Arla Foods 4q6u4

1. Evaluate Arla's statement in of whether the company did a good job in overcoming potential barriers in this one-way communication. Arla's statement is such a great strategy for them to overcome the potential barriers such that their aim which focuses on regaining the confidence of their consumers in the Middle East. It altered its marketing communication strategies to let the consumers understand and appreciate to avoid any further conflict. Arla Foods tried to analyze the values and culture of the Muslim to deal with the crisis. The company tried to incorporate the context of the Muslim's culture and considered each difference in order to understand and sympathize with the Middle East consumers. Intercultural communication in crisis management is very important where culture is a great influence to public relations. Arla Foods started to show its concern to express its sympathy by creating a distance from the cartoons due to the fact that the published cartoon was a disrespect for the Muslims. Arla Foods understood an respected why the Muslims were angry. Arla Foods informed the Muslim Community that the company is a Danish-Swedish with numerous Muslim employees in the Middle East such that in their statement they intend to show that their long-lasting relationship with the Muslim community has been formed for Forty (40) years such that the unfortunate incident was not due to their actions but an action which resulted from others. As they end the statement with a plead to stop the boycott, Arla Foods still managed to respect and leave it up to the victims of the crisis to whatever decision they would come up to. Overall, the content of the statement did a very good job to overcome the potential barriers in this one-way communication since Arla Foods took the initiative to

understand culture and religion, corporate reputation, international public relations as well as management since they were able to establish a solution to a boycott situation. 2. What in your opinion is the most impressive statement in the above communication? Why? "Esteemed citizens, the years that we have spent in your world have taught us that justice and tolerance are fundamental values in Islam." In this statement, it showed the way Arla Foods treat the Muslim population with much respect and how they sincerely apologize to them. They emphasized the long lasting relationship they had with the Muslim Community through its 1,000 Muslim employees in the Arab world and about 250 employees in the Europe and especially its consumers in the Middle East. It also showed interest on the culture of the Muslims such that they tend to appeal to the values of the Islam such as tolerance, justice, and forgiveness. Wherein through the years in the market, their culture and their religion as well were very much understood by Arla Foods such that the expression of the Muslim’s anger was truly respected and valued. The respect and the willingness to cooperate with the Islamic Organization in gathering solution to put the boycott to an end is very much evident in the statement. That is why, in my own opinion, the above-mentioned statement is the most impressive statement in the above communication.

3. Do you believe the boycott ended because of the communicative power of the above ment or was it due to other reasons?

Yes, I do believe that the communicative power of the ment played a big role in ending the boycott. It is because Arla Foods tried to reintroduce their company to the market such that they tend to cut off from an image of a Danish Company by stating that they are "Danish-Swedish" cooperative. Also, Arla Foods declared its rejection of the pictures such that they do not agree to the reasons of the published pictures as they have stated in their message that their business in the Middle East knocked down not by their actions but due to the actions of others. Although, the communicative power of the ment played a big role in bringing the boycott to a halt, I also believe that the marketing communication strategy of the Arla Foods was the instrument to stop it. It is because in their strategy, they deeply appreciated the culture and religion of the Muslim community regardless of whatever reactions it may bring to their country itself.

Reference/s: http://predoc.org/docs/index-188488.html? Lars Erlev Andersen, Freedom of speech, battle over values and political symbolism of the Muhammad drawing, DIIS report 2008 Guilty By Association: The Boycotting of Danish Products In the Middle East (PDF Article)