Dancing with macro-boycotters: the case of Arla Foods

Purpose - Consumer boycotting is on the increase for various reasons. Macro-boycotting campaigns, against one or more countries and their companies, rather than a specific single company, have had devastating effects on companies. The purpose of this paper is to describe how Arla Foods has combated such a ferocious campaign. Design/methodology/approach - Secondary data were collected from various sources. Importantly, primary data were collected using interviews with senior managers at Arla Foods and a survey of 254 customers in Saudi Arabia. Findings - The come-back strategy developed and used by Arla Foods has had a good and positive impact and has helped the company to regain most of the market share it lost at the beginning of the boycotting campaign. Several steps are developed to combat the boycotting and regain the market. Originality/value - The unique position of Arla Foods during the boycotting campaign, which is unprecedented, creates a new challenge which requires new thinking on how to combat such severe and sudden change in the market conditions. Thus, as the frequency of boycotting is on the increase, the case study outlines a number of steps which can be adopted by other international companies. This will be useful for companies facing similar campaigns and will help in developing a successful marketing strategy during and after boycotting campaigns.