Arla Foods: Posting crisis bulletins

A mix of standard and rarely-deployed features keeps public and stakeholders informed in a crisis.

The Site

Arla Foods, a Danish/Swedish dairy products co-operative, is being seriously affected by a boycott of Danish products in Muslim countries following the publication in a Danish newspaper of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Arla’s international and Danish home pages have a prominent News from the Company box with links to three boycott-related stories.

One of these is a ‘Status on the boycott’ report which lists the situation as of today (2 February) in the 10 Middle East countries where Arla has operations or sales. For example, in Yemen, “The situation is critical… there are demonstrations and our distributors are keeping their staff at home”. The Danish language site also includes a blog on the boycott in the Arla Forum (the Forum does not feature on the English-language .com site).

The Takeaway

So vital is the Middle East market to Arla Foods that the product boycott poses a real and immediate threat to its business. But rather than keep its head down, as it must be tempted to do, Arla is using a mix of standard and more rarely-deployed website features to keep the public and its stakeholders informed of developments in what in news terms is a ‘fast-moving story’.

The home page news panel is a common device on company websites. Here it really is used to carry the latest news, with items timed to the minute not just the day, and added as they are released (initially to the Danish-language site). Many companies are still too wary of forums and blogs to have them on their sites. Both, however, fit naturally in normal times with the co-operative nature of the company, and come into their own at moments of crisis. Confining them to the Danish-language site is appropriate to the business, though an English-language version would give an international dimension to the online debate that could be beneficial in the present circumstances.

First published on 02 February, 2006