The first in the series is the incidence of worms in Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate. The amount of negative publicity that the incident generated for Cadbury's India was enormous, with all the media channels highlighting the issue. The company worked on many fronts including the improvement in the product packaging, but the focus is that they used Amitabh Bachan for their ad campaign.
Similarly the issue of pesticides in Pepsi and Coke had a very adverse impact on the sales of both the companies. But both of them decided to use different ways to counter the threat. Pepsi decided to use its own MD in its ads to promote the fact that it was safe to drink and he himself drinks it. Coca Cola decided to go the celebrity way to promote the safety of its products.
Aamir Khan Ad -
Latest in the list if ICICI Bank which went through a lot of loss of consumer confidence when the rumours were spread against the liquidity position of the bank. Now one can see the latest ads with Sharuk Khan promoting bank...
Dear Prof. I am a Lecturer in Finance (Management) at VBS Purvanchal University, Jaunpur (UP). I am also into raising socially relevant issues like supporting the anti-coke campaign. I have been working with leading names likes the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and supported the anti-coke movement. At a point in time after the CSE report on pesticides in sort drinks Coke came out with ads on TV that it is willing to take anybody for a tour into its plants and show that how carefully its products are made. Possibly, finally to drive home the point that Coke products are safer to consume. People were required to send SMS to some number and rest was to be taken care by Coke. I also did SMS from two mobiles. Even received a confirmation call on one of my mobiles from Coke and they said that the trip would be arranged soon. But, nothing is heard till date. I would like you to tell your students the reality behind such communications. They are all farce. Only talks and no substance. I am sure that till such time its not taken up in realty fiasco like Coke and ICICI will continue to occur and culminate into being a Satyam or Lehman. Anyways, I may sound like too much of an activist but thats the reality. If anyone of your students are interested to more in this regard I would be more than happy. A simple Google search with my name and city should reveal the activities I am associated with.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Sachin Agarwal
Jaunpur / Lucknow
Dear Sacin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing in the reality of how far companies go in with thier commitments. The problem with the issue is communication is about creating a perception and thru this crsis communcation companies are bale to create the perception that they are want. But overall I would like to take an optimistic view of how things would eveolve, maybe efforts made by people like you would help change the world.
regards
Rajesh