How To Mend The Dent In Your Brand Image?

‘Marketing is not selling. Marketing is building a brand in the mind of the prospect.’ – Al Ries & Laura Ries

Today a case I would like to discuss in this post is that of the Ice cream major Haagen – Dazs’ entry into the Indian market last week.

The Company which is known for its premium International quality ice-creams has angered and been boycotted by many of its potential Indian customers even before it could make them taste their brand of ice-creams. A big blow considering they are planning to open 30-40 outlets in India in the next few years.

So how did this happen? According to media reports – it seems like a case of bad marketing. A day prior to its official launch the ice-cream major decided to hold an exclusive preview and tasting of its ice-creams for its exclusive customers at its new store. Which is fine, considering the brands positioning clearly spells premium – from the location and décor of the store to the pricing of its products. Many brands do such events and exclusive dos to ensure their brand positioning is apt and only draws those customers who are ready to pay a premium for the experience they promise to offer. 

The cause of the furor was not the brand’s positioning but the way they marketed that positioning. According to Rajesh Kalra a Times of India blogger who first reported the incident (his friend Ramit was denied entry into the store and he is the one who took the photograph of the banner), “The banners outside the outlet said: Exclusive Preview for International Travellers.  And under that, in an even finer print, the real bombshell: Access restricted only to holders of international passports. I immediately called Ramit. “You are an international traveler, and you have a passport, so you can go in”, I said. Ramit’s response was instant: I tried to enter but they said you are not allowed for you don’t have an international passport.”

Marketing faux pas?

To an Indian this was a big blow, he was being treated as an alien in his own country. Rajesh soon put out the pictures of these banners and a post detailing the incident across social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The message spread like wildfire across the social media denting the carefully cultivated brand image of Haagen Dazs in a country it had strategically invested but failed to sensitize its marketing to the sensibilities of its people. 

It is not surprising to see Ban Haagen Dazs communities mushrooming on social media platforms – I believe it is the most social way to get back at a brand which dared to alienate Indians on their own soil. 

Subsequent to the media report and public fury Anindo Mukherhi , MD of General Mills, which markets the brand in India clarified his stand in an interview to Economic Times, “An error was made in the creative execution, it was a wrong choice of words, and we regret the error.” Economic Times further reports, “Upon sustained queries by Economic Times to company officials about the intention of the campaign, it emerged that what Haagen-Dazs really wanted to convey was ‘Now get a taste of abroad right here in India’”.

Considering that Haagen Dazs is such an established brand it is surprising how this kind of obvious error went unnoticed by the marketing heads and strategists in the company.  Or for that matter was overlooked or missed by those handling the marketing of the brand in India? 

Let’s see how this could have been averted or handled a little differently without generating these anti-Haagan Dazs nationalist sentiments… 

Right approach 

It would have been more prudent on the part of Haagan Dazs’ Indian marketers to identify their niche customers – at least some of them – socialites, page3, diplomats etc. and send out personal invitations announcing the launch and the exclusive preview. On location instead of the controversial banners, they could have just put a simple board suggesting entry only by invitation. In addition, to be on the safe side, they could have instructed the doormen/security/organizers to be polite with the uninvited guests/passersby. People usually do not take offence if told politely that the venue is reserved for a private party and entry is only allowed by invitation.

The Choice of Right words

It would have been in the best interest of the brand to go with the simpler version of the banner– ‘Now get a taste of French Riviera right here in India’ or something to that effect. Rather than implying something which means, ‘entry into the store requires an International passport’ – which probably required the skills of the copywriter to decipher the real meaning behind it. Now, you can’t expect Indians to carry International passports in India, not even the real movers and shakers of the city.

Better planning and execution

If something this damaging escapes the eyes of the marketing experts at Haagen Dazs or General Mills then for sure it is a cause of concern for the company. Better management and timely assessment could have saved the brand such an embarrassment. It is always best to check and re-check your positioning and branding for adherence to local sensibilities, especially when entering a new market. Any layman could have indicated that the choice of words by the brand indicating racial discrimination was destined to create a furor.

A Public Apology

I am yet to see a public apology coming from the brand or its Indian marketers. What came was part of a promotional interview in Economic Times. Sometimes, for the sake of the brand it does not harm to show some humility. A word of apology as soon as this incident picked momentum on the social media would have doused the angers it ignited. Everyone makes mistakes, but the art of correcting them begins by accepting your mistake and sincerely apologizing. It becomes all the more necessary when your brand is being branded racist in a country you have or plan to invest heavily.

Attempt to win over the irate customers

To cool the matters and win over the irate public – Haagen Dazs could have gone a step ahead, posted their apology on these anti-Haagen Dazs forums, and extended an invitation to the members there to come and taste their premium brand of ice-creams, calling truce. I am sure with this small gesture they would have made a huge difference to their existing brand image not only in India but also around the world. As a result, they would have ended up turning all the negative publicity on a positive note. Even if this may not have worked, at least they would have made an impression of a brand that cares, rather than one that comes across as obnoxious.

Indifference is the worst approach in times of media crisis. It is best to accept your mistake and make amends in the right manner and on the right forum. 

In Marketing they say any publicity is good publicity and possibly this media attention might have helped Haagen Dazs in getting the attention of even those Indians who may have never heard of the brand before. However, hurting the sentiments of a customer is the last thing a brand would want itself associated with….for it often leaves scars which rarely heal.

Use Social Media to Boost Online Christmas Sales

Christmas is here and businesses across the World are gearing up to make the most of the festival and gifting season. New products are getting launched, special offers and discounts being announced and retail spaces both offline and online being decked up to be in sync with the festival spirit.

 

The only dampener seems to be various predictions coming our way, which suggest the holiday season will see less sales when compared to 2007 or before the recession hit our economy towards the end of 2008.

According to a Gallup poll, a record-high 35% of Americans spent less on Christmas gifts in 2008 than what they spent a year before. This year National Retail Federation chief economist Rosalind Wells predicts “As the global economy continues to recover from the worst economic crisis most retailers have ever seen, Americans will focus primarily on practical gifts and shop on a budget this holiday season.” 

Now correlate these predictions to a survey report by Nielsen Wire and you will probably have the answer on how to focus your marketing budgets and efforts to get the most out of this holiday season.  

In a recent Nielsen Global consumer survey of 25,000 internet consumers from across 50 countries it was found that 90 per cent of the consumers surveyed said they trust recommendations by people they know, while 70 per cent trusted consumer opinions posted online. Jonathan Carson, President of Online, International, for the Nielsen Company observes, “The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years means consumers’ reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don’t, has increased significantly.”  

The Nielsen survey clearly showcases the power social media yields in our times.

Social media sharing over channels like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc. have today become a way of life for most of us. These social networking sites have become a medium for people to share information with their family, friends, acquaintances and even like minded strangers. It’s also become a place where people discuss politics, products, issues and causes, garnering support and voicing their views all at the same time. It is this powerful medium which needs to be tapped in a way that it helps retailers spread the word and increase their sales.  

So how can ecommerce sites or e-retailers use this information to boost their sales?

 Simple, device methods and provide means to a happy customer – ‘To spread the good word’ and in turn bring in more business for you.

Given below are three simple and easily implementable methods -

Provide the means

If you have an ecommerce site, ensure you provide the right tool for your customer to share his find with others in his network. There are plenty of options available, you can have individual tabs/buttons for different social networking sites like – facebook.com, twitter.com, delicious.com etc. or you can have social media sharing widgets which give multiple channel options like AddThis, ShareThis or Tell-a-Friend .  You can also find drop down tool bars which offer similar services. These referral tools give a visitor the option to share a content he sees on a page with his network of friends through various channels. Having these social media elements on your website will ensure that if any of your happy customers want to spread the word, they have the means to do it in an easy and systematic way. 

Provide the motivation 

The objective here is to give your customer an incentive or motivation to spread the word. While in the previous method, you leave him with the choice of spreading the word about your great offering amongst his network of friends, here you reward him for this extra effort.  

The method is simple – you link your referral and rewards program – so every time a customer refers you to his friend he gets a discount or some reward points which he can claim for his current or future purchases.  

The person to whom the customer does send the recommendation is not aware the product was referred to him in lure of the discount. In fact, he sees it as a genuine recommendation from a friend, who bought the product, enjoyed the experience and decided to share the information. Hence, it becomes a win-win situation for all involved. Your offering gets a third party personal and reliable endorsement and hence another more convinced customer. Your referrer customer gets a discount on his purchases and the person receiving the recommendation gets a first hand opinion or reference on something he is planning to buy.  

Recently John Lawson an eBay Platinum PowerSeller and eBay Certified Education Specialist who owns an ecommerce site and authors an ecommerce blog –ColderIce posted a video on his personal experience of using one such widget which combines both the referral and rewards program and which helped in boosting his ecommerce sales. You can watch his video to know more about this ecommerce tool from SocialTwist.  

Nurture you customer relationships  

It is very important for any retailer to build his customer base and also to retain them. Social media can be a great tool in building and nurturing these relationships. As a retailer, it would help you to be present on social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc. where you can create a profile or fan page for your store. Devise a way to find out where your customers are present (use feedback forms) and be there – it could be any of these social networking sites. Invite your customers to be a part of these groups and profiles and interact with them on a regular basis. Update them about the new stock in your store, steal buys, discounts, collections etc. Invite their feedback, listen to their queries and resolve their complaints and just by keeping in touch you will win their loyalty. If they really value you and your products, it is a given that they will share information on you within their network.  

Social media is here to stay and the best way to use it – is to be a part of it. It is a humungous marketing force available out their – all you need to do is to win them over and help them market your offerings. The returns of this little investment is manifold and beyond ones apprehension.

'Disclosure' The New Way Of Sharing In Social Media?

The new rule by Federal Trade Commission (FTC), requiring bloggers to disclose to their readers if they received any freebie or money for writing about a product came into effect this Tuesday. The first amendment since 1980, the new FTC Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, states, “The post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.”

The initial reports had stated that, bloggers who failed to disclose that they had received freebies when they write about a product could be fined up to $11,000 per post.

However, later in an interview to PR Newser, Richard Cleland, FTC assistant director and division head for advertising practices, cleared the air and said “The FTC does not have the authority to impose a fine for a violation to the FTC act. There is a provision that allows for a proceeding in federal court that allows for imposing of a monetary penalty for violation of trade regulation laws. The guidelines are not trade regulation laws.”

We are just three days into this new law and I am yet to see any disclaimers on posts for product reviews. But, what I would like to discuss in this post is how is this law which does not penalize the offenders going to make a difference to how we blog? Or how we follow bloggers? 

Blogging is an integral part of social media and the foundation of social media is based on mutual trust. It thrives on the trust we share with those we follow and those who follow us – friends, colleagues, acquaintances or even complete strangers with whom we manage to build online relationships. Using your personal credibility to influence people who rely or believe on your word, in exchange of cash or kind is definitely a breach of this trust. 

As a marketer, who believes in exploiting every possible medium online and offline to spread the word about my clients and their offerings – It is good have people around on the Internet who are ‘influencers’ in their own right and who do not mind getting an incentive for using their word to influence others. Getting them to talk positively about my client makes good business sense because not only does this bring my client, some good publicity helping create a social reputation but also in many cases brings in convinced customers and assured sales. 

However, as a regular internet user who uses this medium to research and seek the correct information before making purchasing decisions – it feels bad to look back and wonder if the last cool gadget review I read was paid for? I trust some of these reviewers and treat their knowledge and opinions as gospel when it comes to technology. I feel they have the know-how and they can help me make better choices…now I am not so sure. 

When I look at the larger picture I feel this new FTC law (not sure how effective it is going to be and how many people will actually add such disclaimers to their paid for posts/reviews) might just be able to restore some amount of honesty in the way we function both as marketers and bloggers. 

I see that as a consumer I will be more skeptical of taking a review on face value if it comes attached with a disclaimer of being paid for in cash or kind or having any association with the seller. The review might be very critical in its approach but still, I will probably take it with a pinch of salt.

I think I will search further for unbiased opinions and take them more seriously even if the blogger is less influential and less known than the more popular ones I used to follow. 

If as a customer, my reactions are such, as a marketer I will have to make a Choice.

Choice between a blog post which shows it is paid for and one which is genuine and purely merit based.

More than money I would like to depend on the qualities of my client’s offerings when pitching to a blogger, to ensure he posts a review which is genuine and not influenced by the lure of an incentive. Because only these unbiased posts might now bring my client real value and real customers. 

There is another change I am hoping to see as a fall out of this law – Blogging will hopefully go back to being what it was – sharing a truthful relationship with your readers. The top bloggers will have to give up on the lure of incentives if they want to maintain their supremacy and personal credibility among their followers and the social mediaspere. Marketers will have to follow suite, for now – they will have customers who will know if a post is a genuine review or a paid endorsement. 

Moreover, it’s not just blogging, other social media channels will soon and should see such regulations in the near future. Today we know that influential tweeters on twitter are getting paid huge sums of money for tweets that endorse a product, service or person. And if they do not disclose, their one of the many ‘must try’ tweet was paid for heftily…..they have actually cheated those who made them this influential. 

Personally, I see this law as the system’s way of pushing back a trend which was trying to ruin the very foundation of Social Media – TRUST.

Update: December 3 – 6:10 pm

Adding the Google point on this new law -

Google’s Matt Cutts in a conversation with Jeff Jarvis said, “As a Google engineer who has seen the damage done by fake blogs, sock puppets, and endless scams on the internet, I’m happy to take the opposite position: I think the FTC guidelines will make the web more useful and more trustworthy for consumers. Consumers don’t want to be shilled and they don’t want payola; they want a web that they can trust. The FTC guidelines just say that material connections should be disclosed. From having dealt with these issues over several years, I believe that will be a good thing for the web.”