Understanding the customers' responses to the product recall in Vietnam - Case of Apple Inc. : "A1300" iphone chargers recalled in Jun, 2014
Abstract
In 2009, there were 465 voluntary product recalls involving 229.6 million
product unit according to The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). In
Vietnam, there are a few cases happened but received much attention from the
customers and media such as Toyota Vietnam, Abbott Vietnam. The product recall
happening would bring along the tremendous direct and indirect cost. A typical instance
is Mattel Inc. When Mattel Inc. recalled 1.5 million toys in 2008, it dealt with the
decrease in its gross profit by $71 million. The costs included lost sales (53%), related
expenses (29%) and inventory (18%) (Mattel Annual Report 2008). Additionally, the
product recall is one kind of the crisis management. Throughout the operation, the
companies and service providers have to deal with the crisis. Therefore, this study
would focus on the customer attitude toward the product recall. The result of this study
will show the customer understanding on the crisis management. This helps the
company to build a suitable strategy for the crisis.
The study was accomplished by analyzing 227 responses collected in 3
weeks. IBM SPSS Statistics 20 was used with 6 types of analyses. The final result
confirmed and developed the model with 3 independent variables (Responsible recall
management, Opportunistic recall management and Customer empathy), 1 moderating
variable (Brand reputation) and 1 dependent variable (Customer attitude). The detailed
result and interpretation would be presented in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5.
Keywords: customer attitude, the product recall, reputation.