How important is crisis management in marketing? A case study on Italian Amabile

In its purest form, marketing is the privileged tool used by firms to shape how people perceive their brands. Brand image and reputation are fundamental to attracting and retaining customers, by building trust and credibility over the long run.

Martina Strazzer, the young CEO of Amabile, has always been perfectly conscious of these principles, to the point that her jewellery brand, born in 2020 with limited resources and in her own bedroom, quickly grew to generate almost 10 million euros in revenue.

This path of success did not rely primarily on the products themselves (since the jewellery market is already quite saturated), but rather on a strong and engaging communication strategy: Martina herself became the face of the company and a symbol of authenticity and reliability, the firm’s growth was shared with the public step by step, while the daily life in the office was turned into entertainment content. In short, Martina has been able to efficiently and effectively exploit the growing importance of social medias, by incorporating them directly into her marketing strategies and appealing especially to the Gen Z.

Martina has consistently promoted, through her social media platforms, an entrepreneurial style attentive to the ethical and sustainable concerns of younger generations, from mental health to inclusivity and participation. This business attitude can be viewed as extremely virtuous if built and reiterated with coherence, but it can also prove precarious if the general narrative does not match actual practice, leading to the risk of purpose washing: using social or ethical causes as a marketing strategy to attract clients without genuine commitment.

This, in fact, has been the main accusation directed at Amabile in recent months, following the journalistic invetsigation by Charlotte Matteini (Il Fatto Quotidiano) concerning a former employee of Amabile, a young pregnant woman whose hiring, at the time, brought major momentum and praise to the brand. However, the journalist revealed how the young woman had allegedly been used by Amabile for marketing purposes only: her temporary contract was never renewed, despite continuous reassurances from Martina. Moreover, the former employee described how, even during her pregnancy, she attended meetings and provided project updates, somehting not fully permissible during maternity leave.

Initially, Strazzer remained silent, which would later prove to be her greatest marketing mistake. The official response of the brand came a full eight days after the publication of the article. The statement focused on the alleged “serious professional deficiencies” of the ex-employee, publicly accusing her of inadequacy without, howver, providing concrete details of the accusations. This response appeared to the public as cold, impulsive, and too frail to bring redemption: another marketing mistake in the management of the crisis.

Within a month, Strazzer lost 15,000 followers on Instagram, a hemhorrage not large enough to shake her digital prsence, but significant enough to signal a decline in customer trust.

Brand image crises are not rare, as the Pandoro-gate of Chiara Ferragni and the Theranos scandal effectively show us. Precisely for this reason, it is crucial that a brand knows how to manage a crisis efficiently by using marketing in the right way.

Amabile’s mistakes are many but can be summarized as follows:

1) Absence of prevention: eight days of press silence demonstrate organizational inefficency and the lack of a proper backup plan to hedge risks: somehting essential for any firm. Although each crisis is highly specific in scope and size, it is vital to have at least the “basics” in place: risk matrices, clear escalation procedures, on-call shifts even during holidays, a designated and well-trained spokesperson, and pre-prepared holding statements.

2) The cost of silence: crisis never happen quietly or unnoticed, and mistakes not addressed immediately tend to fuel further tension. Moreover, if the company stays silent, others will start talking, generating additional turmoil and a stream of unfounded claims that will later have to be managed.

3) Excuses: as simple as they can be, apologies are often the most effective way to escape a crisis, simply by genuinely admitting the mistake, if any, instead of denying it. Studies show that customers are more likely to excuse companies when they demonstrate awareness, sincere regret, and a concrete commitment to correct their wrongdoing. Accountability is key. This is why the Instagram post published before Martina’s personal video was quite ineffective, especially for a brand that has always associated its image to the one of its founder.

4) Be prudent with your campaigns: social medias are essential tools to generate engagement and attaract new customers today. However, they can easily turn into public tribunals that effortlessly condemn. And if we have to speak in favor of Martina, this dynamic is sometimes more powerful when the victims are young corporate women. That said, it is important to remain faithful to your commitments, as a basic principle of credibility. Before launching any ethical or social marketing campaign, a company must be completely sure that it will be able to uphold its promises once they are publicly disclosed. Brand positioning, after all, is an irreversible moral, or better, psychological contract.

Finally, the overall lesson is crystal clear: brand reputation is an asset, and a powerful one. Products and financial results are fundamental, but coherence, transparence, credibility at every touchpoint are key to ensuring continuity on the market. Those who effectively integrate marketing and communication strategies with managerial decisions are the ones most capable of achieving sustainable, long-term growth.