Page 31 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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1 12 Crisis Communication
company was boycotted by German and Dutch activists. That led to
loss of sales of 15 per cent and more.
Companies in crisis will find themselves facing one or more of these
serious consequences. Companies that are well prepared and armed
will survive even the most serious crisis. Not only that, they will emerge
even stronger than before. Coca-Cola, Shell, Renault, Perrier and a
host of others have proved that. How did they do it?
The history of crisis communication in business is still in its infancy,
but there is already a case that is often referred to as an example of the
proper and successful way of dealing with a crisis: the Tylenol affair.
Tylenol is a fever and pain medicine that was developed by Johnson &
Johnson, the large US pharmaceuticals group. For various reasons,
Johnson & Johnson has assumed a prominent place in the history of
crisis communication: it was the first time that a well-known company
was confronted publicly with a major crisis. In addition, Johnson &
Johnson dealt with the crisis so efficiently that its approach was praised
by everyone after the fact and deserved all the credit it got. What
exactly was the crisis that caused Johnson & Johnson to shake to its
very foundations?
On 29 and 30 September 1982, several people died in the US city of
Chicago after taking Tylenol tablets that had been filled with cyanide.
At that time, Johnson & Johnson had more than one-third of the pain
and fever medicine market, with its successful product, Tylenol. In
practice, that meant turnover of US $450 million (r530 million),
which represented 15 per cent of the company’s profit. In the first
phase of the crisis, the deaths were directly linked to the presence of
cyanide in the tablets. As soon as the news was disseminated more
widely there was a suspicion that no fewer than 250 deaths and cases of
illness could be attributed to the poisoned Tylenol tablets. When the
US media began to dig deeper into the matter and the public gained
access to more and more information, the figure of 2,500 victims was
being reported, both for deaths and illness.
Johnson & Johnson immediately began investigating 8 million
Tylenol tablets. The tests showed that 75 tablets contained cyanide. All
of those tablets originated – not coincidentally – from the same pro-
duction batch. Ultimately, seven people died after ingesting the poi-
soned tablets, all of them in and around Chicago. Because news of the
crisis had spread across the country like wildfire, 94 per cent of con-
sumers made a direct connection between Tylenol and poisoning.
After the affair was over, Johnson & Johnson reintroduced the
product. A mere five months after the terrible incidents, the pharma-
ceutical company had succeeded in regaining 70 per cent of its pre-
vious market share.