Crisis management: how to keep your business image secure?

In the challenging business scenario, where reputation is one of the most valuable assets, knowing how to keep your business image secure during crisis management is a fundamental strategy for survival and growth.

To this end, it is essential to understand that the protection here focuses on public perception and the trust placed in your brand, especially in the face of digital threats that can tarnish it, distinguishing itself from issues such as data security or direct financial fraud.

At Branddi, we are experts in protecting brands in the online environment and we deeply understand the importance of shielding your reputation against harm that may arise from misuse, piracy, or unfair competition.

That's why we're prepared to show you how to navigate these turbulent times, turning potential disasters into demonstrations of resilience and responsibility.

We invite you to dive with us into this guide and discover the best practices for effective crisis management that preserves and even strengthens the image of your company. Shall we go?

What is crisis management?

When we talk about crisis management, we refer to the set of processes and strategies that an organization implements to deal with sudden and unexpected events that have the potential to seriously harm its reputation, operations, or financial stability - with a special focus on the protection of Brand image.

Considering that the Global Crisis and Resilience Survey 2023 of PwC revealed that an impressive 96% of companies have faced at least one significant crisis, understanding and applying this concept becomes vital for the sustainability of any business.

This management goes beyond simply reacting to a problem: it encompasses the anticipation of potential harm to public perception, the development of robust contingency plans, the coordination of quick and effective responses, and transparent and strategic communication.

The primary objective is to mitigate negative impacts, protect the valuable asset that is the brand, restore the trust of customers and stakeholders and, ideally, emerge stronger and more resilient from adversity, learning from each challenge.

What is the importance of crisis management in the digital environment?

The growing presence of companies in the digital environment, where we already have 86.6% of Brazilians connected and an increase of 6.1 million new internet users in just one year (DataReportal 2024), expanded the opportunities, but also the surface of exposure to online threats.

In this hyperconnected scenario, where information - true or false - is disseminated with viral speed, agile and well-structured digital crisis management becomes essential to protect the brand image and maintain public trust.

So, it's important to understand how well-conducted crisis management can contribute.

Reduction of negative impacts

Effective crisis management acts as a shield, minimizing potential harm to your brand. This is because, by having established plans and protocols, your company is able to respond quickly and in a coordinated manner when a problem arises.

This means curbing the dissemination of negative information, reducing direct or indirect financial losses associated with the image crisis, and reducing the impact on team morale and the trust of stakeholders.

Remember: quick response can be the difference between a scratch on reputation and deep, lasting damage.

Preservation of the company's image

A brand's image is one of its most valuable and often intangible assets. Therefore, well-executed crisis management is essential to protect this perception.

By communicating with transparency, assuming responsibility when necessary, and demonstrating a genuine commitment to solving the problem, the company can even strengthen its ties with its customers.

As pointed out by Communication Portal, studies indicate that more than 25% of a company's market value directly depends on its reputation. That is, managing a crisis effectively is, therefore, directly managing that value, ensuring that public perception remains positive or is quickly restored.

Operational continuity

While the primary focus is on image, reputational crises can have a ripple effect and impact a company's ability to operate normally. And crisis management, by predicting scenarios and preparing responses, helps ensure that essential business processes suffer as little disruption as possible.

This may involve anything from having spokespersons trained to deal with the press, preventing the main leadership from being completely consumed by the crisis, to plans to manage the impact on sales or the supply chain, allowing the company to continue to deliver value to its customers.

Fast and effective decision-making

In times of crisis, the pressure for immediate answers is immense. And the absence of a plan can lead to hasty, reactive, and often misguided decisions.

Crisis management provides a framework, defining who makes decisions, what information is needed, and what are the priority steps.

Proof of this is the Global Crisis and Resilience Survey of PwC points out that organizations with a tested crisis plan are significantly more likely to emerge stronger from an incident.

In addition, having this structure allows leadership to act with greater clarity and agility, making informed and effective decisions, even under stress.

Preparation and prevention

The most powerful aspect of crisis management lies in its ability to prepare the organization and, ideally, prevent many problems from ever happening or escalating.

This involves constant monitoring of the internal and external environment, identifying vulnerabilities and potential threats to the brand - such as misuse on digital platforms, disinformation campaigns, or attacks by competitors.

By anticipating these risks and implementing proactive measures, such as Branddi's brand protection solutions, many crises can be prevented or their impact drastically reduced before they gain harmful proportions.

What are the main causes of corporate crises?

Corporate crises can have various origins, but in the digital environment, the misuse and exploitation of your brand emerge as frequent and powerful triggers. Among the threats we can cite examples such as unfair competition, including Brand Bidding, which not only inflate your costs, but also confuse and mislead your customers.

In addition, there are also online scams and digital frauds, which appropriate your identity to deceive consumers, causing immediate and devastating losses of credibility and trust.

Likewise, piracy and the sale of counterfeit products erode revenues and associate your brand with low quality, undermining years of image building.

Understanding how these practices directly impact the health of a business is the first step toward protection. Therefore, below, we will explore each of these causes and how proactive management, such as that offered by Branddi, can be your greatest ally!

Digital attacks

Digital attacks, such as brand impersonation — where criminals create fake profiles or sites impersonating your brand — are a growing threat.

With 64% of Brazilian companies being the frequent target of fraud and digital attacks (Mastercard), the brand image is directly affected.

Customers are deceived, trust is shaken, and hard-built reputation can be rapidly destroyed, deepening the perception crisis about the company's security and legitimacy in the online environment.

Failures in digital systems or platforms

When a company's own digital channels — website, app, service platforms — present flaws, instability, or breaches, the crisis intensifies.

This is because the inability to access information or services, especially at a critical moment, generates frustration, breaks customer trust, and exposes an operational vulnerability.

This conveys an image of unpreparedness and negligence, undermining brand credibility and aggravating negative perception during a crisis.

Inadequate management of social networks

Inadequate management of social networks opens space for crises to set in and deepen quickly.

And an example of a consequence of this neglect is the proliferation of fake profiles, with forecasts of an increase of 60% on Instagram and TikTok with the potential to reach 950 million fake accounts by 2025 (VPNRanks), which may spread misinformation and scams using your brand name.

The absence of monitoring and agile responses to negative comments or rumors allows harmful narratives to gain strength, undermining credibility.

Fake news and fraud

The spread of fake news about a company or its products, and the incidence of digital fraud, are direct causes of reputational and trust crises. After all, scams that use the brand to harm consumers or fraud in online search campaigns can compromise up to 30% of the advertising budget (AdPolice).

Thus, these threats associate the brand with illegal and misleading activities, undermining public trust and deepening the credibility and image crisis.

Problems with e-commerce

In e-commerce, on the other hand, piracy and brand infringement are problems that rapidly deepen reputational crises.

And a survey released by ABCF/Correio Braziliense yearbook prove this statement: in 2022 alone, losses caused by revenue diversions due to the sale of counterfeit or unauthorized products generated losses of R$ 345 billion for Brazil.

This is because the occurrence of cases like these associate the original brand with low quality and unguaranteed items, destroying consumer trust and brand value, aggravating the image crisis.

Digital channels most vulnerable to crises

Offenders are creative and explore various breaches in digital channels. The main objective is almost always the same: to profit illegally or harm your brand's reputation, diverting your consumers in a strategic way.

See how they work:

• Search Engines (Sponsored Links): use their keywords in advertisements (brand bidding) to capture traffic, inflate their costs, and direct consumers to competitors, phishing pages, or offers for counterfeit products;
• Social networks: create fake profiles (Brand Impersonation) to trick followers with misleading offers, sell illegitimate products, or spread disinformation;
• Marketplaces and e-commerces: list counterfeit or unauthorized products using your brand to attract consumers looking for genuine items, generating frustration and associating your brand with negative experiences;
• Fake sites and domains: register similar domains (typosquatting) and create pages that mimic your site to sell non-existent products or install malware, disclosing them via phishing.

How to set up a digital crisis management plan?

As we saw throughout the text, knowing how to set up a digital crisis management plan is a decisive step for the protection and longevity of your brand in the online environment. It is the script that will guide your actions in turbulent moments, ensuring agile and coordinated responses.

At Branddi, our daily efforts to proactively combat threats such as fraud, piracy, and unfair competition places us at the forefront of numerous situations that, if left unmanaged, would escalate to significant crises.

Constantly dealing with these risk scenarios provides us with an in-depth understanding of the triggers and the best forms of mitigation.

Therefore, we believe that this experience allows us to contribute in a valuable way to help you design a robust crisis management plan adapted to the particularities of your business.

Shall we go?

Identify potential risks and vulnerabilities

Promptly recognizing risks and vulnerabilities is the foundation of an effective crisis management plan. This is because this identification allows you to anticipate problems, from the misuse of your brand to disinformation campaigns.

This identification can be carried out through internal audits, analysis of past crises (own or that of the sector), and monitoring of brand mentions. However, regardless of the chosen form, understanding where your brand is most exposed helps you direct preventive efforts and prepare more assertive responses to protect your reputation.

Count on a response protocol

Having a clear and well-defined response protocol is vital to act quickly and efficiently when a digital crisis breaks out. To do this, this document must detail who does what, the priority communication channels, key messages, and procedures for scheduling.

A PwC highlights that organizations with a tested crisis plan are significantly more likely to emerge stronger.

A protocol ensures that the team knows how to react, avoiding chaos and minimizing damage to the brand image.

Conduct regular training with your team

The effectiveness of a crisis plan depends directly on your team's ability to execute it.

And that's why regular training and simulations of crisis scenarios are essential to familiarize everyone involved with the protocols, test internal communication, and identify bottlenecks.

This ensures that, faced with a real situation, the team is prepared to act in a coordinated and confident manner, applying the plan's guidelines to mitigate negative impacts on the brand in an agile manner.

Value the constant monitoring of digital channels

Constant monitoring of digital channels is an indispensable practice to detect threats and hotbeds of crisis at their initial stage.

And monitoring brand mentions, suspicious activity on social networks, marketplaces and search engines, which is what we do here at Branddi 24/7, allows for a quick reaction, often before the problem becomes public or gains large proportions.

This attentive eye is one of the bases of prevention, and specialized tools can optimize this process, ensuring comprehensive coverage.

Branddi: your ally to prevent corporate crises

In the dynamic (and often hostile) digital environment, prevention is the most intelligent strategy against corporate crises. And this is exactly where Branddi positions itself as your fundamental ally!

Our 24/7 monitoring system, powered by artificial intelligence and complemented by the expertise of dedicated specialists, does not wait for the crisis to set in.

We act on the front line, promptly identifying the seeds of potential crises: the misuse of your brand in sponsored links (brand bidding), the creation of fake profiles to carry out scams, the sale of pirated or counterfeit products on marketplaces, and the registration of fraudulent domains.

By detecting these threats in real time, our specialists act from “monitoring to takedown”, ensuring swift and effective removal.

Proof of this are the more than 50,000 fraudulent domains identified and taken down and the R$ 250 million saved by our clients in inflated costs of sponsored links.

This proactive approach prevents minor incidents from turning into major headaches, protecting your revenue, the trust of your customers, and most importantly, your hard-built brand reputation.

Don't let the misuse of your brand escalate into a crisis. Visit the Branddi website and talk to one of our online advisors to find out how we can protect your business and strengthen your crisis management with our Shielding marketing!