How a brand can earn loyalists during a crisis

Erika // October 8, 2010 // Public Relations // 2 Comments

I recently returned to Bailey Gardiner from a 12-week hiatus after welcoming our second daughter into the world. I had an amazing time with her (she’s already brilliant, beautiful and equally as fabulous as our oldest daughter…I’m not biased) and pretending to be domesticated, but I’m  happy to be back and working with the talented team at BG.

The time I spent at home was totally focused on our newest addition. This meant stepping away from Twitter, reading blogs and all things social media so that I could be 100% attentive to her (and watch reruns of Keeping Up With the Kardashians). So it took me by surprise when my husband, who is totally out of the social media loop, called to tell me that Similac, the brand of infant formula I had been feeding our daughter, was going through a major voluntary recall.

For those that aren’t familiar, Similac is the “best selling” brand of baby formula. My mom fed it to my brother and me and both of my daughters are Similac babies. It’s definitely a brand I trust… along with hospitals and millions of other mothers across the globe. I’ll spare you the details, but I did want to share my experience and what steps I saw the company take to try to mitigate the loss of millions of loyalists.

• Coinciding with the recall announcement, Similac had information on its website about the recall and a link to the lot numbers that were contaminated. Unfortunately, the website wasn’t accessible for a few hours because of the amount of traffic being directed to it.
• Groups were formed on Facebook so mommies could share lot numbers with each other and discuss concerns they had about the recall. This was in response to the website being down.
• I received emails, phone messages and later letters in the mail from not only from Similac, but from Target, Costco and Babies R Us- stores where I purchased the recalled formula- to inform me of the recall and to let me know how I could return the product (it pays to be a member of a loyalty program).

• Similac lowered prices on its pre-made formula sold in stores and offered free shipping if consumers purchased directly from the website.

• Similac also gave parents information on other brands of formula that could be used in lieu of its product.

A crisis is not fun. It’s not something you want to have happen to your brand or client. But, there are always new things to learn about managing a crisis especially as the marketing and public relations environments continue to change.

As a mom, I think Similac did a great job of communicating to its consumers, retailers and the media. Have I taken a break from purchasing Similac? Yes. Will I purchase it again once the new, uncontaminated product is back on the shelves? Yes. While Similac has estimated a $100 million loss due to the recall, I think this is a good example of how a brand can be proactive when managing a crisis and engage its core group.

What do you think? What could Similac have done differently to improve on its crisis communication?