Wendy's Finger Hoax

1019 Words5 Pages
Step2 The issue represented in the case study showed how Wendy’s on March 2005 was faced with a crisis after one of their customers in San Jose, California claimed that she found a human finger in her bowl of beef chili. Hours after the alleged claim was made by the 39 year old woman called Anna Ayala, the story was published and broadcasted by the media in almost every TV and radio channels and newspapers causing Wendy’s a huge lost in sales while it was trying to rebuild its image. However, soon after the claim, Wendy’s President Tom Muller did not waste any time and quickly started to work on some effective public relations initiatives. In no time, Wendy’s took actions to be available to the media 24/7 to answer to any questions and concerns the media would have. The communication between the company and the media was very open and flawless despite all the harsh comments and jokes being made toward the company. Even though the company has a public relation representative “Denis Lynch” responsible to communicate with the media with up to date news, Wendy’s executives were also into the media spotlight to clear the issue and assure the public on the actions taken to diffuse the situation. Furthermore, to cope with this crisis, internal investigations were established by the corporation to identify the origin of the problem, as well as a crisis control management team. And finally, the company created a program by offering $50,000 to receive some verifiable leads from anyone on the case. Step 3 The company plan of actions in dealing with the finger hoax was very effective and powerful which represented its strength in my opinion. When dealing with a crisis, the best and effective way to solve it quickly is to communicate with the media. And this exactly what Wendy’s did by constantly reporting the actions it was taking as the story progressed. In addition, from
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