Public Relations, Brand Communication, and Marketing

Written Report
Review the Boeing crisis (737 max crashes lion air and Ethiopian airline) and compare it with
another company crisis that has occurred not before January 2019, so it should must have
happened this year.
Decide which was handled well and which badly, and analyse the effects on brand and
reputation for both crises. You must defend your opinion.
Hints for the written report:
Remember this is a Master’s degree assignment. Description of what happened is not enough
to pass, in fact you will get an (F). You must show critical analysis of the case. You should
apply one or more of the theories from class or from the extensive literature on marketing,
public relations or crisis management.
For higher marks apply several theories and reach a synthesised evaluation based on what
you have learned from using the different theories and frameworks.
You should consider such things as:

1. Defining crisis in general and business referring to literature
2. Descriptive details of the problems of the companies (Boeing and the one you choose) in
   terms of crisis,
3. and media and link it to public relations and marketing.
4. Media coverage: did the media cover the issue fairly?
5. Media handling: did the organisation successfully communicate through the media?
6. Social media: to what extent did social communications drive the crisis? How did the
   organisation(s)
7. respond?
8. Did the crisis arise internally or was there an external catalyst?
9. How well did the organisation handle technical aspects of the crisis?
10. How well did the organisation handle communications aspects of the crisis?
11. In what way or ways did the fact the two crashes occurred outside the US affect how the
    issue was
12. handled?

Sample Solution