Recall has two different meanings in business. One meaning of recall has to do with marketing. The other has to do with companies calling back defective products.
Recall in Marketing
In marketing, recall specifically refers to people’s ability to remember a particular brand and/or ad. Brand recall directly influences the chances of having people buy a product or service with that specific brand.
There are two kinds of brand recall – aided and unaided. In aided recall, marketers mention a brand name in a question to see if and how the person responds to the brand name.
Unaided recall refers to the ability of a person to remember a specific product brand without being prompted. For example an aided recall question could be phrased this way: “Do you know that SuperSample offers infant milk?” On the other hand, for the unaided recall the question will be phrased as: “What brand(s) of infant milk do you know?”
Corporate Recall
A corporate recall happens when a product is deemed defective by a company or national government. The company then recalls the product. A corporate recall is done in several steps:
1. The company or government issues a press release stating what products are affected, why they are being recalled, and what consumers need to do next.
2. The company offers free repairs, refunds, or future discounts on the product.
3. The company tries to mend its reputation through public relations efforts.
A corporate recall damages a company’s reputation, unless that company takes prompt action to reassure consumers that it will fix its mistakes. Toyota Corp. is a prominent example of how a recall can affect a company’s reputation. In 2009-2010, millions of Toyotas were recalled for faulty accelerators. Although Toyota has since fixed the problem, its reputation was damaged in the process.
