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Coca Cola - PR Crisis in Belgium

Post-crisis

Crisis Event

Crisis recognition

Cost of Coca-Cola mistakes

Flemish commercial TV station VTM had run the news story during a prime-time bulletin that 37 schoolchildren had fallen ill after drinking cans of Coke

  • 31% drop in profits
  • had to launch costly post-crisis advertising and promotional campaigns
  • competitors saw the opportunity
  • The total cost to the company was US$103 million

Crisis containment

  • Coca Cola was seen in media as "struggling to rebuild its reputation"
  • centralized approach

The mistakes

  • Coca Cola message remained the same

Q&A

  • posted cold, scientific releases on their website
  • failing to empower the local Belgian and French management to take care of their own communication response
  • refused to redraw all their products
  • not communicating is not an option
  • "Head office knows it best"

Business resumption

  • failed to address the relationship between the stakeholders and its own reputation

The real cause of the crisis

It was only after the Belgian and French governments insisted that the products were withdrawn that the company finally mobilized the chairman and CEO, Douglas Ivestor, for a visit to Europe to help manage the crisis and bring it to a close.

In March 2000, results of an independent investigation by Belgium’s High Hygiene Council at the government’s request revealed that the vast majority of those people with the symptoms had suffered mass sociogenic illness (MSI), or “mass hysteria”.

"We respect the Ministry’s obligation to the people in these times of deep sensitivity to public health issues. Nothing is more important than protecting the public’s health and we have worked very closely and intensively with the Ministry, providing significant amounts of information confirming complete confidence in the safety of our products and packages. He announced: We let down the people of Belgium, and we’re sorry for that, but now we’re committed to do what it takes to earn their complete trust again"

Suggestions

  • introduce an appropriate balance between the local autonomy and the global coordination
  • have systems --> all the offices are equipped to handle crisis
  • to manage crisis as they are perceived from the outside – perception is reality

The cooperation and efforts that the Coca Cola company made after that fact to rebuild their image and to show dedication the people of Belgium and the world were sincere

Pre-crisis stage

Signal detention

Relationship Building

"The Coca-Cola Company’s highest priority is the quality of our products. For 113 years our success has been based on the trust that consumers have in that quality. That trust is sacred to us. I want to reassure our consumers, customers, and government officials in Europe that The Coca-Cola Company is taking all necessary steps to ensure that all our products meet the highest quality standards. Nothing less is acceptable to us and we will not rest until we ensure that this job is complete. We deeply regret any problems encountered by our European consumers in the past few days"

The head of Sales Coca-Cola visited those in hospital

  • 230 schoolchildren in Belgium claimed illness after drinking Coca-Cola products
  • 80 complaints similar in France

Crisis preparation

The next day other schoolchildren and indeed adults, across Flanders, said they were suffering as well

Risk aversion

  • issued a product recall for the batch number
  • had all the bottles removed from the shelves

The crisis prevention

Issue Management

  • The headmaster called Coca-Cola
  • Coca-Cola launched a high-priority investigation
  • Danciu Lavinia
  • Dutu-Margine Bianca
  • Muntiu Loredana
  • Vasiu Adrian
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