One quality scandal after another has damaged Chinese consumers’ trust in Coca-Cola and other foreign brands. Coca-Cola ranks last among 12 mainstream beverage brands in China in consumer satisfaction, according to a recent survey report.
The survey of Chinese consumers’ satisfaction with 12 soft drink brands conducted by China Association for Quality and China National Customer Committee showed that the 12 brands scored 72.4 points on average out of a maximum of 100 in customer satisfaction, and Coca-Cola scored the lowest at 69.3 points.
Coca-Cola ranked sixth among the 12 beverage brands in the 2010 consumer satisfaction survey. Coca-Cola has maintained high market shares in China over the past three years, but repeated quality scandals have severely tarnished the company’s brand image.
Certain batches of Coca-Cola Shanxi Beverages Company’s products were found in April contaminated with chlorine. However, the company denied the accusation, and refused to recall the contaminated products despite the chlorine traces found, stressing that they posed no harm to human health.
Such practice caused outrage among many Chinese consumers. Furthermore, a U.S. consumer protection organization said in a statement in March that soda drinks produced by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo contain high levels of 4-methylimidazole, a known animal carcinogen.
Coca-Cola announced that it would improve the production process to solve the problem, but was accused of adopting double standards as it only planned to take preventive measures in its U.S. factories.
Read the Chinese version: 可口可乐垫底饮料满意度排行 品牌形象受损
