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  • Top executives responded by having their quality control engineers run extensive tests on the products in question.
  • Engineers ascertained that there was nothing toxic in the beverages.
  • However, the company highlighted two problems: contaminated carbon dioxide used at a bottling plant in Antwerp and the contamination of the outside of cans transported on wooden pallets.
  • Coke offered to pay the medical costs of anyone who became ill and reiterated the company's contention that its sodas are safe.
  • Ivester, the CEO, immediately set about promoting the messages Coca-Cola will apparently use to restore confidence. ''Nothing is more important than protecting the public health,'' he said. ''Our products are completely safe, both in Belgium and worldwide.

The Management Times

$1.25

Tuesday, 30th May, 1999

Vol XCIII, No. 311

CEO, Douglas Ivester in action:

Coca-Cola Belgium Crisis:

  • He immediately set about promoting the messages Coca-Cola will apparently use to restore confidence. ''Nothing is more important than protecting the public health,'' he said.
  • He also said customers would be invited to return Coca-Cola products to retailers for refunds. ''I think one of the first things I'll do is buy everyone in Belgium a Coke,'' he said.
  • To end the ban, Coca-Cola agreed to five Belgian conditions relating to cleanliness and safety standards. Mr. Ivester said that production would resume immediately and that he expected Coca-Cola products to be back in Belgian stores within two weeks.

The Belgium crisis of 1999:

ALAN COWELL, 'Belgium Lightens Coca-Cola's Problems, but Questions Persist', Nytimes.com, 2015, online, Internet, 1 May 2015. , Available: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/24/business/belgium-lightens-coca-cola-s-problems-but-questions-persist.html.

Coke tries to come out of the crisis:

Coke's leadership develops a response:

  • There was a huge outcry of negative public opinion regarding Coca-Cola.
  • For the first time ever, the entire inventory of Coca-Cola product was banned from sale throughout Belgium.
  • Children in six schools in Belgian complained that the coke products they had consumed tasted and smelled funny.
  • Soon after the consumption of Coke products, they suffered from serious headaches, nausea, vomiting and shivering.
  • The symptoms ultimately led to the children being hospitalized.
  • Coca Cola had to a tarnished image, lower sales and reduced profits.

Mohsin Parasad, 'Case in Marketing Mnagement', Scribd.com, 2015, online, Internet, 1 May 2015. , Available: http://www.scribd.com/doc/91918084/Case-in-Marketing-Mnagement#scribd.

Slideshare.net, 'Coca Cola: Belgian PR Crisis', 2013, online, Internet, 1 May 2015. , Available: http://www.slideshare.net/abhizar/coca-cola-belgian-pr-crisis.

ALAN COWELL, 'Belgium Lightens Coca-Cola's Problems, but Questions Persist', Nytimes.com, 2015, online, Internet, 1 May 2015. , Available: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/24/business/belgium-lightens-coca-cola-s-problems-but-questions-persist.html.

Icmrindia.org, 'Coca-Cola's Belgian Crisis - The Public Relations Fiasco|Marketing|Case Study|Case Studies', 2015, online, Internet, 1 May 2015. , Available:

COCA-COLA'S SWOT ANALYSIS:

‘‘Belgium’s annual Coca-Cola Summer Tour’’ where Coca-Cola brand products were presented at over 90 locations throughout the country; and ‘‘the Originals Promotional Campaign’’, where over 72,000 consumers won premiums.

Weaknesses:

Strengths:

  • The proposition demonstrated the gap in capabilities of the company officials as they issued statements contradicting one another
  • Strong brand recognition across the globe.

Victoria Johnson and Spero C. Peppas, 'Crisis management in Belgium: the case of Coca‐Cola', Corp Comm: An Int Jnl 8.1 (2003): 18-22.

  • An apology to consumers came more than a week after the first public reports that people had fallen ill.
  • Operations supported by strong infrastructure owning 32 beverage concentrated syrup manufacturing plants
  • Aggressive branding and advertizing resulted in re-building a powerful image ofthe company
  • Another weakness was that Coke did not own the bottling system and thus was unable to monitor it properly

Threats

Coca Cola and its approach:

Opportunities:

  • Competitors try their best to de-fame the company- which in Coke's case was through the Cola Case.

Ivester as a Traditional Leader

  • Severing and withdrawal of co-partners, reducing revenues.
  • The incident of the European children gave Coca-Cola the opportunity to develop a system that will quickly respond to crisis.
  • With Coca-Cola not responding neither quickly nor with its senior spokesperson it definitely threatened the company’s image as 74% of the sales revenue was being generated from the European nations
  • This incident also gave the company an opportunity to look into other avenues of solutions.
  • These opportunities improves the brand image and also will help increase the affection for the company in the hearts of the people.

Slideshare.net, 'Coca Cola: Belgian PR Crisis', 2013, online, Internet, 1 May 2015. , Available: http://www.slideshare.net/abhizar/coca-cola-belgian-pr-crisis.

Ivester fulfills the behavioral approach to leadership,

as he ordered a change in Coca Cola through Task Performance while also trying to maintain close group maintenance:

Coke's Total Quality Management:

• Integration of all functions and processes within an organization in order to achieve continuous improvement of the quality of goods and services.

As Coke follows under the CEO and practices the Control Cycle to correct its operations, its main focuses lies on the Feedback Control System and FeedForward Control System:

  • Coke ensures the bottling of the cokes are done correctly under its Quality Management System, which makes sure the carbon is cleansed before packing the bottles.
  • While the Feedback is provided by the company through consumer feedback or employee feedback for the leaders to look into, as coca cola tried maintaining its public reputation through excess advertisement and campaigns.

Aqsa Mughal

Hoora Hyder Naqvi

Saman Morani

1. Ensure that clear channel of communication.

2. Pay attention to the emotional communication with the public.

3. Focus on two-way communication.

4. Implement the continuous communication.

5. Set up the consciousness of whole crisis public relations.

6. Research the reason why people would poison.

• Coke’s main goal is customer satisfaction.

• CEO, Ivester said: “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.”

Victoria Johnson and Spero C. Peppas, 'Crisis management in Belgium: the case of Coca‐Cola', Corp Comm: An Int Jnl 8.1 (2003): 18-22.

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