Pepsi Case Syringe in the

Pepsi Case Syringe in the Pepsi Can In the situation in which the syringes and various other foreign objects were found in the Diet Pepsi can, the corporation was exceptionally effective in their communication with all intended publics. From the start, Pepsi realized there were several other market alternatives to their products and they knew they had to work quickly and support all statements with firm facts.

In addition, they knew they had to have support from outside sources such as the FDA and the media to support the idea that the foreign objects could only have been placed in the cans after the consumer had opened them. There were four primary publics with whom Pepsi had to be concerned regarding the effects of this problem. Those publics included: The news media The customers who purchased the product All consumers whether they had purchased the product or not Employees and local Pepsi Cola bottlers and distributors.

Pepsi addressed the issue as though they were going to war. They identified a crisis coordinator to oversee all elements of the management of the problem and to make sure that all members involved were on target with the message and image the Pepsi Cola Company wanted to show. The External Publics Customers and consumers represented the external public that Pepsi had to deal with. External public and relations with the same are identified as those elements to which publicity is directed.

During normal times of operation, Pepsi would be focused on increasing product recognition and well as market dominance. In this crisis situation, the focus shifted a bit and added the element of product safety. Essentially, Pepsi had to be sure that the external public received and processed the message that Pepsi was a safe and desirable product. The Internal Public The internal public in this case would be the staff of Pepsi and the media as well.

Internal public relations focus on ways to keep a positive attitude among the staff members. In a way, the media can be considered both internal and external but in this case, Pepsi had to bring the media in to change it from being a sensational story on the news and instead reporting information that can work to the advantage of the company. Pepsi was able to do this by opening its bottling facility to the media.

It was not enough that the FDA had been able to determine that the bottling line ran far to quickly for anyone to place a foreign object in the can before it was sealed. Pepsi essentially invited the media to be a part of their internal machine and used the media effectively to their advantage to get the message out that it was likely the foreign objects had been placed in the cans after the consumers had opened them.

This did much to serve the internal public of the staff as well. Pepsi tried to keep the entire crisis as controlled as possible and made a rapid and planned response, which in turn allowed staff members to feel more secure about the product. The staff would in turn convey a sense of pride and confidence regarding the safety of their product that would in turn be telegraphed to consumers.

Public Relations Tools Pepsi obviously would have had a strong public relations department, but it is not likely that they had ever considered the possibility that they would be called into action to deal with such significant product tampering allegations. The situation was doubly dire for Pepsi's product identification since it came at a time when AIDS was new, and people were still unclear regarding how it could be transmitted. Pepsi used its public relations system to its advantage.

Number one, the company never went on the offensive or the defensive. It simply met all allegations head on and tried to see the problem from the consumer perspective. Since Pepsi was able to use the media as an internal public resource, they were also able to be honest about the situation and keep the public up-to-date on what the findings had been, and reassure the public about the safety of the product. At no time did Pepsi try to assign blame.

Instead, the most effectively notified the consumers that if there was a problem, it would be found, and to date all product plants had been found to be safe. Their honestly and continued open communication with the public was likely one of their most effective tools. Interestingly, Pepsi elected not to recall cans of the product from stores. Until this time, any time product tampering was suspected a product recall was the first thing that occurred.

Pepsi chose to take the chance of consumer loyalty and faith in the information they had provided and weighed this against the cost of a total product recall It is really not necessary for us to speculate upon what would happen should an incident such as this one happen today. Most recently the Wendy's fast food corporation was accused of serving chili with a human finger served in it.