Double Forte

Public Relations

Clif

By Monica Rolbiecki-Severson

The Assignment

Manage recall of a large portion of its products containing peanut butter due to Salmonella found at the supplier’s facility.

Record sales

of peanut butter products

Very high

consumer confidence, despite the scare

Challenge

Clif Bar & Co was one of the first of 100s of companies to voluntarily recall a large portion of its products containing peanut butter due to Salmonella found at the supplier’s facility. 9 people died from products traced back to this facility (no Clif Bar products). Ultimately it was one of the largest food recalls in US history.

Approach

Double Forte took the reins for all communications, working side-by-side with Clif Bar executives to reach employees, manufacturing and marketing partners, customers, consumers, sponsored athletes, and the media.

Earlier in the relationship we had developed a comprehensive Crisis Comms Plan with 10 different scenarios and had run an all-day simulation for a foreign object crisis with the client – this became the springboard for our recall planning, messaging, and execution.

During that time, the Double Forte also created a long-term program for transitioning from immediate crisis response to longer-term reassurance and momentum-building. The “Five Phases to Regain Trust” program helped Clif Bar move from “reacting to rebuilding” and set the stage for what was to become

Clif Bar’s most successful sales year ever – quite an achievement given that Peanut Butter is a key ingredient in many of the company’s most popular flavors.

Results

Clif Bar sold more peanut butter products that year than ever despite removing them from the market for more than 8 weeks. Recognized by retail customers for handling the crisis “better than anyone else,” consumer confidence remained very high despite scare. High profile media praised Clif Bar for being “very proactive to rebuild…”