Crisis management

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Blue Bell Ice Cream Listeria Crisis Management Hanwen Liu Yiqing Zhou Ashley Summers Amanda Stern Raven Berzal  

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I.

Situation Background and Analysis

The Company Blue Bell Creameries is a manufacturer of ice cream and frozen dessert products and has been around for over 100 years. Blue Bell distributes to southwestern states including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and New Mexico. It’s headquarters are located at the “Little Creamery” in the rural town of Brenham, Texas with auxiliary facilities in Oklahoma and Alabama. Blue Bell has more than twenty branch offices. As of 2015, Blue Bell was the fourth highest-selling ice cream brand in the United States. Following the crisis in 2015, Blue Bell Creameries hopes not only to increase transparency and sales, but also increase knowledge of the high quality brand.

The Consumer The consumers of Blue Bell Creameries are millennials, those who enjoy eating comfort foods and ice cream, individuals who live in southwestern states. The consumer would want to be aware of the crisis situation and measures taken in order to gain the company's’ trust back and start purchasing products again.

The Product Over the years, Blue Bell has diversified its products with the development of frozen dietary desserts, nonfat frozen yogurt, and frozen snacks including: ice cream sandwiches, Snickers, Nestlé’s Crunch, and Eskimo Pie. Overall, Blue Bell produces over 250 different frozen products. Of these, 66 are flavors of ice cream. Twenty of the flavors are offered year-round, while an additional two to three dozen are offered seasonally. Blue Bell sells half-gallon containers of ice cream and the gold rim ice cream assorted flavors costs $5.97. Products are sold through retail grocery chains.

The 2015 Listeriosis Outbreak In April 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) linked 10 illnesses and three associated deaths with Listeria monocytogens contamination in Blue Bell Creameries desserts. Blue Bell had found Listeria in a plant, forcing Blue Bell to shut down the production line where the products were made and recall all its products from 23 states. Blue Bell worked with retail outlets to remove the affected ice cream products from the market. Blue Bell announced that they suspended operations at the plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma due to the

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!3 potential of products being contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. In late April, Blue Bell of Brenham, Texas, voluntarily expanded its recall to include all of its products currently on the market since they had the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes as well. This expanded recall includes ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and frozen snacks made at all Blue Bell facilities. Subsequently, Blue Bell announced that the firm would carry out an intensive cleaning and training program at all of its production facilities. On May 14, 2015, Blue Bell announced that it has entered into voluntary agreements with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry as well as the Texas Department of State Health Services outlining a series of steps and actions Blue Bell will take as part of its efforts to bring Blue Bell ice cream products back to market.

II. Statement of Problem/Risks As of April 20, 2015, a total of ten patients infected with several strains of Listeria were reported from four states. Illness onset dates ranged from January 2010 through January 2015. All ten reported patients were hospitalized and three deaths were reported from Kansas. Following this incident, Blue Bell faces six distinguishable areas of concern plaguing its brand and sales.

1. Financial Concerns In an effort to punish Blue Bell for manufacturing and distributing Listeria-laden ice cream, the state health department in Texas imposed an $850,000 fine on the company.

This fine in conjunction with the loss of profit that naturally comes with the sales dip in responses to a widespread recall is a hefty financial burden.

2. Transparency Issues Experts say Blue Bell’s responses to the initial recalls were an example of “recall creep.”

This refers to when executives hope that taking limited action—as the company did five times when informed of findings of listeria—will solve the problem and minimize commercial damage, only to find themselves forced to expand the recall repeatedly. As a response tactic, Blue Bell did create a new testing program to prevent the distribution of contaminated products in the future. However, although this is a step in the right direction, this system proved effective only in recognizing contamination in products post-distribution, causing another recall (which Blue Bell chose to go about quietly once again). Transparency is something Blue Bell has been working on, but its past is likely not something consumers will forget easily.

3. Competitors & Retailers

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!4 During the time when Blue Bell products were recalled, retailers were forced to replace the historic brand with new products. This gave retailers an opportunity to try out new brands that ended up being equally, if not more, successful than Blue Bell in-store sales.

Furthermore, even after the initial re-stock following the 2015 recall, customers were weary to purchase Blue Bell, thus causing less profit for the stores that chose to carry it.

Blue Bell’s market of old fashioned-style ice cream is very saturated. There were a lot of brands with even more to offer (new and innovative flavors) for retailers and consumers to choose from (ex. Dreyer’s and Beth Marie’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream).

4. Linked to Deaths One may choose to compare the Blue Bell incident to the Chipotle E. coli infections of late 2015. However, an important difference between these two food-related contamination cases is that Blue Bell products actually caused three deaths, whereas Chipotle caused none. This elevates the problem to a much more serious level. As a consumer, it is probably very simple and logical rationale to think to oneself, “Is taking the risk of death just to eat Blue Bell ice cream a good idea? Probably not.” This tendency of human nature is a strong force Blue Bell continues to struggle with.

5. Widespread & Uncontrolled Although the recall occurred in 2015, outbreaks from listeria-ridden Blue Bell products were reported as early as 2010. That is five years of circulation of contaminated products.

Furthermore, Blue Bell, being a fairly large company, has plants all over the United States. It was difficult for them and confusing for consumers to pinpoint which facilities were contaminated and where those specific products ended up. These two components made the contamination and recall extremely widespread and uncontrolled.

6. Recurring Issue Many brands/companies have been able to bounce back after a scandal like Blue Bell’s listeria crisis. This is largely because of the consumer ideal that once an issue like this occurs, the company will be so careful and cautious that it will never happen again. For example, if there is a shooting at a mall, human nature prompts the belief that the mall will increase security and have a reliable plan. Following the Chipotle E. coli scandal, consumers felt that the chain was likely cleaner and more reliable than ever with new precautions in place to prevent a repeat offense. This was likely the way consumers felt with the re-stock of Blue Bell products. However, the fact that days after the 2016 restock select products had to be recalled was destructive to the brand and this aforementioned ideal that saves brands following these types of scandals.

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SWOT Strengths ● Blue Bell Ice Cream has over a hundred years of history. ● It has a solid and firm customer base in southwestern states. ● It has a diverse product line.

Weaknesses ● ● ● ●

Branding image is not up to par The finding of Listeriosis monocytogenes contaminated in Blue Bell products Production lines shut down due to the recall Serious loss in Blue Bell’s profits

Opportunities ● Consumers still have hope for the company ● Working with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry as well as the Texas Department of State Health Services outlining a series of steps and actions are beneficial ● Intensive cleaning and training of the production facilities also opens Blue Bell to opportunities to gain its reputation back ● Rebranding can also help change the minds of the consumers Threats ● Competition with other ice cream companies ● People are preferring healthier frozen product options III. Goals/Objectives/Tactics Goal: Rebuild relevancy and trust of Blue Bell ice cream among southwestern millennials through transparency and re-branding tactics.

1. Objective a: To improve transparency about Blue Bell ice cream by May 2018 in order to establish it as a high-quality brand in the ice cream market.

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!6 a. Strategy 1.a: Create a campaign called “Blue Bell Ice Cream, Where Comfort Begins” to tackle misconceptions about Blue Bell ice cream.

1. Tactics a.1.1: Create a fact sheet about where Blue Bell’s ice cream comes from and distribute it on the company website and within major media outlets.

2. Tactics a.1.2: Invite Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, a Texas prominent texas businessman, to create a video sharing his love and passion for Blue Bell ice cream (similar to what he has done previously) (Hernandez, 2015) 3. Tactics a.1.3: Live stream Blue Bell ice cream production and display it on social media platforms.

4. Tactics a.1.4: Create an online live stream web series where people/ customers can tweet questions for the CEO, Paul Kruse.

5. Tactics a.1.5: Invite new providers to come forward and talk about the agricultural environment of the plants and their efforts to keep the ingredients safe to consume. Along with this, a website will be created named, “Blue Bell Ice Cream, Where Comfort Begins,” which will map the locations of Blue Bell’s plants. By clicking the locations, consumers can see videos, photos, and interviews with the plants growers. b. Strategy 2.a: Increase awareness of Blue Bell Ice Cream by sponsoring events and online media channels 1. Tactics a.2.1: Send out news releases to local media for special programs and events hosted by Blue Bell. These events will be ones highly attended by millennials. These releases will include fact sheets about Blue Bell Ice Cream and how the company is improving their food.

2. Tactics a.2.2: Target online cooking series such as Tasty and Buzzfeed Food and offer interesting ways to incorporate Blue Bell’s ice cream in the millenials dessert consumption. Sponsored

by Blue Bell cooking channel, like special recipes made by ice creams. Another possible channel is Pinterest.

3. Tactics a.2.3: Sponsor millennial news outlets such as the Skimm and Mashable. This will help generate awareness of the Blue Bell Ice Cream name by their sponsorship of a trusted news site.

2. Objective b: Increase audience engagement with Blue Bell by 15% within 6 months so that it can be an ice cream southwestern millennials prefer.

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!7 a. Strategy b.1: Engage the Blue Bell ice cream millennial audience through social media posts, hashtags and website visits.

1. Tactics b.1.1: Target the desired customer base by conducting surveys across social media platforms and asking about what they look for in ice cream brands.

2. Tactics b.1.2: Collect and analyze audience comments and attitudes toward Blue Bell ice cream on social media platforms.

3. Tactic b.1.3: We will conduct online packaging design contests for individuals to draw designs that customers will vote on. In this case, people can be engaged and potentially more likely to consume the products that they contributed to. The winner will get a one-year consumption of Blue Bell products and money. b. Strategy 2.b: Encourage customers to take photos of Blue Bell ice cream and post on social media. Blue Bell will offer incentives for those that contribute.

1. Tactics b.2.1: Use social media to post more photos and videos of Blue Bell ice cream. We will ask our customers to share their moments with Blue Bell ice cream with the hashtag #BBmycomfort and Blue Bell will offer a prize for doing so.

2. Tactics b.2.3: Re-post photos of our customers with their Blue Bell ice cream to show how Blue Bell acknowledges its customer base.

3. Tactics b.2.4: Create monthly polls asking customers about their favorite ice cream. Blue Bell will offer a discount coupon for the winning ice cream flavor.

I.

Means of Evaluation A. Adequacy of Formative Research In order to evaluate the success of our campaign, conducting a new situation analysis is necessary for understanding the changes of the situation.

A key public analysis and a new SWOT analysis will be also be used to compare with those conducted before the campaign. The new analysis will help understand the changed situation of Blue Bell and evaluate the campaign’s success.

B. Summary and Analysis of Process Information The collection and the analysis of process information should be conducted every quarter since the campaign will last for one year. Information and data that needs to be collected includes the outcomes related to the objectives and the feedback content in the past quarter.

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!8 To measure the transparency of the company, focus groups and surveys are two methods to help better understand whether the transparency has successfully increased.

Before-and-after comparisons on social media will help generate customers’ impressions and comments about the Blue Bell ice cream’s changes. Quarterly measurements can help Blue Bell ice cream understand if it is heading in the right direction or needs an adjustment.

Feedback of the content, such as the new packaging, social media, and online platform’s will be measured in various ways. Through Google Analytics, audience demographics and preferences, this demonstrates what content millennials prefer on social media.

C. Impact of the Campaign Objective a: To increase transparency about Blue Bell ice cream by May 2018 in order to establish it is a high-quality brand in the ice cream market.

Focus groups and online surveys will be conducted both before and after the campaign to accurately evaluate the public’s impressions about the awareness and transparency of Blue Bell ice cream. We will compare the changes in the production process, ingredients and service training process, to its initial processes so that the company’s transparency can be reflected.

Objective b: Increase audience engagement with Blue Bell by 15% within 6 months so that it can be an ice cream southwestern millennials prefer.

Impacts of the campaign can be reflected by the social media conversations related to Blue Bell ice cream and its quality. We believe that the interactions with customers about the new packaging contest and social media efforts will help Blue Bell ice cream to remain relevant and win back the trust of customers.

D. Recommendations Following the plan of our campaign, we recommend that Blue Bell ice cream continues to increase, maintain transparency, and interact with customers by creating newsworthy events.

We also recommend Blue Bell ice cream to establish its own PR team or have long-term contracts with other PR agencies. The press page on the official website has not been entirely established. The only reaction to the crisis was a telephone number offered to customers who purchased and ate the tainted products. Blue Bell ice cream also refused to take interviews with any platforms. We believe that a professional PR team or a well-prepared crisis solution plan will help Blue Bell ice cream to reduce the negative impacts after the crisis.

II.

Summary/Sale of Rationale -more-

!9 Blue Bell ice cream’s dominant consumers are southwesterners, so this campaign is aimed at increasing the awareness of Blue Bell ice cream as a high quality brand among southwestern millennial consumers.

Millennial consumers are active and dynamic on social media channels so Blue Bell will utilize social media platforms to communicate with its target audience. To be specific, influential online medias, such as Buzzfeed, are major platforms where we will distribute our messages.

By conducting social listening and engagements on our campaign’s social media platforms, we can track the changes of opinions and attitudes of our target audience. The safety of consuming Blue Bell ice cream’s product is the public’s primary concern.

In this campaign, we wish to restore the safety and confidence in Blue Bell Creameries products. To rebuild trust in millennials, we plan to increase the transparency of the company’s products. The public is granted access in this way and can monitor the production line at the facilities. We also plan to restore Blue Bell as a preferred brand among other ice cream brands. Beyond millennials’ desire for health safety, they also seek up-to-date attractive products.

The unique selling point with the transparency and engagement is that Blue Bell will be an attractive ice cream brand that millennials can relate to. To meet these objectives, we will target events, be active on social media, and re-design the packages of Blue Bell products to cater to millennials’ tastes. With our goal in this campaign, our evaluation will focus on qualitative research methods such as conducting focus groups, interviews, surveys and utilizing social media feedback.

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