China

China Trend: Bring Your Own Milk

The horrific baby poisonings from melamine milk have dominated news in China and sparked one micro-trend: Consumers bringing their own milk (imported) to restaurants. Duncan Clark of BDA is shown here in Beijing on Sunday with a box of French milk, much of which was consumed in Latte coffee and hot chocolate.

Corkage fees for BYO milk? The restaurant simply charged the same amount as if they had provided the milk.

For an excellent posting on the PR end of the milk scandal check out William Moss who deconstructs how firms respond to this sort of situation:

In PR we teach an interview technique called broadening. When confronted by an interviewer with a problem or challenge that cannot be refuted you respond by “broadening” the issue to include the rest of the industry, your rivals or whomever. It works like this:

Maria Bartiromo: Your stock price is down by 50% this month? Does your company suck?

You: Well, Maria, market conditions are tough and many companies in our industry have had similar declines but we are key message, key message, key message, yadda yadda yadda.

Technorati Tags: , China, Milk, Yili

© 2008 Thomas Crampton | Developed by Oursky Limited