FRIDAY RECALLS: THE PAYOFF

In February I mentioned the disparity between the hysterical amount of ink plant-food recalls were getting vs. the standard complete silence afforded meat recalls.

So now it's peanut butter with salmonella. You've heard about that, haven't you? But I'm willing to wager that just in the past month, you haven't heard about ... the chicken breast strips with Listeria (26 tons)

Well, turns out I was right, as now detailed in a marketing article about how to play the recall game. "[C]onsumer awareness levels of various recalls, and impacts on brands, vary significantly, according to results of a Harris Interactive survey of 2,563 adults focusing on six recent product recalls," the article says at the outset, and moving to specifics, adds:

For example, only 20% of respondents said they were familiar with this past February's recall of chicken breast cuts and strips caused by Listeria monocytogenes contamination--and among these consumers, only 2% correctly identified Oscar Meyer as one of the brands involved. Under 0.5% correctly identified Louis Rich as the other brand. In fact, 17% named brands other than those involved.

In contrast, 71% of respondents were familiar with the peanut butter recall caused by a Salmonella outbreak, also in February 2007, and 42% correctly identified Peter Pan as the brand involved.

Unfortunately, the article essentially offers warmed-over platitudes rather than drawing out why one recall "succeeds" in generating awareness and another "fails" to do so. Among the helpful tips, "put your press release out on a Friday" and "run a company that shares past and future staff with the agency that's regulating you" - arguably the two most effective strategies for minimizing "damage" from a recall - are conspicuously absent.