Strategic Public Relations

Nestlé spent three decades building a beloved noodle brand in India.

Then the world’s biggest food and beverage company stumbled into a public
relations debacle that cost it half a billion dollars.

A cautionary tale of mangled crisis management on an epic scale.

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It was the middle of the night when the jangle of his cellphone woke Sanjay Khajuria from a deep sleep.
In the few seconds it took him to get his bearings—to remember he was in a Manhattan hotel room and not at
home in his bed in Delhi—the Nestlé executive had an unsettling thought: Could this be about Maggi?
Virtually everything in his world had appeared to be in order when he boarded his flight to New York.
There was just one pesky issue to clear up.
Health officials in one of India’s 29 states had raised questions after testing a sample of one of Nestlé India’s
bestselling products: Maggi 2-Minute Noodles

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In 2014, Indians consumed more than 400,000 tons of the instant noodles—marketed
in 10 varieties, from Thrillin’ Curry to Cuppa Mania Masala Yo!

Maggi accounted for roughly a quarter of the company’s $1.6 billion in revenue in the
country.

That year Maggi was named one of India’s five most trusted brands.

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MARCH 10 2014

Food-safety officer Sanjay Singh in the Easyday store in Barabanki, where he first
collected a Maggi package for testing in March 2014, kicking off a national scandal.

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MARCH 26 2014

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When he first heard about the Maggi case, says Bulcke, it struck him as a straightforward technical
matter involving testing methods that could be judged and handled by his capable people in the
field.

“It was a ‘What is your spectrometer setting?’ sort of thing,”

Bulcke says now he was “too Cartesian” in his thinking.

By the end of May, his communications team was sounding the alarm that the story was exploding.

As he listened to a Maggi crisis conference call on June 2, a couple of things became clear to
Bulcke: He had badly miscalculated, and it was time for him to jump in.

“You feel it,” he says. “For the morale of the troops, you’ve got to show your nose.” He left for India
the next day.

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JUNE 4, 2015

Nestlé CEO PAUL BULCKE

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The CEO’s Terrible 24 Hours
When Bulcke arrived in India on June 4, he found his top managers preparing to visit the FSSAI.

The regulator had called at 10:30 that morning and asked them to come to a meeting at 1 p.m.

The executives were unclear on the agenda, but they didn’t think that Bulcke should go.

They feared he was “too senior.”

Bulcke has a breezy, authoritative demeanor, and he dismissed any such notion. “Come on, that’s
what I’m here for,” he said.

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Bulcke kept his opening comments to five minutes and a few key points: Maggi is safe; consumer
trust has been shaken by unfounded concerns; we’re working with authorities; we are
committed to India.
Then the floor was opened up to questions, and the room erupted as the 200 journalists
demanded answers from Bulcke: Why had it taken Nestlé two weeks to make a statement?

If Maggi was safe, was he saying the government labs were wrong?

No, he replied, he wasn’t criticizing the government’s science. For 45 minutes he gulped Perrier
from a goblet and managed to keep his cool.

Bulcke flew out later that evening.

He had been in India for roughly 24 hours, and things had seemingly gone from bad to worse.

But the CEO left the country feeling happy and confident that things were about to turn around:

“It was the first step of an uphill journey.”

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The Task:
Use the concepts presented to you in the lectures.
From a Strategic public relations point of view explain how Nestlé could have done better in the Maggi crisis ?
What was the role of Print , TV and Social Media ?
How did Nestlé address the different Stakeholders ?
Materials:
The case is a real life case. Students are allowed and are expected to research on the internet.

Presentation:
In each group, every student is expected to present. The presentation should take about 30 minutes / maximum
45 minutes.

Judgement criteria:
Marks will be giving on general application and display of understanding of the subjects taught to you in class;
how to use analytical skills to bring out the key issues in the case. Manner of presentation will also be taking
into account.

All students are expected to hand in their presentations on the same day along with a list of the group members.

Presentation Day is: 28. 05.2024

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