical responsibility means that companies give back, serve, and meet the shared interests of their communities.
D)Ethical responsibility means that companies continuously strive to reduce the cost of their operations.
E)Ethical responsibility means that companies determine what is desirable by seeing what their competitors do.

Question 57

_____ means that companies give back, serve, and meet the collective interests of their communities.

A)Economic responsibility
B)Social responsibility
C)Ethical responsibility
D)Collective responsibility
E)Cultural responsibility

Question 58

Companies should choose channels to match their _____.

A)audiences
B)facts
C)preferences
D)principles
E)PR image

Question 59

Which of the following stages of writing crisis messages involves applying the FAIR test?

A)Audience analysis
B)Providing instructions
C)Idea development
D)Message review
E)Creating crisis management plan

Question 60

Which of the following is most likely to be true about corporate reputation?

A)Reputation cannot contribute to an increase in revenue.
B)Having a positive reputation is not enough.
C)A company's reputation must be similar to its competitors.
D)The perceived credibility of a corporation is not affected by its reputation.
E)Corporate reputation is a function of PR management that does not depend on the quality of products or services.

Question 61

Why should a company apologize in a preventable crisis?

Question 62

Which of the following is true of building a brand using public relations (PR)?

A)Most PR activities should include hard sells for better branding.
B)PR activities should be used to reinforce a brand by creating a feel of mass advertising.
C)Potential customers should perceive PR activities as strictly self-serving.
D)Among the most visible PR activities for companies are charitable ones.
E)PR is the most trusted business field and hence the best to build a brand.

Question 63

The tone of _____ communication tools is typically less formal (but rarely informal), more authentic, and more spontaneous.

A)Social Age
B)Information Age
C)Industrial Age
D)Classical Age
E)Space Age

Question 64

Informing stakeholders about the economic and social value that the company provides:

A)negatively affects its mass advertising efforts.
B)enhances its reputation.
C)reduces its liability.
D)increases its responsibility.
E)establishes its strategy.

Question 65

Which of the following is true of Social Age PR strategies?

A)Most people think social media messages are more reliable than messages in traditional media outlets.
B)Controlling a PR message is easier in the Social Age because of the two-way nature of the social media environment.
C)The use of Information Age PR strategies has been completely stopped by the companies during the Social age
D)In Social Age, PR messages should be developed by keeping in mind a target audience
E)Social Age PR strategies use only Web 1.0 tools to reach target audiences.

Question 66

Stakeholders are most likely to trust a company's PR messages when:

A)they view the company as credible.
B)they have unformed opinions of a company.
C)the company uses social tools such as blogs and wikis to convey the PR message.
D)the company uses traditional tools such as press releases.
E)the company includes hard sells in its PR messages.

Question 67

Which of the following occupies the widest part of the inverted pyramid of a PR story?

A)A section that allows readers to identify when the story occurred
B)A section that answers the basic questions of who, what, when, where, and why
C)A part of the story that provides supporting details
D)A brief explanation about the background of the company
E)An introduction to the PR story

Question 68

Describe the three different types of Crises.

Question 69

Which of the following is an example of an Information Age communication tool?

A)E-newsletter
B)Corporate blog
C)Microblog
D)Corporate social networking page
E)Online forum

Question 70

What is a boilerplate in a public relations (PR) story?

A)A section that allows readers to identify when the story occurred
B)A section that answers the basic questions of who, what, when, where, and why
C)A part of the story that provides supporting details
D)A brief explanation about the background of the company
E)An introduction to the PR story

Question 71

Describe the significance of reviewing crisis messages.

Question 72

What is the advantage of publicizing the good deeds that the company does for stakeholders?

Question 73

What does a company do during the response stage of handling a crisis?
The response stage involves rapidly confronting the crisis.The primary responsibility of the company is to help victims and remove any danger to stakeholders.With a well-developed plan in place, which includes designation of crisis management teams and roles, a company can often rapidly and effectively meet the needs of victims and other stakeholders.An important but secondary responsibility during the response stage is to preserve an organization's reputation.During the crisis response stage, the company should attempt to reach all stakeholders through appropriate communication channels.

Question 74

What are some of the principles to be considered when handling negative rumors?

Question 75

At the heart of public relations (PR) campaigns is _____.

A)setting objectives
B)creating timelines and budgets
C)listening and research
D)identifying stakeholders
E)solving crises

Question 76

What are the disadvantages of using social media for PR?

Question 77

The tone of _____ communication tools is generally more formal, professional, authoritative, and well crafted.

A)Social Age
B)Information Age
C)Industrial Age
D)Classical Age
E)Space Age

Question 78

What is the importance of credible relationships in creating PR messages?

Question 79

Describe the message structure of PR messages.

Question 80

How would you apply the FAIR test to PR messages?