Digital Communication Crisis: The Case of Patiswiss Brand

Developments in information and communication technologies have intensely changed the way individuals communicate. The increase in technological innovations has led to the emergence of some risks for businesses, as well as the advantages it offers. Chief among these risks is that individuals have begun to easily express their expectations and complaints -especially in the context of the products they buy and use- through social media platforms where interaction and content sharing are possible. An individual who spends a significant amount of his time in the digital environment is both exposed to the content created by other users and can have an impact on many people by producing content. Under these conditions, social media environments and consumers/customers who use these environments intensively have positive effects on companies and brands at a level that will increase sales, and negative effects at a level that may cause a crisis. Managing technology-mediated communication environments is important in terms of managing such effects. The aim of this study is to reveal how the crisis is managed and/or attempted to be managed through digital media, within the framework of the need to manage the crisis that emerges through a content, issue, event that comes to the fore regarding the company(ies) in the digital media and spreads rapidly among the masses. In the study, which focused on digital communication, crisis management was discussed through a case study of the Patiswiss brand over the series of events that broke out in April 2024. The headlines and spots of the news published in the digital environment regarding the crisis process, developments and resolution of the crisis were analyzed through 5W1H. As a result, it has been observed that the communication language was transformed by developing a successful strategy after the attack and threat based communication method used in the beginning.