- I like the new theme, "Ontario", (e:paul) :) Ofcourse I am biased..[inlink]theecarey,91[/inlink]
- New class, International Management-Culture, Strategy and Behavior begins tomorrow. The text is a classic schoolbook, something I haven't seen since my undergraduate years. It will be just fine.. there are integrative cases at the end of each part. I have included one here for the business savvy and the curious. Its lengthy, but a good read. Well worth it.
Comments, questions, random thoughts.. all good.
- Not sure if I loved my dinner. I scrounged through the cupboards and found: diced tomatos, black eyed peas (beans?), green peas, turnip greens and tomato paste. Not sure where the canned turnip greens came from.. I have only eaten fresh. These had some seasoning in them as well. Anyway, I got out a pot, opened everything up, dumped it in the pot, added water and a few seasoning.. and voila! some random creation.. I ate it. It worked. I will bring leftovers to work tomorrow.
- I am looking forward to the weekend, as always. No exact plans, as of yet.. but I always manage to find something. I have a few ideas..
Whose going to Coles for Tears and Cheers ? :) And which one will you be?
How about after a few beers....?
- (e:pyrcedgrrl) is officially divorced. yay! congrats and all that good stuff. Not that she told ME.. haha.. Is the divorce party at peppermints? (not like we ever ever need an excuse!--but its always fun to come up with one-- "Sold the van? Lets go see strippers!") or are we just going to invite the boys over? -not Christian, though.. not since the "not entirely white tighty whiteys episode. But the others.. yeh..
- Work. hmm.. sometimes not chaotic enough. I love the craziness that other years brought. My Autistic kiddo that I work with has made amazing progress.. He used to literally kick my ass. Very dangerous to himself and others.. Not so much anymore. I really am not needed anymore. I did my job and worked myself out of a job in that regards. He is just amazing.. talking! eye contact! playfulness! affectionate! so many wonderful changes through time! However, through all of this, he is attatched to me. I love it...I mean, it is reinforcing on some level.. but overall, it isn't a good thing. I wont always be there..
- I need a day to catch up on everything. I will have a couple of days towards the end of the month, so thats when I will plan on it. Some stuff needs to be taken care of before all that. Ahhhhh! What I need to get done needs to be taken care of during regular business hours. Not helpful! It'll all work out.
- I had a bad dream last night. It bothered me all today, although I knew it was just a dream. It rehashed some feelings I thought I had gotten past. Silly me for thinking that. My fault.. I know where it stemmed from. yeesh. It isn't about me.
or was it. nah..
- I also had a dream about a friend that died last year. I want to find his brother.. not sure where to start.. he grew up in Wilson, so maybe one of these days I will drive over to his parents house. Wouldn't know what to say..
Last week I had some strange dreams as well.. What is with these dreams??
- I received an email from one of the band members of Insanity Wave. I was totally tickled by his message. They saw that I had written about them in a post here. Fun music.. from Spain.. good stuff. Here is a peer review:
- oh, and, Clive Owen, if you are reading this.. drop me a line ;)
later peeps!
Carey
__________________________________________________________
Snagged from International Management-Culture, Strategy and Behavior 6th edition pgs 77-79 Brief Integrative Case 1 Colgateâ??s Distasteful Toothpaste 79 Mcgraw Hill publications.. and all that citation goodness:
Colgates Distasteful Toothpaste
Colgate is a well-known consumer products company
based in New York. Its present products are in the areas of
household and personal care, which include laundry detergents
such as Ajax and Fab, health care products manufactured
for home health care, and specialty products such as
Hill pet food. The household products segment represents
approximately 75 percent of company revenues, while the
specialty segment accounts for less than 7 percent. Colgateâ??s
value has been set in excess of $5.6 billion. Through
both recessionary and recovery periods in the United
States, Colgate has always been advocated by investment
analysts as a good long-term stock.
Colgates domestic market share has been lagging for
several years. In the 1970s, when diversification seemed to
be the tool to hedge against risk and sustain profits, Colgate
bought companies in various industries, including kosher
hot dogs, tennis and golf equipment, and jewelry. However,
such extreme diversification diverted the companyâ??s attention
away from its key moneymaking products: soap, laundry
detergents, toothpaste, and other household products.
The product diversification strategy ended in 1984 when
Reuben Mark became CEO. At the young age of 45, he ordered
the sale of parts of the organization that deviated too
far from Colgateâ??s core competency of personal and household
products. He followed consultant Tom Petersâ??s prescription
for excellence: â??Stick to the knitting.â??
Colgates International Presence:
Colgate traditionally has had a strong presence overseas.
The company has operations in Australia, Latin America,
Canada, France, and Germany. International sales presently
represent one-half of Colgateâ??s total revenue. In the past,
Colgate always made a detailed analysis of each international
market for demand. For instance, its entry into South
America required an analysis of the type of product that
would be most successful based on the dental hygiene
needs of South American consumers. Because of this commitment
to local cultural differences, the company has the
number-one brand of toothpaste worldwide, Total.
To gain a strong share of the Asian market without having
to build its own production plant, Colgate bought a 50 percent
partnership in the Hawley and Hazel group in August 1985
for $50 million. One stipulation of this agreement was that
Colgate had no management prerogatives: Hawley and Hazel
maintained the right to make the major decisions in the organization.
This partnership turned out to be very lucrative for
Colgate, with double-digit millions in annual sales.
Enter the Distasteful Toothpaste:
Hawley and Hazel is a chemical products company based
in Hong Kong. The company was formed in the early part
of the twentieth century, and its only product of note, believe
it or not, was called â??Darkieâ?? toothpaste. Over the
years, this had been one of the popular brands in Asia and
had a dominant presence in markets such as Taiwan, Hong
Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
â??Darkieâ?? toothpaste goes back to the 1920s. The
founder of this product, on a visit to the United States,
loved Al Jolson, then a very popular black-faced entertainer
(i.e., a white person with black makeup on his face). The
founder decided to re-create the spirit of this character in
the form of a trademark logo for his toothpaste because of
the characterâ??s big smile and white teeth. When the founder
returned to Asia, he copyrighted the name â??Darkieâ?? to go
along with the logo. Since the 1920s, there has been strong
brand loyalty among Asians for this product. One housewife
in Taipei whose family used the product for years
remarked, The toothpaste featuring a Black man with a
toothy smile is an excellent advertisement."
The Backlash Against Colgate
"Darkie" toothpaste had been sold in Asia for about
65 years. After Colgate became partners with Hawley and
Hazel and its distasteful product, however, there was a
wave of dissatisfaction with the logo and name from U.S.
minorities and civil rights groups. There really has been no
definite source on how this issue was passed to U.S. action
groups and the media; however, a book entitled Soap
Opera: The Inside Story of Procter and Gamble places responsibility
in the hands of Procter & Gamble in an effort
to tarnish Colgateâ??s image and lower its market share.
The Americansâ?? irate response to â??Darkieâ?? was a surprise
to the Hawley and Hazel group. The product had always been
successful in their Asian markets, and there had been no complaints.
In fact, the success of â??Darkieâ?? had led the firm to
market a new product in Japan called â??Mouth Jazz,â?? which
had a similar logo. A spokesperson for Hawley and Hazel remarked,
â??There had been no problem before, you can tell by
the market share that it is quite well received in Asia.â??
ICCR, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility,
started the fight against Colgate about 10 years ago when it
received a package of â??Darkieâ?? toothpaste from a consumer
in Thailand. ICCR is composed of institutional investors
that influence corporations through stock ownership. At the
time the movement against Colgateâ??s racially offensive
product started, three members of ICCR already owned a
small amount of stock in the company, and they filed a
shareholder petition against Colgate requesting a change in
the logo and name.
In a letter to Colgate, the ICCR executive director summarized
the position against the distasteful toothpaste as
follows:
Darkie toothpaste is a 60-year-old product sold widely in
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and other places in the Far
East. Its packaging includes a top-hatted and gleamingtoothed
smiling likeness of Al Jolson under the words
â??Darkieâ?? toothpaste. As you know, the term â??Darkieâ?? is
deeply offensive. We would hope that in this new association
with the Hawley and Hazel Chemical Company, that
immediate action will be taken to stop this productâ??s name
so that a U.S. company will not be associated with promoting
racial stereotypes in the Third World.
In response to this letter, R. G. S. Anderson, Colgateâ??s
director of corporate development, replied, â??No plans exist
or are being contemplated that would extend marketing and
sales efforts for the product in Colgate subsidiaries elsewhere
or beyond this Far East area.â?? Anderson then went
on to explain that Darkieâ??s founder was imitating Al Jolson
and that in the Chinese view, imitation was the â??highest
form of flattery.â?? The ICCR then informed Colgate that if
the logo was not changed, the organization would create a
media frenzy and help various civil rights action groups in
a possible boycott.
Because Colgate still refused to remove the logo, ICCR
did form a coalition with civil rights groups such as the
NAACP and the National Urban League to start protest
campaigns. The protest took many forms, including lobbying
at the state and local levels. At one point, after heavy
lobbying by the ICCR, the House of Representatives in
Pennsylvania passed a resolution urging Colgate to change
the name and logo. Similar resolutions had been proposed
in the U.S. Congress.
The pressures at home placed Colgate in a difficult position,
especially as it had no management rights in its
agreement with Hawley and Hazel. In the Asian market,
neither Colgate nor Hawley and Hazel had any knowledge
of consumer dissatisfaction because of racial offensiveness,
despite the fact that the local Chinese name for â??Darkieâ??
(pronounced hak ye nga goh) can be translated as â??Black
Man Toothpaste.â?? The logo seemed to enhance brand loyalty.
One Asian customer stated, â??I buy it because of the
Black manâ??s white teeth.â??
The demographics of the Asian market may help to
explain the productâ??s apparent acceptance. There are a
relatively small number of Africans, Indians, Pakistanis,
and Bangladeshis in the region; therefore, the number of
people who might be offended by the logo is low. Also,
some people of color did not seem disturbed by the name.
For example, when asked about the implications of
â??Darkieâ?? toothpaste, the secretary of the Indian Chamber
of Commerce noted, â??It doesnâ??t offend me, and Iâ??m sort of
dark-skinned.â??
Initially, Colgate had no intentions of forcing Hawley and
Hazel to change the product. R. G. S. Anderson issued
another formal statement to the ICCR as follows: â??Our
position . . . would be different if the product were sold in the
United States or in any Western English-speaking country;
which, as I have stated several times, will not happen.â??
Hawley and Hazel concurred with the stance. The alliance
was very fearful of a loss of market share and did not believe
that the complaints were issues relevant to Pacific Rim countries.
A spokesperson for the alliance referred to the protest
campaign as â??a U.S. issue.â?? The trade-off for revamping a
successful product was deemed to be too risky and costly.
Colgates Change of Heart:
The issue did not go away. As U.S. leaders in Congress began
to learn about this very offensive logo and name, the
pressure on Colgate mounted. Interestingly, however, the
value of Colgateâ??s stock increased throughout this period of
controversy. Wall Street seemed oblivious to the charges
against Colgate, and this was another reason why Colgate
took no action. Colgate management believed that an issue
about overseas products should not have a negative effect
on the companyâ??s domestic image. However, pressures
continued from groups such as the Congressional Black
Caucus, a strong political force. Colgate finally began to
waver, but because of its agreement with Hawley and
Hazel, it felt helpless. As one Colgate executive remarked,
â??One hates to let exogenous things drive your business, but
you sometimes have to be aware of them.â??
Colgate CEO Reuben Mark eventually became very distressed
over the situation. He was adamantly against racism
of any kind and had taken actions to exhibit his beliefs.
For instance, he and his wife had received recognition for
their involvement in a special program for disadvantaged
teenagers. He commented publicly about the situation as
follows: â??Itâ??s just offensive. The morally right thing dictates
that we must change. What we have to do is find a
way to change that is least damaging to the economic interests
of our partners.â?? He also publicly stated that Colgate
had been trying to change the package since 1985, when it
bought into the partnership.
Colgateâ??s Plan of Action to Repair the Damage
The protest campaign initiated by ICCR and carried further
by others definitely caused Colgateâ??s image to be tarnished
badly in the eyes not only of African Americans but of
all Americans. To get action, some members of the Congressional
Black Caucus (including Rep. John Conyers,
D-Mich.) even bypassed Colgate and tried to negotiate directly
with Hawley and Hazel. To try to repair the damage,
two years after ICCRâ??s initial inquiry, Colgate, in cooperation
with Hawley and Hazel, finally developed a plan to
78 Part 1 Environmental Foundation
change the product. In a letter to ICCR, CEO Mark stated,
â??I and Colgate share your concern that the caricature of a
minstrel in black-face on the package and the name
â??Darkieâ?? itself could be considered racially offensive.â?? Colgate
and Hawley and Hazel then proposed some specific
changes for the name and logo. Names considered included
Darlie, Darbie, Hawley, and Dakkie. The logo options included
a dark, nondescript silhouette and a well-dressed
black man. The alliances decided to test-market the options
among their Asian consumers; however, they refused to
change the Chinese name (â??Black Man Toothpasteâ??),
which is more used by their customers.
They decided that changes would be implemented over
the course of a year to maintain brand loyalty and avoid
advertising confusion with their customers. There was the
risk that loyal customers would not know if the modified
name/logo was still the same toothpaste that had proven itself
through the years. Altogether, the process would take
approximately three years, test marketing included. Colgate
also decided to pay for the entire change process,
abandoning their initial suggestion that the change be paid
for by Hawley and Hazel.
Colgate and Hawley and Hazel then made a worldwide
apology to all insulted groups. Although Hawley and Hazel
was slow to agree with the plan, a spokesperson emphasized
that racial stereotyping was against its policy. It also helped
that Hawley and Hazel would pay no money to make the
needed changes. They felt that the product was too strong to
change quickly; thus, three years was not too long to implement
the new logo and name fully into all Asian markets.
Further, they insisted that as part of the marketing campaign,
the product advertising use the following statement
in Chinese, â??Only the English name is being changed.
Black Man Toothpaste is still Black Man Toothpaste.â??
placed a ban on Darlie toothpaste because of the productâ??s
violation of Chinaâ??s trademark laws. Although the English
name change was implemented across all markets, the retained
Chinese name and logo still were deemed derogatory
by the Chinese, and the government banned the
product. Also, Eric Molobi, an African National Congress
representative, was outraged at the toothpasteâ??s logo on a
recent visit to the Pacific Rim. When asked if Darlie toothpaste
would be marketed in his country, the South African
representative replied, â??If this company found itself in
South Africa it would not be used. There would be a permanent
boycott.â??
Today, the name of Colgate cannot be found anywhere
on the packaging of what is now called Darlie toothpaste.
In a strategic move, Colgate has distanced itself completely
away from the controversial product. In the Thailand and
Indonesia health-products markets, Colgate even competes
against Darlie toothpaste with its own brand.
What do you think Colgate should have done to
handle the situation?
haha.. a porn store is just another store.. well, its really no big deal, rather. I am entirely bewildered that anyone would pose a double standard on the perception of guys vs girls going into a porn store. Usually, it is the guy who is perceived as "desperate, seedy or maybe gross"; not that that is reality. (although when a guy comes barreling out of the video room, sweating and panting while he throws down more money for tokens..then spins around and runs back.. haha).
When a girl goes into the store, the reaction brings forth curiousity, awe and excitement. There are many things she could be going in for.. and she isnt intimidated to do it; and that she is very comfortable with herself. What I bought, I could buy just about anywhere.. but it is fun to trip people up a bit.
Simple things shake people up. Nice.
First of all I hope Goodbar was a blast last night hope you had a great time. Secondly I think it is cool that you can go to a porn store. But that does bring up kinda a double standard. Between guys there is no stigma about going to sex stores. But amongst women it seems desperate or seedy or maybe gross. But the other way around it seems ok. Maybe I'm a little bit off but i'm sure you will have lots of fun and had fun at the store.
SIMONIDE?? no way!!!! we were *just* talking about him. Damn.. thats uncanny. What is he up to? Who is he aggrivating now adays??
You better get working on that Simonide story..
yah, can't wait to see those photos. oh - and remember we were talking about people randomly showing up in our lives again...you wouldn't believe who i got an e-mail from today after MONTHS of peace....simonide!!!!!