social media teaching brands a lesson (3 case studies)
Social media has turned into a veritable propagating machine, spreading information across geographies in a matter of seconds. Once you post a tweet/an update the power suddenly shifts to the participants who will approve or backfire. I chose a roundup of 3 social media cases, relatively recent, presenting the scenarios and how did the events evolved in connection with social media. It is worth pointing out that these events wouldn’t have made it to the news in the first place, if it wasn’t for the social media.
#1 GoDaddy CEO kills elephant, damaging brand
This news made quite a few front-pages so I’ll go ahead and assume you had the chance of seeing this. In an attempt to actually show he was protecting the crops from the destructive elephants, Bob Parson killed one and proudly tweeted about his hunt in Zimbabwe. Not to mention his gesture of giving away free GoDaddy caps to the local Africans, in an attempt of some sort of branding.
The video provoked quite a rumor throughout the internet, Bob receiving a handful of harsh critiques from NGO’s and fellow Twitter users. NGO’s went even further and suggested users switching to new domain providers.
And you know what they say – competition will always be just around the corner, waiting to strike. Which they did! Competitors encouraged angry users to leave GoDaddy and choose them instead, promising to redirect 1$ to elephant funds. According to the press they reported having raised $20,000, which means their campaign against GoDaddy was quite a hit!
The lesson I take from here is that you need to know and be sensitive towards your audience. You own your Twitter account and by all means, it’s yours to use however you want. But sometimes, in a narcissist rush, you might say something which can be misinterpreted by your followers, making them to fire back. Towards you or, in this case, towards the brand you’re associated with.
#2 Kenneth Cole starting a Twitter revolution
In the midst of the Cairo incidents, Kenneth Cole promoted their spring line-up, through a not-so-inspired tweet which startled the crowd. It was not at all funny as they might intended to be and if you ask me, it was offensive to the movement that was going on in Egypt, at that point in time. Having an engaging and spontaneous social brand is recommended but in some cases you ought to really think it through and anticipate how your actions can influence your online brand reputation.
Even though this happened back in February and the company apologized, the internet never forgets. If you google “Kenneth Cole” or “Kenneth Cole twitter” you still find, even on the first search page, articles and responses as a reaction to their #Cairo tweet.
I believe you need to take responsibility of the tweets/updates you post online and the possible consequences that might arise. Kenneth Cole’s tweet was a misfortunate joke who was perceived as being offensive. Which it was. Even though you’ll delete the tweet and act as nothing happened, ‘say hello to ‘Print Screen’. He’s your worst enemy.
#3 KFC employee going angry over customer request
This happened at one of the KFC’s in Sydney, when a Muslin employee got outrageously angry over a customer requesting bacon – this being forbidden during the Islamic tradition of Ramadan. The employee got even more violent when the customer pulled out her mobile device and starting recording the whole thing.
The video got picked up by multiple news sites and even featured in couple of Youtube channels, one of them being =3 by Ray William Johnson. His channel is actually the place where I saw the video for the first time. The employee got suspended and offered counseling and KFC publicly apologized for the terrible incident.
This reminds me of couple of the things I read in Philip Kotler’s latest book – Marketing 3.0 – which are worth mentioning. The company’s brand reputation can very well be affected by their own employees as well. Either through their behavior outside the company, their lack of customer care or, as this case shows, bad customer treatment.
And now more than ever, armed with mobile devices, each customer can record, upload and share online their unhappy experiences with a brand, an online shop or a fast-food chain. You name it.
No comments yet.