The product in question accounts for fully 52% of Greta and Grace revenue. The company cannot therefore afford for this to be blown out of proportion and trigger either consumer protests or merchants withdrawing Organic Age Defiance from their shelves.
The first imperative is to take quick action lest this escalate into a Tylenol-type disaster. All calls from the press and Web commentators should be accepted with utmost grace and courtesy and subsequently turned over to the PR Department so that we speak with one confident voice. All senior executives who have speaking engagements for the next month or so should seize the opportunity to make the same four points as in our attached press statement without sounding defensive or apologetic (Seitel 85-87; Van Hook 1).
Our attitude should be based on the truth: Organic Age Defiance is the largest-selling facial and night cream brand in America because the formulation is the most effective on the market. That it is also the most expensive simply means G & G delivers unsurpassed value.
In order to sidestep any possibility of regulatory oversight and a consumer backlash, we have to explain the incident with nothing but the unvarnished truth: the quality and therapeutic value of Organic Age Defiance is indisputably the same. The precipitating factors were beyond our control. This was literally a handful of women who ignored the warning not to go out into the sun too soon after application. But the slipshod quality control at our Chinese supplier is unforgivable. We will announce in the strongest terms that we will cancel the contract and revert to trusted American suppliers forthwith. At the same time, we take responsibility for the allergic reactions and reap good will by the entire batch with 100% American organic-source product and pay for dermatological treatment for all five women and any who come forward. This is the payback for the decades-long faith American women have put in us.
Press Statement about Greta & Grace Organic Age Defiance Cream
Greta & Grace Rush to the Relief of Allergy Sufferers
Industry leader pulls out all stops to ensure safety of Organic Age Defiance Cream ™ buyers.
For Immediate Release
Milpitas, CA (December 1, 2009) Greta & Grace, the largest and most trusted producer of 100% organic facial and body cosmetics in America, revealed today that five women, all from the New York/New Jersey area, had come forward to complain about facial rash, pruritus, and skin discoloration following application of its famous Organic Age Defiance Cream™. Paramedics from the G & G “Special Watch, Advanced Therapy (S.W.A.T.) teams paid each of the women a visit within hours and discovered all had freshly-opened jars of Organic Age Defiance Cream™ from the same batch date. Further investigation revealed that all five had gone out into an unexpectedly sunny morning within 90 minutes of applying the facial cream.
G & G CEO Jack Ryan, formerly of Atlanta’s CDC, disclosed that the batch in question was the first to be produced with a trial batch of placenta extract sourced from mainland China. The company’s quality control laboratory had found that the extract was about 2.5% above the index collagen content but tests showed this was not significant as long as women remembered not to expose themselves to direct sunlight within two hours after application.
Even as he issued a recall of the entire batch made with Chinese placenta extract, Ryan reminded women that G & G had always warned in both advertising and product labels not to risk allergic reaction by going out into the sun for two hours after application.
About Greta and Grace
Greta and Grace has been the leader of the organic personal care industry in the nation since pioneering the industry some thirty-three years ago. G & G has been has been honored with numerous awards, including named one of America’s 200 Best Managed Companies™ for ten years in a row and recipient of the Deming Award for Excellence in Product Quality for twenty-one years running. The company produces no fewer than 230 facial and body preparations, all exclusively from organic-source ingredients, at a central facility just outside Milpitas.
Media Contact
Barack D. Dismal
Chief Marketing Officer
Greta and Grace International
905.323.3939, ext. 35067 or
Mobile: 416.566.0911
E: [email protected]
Works Cited
Seitel, Fraser P. The Practice of Public Relations, (9th Ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Van Hook, Steven R. PhD. “Crisis Management Moments: Making the Most of a Bad Situation.” All About Public Relations. n.d. 2009.