Every chapter in the Cadbury Palm Oil saga has dominated the headlines – Cadbury adding palm oil; Cadbury taking out full page ads to justify its decision; consumers announcing a boycott; Cadbury backing down; and now, the relaunch of their palm oil-free chocolate.

At every stage, marketing and PR types have discussed the impact for Cadbury’s reputation (Ideas Shop included).

And now I’m adding my two cents’ worth… and I say “well done, Cadbury”.

Not for responding to consumer pressure – because there was a clear business imperative for doing so; consumers had launched a boycott and Whittakers was milking it for all it was worth.

No, what impressed me was the tone and manner of their back down. Cadbury proudly let the consumer win the battle by admitting they got it wrong, that they were listening to their customers, and in response were removing palm oil from the formula.

So they should admit their mistake? Yes, of course. But not many companies do.

It’s often quoted that reputations are won or lost not on the issue itself, but how the company responded. The corporate world is littered with companies who have failed to understand the effect of taking responsibility – think Panam, Exxon, Enron. In admitting they got it wrong, Cadbury avoided becoming another casualty of reputation – and in fact have actually clawed a long way out of the deep reputation hole they’d dug.

I’m not saying chocolate lovers have totally forgiven Cadbury. Like all reputations, it’s a delicately held thing which takes time to build (and as they’ve experienced, just moments to destroy). But I think most Kiwis will respect them for it, and will buy Cadbury chocolate once again. I’ll certainly think about it.

Cadbury will of course be conducting their own market research to measure the impact of their back down on their reputation, and closely monitoring sales. Oh if only I could be a fly on the wall to see those results!

And one last point… another Kiwi company, Tip Top, has made a silly announcement justifying the downsizing of their ice cream containers by saying it was in response to “consumer feedback”. Hmmmm…..!