Crisis Management Lessons That Businesses Can Learn from The Maggi Controversy

The business world is full of uncertainties.  One minute your business is running smoothly, another minute you might face an inevitable crisis.

Although it is best to take prevention measure before a crisis strikes, a business crisis is unpredictable at times and unfortunate, which needs to be managed carefully for maintaining your brand value. Many reputed brands have gone having faced such a situation and only a few were able to retain the same reputation. One of the biggest examples is Nestlé’s Maggi Noodles.

India’s Food safety administration (FDA) ordered Nestlé India to ban its extremely popular and bestselling 2-minute Maggi noodles after tests showed that the product contained high levels of lead and MSG. The brand received a considerable amount of flak by the customers as well. But, Nestlé managed the situation so effectively that not only did Maggi Noodles get a clean chit, it also regained its original market share of close to 60 per cent within a year of the crisis.

The case study of Maggi Noodles imparts a great lesson on crisis management. Here are the following things which businesses can learn from Maggi’s Crisis Management.

Always Communicate With Your Customers

While Maggi managed its crisis successfully, the company was slow to respond to consumers on social media. Many Indians perceived its silence as an admission of guilt. The company realized soon that its main problem had been shortcomings in communications with the public, the media and other stakeholders. As a result, Nestlé interacted with customers on social media thanking them for their support and re-assured them that the noodles are safe and that they are a transparent company working closely with authorities in India to resolve the issue.

Advertising

After Nestlé’s Maggi Noodles came under the scanner, the company’s initial response was to deny the allegations and not to respond, but the company quickly made amends by not just communicating aggressively with its stakeholders but also talking about the crisis through a series of emotional advertisements. Nestlé continued to engage in an active dialogue with customers on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. The company went further in creating a FAQ page on the official Nestlé website to answer all questions.

Innovating with the product

After getting a clean-chit from FDA, the company not only re-launched the original Maggi, but also introduced some new variants of it. The company put emphasis on people’s unaltered love for their product and took the opportunity to launch 25 new products/variants after the crisis. Nestlénever had so many product launches in such a short time in the history of the company.