Wolkiewicz, 1 Carissa Wolkiewicz October 16, 2012 Coors Lite Case Study In 1982, the head of corporate communications for Coors Company, Shirley Richard, received notice that the TV show 60 Minutes was interested in filming a segment about recent allegations of unfair employment practices. She had spent the past year working to understand organized labor and its nationwide boycott of the company. She was thus faced with a major conflict: allow an “open-­‐door” policy with CBS or take a “no comment” approach. Richard knew that CBS would run the documentary no matter which communications strategy Coors would execute. She questioned if allowing an “open-­‐door” policy could actually benefit the company. But is that a risk it should take? The 60 Minutes report could either make or break the future success of Coors beer, which left Richard challenged with a very difficult decision. 1. Richard, with the help of the Coors brothers and her boss, should focus on evaluating every problem that could potentially arise from all possible decisions. It’s important that they recognize all of the negative and positive outcomes to all approaches so that they can properly evaluate which strategy is best for the success of the company. 2. Richard should research the history that 60 Minutes has when dealing with similar corporations in order to determine how they might handle the Coors situation. She could even look up similar cases that already have occurred and get ideas on how other corporate communications executives handled their setbacks. All in all, it’s important she has information that covers all questions at hand so that weighing the pros and cons is easier and more effective. Wolkiewicz, 2 3. If Coors agreed to do the interview, Richard’s communication objective should be to ensure that its side of the story is heard. She should focus on crafting the company’s message in a positive light and not just play the victim. If Coors does not agree to do the interview, Richard’s should turn her objective towards other forms of mass media as an outlet to get its side of the story out to the public. In either case, her objective should be focused on telling the Coors’ version so that consumers can make their own unbiased opinions based on all facts. It’s more so a matter of which outlet to use, if any at all. 4. I think Richard should definitely encourage the Coors brothers to do the interview with 60 Minutes. Both doing and not doing the interview have the potential to harm the company image. However, in my opinion, it has a better chance at heightening its image by going on the show. This way it knows it tried to turn a negative situation into a positive one. I think that not doing the interview leaves more room to portray the company in a negative light whereas doing it looks as though it has nothing to hide. 5. I would suggest an increase in advertising for Coors. I think it should try and get its name out to the public on its own terms, from its own opinion, in ways that can only help the company profit. Standing in the shadows and relying on image and quality is not a good way to communicate to constituents. The company would basically be leaving its message in the hands of the media to interpret personal opinions and ideas. This could cause many issues including mixed, inaccurate and biased messages shooting out from all different sources.