Bloomingdales Case Study

a) Bloomingdales is a department store based that is based in the United States of America. The stores run nationwide and is widely expanding in the nation. Its business objective is to cater to shoppers nationwide, for both male and female. Shoppers can choose to shop in stores or online from their website or through their mobile app. This gives shoppers the convenience to shop at any time, anywhere. [1] At the same time, Bloomingdales aims to reach out to those in need and change their lives with the “b.cause” program. They have partnered with various organisations to create the awareness. [2] Also, they plan to create diversity amongst the staff and its customers by understanding the different cultures and to cater to the needs of different

Secondly, the lack of tactfulness caused the crisis to arise. Before suggesting such a slogan, certain thoughts should be considered in order to avoid any misunderstanding between the company and the consumer. By relating to certain issues such as rape, could be offensive especially to those who were victims of rape. This turns off the consumers perception of the company. Thirdly, being such a well known company, they should have the knowledge of past flaws by other companies that resulted in a crisis. Companies should research on what can or cannot be put up in their advertisements to avoid such mishaps. Lastly, the presence of the advertisement was wrong. The way the ad was portrayed could have been different in a sense that it could have portrayed something totally different, for example, “This ad might have worked if the photo was a group of women, or a group of guys laughing instead of a woman and a man with an odd look on his face.” This may have worked, even with the quote put in. [5]

c) To resolve crisis communication, there are a few steps that needs to take part to resolve. It consists of 8 steps and they are 1) Getting control of the

As a media relations in charge, one is responsible for all media that gets published. Ultimately, they are required to check in detail of whether the article or advertisement is suitable to be published to the public and not result in any negative feedback or make sure it does not bring down the reputation of the company. It is highly important that all promotions for the company are reasonable and appropriate to society so it does not result in misunderstandings. At the same time, they are also required to manage any PR crisis issues that may arise. [6] The right plan to engage the media would be key so as to not lose any reputation. Being appointed as a media relations in charge, I would implement a plan to strictly analyze the advertisement before it gets published to see if there are any part of it that may cause negativity to arise. Identifying and resolving it before it gets released to public can help avoid crisis’ from happening. This is especially so when publishing to social media platforms where most scandals and difference in opinions may arise. For a well known company to post on social media, it is always wise to refrain from publishing any content which is inappropriate. Another strategy would be, to know your audience before publishing anything to public especially on social media. By knowing and understanding the different backgrounds on the public, it could eliminate any wrong moves