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ADIDAS BOSTON MARATHON EMAIL 1 Adidas Boston Marathon Email Crisis Case Analysis HOW A COMPANY SCARRED ITS REPUTATION WITH ONE EMAIL Curran Umphrey, Sarah Turner, Katie Money and Laurabeth Givens

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Page 1: Adidas Boston Marathon Email Crisis Case Analysiscurranumphrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Group-Case-Study-Paper.pdf2014). In addition to their own success, they also own the sportswear

ADIDAS BOSTON MARATHON EMAIL

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Adidas Boston Marathon Email Crisis Case

Analysis

HOW A COMPANY SCARRED ITS REPUTATION WITH ONE EMAIL

Curran Umphrey, Sarah Turner, Katie

Money and Laurabeth Givens

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Abstract

Effective research and thought is critical for a public relations campaign, or any form of

public communication that a company takes part in. When reaching out to their publics, it is

important for an organization to research and determine what the best strategy is for their

campaign to be successful. On April 17, 2017 Adidas sent an email to those who participated in

the 2017 Boston Marathon with the subject line reading, “Congratulations, you survived the

Boston Marathon!” Adidas was bombarded with negative comments on Twitter concerning the

email’s insensitivity to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Adidas was now in the midst of a

sudden crisis. This case study will analyze the role that proper communication tactics have in

crisis management.

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Company Background

Adidas began in 1949 by Adolf Dassler in Germany. Since then, they have become the

second largest manufacturer of sportswear in the world, as well as the largest in Europe. They

are currently a multi billion-dollar company. In 2016, their total revenue was 19.29 billion euros

(Wikipedia, 2016). They are also an employer for over 50,000 people worldwide (Wikipedia,

2014). In addition to their own success, they also own the sportswear company Reebok,

TaylorMade-Adidas golf company, as well as partial ownership in an Austrian fitness technology

company. Adidas boasts in designing products for competitive sports, but also for athletes in

general. They define an athlete as someone who strives to do their best no matter what they are

doing. The mission is “to be the best sports brand in the world. Everything we do is rooted in

sport.” (Adidas, 2017). They stick to the main beliefs of their creator, Dassler, which is to help

athletes improve through innovative measures. Over the past sixty-eight years Adidas has

cultivated a growing fan-base of devoted customers who love and appreciate the products they

provide.

Boston Marathon History

The Boston Marathon is a competitive race that many runners train for years to qualify

for. Beginning in 1897 with only 15 participants, it has since grown significantly to include

more than 30,000 participants each year. Runners consider it a high honor to be able to take part

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in such a coveted marathon. The event, however, was struck with tragedy in 2013 when two

bombs exploded at the finish line, resulting in 3 fatalities and 263 injuries. The runners of the

marathon were not the only ones effected by bombing that year. After this act of terrorism, the

entire country was shaken to the core with fear and disbelief that such a horrific incident could

occur at such a joyful event. The tragedy of the bombing and the lack of consideration from

Adidas caused an uproar when the subject line on their email read, “Congrats, you survived the

Boston Marathon!”

SWOT Analysis

A few internal and external factors need to be considered when deciding to initiate any

form of communication with your publics. In this situation, Adidas should have implemented a

SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis would have provided an in-depth look into the strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities and threats that Adidas would face once they sent this email. The

conduction of a SWOT analysis could have saved Adidas from this embarrassing incident.

Strength: Adidas has a large fan base and the marathon participants, which consist of many people who would be interested in athletic gear; Adidas has been a sponsor for the Boston Marathon for 29 years

Opportunity: Adidas large fan base to promote business and new products

Weakness: Adidas relying heavily on their large group of fans to be supportive in all situations; they need to consider that these fans may not always be fans

Threat: Adidas has such a large fan base that can potentially become a large group of critics and can hurt the company’s image and sales

Formative Research Phase

Based on formative research, it was evident this subject line caused an uproar and led to

lost respect from many people who received or heard about the email. In the subject line Adidas

used the term “survived” because that it is a common term in the running community used to

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describe the way it feels to complete a marathon. However, the main issue in this case is that

Adidas did not consider the context of the situation they were using it in with reference to the

Boston Marathon. Adidas, as an organization, has encountered few issues like this one in the

past. Due to their seemingly clear record, it was a shock that this company let something as

insensitive and inappropriate as this happen. Until this crisis occurred, Adidas had a mutually

beneficial relationship with their publics that made them feel appreciated by the company. The

main publics involved in this case were originally those who received the email. Additionally,

non-publics, who were unaware of the email initially, became active publics after they heard

about the offensive subject line. The reach this crisis had stretched far across the social media

site, Twitter. Many users were among those who went from non-publics to active publics. On

this site they were able to see the posts of those who received the email and agreed with them

that the email was inappropriate.

Strategy Phase

The email’s initial key message and objective was intended to be a marketing technique

to promote athletic gear to a specifically targeted audience by getting participants to go to

Adidas’ online store and order merchandise or apparel. However, the objective of the email was

diminished because of the disapproval of the subject title which caused this sudden crisis.

Timeline of events:

• April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing occurred

• April 17, 2017 Adidas sent “congrats” email

• April 17, 2017 Key publics negatively react on Twitter

• April 18, 2017 Adidas apologizes on Twitter, via email, and news media

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Adidas’ next key message was apologizing on Twitter by tweeting a picture of an

apology statement made by Adidas’ CEO Kasper Rorsted (Calfas, 2017).

Adidas could have had a well planned strategy developed to prevent this crisis from

occurring. Their biggest mistake was not having a well developed proactive plan in place.

However, Adidas did a good job of taking an accommodative stance and responding to the crisis

quickly. Below is the conflict management cycle that Adidas used to handle the criticisms they

were receiving.

Conflict Management Cycle:

• Proactive Phase:

o External environmental scanning- In this phase Adidas could look to other

companies who have experienced similar situations to the one they were in

to have reference of what strategies were successful for others.

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o Internal risk assessment- Determine what went wrong within their

organization. In this assessment, Adidas should find out how many people

actually reviewed this email before it was finalized and sent to their

subscribers. By doing this, Adidas can establish a more effective way to

do this in the future.

• Strategic Phase:

o Risk communication- Adidas strategized their key message and the best

way to communicate that message to their publics about the situation.

• Reactive phase:

o Crisis communication- Adidas decided to rectify by taking an

accommodative stance.

o They took full responsibility

o Had one spokesperson, their CEO

o Communicated with their key publics

o Put the public first by stressing how sorry they felt about the email

• Recovery phase:

o In this phase, Adidas made the decision to drop the situation immediately

after providing an apology. Adidas felt the best way to go forward was to

move on from the situation and begin new campaigns to further their

company’s success.

Tactics Phase

The initial communication tactic Adidas used was through a controlled media,

email. Adidas’ communication tactic was not employed well because of the insensitivity that it

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possessed. Their key publics received this tactic with immediate dislike towards the company.

Based on the tweets about the email, it is clear the public viewed this tactic as unsuccessful.

Ross Bolen, a New York Times Bestselling author, tweeted, “Someone in the marketing

department at @Adidas is going to get fired hard for the subject of this email.”

More tweets from upset publics:

In response to the aversion received by the public, Adidas relied on both uncontrolled and

controlled media, like Twitter, TIME, CNBC and Business Insider to communicate its apology

one day after the original email was sent. Adidas also sent another email to their subscribers

which contained their apology. The apology came from the Adidas CEO, Kasper Rorsted who

was the designated spokesperson for the company. Their decision to communicate to their

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publics in an accommodative and apologetic way was effective in this tactic because this was an

empathetic way to handle the crisis. The reason Adidas gave their apology to these media outlets

appears to be because of the wide audience reach that each of the media outlets possess. Since

many people expressed their criticisms of the email on Twitter, Adidas used this social media

site to post their apology in an effort to handle the issue on the platform it was most

discussed. After they issued their apology, the public seemed to be at ease about the situation

because of the quick response time that Adidas reacted with. For example, Twitter user Pete

Young said, “Easy mistake to make. They apologized (over-apologized). If anyone is still upset

about it, that’s on them.” Based on tweet’s like the one from Pete Young, it is evident that

Adidas’ response tactic was successful in it’s attempt to appease the public.

Evaluation/Continuation Phase

After the apology was given by the CEO, Kasper Rorsted, Adidas did not take any further

action to handle the crisis. The company chose to drop the situation after apologizing and focus

on other projects they had in the works.

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One main theory that applies to this case is the Contingency Theory. The Contingency

Theory states that organizations take certain actions to manage conflicts between an organization

and their publics. The organizational stance depends on the particular situation that an

organization is involved in and ranges from pure advocacy to pure accommodation. Adidas

immediately took an accommodative stance by apologizing and and designating their CEO to

speak about the crisis. However, Adidas is no longer taking action to repair their image. Adidas

did not want the crisis to grow anymore. They were hopeful the situation would blow over and

be forgotten as quickly as possible.

Another key theory utilized in this case study is the Public Information Model. The

Public Information Model has information flowing one way from organization to its stakeholders

(e.g press releases, newsletters, VNRs). Because there was no interactive dialogue, Adidas

applied the Public Information Model by tweeting an apology, sending another email and making

news statements.

The Situational Theory of Publics can also be applied to this case. In this theory there are

four types of publics: non-public, latent public, aware public and active public. Before sending

the insensitive email, Adidas had non-publics, which were those who were completely unaware

of the situation. After sending the email, people began tweeting about the wrongdoing of

Adidas. Many people were participating in the conversation on Twitter, whether they received

the email at all. Therefore, these people moved from non-publics to active publics when they

began to engage in the conversation via Twitter.

Several of the PRSA Code of Ethics were violated in this case, including advocacy,

expertise and enhancing the profession. The principle of Advocacy states: “We serve the public

interest by acting as responsible advocates for those we represent.” Adidas certainly did not

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have the public interest in mind, especially in regards to the actual survivors of the tragic 2013

marathon bombing. By sending the email, the marketing team did not responsibly represent

Adidas. The principle of Expertise states: “We acquire and responsibly use specialized

knowledge and experience.” A public relations practitioner with strong expertise should think

twice before sending an email like the one they sent. The team responsible for the email should

have evaluated and reviewed it several times before approving it to be sent. If this had been

done, the team would have been able to understand that the email would offend a large number

of people and cause serious backlash. The principle of Enhancing the Profession states: “Work

constantly to strengthen the public’s trust in the profession.” This email made the marketing and

public relations profession seem inconsiderate and insensitive. From this email it appears that

marketing and public relations practitioners would be willing to go as far as using others’ grief

and pain to market their product.

Case Analysis/Conclusion

On April 17, 2017 Adidas sent themselves directly into a sudden crisis with their email

subject line reading “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!” Adidas is one of the largest

sportswear providers in the world and has a strong customer and fan base. Taking into account

the amount of people that were watching and involved in this crisis, Adidas made the decision to

take immediate action. They responded the next day on Twitter, via email and news media so

they could cover all areas where their publics would be listening. Once they apologized, the

company took no further steps to handle the situation.

Although the response time which Adidas responded in was quick and effective, there is

more the company could have done to repair their reputation. To ensure this issue would not be

a problem in the future, Adidas could have reached out to those they directly offended. One way

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to do this would be to financially give to those who lost loved ones in the Boston Marathon or

who were injured and now face chronic health issues. Establishing a relationship with these

people would show that Adidas does truly care. Although the words they chose to use in their

email subject line were packed with unintentional offense, they still had an impact. If Adidas

was as sorry as they claimed to be about what they said, they should have taken a tangible action

to repair the damage done. Helping those effected by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing would

be the perfect action to take. Not only would this be beneficial to Adidas’ reputation, but it

would also be a blessing for those wounded and hurting because of the bombing.

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References Adidas. (2017). Adidas at a glance. Retrieved November 26, 2017, from https://www.adidas-

group.com/en/group/profile/#/adidas-and-the-badge-of-sport/ Adidas. (2010). Retrieved December 4, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adidas Calfas, J. (2017, April 18). Adidas apologizes for 'you survived' Boston Marathon email.

Retrieved October 18, 2017, from http://time.com/4745066/adidas-boston-marathon-email/

Flaherty, Bryan (2017, April 18). Adidas apologizes for email congratulating runners who ‘survived’ Boston Marathon. Retrieved October 19, 2017 from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/04/18/adidas-apologizes-for-email-congratulating-runners-who-survived-boston-marathon/?utm_term=.f811eed2235d

Peterson, Hayley (2017, April 18). Adidas apologizes for congratulating winners

who ‘survived’ the Boston Marathon. Retrieved October 19, 2017 from http://www.businessinsider.com/adidas-apologizes-for-boston-marathon-tweet-2017-4

Slotkin, Jason (2017, April 19). Adidas apologizes for congratulating 2017 Boston Marathon

‘survivors.’ Retrieved October 19,2017 from http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/19/524692534/adidas-apologizes-for-congratulating-2017-boston-marathon-survivors

Boult, A. (2017, April 19). Adidas apologises for 'you survived Boston Marathon' email.

Retrieved October 18, 2017, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/19/adidas-apologises-survived-boston-marathon-email