November 30, 2011
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Matt McDermott
Advertising is a double-edged sword for most small businesses. You know you need to do it. But you also can’t afford to blow a campaign you’ve invested precious resources in. That’s why when big-name brands like Dr. Pepper and Axe Body Spray have campaigns that go horribly wrong, it keeps small business owners awake at night. In the case of the Dr. Pepper ad, which was targeted exclusively at a male audience, the company made a poor choice for their slogan that alienated a whole segment of their consumer group. Adding insult to injury they also failed to attract the type of consumer they were actually going after. For Axe Body Spray, on the other hand, its campaign failed because it was too good in a way; the company got so many “insecure novices” using the product that it deterred the men with "natural talent"—those that made the product cool—from using it it, hurting its image and thereby hurting its sales in the long run.
The question, then, is what should a company do in the wake of a failed ad campaign like these? And, just as importantly, what should they be doing to gauge customer reaction ahead of time so that they can head off failure altogether?
To begin, you should do your homework when it comes to understanding who your customer is, says Scott Hamula, who chairs the Department of Strategic Communication at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. “Get out of your office and spend some quality one-on-one time with your customers,” he says. “You'll discover what they think about your product and why they buy it. This will, first, allow you to make sure you do not actually have a product problem that no amount of advertising can fix. Second, it will inform you about what to say in your advertising and how to say it in the consumer's own words. You could also take your ‘big idea’ and advertising copy and show it to a few of your customers and get their honest feedback before you commit to a strategic creative direction. Your ads need to resonate with your customers while at the same time fulfilling your business goals.”
Engaging your intended customers and getting their feedback as early as possible in the process in key, says MP Mueller, president of Door Number 3, an advertising agency in Austin, TX. “Informal testing of your ad is always a good place to start to get a 360 view and reveal things that aren’t obvious at first read. Take it to your target audience, and ask your network of business associates and co-workers. Does it connect the value of what you offer to a specific target audience? Is it memorable? Does it make you feel good and trust the company behind the ad? What you don’t want are a lot of subjective answers such as, ‘I like this or I don’t like that.’ What you do want to know is will this ad be effective with this target audience and determine if there are any unseen offensive landmines. Take the feedback but don’t ease into the temptation of reducing it to the lowest common denominator based on a variety of subjective comments.”
The truth is, however, that no matter how much up-front research and surveying you do, sometimes, by accident, oversight or a simple lack about words’ alternate meaning, a well-intentioned message can suddenly come off as an insult or worse, say Steve Gardner and Tom Nelson, co-founders of Gardner Nelson Partners, an agency in New York City. “That kind of crisis can actually do just as much good as bad for the brand—depending on how quickly and decisively the company manages the situation,” Gardner and Nelson say.
One example of how not to deal with a crisis, says Mueller of Door Number 3, comes from the failed “Hail to the V” campaign launched by Summer’s Eve—a campaign that came under fire for being racist. While Mueller says the campaign failed because it was totally inauthentic and a major disconnect from the brand’s established softer identity, the true mistake was how they handled the aftermath of pulling the ad. “If a company makes a misstep with their advertising, the best strategy is to quickly diffuse the situation by acknowledging you made a mistake,” says Mueller. “But what the Summer’s Eve people didn’t do was acknowledge the ad was a mistake, saying ‘The decision to take the videos down is about acknowledging that there's backlash here. We want to move beyond that and focus on the greater mission.’ Acknowledging backlash isn’t the same as admitting a mistake.”
Gardner and Nelson agree, saying that if an ad goes wrong, you need to get your apology out through social media. Plus, wherever the issue is being talked about, be there too. “Assign someone to monitor the Internet closely,” they say. “Be ready to answer all criticisms—and remember, don’t be defensive. You might not have meant to get into this situation, but here you are. Deal with it.”
As a final and critical step in the wake of a failed ad, you need to circle back and reconnect with those customers you identified back in step one. “Off the Internet, in the real world, most small businesses have their loyal supporters—get to them,” say Gardner and Nelson. “If the small business has a physical presence, like a restaurant or shop, reassure them in person that the offending message was a mistake. If you can call them on the phone, do so—the personal touch is always best. Or send individual e-mails so they know you are sincere in apologizing. Even in today’s digital, faceless world, the relationship between small business and their consumer remains a personal one. Take advantage of that.”
Image credit: theaxeeffect.com
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Matt McDermott 5 months ago
I abhor focus-grouping creative. It almost assuredly leads to mediocre, lowest-common-denominator drek that melts into the bland soup that is most advertising.Now, focus grouping to get a better idea of customer attitudes, behaviors and brand perceptions: That makes sense. And helps prevent us from creating ads that go horribly wrong.