"Är det H&M eller luvtröjan?" : En kvalitativ fallstudie om H&Ms kriskommunikation och deras luvtröja ”Coolest monkey in the Jungle”

Sammanfattning: The case study ”Är det H&M eller luvtröjan?” intends to analyze the crisis communication that took place during H&Ms crisis in early 2018. The crisis situation stems from a controversial choice of letting a dark-skinned child wear the hoodie with the print “Coolest monkey in the jungle”. H&M was quickly criticized by the media for making racial remarks. To address the situation H&M published an official press release on their website and several public statements on their social media channels. With the main purpose of the case study being to analyze H&Ms official statements about the crisis situation, we intend to identify which strategies were applied to reduce eventual reputational damage to H&M. The case study focused on answering the different questions based on the crisis that occurred. The questions are “Which rhetorical appeals were used in the official statements published by H&M?”, “Which identifiable strategies from SCCT and IRT were used in the official statements published by H&M”, and “Which actions were implemented by H&M after the crisis situation, and what effect does that have on the brand?”. A rhetorical analysis was used to identify which rhetorical appeals including Ethos, Logos, and Pathos were used in the official statements by H&M, and furthermore, understand what the usage of certain appeals means to the crisis situation and its communicational part. The theories within crisis communication that were used are situational crisis communication theory and image restoration theory. These theories present strategies to use in cases of crisis. To answer the second question, the official statements were analyzed and categorized after which strategi they could identify as. The last question was not based on theories, and was answered by following research about H&Ms actions after the crisis. The results shows that H&M mostly used pathos to persuade the organization's stakeholders to show regret about the situation, and that pattern can be found in all the official statements that were analyzed. Furthermore, the theories that were most identified in the official statements were sympathy, regret, and apologetic, which overall shows regret from theorganization. To answer the last question about reputational damage. H&M has since the crisis followed by hiring a global head of diversity and inclusion, to prevent similar events from occurring.