Case 1: KFC handled the Sudan red incident in a timely manner

On March 15, 2005, when relevant departments in Shanghai were inspecting many KFC restaurants, they discovered New Orleans chicken wings. And the New Orleans chicken drumstick seasoning contains the ingredient "Sudan Red No. 1". On the morning of the 16th, the Shanghai headquarters of Yum Brands notified all KFC branches across the country, "Starting from the 16th, we will immediately stop selling New Orleans chicken wings and New Orleans chicken drumsticks in all KFC restaurants across the country, and destroy all remaining seasonings."

On the afternoon of March 16, Yum! issued a public statement announcing that the seasoning of New Orleans chicken wings and New Orleans chicken drumsticks contained "Sudan Red No. 1" and apologized to the public. Yum said it will strictly investigate the responsibility of relevant suppliers for illegal use of "Sudan Red No. 1" in seasonings.

After nearly two weeks of testing and investigation into the incident that some products of KFC China contained Sudanese red, Su Jingshi, president of China Yum Brands Group, to which KFC belongs, officially announced the results of the investigation on March 28, 2004. : After governments at all levels conducted random inspections of different raw materials in different cities, it was confirmed that all problematic seasonings came from two batches of chili powder supplied by Suhong Aromatic Ingredients (Kunshan) Co., Ltd. to Guangdong Zhongshan Jikuaifu Company. China's Yum! Brands assures consumers across the country that all KFC products do not contain Sudanese red.

KFC suffered a major blow this time due to the Sudan Red issue. Su Jingshi said that in response to the lessons learned from the Sudan Red incident, China Yum Brands decided to take three measures to prevent the hidden dangers caused by the failure of some food production and suppliers to strictly control food safety: First, it will strengthen the original testing capabilities based on the past , invested 2 million yuan to establish a modern food safety testing and research center, conduct safety inspections on all products and raw materials used, and conduct research on China's food supply safety issues. The second is to require all major suppliers to increase personnel, purchase necessary testing equipment, and conduct food safety inspections on all incoming materials. The third is to strengthen the requirements and standards for selecting upstream suppliers and strictly prevent suppliers who cannot adhere to food safety from being mixed into the supply chain.

(Source: Economic Daily, March 29, 2005, Chen Xiaoli)

Please read the above information carefully and answer the following questions?

1. Facing the environmental threat brought by the "Sudan Red No. 1" incident to KFC, what countermeasures did Yum Group take? Try to evaluate these measures using relevant principles of marketing.

2． Through this incident, what issues do you think an enterprise's marketing activities should pay attention to in the process of adapting and coordinating with its marketing environment?

The answer to this question should include the following key points:

1. The environment contains both opportunities and threats. The purpose of analyzing the environment is to discover opportunities and avoid and mitigate threats.

2. Enterprises are not powerless against the environment. On the basis of analyzing the environment, enterprises can increase their ability to adapt to the environment, avoid threats, and can also change the environment under certain conditions

3. In this case, Yum! faced the threat and took the following measures:

(1) Stopped selling products containing Sudanese red and destroyed the remaining seasonings;

(2) Publicly apologized, Investigate responsibility;

(3) Publish the test results and ensure that all its products do not contain Sudan red,

(4) Develop measures to eliminate hidden dangers.

The above measures all fall into the category of mitigation strategies. Through these measures, companies gradually eliminate the impact of the incident and regain the trust of consumers.

4. In a complex, turbulent and ever-changing marketing environment, enterprises must constantly build their core competitiveness, enhance adaptability, grasp environmental dynamics at any time, discover problems in a timely manner, and solve problems quickly and properly. Only then can they avoid and mitigate environmental threats and make them more competitive. The enterprise develops healthily.

Hilton’s Smile Service

In 1919, Hilton, the “hotel king” of the United States, invested the US$12,000 left to him by his father together with several thousand dollars he earned. He began his ambitious career in hotel management. When his assets miraculously increased from 1,500 US dollars to tens of millions of dollars, he happily and proudly told his mother about this achievement. Unexpectedly, his mother said calmly: "In my opinion, you are nothing like before. Two things... In fact, you have to grasp something more valuable than $51 million: in addition to being honest with customers, you also have to find a way to make people who come to the Hilton Hotel want to stay again after staying at the Hilton Hotel. You have to come up with such a way Simple, easy, cost-effective and long-term ways to attract customers. Only in this way can your hotel have a future."

Hilton's mother's advice made Hilton confused: What method can achieve what his mother pointed out? What are the four major conditions: "simple, easy, cost-free and long-lasting"? He thought hard and couldn't figure it out. So he visited stores and hotels, and based on his personal experience as a customer, he came up with the correct answer: "Service with a smile." Only it truly meets the four conditions proposed by the mother. Since then, Hilton has implemented the original business strategy of service with a smile. The first thing he said to the waiter every day was "Have you smiled at the customer?" He required every employee to smile at the customer no matter how hard they worked. Even when the hotel business was seriously affected by the economic recession, he Employees are also often reminded to remember: "We must never put the sorrow in our hearts on our faces. No matter what difficulties the hotel itself encounters, the smile on the face of the Hilton Hotel's waiters will always be the sunshine that belongs to the tourists."

In order to meet the requirements of customers, Hilton's "empire" is not only full of "smiles" everywhere, but also in terms of organizational structure, Hilton strives to create a system as complete as possible in order to become a comprehensive service organization. Therefore, in addition to providing complete food and accommodation, Hilton Hotel also has cafes, conference rooms, banquet halls, swimming pools, shopping malls, banks, post offices, florists, clothing stores, airline agencies, travel agencies, taxi stations, etc. A complete set of service organizations and facilities make travelers who stay at the Hilton Hotel truly feel "at home". When he asked his employees again: "What else do you think needs to be added?" The employees couldn't answer, and he smiled: "It's still a first-class smile! If it were me, I would have first-class equipment without first-class service." I would rather give it up and stay in a hotel where smiles are everywhere even though the carpets are old.”

Please read the above case carefully and answer the following questions:

Smile service embodies service. What kind of concept is it? Is Hilton able to retain customers just by serving with a smile?

Brief answer:

It embodies the customer-centered marketing concept.

Smiling service attracts customers, but the reason why customers can be retained is by no means just smiling at customers. Smiling is just a formality. Its meaning is very rich. It embodies a concept and a mentality. A business philosophy that puts customer interests at the center. Under the control of this concept, in order to meet the requirements of customers, Hilton's "empire" is not only full of "smiles" everywhere, in terms of organizational structure, Hilton strives to create a system as complete as possible in order to become a comprehensive service mechanism. In addition to providing complete meals and accommodation, the hotel also has a complete set of services such as cafes, conference rooms, banquet halls, swimming pools, shopping malls, banks, post offices, flower shops, clothing stores, airline agencies, taxi stations, etc. The institutions and facilities make visitors feel "at home" when staying at the Hilton Hotel. This is the fundamental reason for retaining customers.

How Johnson & Johnson responded to the crisis

Tylenol capsules produced by Johnson & Johnson are a type of painkiller, with sales of US$4.35 billion in 1981, accounting for 10% of Johnson & Johnson's total sales ?%, accounting for 17% of total profits.

One day at the end of September 1982, a patient named Adam Janus took a pill and died on the same day; on the same day, another couple who took Tylenol also died two days later. The news quickly spread throughout the United States. Johnson & Johnson's share of the analgesic market fell from 35.3% to less than 7%, and the company faced a huge crisis. Johnson & Johnson responded quickly:

The first step is to investigate and clarify the facts.

(1) The company quickly collected information about the victim, the cause of death, the batch number of the poisonous Tylenol, the drug’s retail location, the drug’s production date, the way it was sent to the distribution network, etc., for this purpose , the company specifically hired 100 FBI and state detectives to pursue 2,000 leads and study 57 reports.

(2) Turn to the media for help, hoping that they will provide accurate and timely information to avoid panic. Through investigation, the report was drawn: the poisonous capsules were caused by someone who bought the finished product from a drugstore, mixed it with hydrogen sulfide and then returned it to the store. It was not a production problem of Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson spent $500,000 on telegraph fees alone to convey the news to customers and the media.

The second step is to assess and contain the impact of the incident. The "Tylenol poisoning incident" cost Johnson & Johnson more than 100 million US dollars, but the most important impact was on its trademark itself. Johnson & Johnson conducted a public opinion survey afterwards and found that 49% of people answered that they would still use the drug, so Johnson & Johnson put the drug on the shelves again.

The third step is to revive Tylenol. In order to achieve this goal, Johnson & Johnson has adopted the strategy of "securing regular customers and penetrating new customer groups". The specific steps are as follows:

(1) Invite the doctor of pharmacy from McNair Laboratory who developed the drug Thomas. Gates thanked the American people who use the drug in the advertisement;

(2) Encourage capsule users to try Tylenol tablets;

(3) The company promises to " Customers who threw away Tylenol after the "Poisoning Incident" can get a $2.50 coupon by calling a toll-free number;

(4) The company designed a new type of anti-vandal Packaging enhances people’s trust.

Through a series of careful plans and actions, Johnson & Johnson regained 35% of the market share in just 8 months and maintained it until 1986, earning Johnson & Johnson huge profits. .

Please analyze:

(1) Johnson & Johnson encountered such a serious environmental threat, but was able to resolve the crisis and regain the market in just 8 months. Please analyze this using the principles of corporate strategies for environmental marketing.

(2) What inspiration can we get from this incident?

The analysis of this question should include the following points:

The environment includes both opportunities and threats. The purpose of analyzing the environment is to discover opportunities, avoid and mitigate threats.

Enterprises are not powerless against the environment. On the basis of analyzing the environment, enterprises can increase their ability to adapt to the environment,

avoid threats, and can also change the environment under certain conditions.

In this case, Johnson & Johnson faced threats and adopted mitigation strategies to regain the trust of consumers