ABSTRACT
An example of how wild rumour is soon able to gather its own momentum is provided in the case of Proctor & Gamble: The problem started in the Southern states of the USA where the word began to spread that Proctor & Gam ble through the use of their trademark encourage satanism. The only supporting evidence was the Proc tor & Gamble crescent moon and 13 stars, a registered trademark which no-one had probably examined too closely before, including most probably senior man agement of Proctor & Gamble themselves. In this par ticular case, Proctor & Gamble were being attacked from what is sometimes referred to as the IbiMe belt' of the Southern states. The news of this scare took a while to reach Proctor & Gamble and to be taken seri ously by its management but given the time lags of reporting market response even to sales, delay is inevitable, by which time considerable damage has already been done to market share. What would be their competitive response? Ignore it and continue to promote individual brands or take it seriously, and take on the Devil?
