Crisis public relations management… but should consumers trust Cadbury?
There’s no doubting that the UK’s favourite chocolate brand by a long way, Cadbury, is in big trouble. They’ve brought in crisis management experts from big hitting PR firm Burson-Marsteller. PR Business speculates on how Cadbury’s PR people can win back trust. And as a public relations consultant, that worries me.
I’m sure Burson-Marsteller will do a good job under the circumstances. But a major food manufacturer like Cadbury should have had a cast iron crisis management plan in place already. The first principle of crisis management is that it’s no use locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. I’m sure any student of PR would have product contamination at the top of their Cadbury risk register; they shouldn’t need B-M now.
At first sight, this is the kind of story you expect to disappear overnight. As soon as salmonella was found, Cadbury should have recalled the product, held its hands up and apologised. This classic, open and honest approach might even have enhanced the chocolate manufacturer’s reputation. ‘Things go wrong, but when they do, we can trust Cadbury to do the right thing,’ we’d all think. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Cadbury broke every rule in the crisis management book. Customers were allowed to fall ill; three were hospitalised. Only when the authorities were about to order the independent testing lab Cadbury was using to name its client, did they come clean.
Chocoholics would do well to avoid Cadbury. It won’t be enough to put the best spin on events; Cadbury cannot be trusted to put its customers first in a crisis.
Contact Stephen Newton
Comments (3 comments)
I am not too sure that this is going the way we expect. Cadbury will take a hit but for how long? I have been doing a straw poll – OK its Wiltshire! There is an argument about the FSA brand – nanny state – who do you trust more – if it was chocolate from Johnny foreigner would they be as nasty etc.
Cadbury could play this well. It is, after all and emotional brand. They won the ‘milk’ chocolate debate and could turn it.
LeverWealth / July 5th, 2006, 6:39 pm / #
On the Cadbury salmonella story… Chocolate manufacturers (and I work for one) know that if they use modern detection methods for salmonella on chocolate that they will frequently fail. The industry as a rule sticks to older less sensitive tests. Chocolate is fermented on the ground under banana leaves in a third world country…and during its production there are no thermal kill steps. Bean roasting is for flavor development and not a pathogen kill. Cadbury’s real screw up was using an outside lab. Most chocolate companies keep their micro testing close to the vest. This incident is going to put chocolate processing in general under the regulatory microscope. The whole industry could take a beating.
Anonymous / July 5th, 2006, 9:09 pm / #
I know this incident happened a long time ago, but I think that this was a very important learningn factor for the people involved and even those in related fields. The role of the PR in this case was not properly executed and thus added on to people’s prejudices that Pr Personnel are liars. I think it is very important that we rose above the prejudices and did what we are supposed to be doing as PR Personnel, to avoid further incidences like this in future. The Cadbury’s saga may have worked out well in the long term, but this would have turned out to be a different story all together.
Sheba / September 8th, 2008, 9:57 am / #
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