That Greenpeace video and subsequent onslaught of negative comments on the Nestlé Facebook page has grown into a firestorm - mostly, it seems, because at least one representative at the brand actually shot back at users leaving comments.
Instead, the brand should have thanked everyone for the input and will look at the matter to see what changes can be made in the way it selects suppliers of palm oil, and/or manufactures its products.
Short of that, the company could have opted to not respond at all. At least the company didn't take down the negative comments.
For all the hype such flareups create, it is important to note that the affects can be overblown.
In my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (out April 28 from AMACOM), I look at the outrage that wasn't over Motrin's recent soc-net inspired travails.
The brand cause an online ruckus when it ran television ads seeming to suggest that women who use baby bjorns are wearing their babies as fashion accessories. Never mind that the ad was about alleviating pain for women who carry their babies. Social networks lit up with criticism - and the ads were eventually taken off the air, with Motrin apologizing for the insult.
At the time, the incident was viewed as demonstrating the power of social networks to influence the way consumers view brands.
Yet for all the uproar, surveys from Lightspeed Research revealed that 90% of US women had never seen the ad, and once they saw it, 45% said they liked it. Forty-one percent said they had no feelings about it one way or the other, and 15% said they didn't like it. Only 8% said it made them think negatively about the brand - compared to 32% who said it made them like Motrin even more. The point: Social networks can be echo chambers with little bearing on how everyday consumers view brands.
In my personal opinion, no response from the brand is a bad idea. I think it should look at its practices to see if there's a better way to do things that is less damaging to natural habitats. And thank consumers for caring enough to post comments on their Facebook page.
One of the primary values of soc-nets is to actually listen to what consumers have to say.
Why not listen?
Read more about the dust up here.
And read more about the book, here.
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