Product recall: Effect on brand perception

A product recall is a request to return to the manufacturer, a batch, unit or an entire production run of a product, generally over safety concerns or design defects or labelling errors. All the firms’ efforts concentrate to settle in the consumer mind permanently. The success of the marketer depends in forming the perception or changing the perception depends. There are three parameters that may affect consumer perceptions of companies/organisations at the time of product recalls. When information depicting that the company acted in a socially responsible manner was present, student or young consumers held more favourable feelings for the company. A government press release was viewed as more objective than a company advertisement describing the recall. Finally, the print media was viewed as more trustworthy and somewhat more objective than the sound medium. Managerial implications are provided. It also explores the costs involved in product recall by a company. The research paper provides an insight into the effect of product recalls on the brand perception by the people and the brand image in their minds by analysing two cases studies of major product recalls in the past: Dell laptop battery recall and Toyota car recall.