Ribena - A Lesson in Redemption

A PR student from the University of South Australia has inspired this blog after seeking my opinion on Ribena.

Let's look at the facts:

• GlaxoSmithKline, the large multinational pharmaceutical company and owner of Ribena, a blackcurrant-based drink product, has been making misleading claims about the Ribena product.
• These claims relate to the Vitamin C content in the ready-to-drink products.
• These claims, specifically that "...the blackcurrants in Ribena contain four times the Vitamin C of oranges" are false.

The Undoing of a Multinational:

• It was in fact two 14 year old schoolgirls who have led to this extraordinary reputational and financial crisis for Ribena and its parent company.
• However, it has taken nearly three years and a large fine from the Fair Trading Act for the Company to take this very public stance.

New Zealanders Anne Devathasan and Jenny Suo decided in mid-2004 to test the vitamin C levels of some juices, including Ribena, Just Juice and Arano, for a school project.

“We were playing around and just stumbled upon it,” Devathasan told ABC news. “We chose our topic by chance. We did everything by chance and suddenly it just came up.” (source: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1091029)

The two schoolgirls did the right thing. They contacted GSK with their findings, but received no response. So they took it to the New Zealand Advertising Standards Authority and eventually a television consumer affairs program got wind of this amazing little science project, and the rest is history.

With the wisdom of hindsight, GSK's radar should have gone up on receipt of that letter - 14 year old school girls or not, they claimed to be able to disprove significant claims made about the company product.

That is a key component of good risk management, specifically reputation, develop a good radar for potential reputational crises. That means developing systems which allow proper customer feedback, follow up on complaints, enquiries, suggestions. Treat your customer and your staff with respect. Listen to them and learn. Your staff at the coalface have invaluable information re the perception of your organisation.
You want to improve your reputation?
You want to understand your reputation?
You want to protect your reputation?

Ensure those staff have easy channels to feed information back up along the communication line!

The Current State-of-Play

GSK is eating humble pie. It has obviously received extensive advice from risk management specialists who have formulated a strategy for recovering the reputational losses.

In any media crisis, the first piece of advice is apologise if that is warranted.

The second is use one spokesperson, preferably the boss.


John Sayers, Managing Director, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Australia, features in a television ad which can also be viewed on the Ribena website.

This is what he says:

"Recently you may have heard about some issues relating to Ribena "ready to drink" products. We stated that some Ribena products contained a level of Vitamin C that was incorrect. The testing method used to determine the level of Vitamin C was unreliable and we were unaware of this at the time. Testing methods revealed that Vitamin C levels in a number of our 'ready-to-drink' products deteriorated over time and did not meet the Vitamin C level stated on the nutritional information on the pack. We've removed the Vitamin C claim from our packaging to reflect this. We're also in the process of changing our testing methods and are working to improve these products to ensure this can never happen again."

"We also made the claim that '...blackcurrants in Ribena contain four times the Vitamin C of oranges.' This may have misled you to believe that Ribena contains four times the level
of Vitamin C than in the same quantity of orange juice. That was never our intention and is incorrect. We are sincerely sorry for any confusion caused."

"I'd like to assure you that we're working hard to restore your confidence in Ribena."

- John Sayers

If you read it carefully, you will see he hasn't apologised specificially for making an incorrect claim. Nor has he apologised for deceiving the public. Mr Sayers apologies for 'any confusion caused'.

We, of course, think he has apologised, but it is slightly different - probably as the result of legal advice.

The next piece of advice is be as honest and as transparent as possible.

The above statement is available on the front page of the Ribena website, as well as The Facts, which seek to address in more detail, information about this product. It also is flagged on the front page of the GlaxoSmithKline Australia website.

All the information is designed to draw us back to the drink that is as old, or older than we are. It is part of our lives. It will continue to be part of our lives.

The underlying message is: we (the company) made a mistake, please forgive us because you know us, you know our product, the product is just the same (it just doesn't have anywhere near the amount of Vitamin C we claimed it had).

The promise is a reformulation of the much-loved drink, and a commitment to restoring 'your confidence in Ribena'.

It is classic crisis management. The next step will be a different advertising campaign which will move us into the new look product. 'Apologies' will be removed from the website, and GSK will be actively rebuilding the image of Ribena. There will probably be giveaways, and other promotional gimmicks.

Has the company redeemed itself? Not yet, but it has begun the journey and it is following the textbook. The costs will be huge. The damage is done. GSK is now scrambling to contain that damage.

"...if only" we heard an anonymous whistleblower whisper...."if only we listened!"