In today’s information age, customers have access to various digital platforms to access and share information.

 

 


In today’s information age, customers have access to various digital platforms to access and share information. Customers also use these platforms to communicate with service providers, share opinions, and provide feedback. Therefore, it is important for product owners and service providers to be ready with a response plan for all communications over digital platforms.

You are a regional marketing director of a theme park and responsible for designing marketing strategy for the reopening of the park. Each department is helping you with the relevant and required information. As the date of reopening of the parks gets closer, the business intelligence unit of the organization in the scenario has noticed a surge of negative opinions among consumers. This is evident not only on social media platforms but also across a host of other digital media platforms, such as the organization’s websites and other digital information sources. A major cause of concern is that the organization’s ethics are being questioned in most of these negative opinions.

The business intelligence unit has sent a memo to share their concerns. The CMO has asked you to respond to this memo by creating a recommendation report.


Write a recommendation report, in a memo format, to the CMO of the organization in the course scenario, describing the strategies to minimize the negative opinion from consumers. Refer to the Business Intelligence Memo to ensure adjustments and additions to the plan for stopping negative publicity. In your memo, emphasize the need for cross-functional effort alignment, crisis management, social media response methods, and CSR communications.

Specifically, you must address the following criteria:

Describe how you must now pivot from your previous plan to introduce strategic changes to stop negative publicity.
Which two steps will you take to effectively address the negative publicity related to the park re-opening?
Describe the cross-functional effort alignment.
How can the organization’s sales and operations departments help address the negative publicity?
How can you use marketing channels to communicate the safety measures to the customers?
Explain how a crisis communication plan can improve the organization’s image, when aligned with ethical practices.
How would you use your public relations efforts in crisis communication?
How would you use your corporate website for crisis communication?
Describe the social media response methods to be used in this scenario.
How would you address negative comments?
How would you answer the safety-related questions?
Describe the corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications strategy in this scenario.
What are the key CSR initiatives and policies for the organization?
What are the key channels of communicating the CSR initiatives?
 

Our previous marketing strategy was focused on building excitement for the reopening. We must now execute a complete strategic pivot to prioritize reputation stabilization, ethical transparency, and crisis management above all promotional activities. The new objective is to silence the ethical accusations and restore trust through demonstrable action before we attempt to drive sales.

2. Immediate Actionable Steps

To effectively address the negative publicity, I recommend the following two immediate steps:

Launch the "Ethics First" Transparency Initiative: We must proactively address the ethical allegations, not just the safety concerns. This involves immediately publishing a detailed statement (authored by executive leadership) that directly acknowledges the consumer feedback, reaffirms our commitment to ethical operations, and provides concrete evidence of adherence to ethical standards (e.g., staff training, sourcing, or operational changes).

Establish a Cross-Functional Crisis Response Task Force (CCRTF): This small, empowered team (Marketing, PR, Operations, Legal, and Sales leadership) will standardize all internal and external messaging, manage the response triage, and ensure total effort alignment (see Section 3).

3. Cross-Functional Effort Alignment

Success in this crisis depends on seamless alignment, where every department acts as an advocate for our ethical commitment.

DepartmentRole in Crisis Response
Marketing (Me)Oversees messaging, content creation (safety videos, CSR stories), and channel deployment.
Public RelationsManages media inquiries, issues official statements, and proactively reaches out to key journalists to provide our narrative.
LegalVets all public-facing statements (especially regarding ethics and safety) to ensure accuracy and compliance.
Operations (Section 4)Provides tangible evidence of ethical and safety compliance. They are the source of "the proof."
Sales (Section 4)Serves as the first line of customer contact, handling tough questions with empathy and approved talking points

Sample Answer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MEMORANDUM

TO: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) FROM: Regional Marketing Director DATE: October 6, 2025 SUBJECT: Recommendation Report: Strategic Response to Surge in Negative Consumer Opinions and Ethical Concerns

1. Executive Summary and Strategic Pivot

I acknowledge the Business Intelligence Unit's memo regarding the concerning surge in negative consumer opinions across all digital platforms, specifically the damaging claims questioning our organization’s ethics.