Who says word of mouth is shared at the pace of snail mail? Out of all the different types of social media (SoMe) out there today, I believe Twitter is the most effective in getting the word out quickly than any other source. This "gift" from technology is a double-edged sword making it both good and bad for brands.
Let's take Motrin for example. Using Twitter Search I looked for "Motrin" mentions on Friday, November 14th and Saturday, November 15th. One page of results come up with statements such as these:
Then someone surfing the Internet comes across the new Motrin ad posted on its website.
Unfortunately for Motrin several moms find it offensively patronizing, which began the negativity buzz on Twitter. After sleuthing around using Twitter Search the earliest "tweet" about the ad is from crunchygoddess on November 15th at 10:28PM EST and the buzz picks up from there. Within my circle of followers and following, I received a "tweet" shortly after 5PM EST on November 16th sharing the news and now it's my turn to pass it to you. Below is a video montage that was posted to YouTube after a fellow Tweeter (KatjaPresnal) learned of Motrin ad at 11:07PM EST on November 15th.
Result:(1) The word is spreading requesting folks to boycott Motrin and the products of its parent company Johnson & Johnson. (2) Kathy Widmer, Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Consumer Healthcare, responded to concerns about the advertising on the Motrin website. See email to Katja Presnal for actual correspondence. (3) Motrin's website is down as of November 17th at 2:36AM EST and has been down for several hours now as they take steps to remove the ad from the website. Evidently, the brand felt it was better to take the entire site down that to have people bogging down the server and aid in the spread of negative buzz. (4) Motrin has spent thousands of dollars to place a magazine print version of the ad and now is taking steps to remove it from circulation. Unfortunately for the brand, this will take longer since it is currently on newsstands and in distribution. (5) In this season of pink slips, the Twitter question of the moment is "will those responsible for this blunder get their own customized version?"
Lesson to Learn: Use your target audience as a sounding board BEFORE you launch a new campaign or decide to try a new tactic. Talk to them and listen to what they have to say. If you don't seek out the true subject matter experts, folks will definitely get the buzz going in the way you would prefer to avoid. They say bad publicity is better than no publicity, but in this case...I think Motrin would beg to differ.
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4 comments:
What a brilliant post.
Great post Nerissa. Do you think it was smart for J&J to talk the site down while it removes the ad or do you think there is something else they could have done?
Very insightful!
Good post but if was Motrin I wouldn't have taken the site down just yet. I would have talked to the angry moms and spun it into something positive i.e. an advisory board, etc..
Companies can't afford to automatically react when customers have an issue with their products. If that was the case then everyone would be out of business.
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