VW’s Crisis Strategy: Forward, Reverse, U-Turn

From The New York Times:  Someday, Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal will be studied in crisis communications textbooks. And not in a good way.

“There was something like a tsunami,” Hans-Gerd Bode, Volkswagen’s communications chief since September, said in an interview. “Thousands of calls and emails coming in at the same time.”

“A crisis like this, the company was not prepared for,” he said. With the company continuing to negotiate with foreign governments, “We don’t know the right way out.”

In the months since it admitted it designed its diesel cars to cheat on tailpipe-emissions tests, the company has struggled with its messaging. A low point came last month when Matthias Müller, the new chief executive, visited the United States and told NPR, “We didn’t lie,” when VW clearly did. The outcry forced Mr. Müller to call NPR back and revise his statement.

The reaction to the scandal has been swift. A recent Harris Poll of Americans’ attitudes toward the 100 most visible companies ranked Volkswagen dead last.

It has been a humbling fall for a company known for generations for its deft ability to create a friendly image, from its revolutionary 1960s marketing campaign for the original Beetle to VW’s 2011 Super Bowl commercial featuring a boy dressed as Darth Vader, using the Force to turn on a Passat. More recently, Volkswagen has preached its environmental virtues — emphasizing its diesels — as a selling point.

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