Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Defending the Mercedes A-Class: Combining and Changing Crisis-Response Strategies

Defending the Mercedes A-Class: Combining and Changing Crisis-Response Strategies Mercedes-Benz faced a major public relations problem when the newly launched A-Class overturned during a test drive journalists in Sweden conducted. The reputation of Mercedes's star was at stake as critics accused the German company of producing an unsafe car. This interpretive article uses theories of rhetoric, crisis response, and coherence to analyze the changing strategies employed by Mercedes in response to this crisis. The article advises public relations managers that the characterological coherence of standing one's ground must be weighed against argumentative and material coherence. Characterological coherence might instead be reached by admitting error. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Public Relations Research Taylor & Francis

Defending the Mercedes A-Class: Combining and Changing Crisis-Response Strategies

Journal of Public Relations Research , Volume 14 (3): 22 – Jul 1, 2002

Defending the Mercedes A-Class: Combining and Changing Crisis-Response Strategies

Journal of Public Relations Research , Volume 14 (3): 22 – Jul 1, 2002

Abstract

Mercedes-Benz faced a major public relations problem when the newly launched A-Class overturned during a test drive journalists in Sweden conducted. The reputation of Mercedes's star was at stake as critics accused the German company of producing an unsafe car. This interpretive article uses theories of rhetoric, crisis response, and coherence to analyze the changing strategies employed by Mercedes in response to this crisis. The article advises public relations managers that the characterological coherence of standing one's ground must be weighed against argumentative and material coherence. Characterological coherence might instead be reached by admitting error.

Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/defending-the-mercedes-a-class-combining-and-changing-crisis-response-ZJ8LzBgBxO

References (32)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1532-754X
eISSN
1062-726X
DOI
10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1403_2
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Mercedes-Benz faced a major public relations problem when the newly launched A-Class overturned during a test drive journalists in Sweden conducted. The reputation of Mercedes's star was at stake as critics accused the German company of producing an unsafe car. This interpretive article uses theories of rhetoric, crisis response, and coherence to analyze the changing strategies employed by Mercedes in response to this crisis. The article advises public relations managers that the characterological coherence of standing one's ground must be weighed against argumentative and material coherence. Characterological coherence might instead be reached by admitting error.

Journal

Journal of Public Relations ResearchTaylor & Francis

Published: Jul 1, 2002

There are no references for this article.