1982 johnson and johnson tylenol crisis

Organizational Business: The Poised Tylenol Recall of 1982

November 1, 2016

SECTION 4: Tylenol’s Crisis Management Strategy

Tylenol was quick to react to the medication poisoning when the seven deaths occurred. When any kind of crisis happens in the form of an attack on the public, it of course scares a lot of people. One would say that it is especially difficult to find a way to completely resolve the situation if the terrorist attack is on medication. This Tylenol recall in 1982 kept a lot of the public from wanting anything to do with the company of Johnson & Johnson, and the company reacted positively and ethically by doing what was right according to their mission statement.

The mission statement of the company was the roots for how they should react to the crisis. The mission statement was written by Robert Wood Johnson in the mid-1940’s, and their key to the brand’s survival (Reyna, 2002). It stated that the company’s responsibilities were to the consumers and medical professionals using its products, their employees, the communities where its people work and live, and their stockholders. Johnson & Johnson’s responsibility to its publics first proved to be its most efficient public relations tool (Reyna, 2002).

The Johnson & Johnson chairman at the time was James Burke, and he formed a seven-member team to react to the negative media by asking, “How do we protect the people?” and then “How do we save the product?”. The company proved through total product recall that they were not willing to take a risk with the public’s safety, and it put Tylenol and the Johnson & Johnson company as the victims of a terrorist crime (as cited in “Analysis Case Study: The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis").

Before this crisis occurred, Tylenol was one of the most successful over-the-counter product in the United States of America. According to a case analysis written by team one in their DoD Joint Course in Communication, The Johnson & Johnson crisis management strategy has served a base for many of the other company crisis’s that have occurred since then, and scholars have come to recognize Johnson & Johnson’s handling of the Tylenol crisis as the example for success when confronted with a threat to an organization’s existence.

Team one continues to write in their analysis that the crisis response strategies that Johnson & Johnson used was the Forgiveness and Sympathy strategy, and the Remediation and Rectification strategy.

The Forgiveness strategy seeks to win forgiveness from the various publics and create acceptance for the crisis. The Sympathy strategy wins support from the public by portraying the organization as the unfair victim of an attack from an outside entity. Johnson & Johnson’s willingness to accept losses by pulling the Tylenol product developed sympathy with the public (as cited in “Analysis Case Study: The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis") (Berg & Robb, 1992).

The Rectification strategy involves taking action to prevent a recurrence of the crisis in the future. When Johnson & Johnson took steps to reintroduce the product, they developed a triple seal packaging to regain the trust of society and prevent anything like this from happening again. This is an example of the Rectification strategy (as cited in “Analysis Case Study: The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis") (Berg, 1990).

On the brink of losing everything, the Johnson & Johnson managed to communicate effectively with the public through PR and paid advertising to assure America that they could trust them again. They established a 1-800 hotline for consumers to call, and established a toll-free line for news organizations to call and received updated statements on the situation (as cited in “Analysis Case Study: The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis") (Berge, 1990).

It is very clear that the media played a huge role in Johnson & Johnson's public relations campaign (Kaplan). By creating a public relations program that both protected the public interest and was given full support by media institutions in the US, Johnson & Johnson was able to recover quickly and painlessly from possibly the greatest crisis ever to hit the pharmaceutical industry (Kaplan).

Resources:

“Analysis Case Study: The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis." Crisis Communication Studies.

DoD Joint Course in Communication, n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2016.

Berge, T. (1990). The First 24-Hours. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, Inc.

Kaplan, Tamara. "The Story of the Tylenol Poisonings." The Tylenol Crisis: How Effective Public

Relations Saved Johnson & Johnson. Pennsylvania State University, n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2016.

Reyna, Susie. "Tylenol Crises of 1982." Tylenol Scandal and Crisis Management. N.p., 2002.

Web. 1 Nov. 2016.