Maclaren stroller

I have been keeping a close eye on the Maclaren pushchair story as it has unfolded (no pun intended) over the past week, and have been amazed at the seemingly weak crisis management plan put in force to deal with the social networking backlash. As this weekend’s FT and numerous other articles have pointed out, how did the buggy giant fail to realise the global implications of the safety scare in today’s instant communications environment?

Even if the problem only affected US pushchairs, surely the PR team would have realised the wave of concern this would have across the globe and take steps to minimise the panic before it got out of control? Instead it seems that the pushchair manufacturer was taken completely by surprise by the role that social networking would have in fuelling the debate outside the US.

With the story breaking over a week ago Maclaren continues to make the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. If handled more effectively at the start, the column inches would certainly have died down by now. Any measures taken to allay fears of UK customers have come too little too late and the way this has been handled will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on the Maclaren brand for years to come.

Kate Bartholomew