Issue management is important in content marketing because, as an early warning system, it can prevent brand damage for companies. Crisis management and crisis communication are complex and time-consuming. Moreover, it’s strategically wiser to avoid damage, especially in the digital age, because image damage is consistently ranked highly by the Google algorithm .

Issue management today symbolizes the PR industry’s new self-image. In times when communication is becoming increasingly fast-paced and always takes place in a large public context, this area encompasses significantly more tasks than just a few years ago. In addition to sending out traditional PR measures, it’s much more about identifying target group or stakeholder needs early on and then actively managing relevant issues. Read more about it.

What is issue management?

In the literature, issue management is often referred to as an early warning system . The task of those responsible is to observe the company’s environment at various levels (economic, internal, technological, etc.) and analyze developments. The goal is to actively shape public opinion at the communications level and participate in substantive discussions. Regarding the company’s direction, it is also important that stakeholder information is incorporated into strategic decision-making processes. This allows opportunities to be exploited and threats addressed at an early stage. The long-term goal is to build a positive corporate image and permanently strengthen its reputation . This also enables the company to optimally prepare for potential crises.

Issue management and content marketing

Accordingly, goal-oriented issue management continually brings forward topics that prove to be relevant to the company. This fact is the connection to the much-discussed topic of content marketing , as successful content marketing relies precisely on these topics. Relevance is the key to success in the online battle for customer attention. A goal-oriented content marketing strategy must be developed based on comprehensive issue management.

For example, a topic that emerges during issue management and proves to be relevant to the company can be actively supported right from the start, ideally resulting in editorial coverage by the media. This placement of a deliberately chosen topic is called agenda setting. This approach helps increase the reach and awareness of the topic, while also saving the company considerable resources.

Issue management process

Act, not react is the motto. Ideally, issue management should begin before public opinion is formed. Retroactively influencing existing positions requires considerable personnel and financial effort and is not automatically successful. To avoid such a situation, critical issues should be identified early so that the company can act before the issue reaches a critical point. Act, not react! Accordingly, issue management is based, among other things, on continuous media monitoring. The following is an illustration of a classic issue management process:

1. Monitoring: Issue identification: Through continuous monitoring, events or trends are discovered that could develop into an issue for the respective company.
2. Assessment: Since a company has limited resources, the issues at hand must be ranked. Criteria for this include urgency and potential for influence.
3. Issue Analysis: Analysis of the existing issues as a basis for the following strategic measures.
4. Strategic measures: Possible measures are adapted to the corporate strategy.
5. Actions: Implementation of the action, for example a relevant blog post on the issue.
6. Evaluation: Assessment of the actions in relation to the strategy: What impact have been achieved?

Case study on issue management: Brent Spar

A company’s reputation largely determines its brand value. Even large brands can be quickly damaged if they make mistakes in crisis communication. This case study demonstrates how important a company’s reputation is and how quickly it can be damaged. The trigger for the crisis was the planned sinking of the Brent Spar oil platform in the North Sea (1995).

Within a few days, the Shell corporation was confronted with a problem whose magnitude none of those responsible could have even remotely imagined at the beginning of the crisis. The Brent Spar case now represents one of the greatest reputational and crisis communication challenges in history.

Brent Spar was a huge floating tank anchored by the oil company Shell in the North Sea, about 190 kilometers northeast of the British Shetland Islands in the Atlantic. From 1976 to 1991, it served as an interim storage facility for crude oil from the Brent oil field. Tankers collected the crude oil here and transported it to refineries on the mainland. Brent Spar was 140 meters high, 30 meters in diameter, and weighed 14,500 tons. It became obsolete when new pipelines could transport the crude oil directly to the oil terminal.

In 1995, the Shell Corporation made the decision to dispose of the Brent Spar and sink it in a deep-sea trench west of Ireland, the Rockall Trough. At this point, however, the environmental organization Greenpeace intervened: They feared that the Brent Spar could set a precedent and trigger the sinking of other redundant tank and production platforms. There were a few hundred of these platforms at the time – and Greenpeace believed that industrial waste shouldn’t simply be dumped somewhere in the vastness of the sea, but should be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.

On April 30, 1995 (about three months after Shell announced the news of sinking the Brent Spar), twelve Greenpeace activists boarded and occupied the fueling platform. At the same time, Greenpeace, citing Shell UK, stated that the platform contained approximately 100 tons of oil sludge containing heavy metals and approximately 30 tons of low-level radioactive salt deposits.

On May 12, 1995, the occupiers of the „Brent Spar“ were served with an injunction by helicopter, ordering them to leave the platform immediately. At the same time, Greenpeace Germany began distributing leaflets at Shell gas stations, alerting drivers to the action and its background.

After the evacuation attempt on May 22, 1995, failed due to bad weather, 15 Shell employees and six police officers boarded the platform and cleared it early in the morning of May 23. At the same time, the then Environment Minister, Angela Merkel, publicly spoke out against sinking the platform.

A further occupation of the “Brent Spar” in the same year was again quickly ended, but on the mainland the PR campaign against the Shell Group continued unabated – and found more and more supporters and sympathizers, even in other European countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark.

Sales at German Shell gas stations, which held a 13 percent market share, plummeted by half. On June 20, 1995, the Shell Group finally relented and publicly announced that it would not sink the „Brent Spar“ but would dispose of it on land in an environmentally friendly manner. At the same time, Shell launched a campaign with the slogan „We will change.“

Greenpeace continues to count the „Brent Spar“ campaign as a success. Not without good reason, as in July 1998, the 15 participating states of the Oslo-Paris Commission (OSPAR) adopted a ban on the dumping of oil platforms for the protection of the Northeast Atlantic.

Issue Management Escalation

In the classic issue crisis process, five escalation stages can be distinguished:

1. Latent issues: These are episodic events that only attract the attention of a few people.
2. Potential Issues : Latent issues become potential issues. The topic in question gains popularity and gradually becomes a trend. This interest is usually magnified and multiplied by specialized media.
3. Emerging Issues : Potential issues become emerging issues through public legitimization. This occurs when the issue becomes part of public opinion through relevant opinion leaders (activists, mass media, politicians, etc.). During this phase, at the latest, concrete demands and demands emerge, which then become increasingly entrenched over time.
4. Current Issues: Emerging issues become current issues due to polarization. Influential interest groups exploit the issue for their own benefit. Counter-arguments lose acceptance and appear hardly credible to the majority. At this stage, companies have very limited options for exerting influence.
5. Critical issues: have a significant threat level. By addressing societal expectations, critical issues may be resolved through negotiation. Should negotiations fail, clarification is achieved through state sovereign acts, e.g., legal regulations requiring the return of deposit bottles (Burmann et al. 2005, p. 544).

Issue management is important in content marketing

Issue management characterized by a strategic approach therefore serves targeted corporate communications. Based on sound analysis, this lays the foundation for a promising content marketing strategy . This enables companies to set their own agendas, seize opportunities, and contribute to crisis prevention. Even if it seems like a lot of work at first glance, good issue management pays off in the long run.

If you have any questions or if we have piqued your interest in issue management, please contact us – we would be happy to help you establish sustainable issue management.

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