Investigates the conventional wisdom concerning consumer responses associated with product defect during a product‐harm crisis. Reports on an experiment relying primarily on three generally recognized factors: company′s reputation, external effects from regulatory agencies and the press, and organizational responses. Shows that over‐reliance on these areas may mask hidden variables which can prove counterproductive to crisis abatement.

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Company responses to product harm crises must include a decision as to whether product replacement is indicated. A model is provided to assist man agers in making product replacement decisions on the basis of empirical stan dards. In addition, a monitoring mechanism is suggested to assess the efficacy of company responses after they have been undertaken. Both parts of the model, taken conjointly, provide an ongoing technique to help ensure new product replacement success. The model has the additional advantage of being gener ally applicable to all cases of product harm crisis management involving prod uct recalls.

Companies as diverse as AT&T, Exxon, and Beech‐Nut have discovered that when a crisis occurs, rarely are a corporation's contingency plans designed well enough to effectively deal with the situation. In this case study of the Perrier crisis, a better job by the company's crisis management team could have saved both the company's and the product's reputation.

To claim that marketing is concerned with exchange is a currently accepted definition which allows wide interpretation and can be applied to almost all disciplines. A satisfactory definition should develop both inclusionary and exclusionary criteria. Marketing has an underlying purpose connected with the exchange of goods and services, and ideas can be studied only if they serve that purpose. It should be placed firmly in the economic sphere, employing strategies intentionally rendered and goal‐directed. This definition allows wide consideration of diverse subject areas, but keeps the process within specific parameters, bringing about its more satisfactory development as a scientific discipline.

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