VietNamNet Bridge – Branding experts believe that Tan Hiep Phat company did not make the right move when managing risk in the widely publicized VND500-million housefly case, which involved a customer who demanded money in exchange for keeping quiet after allegedly finding a fly in a beverage bottle.

Tan Hiep Phat, the beverage manufacturer, has proved its innocence in the housefly case. The Tien Giang provincial Police on February 8 said the agency found signs of someone’s physical intervention into the soft drink bottle bearing the Tan Hiep Phat brand, which was provided to the agency as evidence.

The police also found that the water level in the bottle was lower than the water level in a Tan Hiep Phat Number One bottle.

Police said that Vo Van Minh, the consumer who said Tan Hiep Phat was selling an unsafe soft drink with a housefly inside a bottle, might have taken the cap off and put the fly into the bottle to blackmail the manufacturer.

After contacting Tan Hiep Phat, the manufacturer, to report his finding the fly, Minh asked for VND1 billion for his “silence”. He said if he did not get the money, he would provide information to the press.

Tan Hiep Phat, after negotiations, agreed to pay VND500 million to Minh in exchange for his silence. But the company later reported the case to the police.

However, analysts commented that it is still too early to conclude that Tan Hiep Phat has won the case.

Consumers continued to raise questions about the bottle of soft drink with the housefly. “Why did Tan Hiep Phat agree to pay VND500 million if the company was sure that the housefly wasn’t there,” a woman in HCM City said.

“Minh is just a normal person, and I doubt that he is skilful enough to insert a housefly into a bottle and his behavior could not be discovered with naked eyes. Only the police, with modern equipment, can discover the problem with the bottle’s cap,” a man in Bien Hoa City said.

In 2012, Tran Quoc Tuan, a HCM City resident, was arrested after he asked for compensation of VND50 million for his promise to keep silent, and in 2009, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha in Bien Hoa City was arrested after she claimed VND49 million for five soft drink bottles that she said “did not meet standards”.

The other scandals related to Tan Hiep Phat food safety in 2009, 2011 and 2012, which were thought to have been forgotten, have once again appeared in local newspapers.

Dang Thanh Van, a renowned branding expert, said that in the current case Tan Hiep Phat decided to “punish consumers”, which is not what a professional branding business should do.

Kim Chi