Follow the rules is not enough the Chilean Black Neck Swan Experience.

Chile as a third world country bases its economy in many commodities like cooper, gold, fluff and cellulose. Chilean has a good competitive advantage with the production of cellulose because the trees grow faster than in other competitor’s countries like Canada and Australia. So the industry had grown in an enormous size becoming two company’s one of the top ten companies producers of cellulose (CMPC and Arauco). Both companies to compete in the international environment have to follow very strict ecological rules. They follow the rules in order to not be targeted as environmental dumping.

But not always everything works as it is planned. Cellulose Arauco had a plant near Las Cruces River. That river was a unique ecological environment for black neck swans. Most of the people in the area worked in job associated with the Arauco plant, but a small group had a tourism trip to see the black neck swans. One day they start to notice that some swans started to have the neck flaccid, and then they died. As the only big company in the area Cellulose Arauco was attack by the environmental groups for the responsibility in these deaths. Arauco showed a perfect environmental record and showed that they followed all the national and international regulations.
Suddenly the problem didn’t stop there. The swans continued dying until the government ordered the closure of the plant due the public alarm of the plant. The causes of the death never were clear, but after3 month with the plant closed the scientist discover that some residues of the production of cellulose not regulated affect some microalgae and that is the primary source of a fishes that swans eats. Without the fish the swans become weak and died. It wasn’t regulated so the company wasn’t guilty, but in the public opinion they are the responsible

For this problem the CEO had to resign to his position and the stock of the company fall 21%. So as a marketing professional we have to question what we can do better.
First following the law and the rules is a common place, if we have a problem our customers and the society will demand more from us.
When we see a problem in the production we have to be part of the solution as Johnson & Johnson in the Tylenol recall. Become defensive create a barrier with the customers .
Beware of the symbols. The benefits of the Araco Cellulose in the area where huge, but the symbol of a death swan was too big to be ignore by the public opinion