Erisco Foods vs. Chioma Okoli is a (very bad) own goal
While Miss Okoli was being made to suffer for a negative review she had posted, in the background some consumers of household goods were banding together and plotting a boycott of any Erisco Foods product.
The widely quoted wisecrack by American businessman showman P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, as long as they spell your name right, makes one wonder whether the brand managers of the company know what they are doing.
Watching Eric Umeofia, the founder or CEO of Erisco Foods Limited defend the reputation of his brands and the heritage he had built over many decades, it is easy to side with the industrialist. It is no walk in the park to build a brand and indeed, doubly difficult manufacturing anything in Nigeria. The pains are etched deeply on his face whenever he is on TV talking about the review a customer, Chioma Okoli, posted online on Erisco Foods’ Nagiko Tomato Paste.
Many actions have been taken against Ms. Okoli, including involving the police, which was reported to have laid a 10-hour siege on her Lagos home. The case is in court, and there is a further threat from the police warning citizens to be careful how they get involved in the case, going as far as saying that a crowdfunding scheme on behalf of the beleaguered lady could influence the court’s judgment.
Really! Nigerian Police? Of all the many internal security issues Nigerians are daily confronted with, it is a purely civil matter that is occupying so much of its time.
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While the police talk about the wind’s direction at the courts, in the court of public opinion, Erisco Foods may have lost substantial brand equity. Commentary has been largely negative, and the feeble attempts by Erisco Foods to redirect the wave of attacks have been weak, unimaginative and attracted further negative commentary.
Indulging in the rich flavors of RIC-gIKO tomato paste with this hearty Rice and Fish Stew! 🍅🐟 Dive into a symphony of taste and texture with every spoonful. #FoodieDelight #RICgIKO #FlavorExplosion pic.twitter.com/OkJOqv5Hoz
— Erisco Foods Limited (@EriscoOfficial) February 28, 2024
The company recently opened an online platform to engender positive customer reviews but rather got huge blowback. It quickly closed the platform, another example of the many own goals the brand has scored since the saga began.
Is it too late for Erisco Food to change tack? Advisedly not, but it must first realise that this is a battle it is bound to lose, even if Mr. Umeofia succeeds in getting the court to commit Ms. Okoli to prison.
The company must first accept the reality of the customer being king as long as it wants to keep serving this market. Being king confers privileges, chief among which is the freedom to have an opinion and express the same. This is a constitutionally guaranteed right. Most business-to-consumer brands usually attract reviews, sometimes negative tending towards vitriolic. What they do is either ignore (you cannot engage with every negative reviewer) or, if they find substance in the criticism, engage the reviewer. This gives the brand further leverage to establish its bona fides.
Erisco Food will then proceed to eat the humble pie and admit it had gone too far. Charging Ms. Okoli to court and getting the top echelons of the police involved in a civil matter further aggravates the issue, which is looking more like the case of a man of means with a bruised ego who wants to swat the reviewer to deter others that may want to engage the brand. What this has done is birth to many more Chioma Okolis, with most providing reviews that are not near as kind or gentle as she was. It is now the classic “Nigerian big man vs. the poor (wo)man” case.
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Third, engage a professional public relations firm to rebuild trust in the brand. It is really not the job of the CEO to be seen haranguing a reviewer. Where is the brand and communications manager? Where is Erisco Food’s professional reputation management firm in all of this? Are their voices being heard inside the organisation, or they are simply yes-men?
Hello, friends and esteemed members of the #Eriscofoods community!
In light of recent speculations regarding the alleged rearrest of Mrs Chioma Edoka Okoli, reportedly instigated by Erisco Foods Limited, we wish to clarify some misconceptions surrounding this narrative.
— Erisco Foods Limited (@EriscoOfficial) January 19, 2024
If Erisco Food had a public relations firm that knows its onions, it would have advised the company to ignore Chioma Okoli’s review based on a simple, quick SWOT analysis, like MTN Nigeria, Access Bank and many large corporations with millions of customers do every day, all through the year. Big brands routinely attract negative reviews and when they see the concerns are based on facts, they proceed to engage the customer, not with a sledgehammer, but with empathy and facts. Innoson Motors had a recent experience, which it handled in the most professional, dignified manner even though the comment on X (then known as Twitter) set out to besmirch the brand’s reputation.
Oscar Wilde is quoted to have once said: There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. We urge Mr. Umeofia to ponder the long-term impact on his brand vis-a-vis Wilde’s quote, which is truer in this age of democratised information management and, before the sun sets today, bring this saga that does no one any good, to immediate closure.
