Both British and US PR executives
have experienced shortfalls when managing crisis communications, due to
misinterpreted cultural nuances and the lack of language and cultural skills
amongst their staff.
This study of UK and US based communication
executives with an international role shows that whilst almost all (99%) are
confident they communicate the sensitive messages of a crisis situation across
local markets by taking consideration of cultural nuances, mistakes continue to
happen, mainly due to cultural misinterpretation or mistranslations.
Garry Muddyman, CEO of Conversis said ‘The digital age has fundamentally changed
the way communications professionals have to manage crisis communications and
we hope this report gives the first insight into how they are approaching the
linguistic challenge these changes present. Social Media is now an integral
part of our personal and business lives.’
The results also pointed out that a lack of
language skills had resulted in a quarter of respondents not being able to respond
to an issue in a timely manner and 13% even admitted to this particular skill
shortage leading to a deterioration in their relationship with their end
client.
Almost one half of the
respondents admitted to having experienced a faux pas due to misread/wrong
cultural reference in a campaign and in an alarming 68.3% of those cases these
led to severe ramifications.
86% of respondents create
Governance Documents, First Response Kits and Process Manuals in more than one
language besides English when putting together crisis communications plans,
with 46.2% of those in the US translating these documents into more than 11
languages compared to just 15.4% of those based in the UK.
Francis
Ingham, Chief Executive, ICCO and Director General, UK & MENA PRCA said ‘This report should be a wakeup call for our
industry, on both sides of the Atlantic. We simply do not invest enough time,
effort and – yes – money in communicating in other languages, and in
understanding other cultures. The costs of that failure are never higher than
when crisis hits.’
Finally, with regards to the speed of
providing crucial first response holding statements in local languages in the
case of a crisis situation, 92.6% did so in under five hours, with 39.5% having
a first statement ready in less than two hours. However, localised specialist
follow up statements take a little longer. Just over 36% of respondents said
they deliver them between two and six hours, with 26.8% and 23.9% providing
them between six and twelve hours, and 12 and 24 hours respectively.
The findings of this report along
with the valuable comments from top PR executives that were interviewed for
further insight, show how important it is to keep in mind when preparing for a crisis,
not only that the message needs to be accurately translated, but also put into
local context and tuned in with the respective cultural nuances.
You can download a digital
version of the report from the Conversis website www.conversis.com.