Case studies
AtBluemarketing, we've had our share of unique crisis management cases. Here are a few examples that highlight our approach to very difficult situations.Â
The Roxy extortion case
The Roxy ice-cream shop is a Mexico City landmark. Having been in operation for 80 years, it has the best fresh fruit sherbets in town and is a must for visitors from all over the world. It also happens to host Bluemarketing on the top floor.
One day in December 2014, the store manager came up to our offices with an envelope containing a brand new Olympus digital recorder and a threatening letter from a "comandante" of the Familia Michoacana cartel. There was a distorted voice recording asking for a weekly payout of close to $3,000 dollars and explicitly threatening to harm the manager's family and workers if he did not comply the following day at noon.
As shocked as he was, he reached out to us for help, and we immediately devised a plan to contain and manage the crisis. We decided to go to the authorities and media simultaneously, the latter to put pressure on them because they are notorious for their slow pace or ignoring pleas for help, highlighting that such a well-loved institution falling prey to organized crime would put at risk hundreds of families visiting the ice-cream shop every day.
We did get front-page coverage from major national newspapers the following day, and, to everyone's surprise, the criminals did make good on their deadline and showed up to collect their extortion money, with a taxi driver coming into the shop asking for "the package" and the money while an accomplice stood by on a scooter bike.
What the criminals did not expect was that a team of policemen and reporters were waiting for them, covering their arrest live. Of course, this did make for headline news and put pressure on Mexico City authorities to follow through with the case, dismantling a gang that used a taxi service to collect extortion money from their victims. Since then, authorities have kept a close watch on the Roxy, preventing organized crime from resurfacing.
The successful result of this crisis management case earned it a mention in the book Narconomics: how to run a drug cartel, by Tom Wainwright, editor at The Economist.
In 2018, the Mexican government published a regulation that effectively banned vacuum tube solar water heaters. Industry experts saw this move as a blow to the marketplace, effectively giving the only Mexican producer and installer of active solar water heaters —a much more expensive and complex option— a virtual monopoly.
SOTECSOL, an industry group representing close to two hundred small-businesses and installers, approached Bluemarketing with a straightforward yet significant request: take down the regulation before it took effect, or else they would not survive..
It didn't look easy at first, since it required lobbying energy industry regulators and legislators on an already established regulation, and the media showed little interest in covering the case.
Additionally, our client had minimal media and lobbying experience, most of the group's members lived in small cities and were hard to reach, and they were up against an energy industry titan.
Nevertheless, after intensive media training and careful strategizing, we developed strong messages that resonated with a wider audience. Active solar water heaters were very expensive, used outdated technology, consumed more energy, and required special installation, while vacuum tube solar water heaters were a quarter of the price, did not need additional energy or water pressure to work, and were easy to install.
To emphasize the David versus Goliath narrative, we invited the media to a press conference where we showed them who the market for these solar water heaters was: poor communities with irregular water services and no water pressure.
We illustrated this by informing reporters that for an active solar water heater to work, each home would need to install a 260-gallon water tank at a height of 220 feet, making the regulation impractical and beneficial only to the monopoly
This message was also directed at lawmakers in various commissions overseeing the regulation. The strategy worked, and the regulation was taken down shortly after its brief publication.