In mid-November the romaine lettuce recall was one of the top news stories, making the country fearful of the E. coli virus that had multiple people fall ill. News platforms wrote stories about the recall, warning consumers not to eat the contaminated vegetable. However, the issue has seemed to subside due to the number of romaine products back on store shelves. The FDA has released statements explaining that romaine lettuce is safe to consumers, as long as it is not from specific California counties. While this is relieving news, many are still wary about consuming romaine lettuce because consumers find difficulty discovering where their products originate and whether or not they are safe. This issue has highlighted the question of how companies can recover from a crisis.
In the last blog post, I discussed how brands can act in crisis situations. However, brands may struggle to create a plan for after a crisis. The romaine lettuce issue is a prime example of a crisis that has been resolved but has had no significant statement of recovery. Experts have written that the best way for companies to recover from a crisis is to first make a timely statement and second, make it genuine. Marketing Week specifically noted, “That’s what it comes down to. Have you changed and can you demonstrate it. Most reputation in people’s minds is experiential and what they’ve experienced is there was a problem and now it has been solved.” This goes to show that most consumers will return back to a brand if change has been shown.
While this may not entirely apply to the romaine lettuce issue because not one sole brand is known for supplying the product, consumers still chose not to buy the product overall. The main PR issue with this specific situation is that countless articles were written about the recall for breaking news, but once the recall ended many consumers were, and still are, unaware of the safety of lettuce. Though many platforms have written articles about the now safe vegetable, very few of the articles have been listed as highly viewed, since people are still highly searching about whether they can eat romaine lettuce yet. By monitoring social media mentions, responding to concerned consumers, and showing genuine concern over the issue, brands are able to maintain their amount of loyal consumers. A study by Weber Shandwick showed, “85 percent of consumers form opinions about companies based on how they react during crises.” In order for brands to consistently recover from a crisis situation, it is pivotal for them to make statements on how the issue has been altered and why consumers should continue to trust their brand.