By Mark Ditteaux
Imagination and a bold approach to marketing often result in a hike in sales and enhanced customer goodwill. But as the following examples illustrate, it’s critically important to think through the potential repercussions of an audacious marketing campaign before the official launch.
Malaysia Airlines: My Ultimate Bucket List
Malaysia Airlines, reeling from the loss of two downed airplanes in a matter of months, launched a competition inviting users to answer the question, “What and where would you like to tick off on your bucket list, and explain why?” Participants in Australia and New Zealand who could describe their answer in 500 words or less would be eligible to win iPads or economy class tickets on the airlines.
Malaysia Airlines didn’t take into account the questionable concept of invoking the idea of a bucket list — things one wants to achieve before death — with its recent tragic history. The competition was canceled and the airline was unable to halt a sharp decline in business and the need to cut 30 percent of its workforce.
Walmart: Fat Girl Costumes
In advance of Halloween, Walmart listed a new shopping category on its website entitled “Fat Girl Costumes.” The reaction among the public was not what the major retailer was hoping for.
One theory for this rather obvious marketing gaffe is that Walmart coders or contractors used the term “fat girl costumes” as a placeholder for their products in advance of launching the web page. As the holiday approached, someone in charge hit “publish” without making any content changes.
The obvious lesson here is don’t rely on Web tools that automatically generate a category page. Always have a living, breathing person supervise the process and think about how customers are likely to respond.
Walmart issued an apology: “This never should have been on our site. It is unacceptable, and we apologize. We are working to remove it as soon as possible and ensure this never happens again.” However, the damage was done.
Burger King: Facebook “Unfriend” Campaign
Burger King launched an unorthodox marketing campaign by inviting fans to get a discount when they “unfriended” 10 friends on Facebook. Things came to an ignoble end when Facebook requested Burger King cancel the campaign because it “was a serious damage to their business model” – but not before nearly 234,000 friends were unfriended and things got ugly on social media.
Social media offers a tempting venue for unconventional marketing campaigns, but an effective strategy should always involve a careful examination of possible effects and the possibility of a user backlash.
Kayak: Stairlift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulq7X-xKhDw
The popular travel aggregator Kayak produced a commercial featuring an elderly woman that didn’t play well with viewers. In the commercial, a middle-age man is too focused on searching for hotels online to move around, so he confiscates his elderly mother’s chairlift to go upstairs. (His wife says it might be better to try Kayak instead.) While on the chairlift, the man passes his weakened, wheezing mother and brags about the great deals he’s found online.
Visitors to Kayak’s Facebook page were not amused. Prospective customers were turned off by an apparently insensitive view of the treatment of senior citizens.
Levi’s: Hotness Comes in All Shapes and Sizes
Levi’s Jeans decided to broaden its appeal by launching an ad campaign for its new Curve ID jeans, targeting women seeking reasonably priced “fits-you-in-all-the-right-places jeans.” But what seemed like a great inclusive marketing concept somehow lost its way when Levi’s selected “skinny” models to show off the new jeans in their ads — women who clearly didn’t fit the target demographic. Negative reaction to the campaign resulted in a loss of customer goodwill.
In Conclusion
When you choose a target audience, be sure to produce marketing materials that actually mirror the people you seek to influence. Do the research. Know what the target audience looks like, what problems they want to solve, and how your product offers the ideal solution.
The post The Absolutely Worst Marketing Campaigns of 2014 appeared first on AllBusiness.com
The post The Absolutely Worst Marketing Campaigns of 2014 appeared first on AllBusiness.com.