5 Critical Events After the Famous Coca-Cola Controversy
Coca-Cola’s biggest mistake nearly bankrupted its image.
We all know about Coca-Cola’s elite marketing strategies, but how many of you are aware of one of the biggest scandals the company went through in 1999?
It started with complaints from students in a school in Belgium after consuming a can of Coca-Cola purchased from their canteens. This caused a rash decision to be made by the company to retract their products from the shelves that contained certain ingredients they believed caused the harm.
Once these claims were publicized, students from other schools started experiencing similar symptoms. What could have been solvable turned into the biggest crisis of the company’s history that nearly destroyed its reputation.
1- Mass hysteria as a psychological phenomenon.
The symptoms experienced by the students included stomach cramps, nausea, and heart palpitations. By the end of the first week of this crisis, over 100 students from 6 schools had reported having these symptoms. Along with this, there were also reports of ‘usual odor’ escaping from the drinks and an ‘off-taste’ in the drinks.
Rather than just stopping in Belgium, the effects had spread out to Northern France as well, where samples from people’s blood and urine were tested in a laboratory, coming up with no abnormalities. The Coca-Cola Company came forward with 2 causes for this sudden epidemic.
Firstly, there was fungicide contamination on the outside of the cans and secondly, there was bad carbon dioxide trapped within the cans. However, after a thorough investigation, toxicology experts reported that there were no apparent causes that would explain the symptom outbreak.
The convenient timing of every student getting their symptoms after the initial news release led officials to believe this was the result of a mass sociogenic illness, rather than the product itself.
Of course, this claim was not without its theories. Due to end-of-year examination stress, students could be mentally overwhelmed, leading to the onset of similar symptoms.
Additionally, Belgium was just recovering from a dioxin crisis that had occurred 2 weeks prior to the Coca-Cola incident, and the paranoia could have influenced people to reach rash conclusions. The overreaction of the authorities and the lack of communication by the Coca-Cola company on time was one of the main causes of mass hysteria as well.
2- Inevitable de-shelving of Coca-Cola products
When the crisis first commenced, Coca-Cola reacted by pulling over 15 million containers from the shelves to contain the contamination.
This act caught people’s attention and they demanded answers. However, Coca-Cola kept a tight lip, refusing to share any information besides just easing the public into thinking everything was okay.
When the second wave of symptoms from other schools hit, Belgium took the initiative to ban all Coca-Cola products, including some supporting brands such as Nestle, to preserve the nation’s health.
Following Belgium’s decision, France, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands also restricted the sale of their products.
When the ban was finally lifted after 10 days and the markets started restocking products, people were still very skeptical. (How could you blame them, not only were they left in the dark but the rash decision made by the company initially seemed suspicious).
They did however reveal that their bottles contained minute traces of carbonyl sulfide which was responsible for the rotten-egg type odor, but it was not concentrated enough to toxify the drink.
3- Nearly emptied their wallets
When their products were unshelved, for safety reasons they were also destroyed. This process caused a $103 million loss to the company. There was even a 5% decline in the bottler's revenues.
The revenue impact was massive as 74% of Coca-Cola consumption was initially from the European Nations. (And how were they meant to contribute when the products were not on the shelves anymore). In total their income faced a 21% decline.
The biggest blunder Coca-Cola made was by trying to minimize the reports of illnesses.
Not only did it simply make them untrustworthy, but it stained their reputation big time in terms of their ability to communicate with their consumers.
4- The threats lurking behind after the crisis
More than just their own image destruction, other threats include competing brands taking advantage of the situation and defaming the brand’s name.
Moreover, consumers could easily switch beverages without facing any personal consequences. Due to these presenting factors, they were at risk of losing sponsors and partners after the crisis.
Alongside that, they were also at a massive political disadvantage with France constantly trying to force Coca-Cola to scale back on its attempts to acquire famous brands under its belt to keep up its spotlight.
They also violated several European laws trying to offer discounts and rebates to cater to the public, making them seem uncultured.
5- Rare advantages out of the crisis
In an optimistic light, this crisis provided the company with growth opportunities to show how they could come back from such an event.
It allowed them to analyze and improve their options for viable solutions rather than going for the first or most extreme option available. This in turn allowed them to develop a working system to accurately respond to any arising issues.
People were intrigued by their constant attempts to fix their wrongs by helping the environment, providing shelter and opportunities to the less, and being more socially and environmentally aware. It appealed to their hearts and helped boost the company’s hearty image.
This crisis also provided a great example of what companies should not do in a similar situation. (It is used as a case study in business and marketing courses now).
Not the end of the Coca-Cola controversy?
Even with their blooming success, Coca-Cola is not invincible to criticism and conspiracy to this day.
Along with several reports of unhealthy results caused by overconsumption of the drink, there are still doubts regarding how genuine the company really is in contributing to saving the environment and keeping its customers happy.
Like every other company, Coca-Cola is not perfect but the Belgian 1999 crisis caused an improvement that left a positive impact on the company.
In today’s time, it’s in a stable operational zone, however, Coca-Cola contamination incident was a denting incident in the company’s history and slightly underscored the drink’s safety and management.
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