With serious consumer-product recalls occurring in the United States seemingly every day, Congress is passing stricter regulations on everything from children’s toys to grandma’s walker, along with the toughest penalties in history for companies that violate them. The House and Senate are poised to approve the bill and President Bush is expected to quickly sign it.
The measure bans lead in toys and requires the Consumer Product Safety Commission to hire more workers. The CPSC will establish a database of safety complaints for toys, household chemicals, cribs, lighters, and 15,000 other products the commission regulates. The new rules raise potential fines on companies that sell dangerous products to $15 million, more than 10 times the current maximum, and institute new criminal penalties for egregious violations
Companies burned badly in the 2007 “Year of the Recall” – such as Mattel, Disney, Wal-Mart, and GE – have already toughened their safety testing and standards in anticipation of the new law. They are also responding to consumer concerns. For example, the new rules require toymakers to hire independent third-party experts to test their products for lead. Hasbro – which didn’t issue a single lead-related recall in 2007 – Mattel, Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us have already done so.
Other toymakers and retailers would be smart to do likewise rather than wait to be forced into it and lose the public relations advantage that proactive compliance provides.
From a strategic perspective, manufacturers and retailers need to be perceived as working together with the Congressional and regulatory Good Guys who are improving product safety. The other alternative is to be perceived as one of the Bad Guys resisting needed changes. With that perspective in mind, here are a few basic steps companies should take immediately:
- Assign a “Chief Safety Officer” responsible for overseeing the quality and safety of your products. Make this person visible on your web page and in marketing collaterals. Your customers need to see this person as a friend and an ally who’s standing up for their rights. If you’ve already assigned someone to this role, build a PR campaign around that officer and tell the world what he or she is doing.
- Inspect your foreign imports carefully and use pictures and videos on your web page to show those inspections being carried out. Don’t be bashful about sharing the stories and images with your local, regional and national news media. You’ll get a good PR boost now as well as goodwill capital to draw on should you suffer a recall in the future and need journalists to present your side of the story.
- Establish a coordinated crisis communications plan with your retail partners. If you’re a retailer, ask your manufacturer to sit down with your team and develop a joint crisis plan now. You can bet Mattel and Toys “R” Us have already done just that.
- Cultivate friendships and alliances now with industry safety experts who can be counted on to post positive blog comments in the event of a major recall. When a crisis occurs, your customers are going to go immediately to the web for information. If all they see are attacks from embittered and frightened consumers, you’re in trouble.
Congress and the CPSC got caught flat-footed by the 2007 “Year of the Recall.” Don’t you get caught napping in the “Year of Product Safety.”
Gene Grabowski, Senior Vice President of Levick Strategic Communications and manager of the firm’s Crisis, Litigation, Liability, and Recall Practice Group, is a distinguished crisis communications counselor who leads high-profile accounts for major law firms, Fortune 500 companies, trade associations, and government agencies. For his work during the spinach E. coli crisis, the industry-wide pet food recalls, and the lead paint toy recalls, Mr. Grabowski was honored by PRNews as their Crisis Manager of the Year for 2007.
