Strauss plays by the book - will that be enough?

Published date26 April 2022
AuthorAnat Bein-Leibovitz
Publication titleGlobes (Rishon LeZion, Israel)
As everywhere in the world, consumers in Israel are used to production glitches, and realize that the price of the convenience of an industrialized world is the need from time to time to deal with defective products. Israeli food companies have made recalls in the past - see under Eden Springs, Osem, Tnuva, and so on

The public may be particularly sensitive to food product recalls, but experience shows that as long as the company behaves transparently and fairly, consumer memory is short, and the public is willing to forgive. On the other hand, when the company concerned does not behave transparently, as in Unilever's cornflakes crisis when the glitch was concealed for several days and the company made evasive excuses, the public punishes it and avoids buying the product. But even in Unilever's case, while it took time to restore public faith in the company, in the end consumers forgave and went back to buying.

Since the dimensions of the fault at the Strauss chocolate factory started to emerge, the company has played by the book as far as the media are concerned. Amid the ensuing chaos, its representatives have been answering questions patiently and transparently, trying to provide facts and reliable information to worried consumers and to journalists. The crisis is manifestly being managed, and the company is trying to leave as little as possible to chance.

But within a short time the chaos and confusion stage will end, and the operational stage will begin. The success of that depends on how deeply Strauss is prepared to put its hand in its pocket. The logistics of collecting the products, conduct vis-à-vis the supermarket chains, setting the level of compensation such that customers will feel that it's appropriate - all these things cost money, and any corner cutting is liable to blow up in the company's face, image-wise, and ultimately financially as well.

If Strauss makes the process of returning products cumbersome for consumers, demanding proof of purchase and receipts, gives people the run-around and tries to be penny pinching, there's a fair chance that the understanding that the company is currently enjoying will be replaced by complaints from consumers about how the company is evading responsibility. If Strauss makes life difficult for the retail chains, it will probably be faced within a short time with pictures of products being removed from shelves. But if most consumers feel that the company is trying to make things easy for them, that the...

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