Why Calpico Turns a ‘Blind’ Eye to Ukraine-Russia Crisis?
The Major Marketing Industry is Responding to the Crisis
Since Russia declared war on Ukraine on Feb. 24, the war in Ukraine has become the focus of the global society. Many Marketers are taking action to respond to the crisis. For example, technology companies Epic and Microsoft provided financial assistance to Ukrainian companies. Publicis stopped its operations in Russia. Burger King discontinued its support for Russian restaurant operations.
However, not all brands choose to have a voice in the war. Especially today, when Covid-19 is still popular, many brands have chosen a more conservative marketing model. Some businesses active in Russia may also fear the loss of international markets. In addition, some brand positioning strategies decide that they will not spend marketing costs to gain attention in the crisis, including baby products, pets, and tourism.
Among them, brands from Japan generally have no radical marketing responses for crises. Some huge businesses, such as Toyota, might set up a “humanitarian support fund” to ensure the safety of staff in Ukraine.
The article investigates the recent posts of the Japanese brand Calpico on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and finds that the social media content released by Calpis has no connection to the Ukraine-Russia crisis. Is Calpico unaware of the crisis, or is it intentionally avoiding information about it? Suppose Calpico had published content related to the Ukraine-Russia crisis, how would it have turned out differently?
Calpico: Japanese Dairy-based Soft Drink Brand
Calpico (a.k.a. Calpis)is a Japanese national beverage brand established in 1919 that crosses age boundaries. Its soft drink product with yeast and lactobacillus bacteria is popular worldwide. Calpico also innovated through taste experiments, combining soft drinks with local Japanese fruit specialties, releasing FruitCalpis.
Calpico doesn’t seem to focus on digital marketing compared to offline advertising and marketing campaigns, having nearly 600,000 followers on Twitter (@calpis_mizutama) but only 5,000 followers on Instagram (@calpis_mizutama). Most of the ads on Twitter are derived from other traditional media (e.g. TV, magazines), and content are not made for social platforms alone. For example, Calpico incorporated a TV commercial into the Twitter posts with another social media-related campaign inviting retweets in the content below.
Why doesn’t Calpico respond to crisis?
Is it against business ethics for brands not to provide any humanitarian assistance to the Ukraine-Russia Crisis? The answer to this depends on different situations. If we directly interpret Calpico’s lack of response as “indifference,” it is a form of moral kidnapping.
Calpico has no branches or direct retail stores in Russia or Ukraine. This means that Calpico does not have to provide direct financial support to employees in the middle of the war in Ukraine, as Toyota does. Toyota has 37 retail locations in Ukraine and 168 retail locations in Russia. Calpico is also an international company, but its business is mainly based in Japan, the United States, and China. Therefore, Calpico brand operations are not involved in Ukrainian or Russian policy. Calpico, a national soft drink brand in Japan, contributed huge donations to Covid-19 and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Sonika and Garima’s study in 2022 also showed the impact of pandemic communication concerning product category, with Calpico’s products as “essential products” having a minor effect on brand loyalty in terms of crisis communication. Therefore, Calpico does not need to give an evident brand attitude on the crisis on occasions that do not conflict with its business policy.
In conclusion, Calpico and other Japanese soft drink brands did not provide direct assistance or indicate a brand attitude to the Ukraine-Russia Crisis. Calpico’s choice was sound; posting crisis-related content would not have helped the brand significantly.
