Nestlé Purina PetCare: Your Pet, Our Poison

Author
Exten, L.
Region
North America
Topic
Strategy & General Management
Length
8 pages
Keywords
food products
recover
limited information
customers' collective faith
supply chain
Copyright Holder
Notre Dame
Student Price
$4.00
Target Audience
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students

The pet food poisoning scare of 2007, in which numerous pet food products were contaminated with melamine sourced from China, seriously damaged many of the afflicted firms’ reputations for safety and customer concern. Pet food industry leader Nestlé Purina released two unapologetic statements revealing limited information about the source of the problem and its impact on consumers. Purina must recover its customers’ collective faith; a difficult task after causing thousands of “deaths in the family.” It is also essential that Purina restructure its supply chain to ensure that history does not repeat itself. 

Learning Outcomes
  1. . To facilitate discussion of the repercussions of a major product safety failure on brand equity;
  2. To demonstrate the importance of truthfulness and completeness in crisis management communication;
  3. To encourage proactive responses in crisis situations;
  4. To emphasize the importance of total company awareness with regards to supply chain management;
  5. To underscore the value of vertical integration in the era of virtual organizations;
  6. To build a communications strategy.