When an embarrassing, negative story about your company hits the press, you have to act quickly to salvage the reputation and relationships you’ve spent years building. Let me give you an example.

A few days ago the story broke that unlicensed pharmaceutical and medical businesses were paying for higher search engine rankings in Baidu, China’s largest search engine. The Baidu, which is often called the Google of China, wasn’t doing anything illegal, but they recognized the damage this story could have on their reputation.

Don’t get me started about what should happen to fraudulent quacks who give legitimate nutraceutical companies and healers a bad name. I want to talk about Baidu’s response to the crisis.

First, they immediately suspended all pay-per-click (PPC) advertising by nutraceutical, pharma, and medical companies that didn’t have a license on file with Baidu.

Then they held a conference call and issued a press release that repeatedly emphasized three main points: First, that Baidu hadn’t broken any national or international laws. Second, the steps Baidu was taking to immediately halt potentially fraudulent advertising. Third, the fundamental merits and qualities of their company.

Representatives of Baidu stayed on-message when fielding questions, always returning to the three points above.Did it work? As I write this, Baidu stock is up 6%.

It was a skillful demonstration of the art of crisis communication, something you should learn. You never know when your company will be caught in a negative spotlight, deserved or not.

That’s why you should have a plan in place. You can’t predict a media crisis, but you can appoint a spokesperson and practice what I call a core message.

The core message is a brief statement of the unique, outstanding qualities of your company, the things that won’t be changed by a temporary problem. “Our standards are stricter than the GMPs. We’ve never used any ingredients that weren’t documented to be 100% organic.”

This core message is often the foundation of your marketing in good times. And in bad times, a good core message could save your company from disaster.

Every company is different, and each situation poses a unique set of challenges and threats. But two things are always the same in a media crisis. First, you have the choice to correct the situation, explain why your company isn’t at fault, or offer an apology if the fault is yours. Do the right thing.

Second, you can and should take advantage of the extra attention your company will attract. This is a free opportunity to promote your company. If you have a core message in place, you can control the damage and come out of a crisis with minimal harm to your company’s reputation.