1. BRANDING 101:
If you give your product a French name,
you can charge way more for it..
BRANDING 101:
2. PERRIER story
• Perrier is a natural sparkling mineral water that is well known
throughout the world, famous for its elegantly-shaped green bottle
• In 1898, Dr. Louis Perrier became the owner of the spring, which
would later take his illustrious name
• In 1907, soon after the business was founded, the sparkling water
in the now-familiar green-tilted bottles was already a high-priced
item – “the champagne of bottled waters” – selling at nearly $1.00
and available only in gourmet and specialty food shops throughout
the United States
• Advertisers drew on the legendary past of the Perrier source, which
dates back to the first century’s Roman times. Promoters also
banked on the appeal of natural carbonation “from the center of
the Earth”
• Within a short period, Perrier became the leading brand
3. Trendy drink
• From 1980 to 1989, the bottled water industry as a
whole, and the Perrier brand in particular, enjoyed
annual double-digit growth – from an $80 million
industry to one worth some $2,5 billion
• Perrier was no longer just a bottle of water. The
marketing teams had established a crucial emotional
link between the product and the consumers.
• "Perrier became a badge," says Michael Bellas,
chairman of the Beverage Marketing Corporation
• "When you held a Perrier bottle up, it said
something about yourself, it said you were
sophisticated, you… understood what was
happening in the world.
• "It was a perfect beverage for the young up and
coming business executives, the trend-setters."
5. Perrier Scandal
• In February 1990, a group of scientists working in the laboratory at the Mecklenberg
County Environmental Protection Department in North Carolina was using small
supply of Perrier as a testing control for other substances being tested for hazardous
chemicals and other impurities. Scientists discovered traces of benzene – an
industrial solvent and suspected carcinogen – in the Perrier itself
• The company claimed that the contamination was an isolated incident, caused by an
operator error at an American filling plant. But Perrier's hopes were dashed when it
emerged that benzene was also present in its bottled water in Europe. Source
Perrier had to face the anger of European consumers who were faced with the fact
that they had been drinking contaminated water for several months. Highly
embarrassed, the firm recalled products worldwide. The media savagely criticised
the company, saying they had shown a shocking disregard for consumer safety
• Within days Perrier Group of America announced a recall from the entire North
American market 72 million bottles, totally worldwide – 160 million bottles
6. Perrier Scandal
• When the media first found out about the problem Perrier did not know what to do. For a
brand whose whole identity was based around the idea of ‘natural purity’, the benzene
incident was clearly a disaster.
• Although the recall had been announced straightaway, Perrier’s information vacuum started
to provoke even more consumer anxiety than there would have been otherwise.
• Furthermore, although the company set up a 24-hour hotline in the UK, Perrier refused to
see it as a global issue. This was a mistake. As Alex Brummer commentated in the Guardian
newspaper: ‘all politics may be local, but brands are global.’ There was a lack of a coherent
and consistent response from Perrier subsidiaries, and no lead or co-ordination from the
French parent company Source Perrier. Mixed messages were being given, with
contradictory and conflicting statements emerging from different divisions of the company.
In some cases, the media was even given incorrect information.
• Some media found out that Perrier authorities tried to hide the real scales of the problem
• Perrier therefore made a bad situation worse and failed to tackle the global implications of
the crisis.
7. Perrier 2.0
Of course, the Perrier brand is still fizzing away. Indeed, when Perrier returned to the
shelves it was accompanied by the successful ‘Eau! Perrier’ advertising campaign.
However, Groupe Perrier was taken over by Nestlé in 1992, and the brand has still not
been able to regain its pre-1990 volume share.
8. Lessons from Perrier
• Don’t hide the truth. ‘Managing news in crisis, not just wars, is not about trying to
suppress bad news – that will lose your credibility,’ says Martin Langford, managing
director of Burson-Marsteller’s corporate and public affairs practice. ‘Consumers
and journalists are far too smart. You’ve got to be dead straight with the media
because your employees will be if you’re not.’
• Don’t breach the consumer’s trust. A brand has been defined as the capitalized
value of the trust between a consumer and a company. Breach that trust, and the
brand is in trouble.
• Accept that global brands need coherent communications policies. A global brand
such as Perrier cannot ignore the fact that problems in the United States will be able
to impact on sales in Europe. Such a brand needs a common purpose throughout
the organization, so the response to a crisis can be co-ordinated.
• Recognize that some brands’ crises are worse than others. The benzene
contamination was the worst possible crisis to afflict a brand associated with natural
purity.
