By Paul Bernish

Since this blog first appeared, several publications have delved into the causes of Target’s security breach, and the results are not encouraging. The retailer, apparently, was extremely vulnerable to hacking and data theft. More ominously, its own security systems didn’t uncover the attack; that came from a malware expert who alerted Target through many emails that mostly went unread.

Target’s PR response is ongoing, and I think on balance, the company’s doing about as well as can be expected. Still, this was an enormous breach of consumer privacy, and there will be repurcussions for months if not years ahead.

And one other update: Frredom Industries, the company whose chemical leak caused such upheaval in West Virginia, has declared bankruptcy.

What do Chris Christie, Freedom Industries and Target have in common?

Well, all three are battling crises at the moment. Right. You knew that.

Look closer, and something more basic is causing so much angst.

In each case, the crisis involves situations that touch everyone: traffic jams, tainted water, and the threat (or reality) of stolen credit card data. In New Jersey, a four-day traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge led to major inconvenience, the result of a secret plan by Christie’s office to exact revenge on an unsuspecting mayor who hadn’t endorsed the governor for re-election. In West Virginia, the leak of a licorice-smelling chemical fouled Charleston’s water supply, causing widespread dislocation for thousands of households and businesses, who were told not to use normal, everyday water for anything. And for Target Stores, the revelation that its checkout software had been hacked after Thanksgiving, affecting at last count more than 100 million shoppers, gave real-life proof that a crisis can mushroom into a catastrophe almost overnight.

All of which makes examining the responses — so far — by the entities involved in these messes well worth the time to look at for clues on how well, or badly, the crisis has been managed so far.

• Gov. Christie denied direct culpability in a nearly two-hour press conference that alternated between sorrow and truculence. Christie was smart in going public, but his performance under the spotlight left many questions unanswered.
• Freedom Industries, issued a blandly written apology through a PR firm, and followed up with a hastily arranged press conference that made a bad situation worse. By playing possum, the company has ceded control of the chemical leak narrative to state and federal officials and enraged households. Not surprisingly, those comments have been highly critical of the firm.
• Target has had much the most severe challenge in defusing the hacking crisis because it’s been on ongoing story for more than a week, with new revelations almost daily.  The company has been forthright in issuing updates and putting its CEO out front to express the firm’s sorrow and regret. But with 100 million credit cards compromised, people want to know what is Target prepared to do to assist those whose accounts were hacked.

By their very nature, crises are unfolding events; what varies is how long they last. Ironically, catastrophes such as plane crashes or plant explosions have limited shelf life. Once the details have been reported, folks move on, as does the media.

Other crises can linger, however, when questions aren’t answered or additional information becomes available. Such “rolling crises” exacerbate the situation by keeping the story — and the offending corporation or individual — in the headlines. That’s why PR professionals advise clients caught up in a crisis to limit the damage through aggressive action aimed at the media, shareholders, customers, and other key constituencies. That won’t happen, however, until there is an internal recognition from the top executive on down that a problem exists, one that can’t be brushed aside with a stonewalling “no comment” at one extreme, or expressions of pseudo sorrow and impersonal empathy, on the other. Assuming that level of buy-in, here are steps that must be taken to defuse the crisis and protect and restore a damaged reputation:

First, the crisis’s impact on critical audiences (commuters, households, shoppers) must be immediately acknowledged, along with a genuine and transparent demonstration of purpose in dealing with the situation. So far, Target has done this well; Freedom Industries not so well, and Christie . . . well, it’s hard to say.

Second, the company or individual must state — and repeat, over and over — what it is doing to rectify the situation. Of the three, Target’s response has been admirable and effective. Full page ads in many daily newspapers have outlined the company’s response, while its Twitter and Facebook pages are brimming with messages.

Target understands that companies and individuals can count on a resevoir of community “good will” in a crisis.  But as Freedom Industries and Governor Christie are finding out, it’s a pool that can be drained quickly in a crisis if there’s not a sustained effort to deal with the situation.

Third, in today’s media environment, organizations immeshed in a crisis must use all the communications channels to reach their audiences — not just MSM — and especially using social media. The basics of crisis communications haven’t changed all that much, but the way messaging is conveyed has changed dramatically.  Folks caught up in the George Washington Bridge calamity, for example, bombarded social media with outraged tweets and posts while they were stuck, and then again when it was revealed that the jam was politically inspired. Target is actively engaged in countering negative conversation by tweeting and posting positive, purposeful messages designed to change the narrative.

When we look back on these events in two or three years time, here’s a reasonable estimate of how these situations eventually might have been resolved.

Freedom Industries will pay a hefty fine for chemical leakage and cleanup costs, and it will recede back into industrial anonymity.

Target will use its advertising and marketing prowess to rebuild the company’s standing with shoppers. The Company is too well-entrenched in the minds of shoppers to stay down for long, and as long as customers believe proper precautions to protect their data have been put in place, it will recover its tarnished image.

Which leaves Chris Christie. Aleady the punching bag for late night comedians and talk show hosts, Christie will require a massive overhaul of his flawed persona if he’s to have any chance of future political success. Already, new stories are emerging of investigations of other examples of browbeating and questionable use of public funds.

Can he overcome this crisis? Too soon to say, but with time, effort, and a sincere attitude of regret, Christie could, eventually, put this episode behind him. Americans have a long tradition of forgiving prodigal politicians who sincerely repent.

You gotta think, though that being stuck in a politically manufactured traffic jam is something a lot of folks aren’t soon going to forget — or forgive.