KFC timely handling of the Sudan Red incident
March 15, 2005, the Shanghai authorities in a number of restaurants in KFC sampling pick up, found that the new Orleans chicken and new Orleans chicken thighs burger seasoning contains "Sudan Red I! "On the morning of the 16th, Yum's Shanghai headquarters notified KFC branches nationwide that "from the 16th, immediately stop selling New Orleans Chicken Wings and New Orleans Chicken Thigh Castle in all KFC restaurants nationwide, while destroying all the remaining seasonings."
On the afternoon of March 16, Yum issued a public statement announcing that the seasonings for New Orleans wings and New Orleans drumstick burgers contained "Sudan Red No. 1" and apologizing to the public. Yum said it will strictly investigate the responsibility of the relevant suppliers for the illegal use of "Sudan Red No. 1" in the seasoning.
KFC China's part of the production of crystal, containing Sudan Red incident after nearly two weeks of testing and investigation, KFC belongs to the Chinese Yum Brands President Su Jingshi March 28, 2004 officially announced the results of the investigation: after all levels of government sampling of different raw materials in different cities to confirm that all the problem seasonings are from carrying Suhong aroma Seasoning (Kunshan) Co. Ltd. supplied two batches of chili powder to Zhongshan Kikkafu Company in Guangdong Province. China's Yum Brands assured consumers nationwide that all KFC products are free of Sudanese red.
KFC has suffered a major blow this time because of the Sudan red issue. According to Su Jingshi, in response to the lessons of the Sudan red incident, China Yum Brands decided to take three measures to prevent some food production suppliers can not strictly food safety brought about by the hidden dangers: First, it will be in the past based on the strengthening of the original detection capabilities, investment of 2 million yuan to set up a modern food safety testing and research centers, all products and the use of raw materials to carry out safety sampling, well on the safety of the Chinese food supply Research on the safety of China's food supply. Secondly, all major suppliers are required to increase personnel, purchase necessary testing equipment, and conduct food safety sampling tests on all incoming materials. Third, we are strengthening the criteria for selecting upstream suppliers to prevent suppliers that cannot adhere to food safety from entering the supply chain.
Please read the above information carefully and answer the following questions?
1. In the face of the environmental threat to KFC brought about by the "Sudan Red No. 1" incident, what countermeasures has Yum taken? Evaluate these measures using the principles of marketing.
2. Through this incident, you think the marketing activities of enterprises should pay attention to what problems in the process of adaptation and coordination with its marketing environment?
The answer to this question should include the following points:
1. The environment contains both opportunities and threats, and the purpose of analyzing the environment is to identify opportunities and avoid and mitigate threats.
2. Enterprises are not powerless over the environment; they can increase their ability to adapt to the environment on the basis of analyzing the environment to avoid threats, and they can also change the environment under certain conditions
3. In this case, Yum has taken the following measures in the face of the threat:
(1) stop selling products containing Sudan red and destroy the remaining seasonings;
(2) publicly apologized and traced the responsibility;
(3) announced the test results and guaranteed that all of its products were free of Sudan red,
(4) formulated measures to eliminate the hidden danger.
All of the above measures belong to the category of mitigation strategy, through which the company gradually eliminated the impact of the incident and regained consumers' trust.
4. In the intricate and turbulent marketing environment, enterprises must continue to build their core competitiveness, enhance resilience, grasp the environmental dynamics at any time, identify problems in a timely manner, and solve problems quickly and properly in order to avoid and mitigate environmental threats and enable the healthy development of enterprises.
Hilton's smile service
The United States "hotel king" Hilton in 1919 to his father left him 12,000 U.S. dollars, along with their own earned a few thousand dollars to invest out. Started his ambitious career in the operation of the hotel. When his assets from $ 1,500 miraculously increased in value to tens of millions of dollars, he was happy and proud to tell his mother about this achievement, to his surprise, his mother said blandly: "In my opinion, you are no different than before... In fact, you have to grasp something more valuable than 51 million dollars: in addition to honesty to customers, but also to find ways to make the Hilton Hotel people stayed and want to come back to stay, you have to come up with such a simple, easy, no-cost and long-lasting way to attract customers. That's how your hotel will have a future."
Mother's advice put Hilton in a dilemma: what exactly is the way to have the mother pointed out "simple, easy, do not spend money and the long run" the four conditions? He pondered, but could not find a solution. So he shopped, string of hotels, with his own personal experience as a customer, came up with the exact answer: "smile service". Only it is real at the same time with the four conditions proposed by the mother. From then on, Hilton practiced the original business strategy of service with a smile. The first thing he said to his waiters every day was "Did you smile at the customer?" He asked every employee, no matter how hard they worked, to smile at the customer, even when the business of the hotel was severely affected by the economic depression, he often reminded the staff to remember: "Never put the clouds of sorrow in our hearts on our faces, regardless of the difficulties suffered by the hotel itself, the smile on the lids of the waiters of the Hilton Hotel will always belong to the sunshine of the travelers. "
In order to meet the customer's requirements, the Hilton "empire" in addition to everywhere full of "smiles", in the organizational structure, Hilton try to create a system as complete as possible, in order to become a comprehensive service institutions. Therefore, the Hilton Hotel in addition to providing a perfect accommodation, but also has a cafeteria, meeting rooms, banquet halls, swimming pools, shopping centers, banks, post offices, florists, clothing stores, airline agencies, travel agencies, taxi stations and a complete set of services and facilities, so that get the Hilton Hotel to stay in the travelers, really have a "home away from home! The Hilton Hotel is a real "home away from home" for travelers. When he once again asked his staff: "What do you think needs to be added?" The staff could not answer, he smiled: "or first-class smile! If it were me, with first-rate equipment but no first-rate service, I'd rather abandon it and stay in a hotel with old carpeting but smiles everywhere."
Please read the above case carefully and answer the following questions:
What concept is reflected in service with a smile? Is Hilton able to retain customers simply because of service with a smile?
Short answer:
It reflects the concept of customer-centered marketing.
Smile service attracts customers, but it is never just by smiling at them that customers are retained. Smile is just a form. Its meaning is very rich. It reflects a concept, a mentality. A kind of customer interests at the center of the business philosophy. Under the domination of this concept, in order to meet the requirements of customers, Hilton "Empire" in addition to everywhere full of "smiles" in addition to the organizational structure, Hilton try to create a complete system as far as possible, in order to become a comprehensive service institutions. Hotel in addition to providing perfect accommodation, but also has a coffee shop, meeting rooms, banquet halls, swimming pools, shopping centers, banks, post offices, florists, clothing stores, airline agencies, taxi stations and a complete set of services and facilities, so that the Hilton Hotel to stay in the travelers have a "home away from home" feeling. This is the root cause of customer retention.
How Johnson & Johnson responded to the crisis
Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol capsules, a painkiller, sold $4.35 billion in 1981, accounting for 4.3 percent of Johnson & Johnson's total sales and 17 percent of total profits. percent and 17 percent of total profits.One day in late September 1982, a patient named Adam Janus took a capsule and died that day; on the same day, another couple who had taken Tylenol, also died two days later. The news quickly spread throughout the United States. Johnson & Johnson's share of the painkiller market fell from 35.3% to less than 7% at one point, and the company faced a huge crisis. Johnson & Johnson reacted quickly:
The first step was to investigate and clarify the facts.
(1) The company quickly gathered information about the victims, the cause of death, the lot number of the poisonous Tylenol, the retail outlets of the drug, the date of manufacture of the drug, the way it was sent to the distribution network, etc. For this purpose, the company especially hired 100 FBI and state detectives to follow up on 2,000 clues, and studied 57 reports.
(2) Turned to the media for accurate and timely information to avoid panic. The investigation led to the report that the poisoned capsules were the result of someone buying the finished product from a drugstore and returning it to the store laced with hydrogen sulfide, and that it was not a problem in Johnson & Johnson's production. Johnson & Johnson spent half a million dollars on telegrams alone to get the news out to its customers and the media.
The second step is to assess and contain the impact of the incident. "The Tylenol poisoning incident cost Johnson & Johnson more than a billion dollars, but most of all it affected the trademark itself. Johnson & Johnson conducted a poll afterward and found that 49 percent of people responded that they would still use the drug, so Johnson & Johnson put it back on the shelves.
The third step was to revitalize Tylenol. To achieve this goal, Johnson & Johnson adopted a strategy of "stabilizing regular customers and penetrating new ones," with the following steps:
(1) Ask Dr. Thomas Gates, a pharmacist at McNair Laboratories, which developed the drug, to make a statement in an advertisement to people who use the drug, saying that they would still use it. Gates, the pharmacologist who developed the drug at McNair Laboratories, to thank the American people who used the drug in advertisements;
(2) Encourage users of the capsules to try the Tylenol tablets;
(3) Promise that customers who threw away their Tylenol after the "poisonings" would receive a $2.50 coupon for making a toll-free call;
(4) Design a strategy to penetrate a new customer base.
(4) The company designed a new type of tamper-proof packaging to enhance people's trust.
Through a series of careful plans and actions, Johnson & Johnson was able to regain a 35 percent market share in just eight months, which it maintained until 1986, earning Johnson & Johnson huge profits.
Please analyze:
(1) Johnson & Johnson encountered such a serious environmental threat, but was able to defuse the crisis and regain the market after only 8 months. Please analyze this using the principles of corporate responses to environmental marketing.
(2) What can we learn from this incident?
The analysis of this question should include the following points:
The environment contains both opportunities and threats, and the purpose of analyzing the environment is to find opportunities and avoid and mitigate threats.
Enterprises are not powerless to the environment, enterprises can increase the ability to adapt to the environment on the basis of analyzing the environment, to avoid threats, but also to change the environment under certain conditions.
In this case, Johnson & Johnson faced the threat and adopted a mitigation strategy to regain consumer trust.