Crisis Marketing in Food Products
The Odwalla corporation, a fruit juice producer based in California has always been a staunch supporter of natural products, though sadly those natural products created a deadly risk to at least 71 people in the fall of 1996. The company was linked to a large number of products containing apple juice that was tainted by the deadly e-coli O157:H7 bacteria. The death of a 16-month-old child in Evans, Colorado was the first of many illnesses that were directly linked to the company's products, most of which contained tainted apple juice. In fact the company ended up recalling 70% of its total product on the shelves in the United States and Canada. (Mogel, 2002, p. 222) The outbreak had been swift and the company is often praised for its quick and particularly humanitarian response to the situation. The marketing campaign they embarked on with the help of a marketing crisis management team is actually award winning.At the time of the crisis, Odwalla appeared to do everything right. It responded to what it called a freak occurrence by pulling the suspect juice and offering to pay medical expenses. The quick recall and its warm and fuzzy image prompted favorable comparisons with Johnson and Johnson for its handling of the Tyleno
All the intended publics were clearly communicated with the best possible outcome the company could have foreseen at the beginning of the crisis. One point of intrigue is also associated with the avenues that were used in this crisis, during the information age. Additionally the financial as well as consumer confidence issue is still one that is reviewed by industry leaders as they are more likely in today's climate to create at least a minimal plan for the potential of such a problem within their own business. Odwalla also showed specific crisis management skills, with the help of their crisis consultants in their ability to quickly reach their internal as well as external public's as they instituted an internal open door policy accompanied by a collective meetings that are still held today to keep the internal public abreast with current needs and shortfalls in the company, as quickly as possible. "Internal communications were key: Williamson conducted regular company-wide conference calls on a daily basis, giving employees the chance to ask questions and get the latest information. This approach proved so popular that the practice of quarterly calls survived the crisis." ("CSR case studies in crisis management: Odwalla," 2006, at: http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/crisis05.html) The intended public's of the communications associated with the e-coli crisis all received the information the company intended to convey, including eventual fault in production, though this was after the crisis had been dealt with and didn't receive much air time. An independent AOL survey showed that 86 percent of online respondents supported Odwalla and would return as consumers. Other surveys showed 94% of those polled were aware of the E. coli outbreak; 96% of those aware approved of Odwalla's handling of the crisis...Odwalla successfully reintroduced products after the recall, and continues to introduce new products at a normal rate... (Mogel, 2002, p. 226) The industry has since implemented a great deal of the new standards and come into compliance with a system
Some common words found in the essay are:
Critical Control, Stephen Williamson, Administration Federal, Johnson Johnson, Canada Mogel, , FDA FDA, Intranets Mogel, Edelman Odwalla, Evans Colorado, crisis management, mogel 2002, apple juice, entine 1998 http//wwwabout-ecolicom/news/odwalla16htm, csr studies crisis, csr studies, entine 1998, products containing, 1998 http//wwwabout-ecolicom/news/odwalla16htm, studies crisis management, management odwalla, odwalla 2006 http//wwwmallenbakernet/csr/csrfiles/crisis05html, studies crisis, management odwalla 2006, containing apple,
Approximate Word count = 1401
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
