Question

PRODUCT SAFETY

As a brand manager at a large food manufacturer, you’re positioning a new product for entry into the highly competitive snack food market. This product is low in fat and calories, and it should be unusually successful, especially against the rapidly growing pretzel market. You know that one of your leading competitors is preparing to launch a similar product at about the same time. Since market research suggests that the two products will be perceived as identical, the first product to be released should gain significant market share.

A research report from a small, independent lab—Green Lab—indicates that your product causes dizziness in a small group of individuals. Green has an impressive reputation, and its research has always been reliable in the past. However, the research reports from two other independent labs don’t support Green’s conclusion.

Your director of research assures you that any claims of adverse effects are unfounded and that the indication of dizziness is either extremely rare or the result of faulty research by Green Lab. Since your division has been losing revenue because of its emphasis on potato chips and other high-fat snack food, it desperately needs a

low-fat moneymaker. You were brought in to turn the division around, so your career at the company could depend on the success of this product.

What are your alternatives? What is your obligation to consumers? Who are your other stakeholders, and what do you owe them? What is your obligation to your employer and to other employees at your company? What should your course of action be? How can you apply the due care theory to this case?

Learning Activity #2

Imagine that you’re the CEO of a large firm whose company faces an ethical dilemma, what concrete steps would you take to restore your company’s reputation?

Answer 1

Being the brand manager of a company, it would be my responsibility to make sure that the products made by the company are reliable and do not cause any harm to the people who consume them. In the given case scenario, it is very important to launch the product as soon as possible because of two reasons, firstly, if the competitor launches a similar product before our company, he will posses more market share of the product and secondly, the department  has been unable to get revenue because of its high fat snacks so it has an urgent need to launch a low fat product to b revive the revenue. If Green lab has indicated that the product is causing dizziness in a small number of people, it would be better to not take the information lightly. Firstly, the steps that I would take would be of finding out whether the information by Green Lab is true or not by making other known labs find out about the truth of the product. If they suggest the same, I would making my manufacturing team identify what is causing the dizziness in those people and resolve the issue as soon as possible. If that is not working out, I will make the manufacturers change the overall product by changing the ingredients and ask them to make a similar and a better product and then launch the product before my competitor does it.

As a brand manager, I'm totally answerable to the consumers for any harm that the product may do to them. It would be my responsibility to make sure that the product is safe before it get into the market for people to consume them. As a manager, I would want to deliver a product that is safe to eat, healthy and tasty. The consumers should trust the brand if we want to make them loyal to the brand and launching one unsafe product will have a very bad effect on the reputation of the company.

The people who have invested in the company have done so to get a decent return from the profits that the company makes. As a brand manager, I need to be good and swift at decision-making. The decisions that I take are going to affect a large number of people. Taking any step that is not right and ethical may even result in the shutting down of the company. A lot of peoples' investment can be affected by taking one wrong decision. The stakeholders should not lose the money they invest in the company thereby losing trust in it.

If the company's reputation is harmed, it will have an adverse effect on the employers and employees, which may also result in their unemployment. it would be my responsibility to deliver the best the company can, so that its goodwill and reputation is not harmed.

I would do my best to confirm the safety of the product before launching it in the market. Even if the procedure takes time and our competitors launch their product, the market share can be revived by taking the right steps like advertisement and marketing of the product. Launching an unsafe product can result in serious problems for the company.

According to the due care theory, it would be my responsibility and also moral obligation that the protection of all consumers is taken care of. The product may be redesigned in such a manner that the risk of its harming the consumers can be minimized. We, as manufacturers need to be very careful with the ingredients and their quality and ensure that the end product is safe and free from any kind of risk.

Activity 2

In case of any ethical dilemma that my company faces, I will firstly make sure the the reports are not false, failing of which, I'll withdraw all the products that are causing it, from the market and also apologize to the consumers for the harm caused. The next step would be finding out the cause of the problem by the help of surveys. After finding the root cause of the issue, I will take help of researchers to resolve the problems being caused, even if they have to redesign the entire product. With the surety  of safety of the products, I will launch them again in the market.