How garment suppliers should respond to a PR crisis

In the fashion industry, public relations is a business-critical discipline. Whenever there is a crisis, retailers' PR teams go into overdrive. Their role is simple: To protect reputations.

What about suppliers, though? How do garment suppliers in Bangladesh handle a public relations crisis? At present, I would say, quite poorly. I would not expect smaller garment makers to have a public relations expert or to use a PR agency. Even among larger garment suppliers, however, the management of PR appears to be poor and reactive rather than proactive and decisive. This needs to change.

Firstly, suppliers should have a strategy in place. This involves different people within the business having designated roles. Who will be the spokesperson? Who will deal with the media? How will messaging be disseminated? Will an outside agency be used, or will all PR issues be handled in-house? When should they "talk" and when should there be "no comments"?

In my experience, our suppliers often do not comment on news stories where they are impacted. There is perhaps a mistrust towards Western media and concern that, by commenting publicly, one could make matters worse.

While this is understandable, a lack of willingness to talk and engage with the media can be taken as a sign of having something to hide, which is not a good look.

If a PR crisis unfolds, a business owner should be proactive and attempt to establish some control over the messaging. They can do this by issuing a clear and to-the-point statement. Any statement can start by acknowledging the situation at hand. Establish empathy with the reader to begin with. Then spell out in clear terms what actions are being undertaken to address the situation. Use clear, unambiguous language. Try to avoid management-speak or corporate jargon as this will simply alienate people.

After acknowledging a situation or issue and explaining how it is being addressed, one can use this as an opportunity to reinforce any other key messaging. So, for instance, if the issue at hand relates to business ethics, one could use the statement to outline how their company has a clear policy on business ethics and social issues and highlight any work that has been done in this area.

Statements should be posted across social media boards such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. A copy of the statement should be posted on the business website, as this is the first place that journalists and other interested stakeholders will look when trying to find out more.

The benefits of issuing a statement are that, firstly, it gives owners some control over the messaging and, secondly, it saves them having to talk to lots of media outlets. One can simply refer them to the statement. A statement also makes clear to the outside world that the business is taking the issue seriously and is not just hiding away.

There should be a designated media spokesperson and all other staff must defer to them and send any media enquiries their way. Unauthorised staff should under no circumstances talk to the media. As we all know, the media can build a large story from one or two off-the-cuff remarks.

Two more important aspects of PR crisis management are speed and repetition. The importance of quick and decisive early messaging cannot be underestimated. Often, when people make up their mind on things, it is very difficult to change them. So a business should get their message or statement in as early as possible. This will help the business take ownership of the story.

Repetition is also vital. In any press statement, having a few key points and repeating them is effective. Soon, those points will begin to sink into people's minds, even at a subliminal level. Vague, woolly, and inconsistent messaging will have little or no impact.

As garment suppliers, we have had years of conversations or crises wherein we have had little say or have been unwilling to respond. As Bangladesh becomes more outward-facing, it is time for this to change. We cannot continue to be passive by-standers while the rest of the world talks about us or PR crises unfold. We need to be proactive in presenting our side of the story – quickly, clearly and decisively.

Mostafiz Uddin is managing director of Denim Expert Limited. He is also the founder and CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo and Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE).