Thankfully, it does not happen often, but when it does, it can be one of the scariest words that any marketer can hear. . . Â PRODUCT RECALL.
This morning, we were notified (through the industry) of a recall on baby clothing from one of the industries largest suppliers. Â Thankfully it had nothing to do with us, or any of our clients, but it got me thinking. Â Â How many companies are prepared to work through this situation with their client if it happens, and what are people doing to make sure their clients are NEVER put in this position in the first place?
We, thankfully, have never been involved in a recall and the reason why we haven’t is that we endevour to  take the extra steps necessary to make sure that custom promotional marketing pieces are tested before they are delivered to our clients.   Safety is a huge priority with us.  Not only is the thought of someone getting hurt by something we had created horrifying to us, but the loss of reputation to our client’s brand, let alone ours, is unacceptable.
Recently, we were working with a new potential client on 40000 foldable frisbees and we quoted having them tested not only for lead in the ink on the decoration, but stress tests on the product themselves so that the wire inside the frisbee did not dislodge and hurt someone. Â When we were told by our potential client that our price was higher than others, we questioned whether our competition had quoted testing or not. Â The answer we got back is that they had sent him a sample and it looked fine. Â Â Right there and then we knew this was not our customer.
Other projects that we have walked away from include:
- AÂ potential client that wanted 1 million skateboards, but needed to purchase them under $3 each. Â You can do this, but the liability on the product would be enormous, let alone the potential for someone getting hurt.
- When the whole issue about BPA in water bottles had not been determined yet, we were working with a hospital client to have a promotion to give out as they moved from the old hospital to the new one. Â A water bottle with an image of the old hospital on one side and the new one on the other with dates was proposed, but when working with the media department of the organization, their health officer as well as people from Health Canada, we could not determine whether BPA was going to be a real issue or not, we cancelled a 10000 bottle order and did something else so that the client was not left with a major public relations issue the day of the move to the new hospital.
Our goal is to work with our clients to make sure that the promotions that we develop and implement show off your brand in the best possible light, tell your brand story and Get YOU Â Noticed! in a positive way. Â If we can help you create successful promotions, please contact us at any time.
In Canada, these types of recalls fall under CCPSA (Canadian Consumer Product Safety Act). Â Here is a link to an article we wrote that has the recall procedures outlined from Health Canada.