THE WORM INFESTATION

CADBURY(2003)
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
By-
Arpita Gupta
Bharat Singh Sisodia
Bhumika Singh
 THE ISSUE
In October 2003, just a month before Diwali, customers in
Mumbai complained about finding worms in Cadbury Dairy Milk
chocolates.

The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration seized the

chocolate stocks manufactured at Cadbury's Pune plant.

In defense, Cadbury issued a statement that the infestation

was not possible at the manufacturing stage and poor storage
at the retailers was the most likely cause of the reported case
of worms.

That was follow ed by alleg ations and counter-allegations

between Cadbur y and FDA. Due to this negative publicity,
Cadbury's sales by 30 per c ent, that too at a time, when it
sees a festive s pike of 15 per cent.
IMPORTANT
MESSAGES
Infestation was a Infestation can never Cadbury dairy Milk will
storage-related happen at the continue to be safe for
problem manufacturing stage consumption
STRATEGY
1 Building relationships with
the media
2 Communicated their point of
view from their Media desk
from day 1
3 Project Vishwas for customer trust
building
Retail monitoring and
education program
Changes in packaging within 2
months
By investing up to Rs 15 crore
(Rs 150 million) on imported
machinery. The metallic poly-
flow, was costlier by 10-15 per
cent, but Cadbury didn't hike
the pack price.
4 Constant communication and
messaging
Editorial Outreach program
press ad ‘Facts about Cadbury’
Posters and leaflets
A Response cell with a toll-free
number and email ID
The company upped ad spends
for the Jan-March quarter by
over 15 per cent. The recovery
began in May 2004, and by June,
Cadbury's claimed that
consumer confidence was back.
5 New packaging and rebuilding
credibility through public relations
Purity sealed pack
Amitabh Bachchan as brand
ambassador
Press conferences
Television coverage: News and
commercial ‘Sincerity’
DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY
CAMPAIGN
OUTCOMES

Media coverage Sales were back to Brand image,

efficiently carried the normal levels just 8 responsiveness of the
right messages to the weeks after company experiences
customers and Cadbury’s introducing the new increased ratings by
point of view at every packaging. the public.
step leading to clarity of
the issue among
everyone throughout the
period of the crisis.
Consumer Confidence RECOMMENDATIONS Hit on sales 30%

1. Apology

2. Initially downplayed the issue

3. PR department should be independent

4. Cadbury initially resisted product recall

5. Address the victims

 RECOMMENDATIONS

6. Demonstrate rigorous quality control and assurance on process

7. No mention on the Cadbury website

8. People tend to trust hard statistics in crisis

9. Project Vishwas launched in IInd briefing

THANK
YOU.