MANOEUVERING MISTAKES

A recent Netflix release, Darlings, raised questions about brand integrations in films and promotions. A Kama Ayurveda bottle on the shelf of a lower-middle-class household was cited as misplaced. Many other brands like Veeba, 24 Organic Mantra and Daawat were also spotted.

The brand’s perspective: They were associating with ‘Alia Bhatt’, and the viewers were the target audience.

The people's perspective: How can a person like ‘Badru’ afford Kama Ayurveda?

In today’s world, where everything is online and vulnerable to instantaneous critique, it is imperative to convey every message mindfully.

Intriguingly, history harbours more such instances. Whether they can be counted as real blunders or blessings in disguise…

Well, that can be discussed over popcorn.

Let’s find out what fresh, brainy and quirky Gais think about marketing blunders!

FRESH GAI EXPLORES SOME FRESHLY-BAKED MISTAKES

These new-found mistakes made the audience go from Aaa! to Ughh!
Quite understandable as one does not expect brands like Meesho and Ola to act ignorant.

Meesho’s oops! Moment

Seemingly, a copy-paste mistake from Saurav Ganguly’s Facebook handle spawned buzz on social media. Meesho handled the fiasco adroitly by reposting the now-deleted post saying: ‘When Dada hits, it’s a 6. When Dada mishits, it’s still a 6.’

Ola’s obliviousness

The push notification strategy by Ola made its audience furious as it said, ‘8 missed calls from mom’.

According to the majority, this induced panic and insensitivity in those who live away from home or who may have lost their mothers. The backfire made netizens call this approach a ‘terrible clickbait’.

Such social debacles make one worry about ‘What’s next?’. This is where the role of crisis communication experts steps in.

Let’s see how Brainy Gai stokes our marketing knowledge.

BRAINY GAI DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING AN OPPORTUNIST

Converting the loss into a win

Nike was prematurely prepared to go down the drain. This helped the brand to come up with a sneakily inventive strategy.

Nike won by losing to Adidas.

In 2012, a brand as ‘great' as Nike lost the sponsorship title of the London Olympics to its rival competitor, Adidas. Despite stringent rules of not using the Olympic keywords and Olympians for endorsements, Nike went above and beyond to find and leverage the loopholes.

• Nike made 400 Olympians wear its shoes; not just any shoes but Volts - newly launched yellow-green shoes that perfectly contrasted the Olympic track.
• Twenty-nine places in this world are called London, besides London, UK. Nike shot its commercial in London, Ohio, Little London in Jamaica, London gym, etc., to legally use the word.
• Lastly, Nike hired not-so-popular teenagers for its commercial - which eventually broke the internet.

A U.S. survey unveiled that while 21% of people thought Adidas was the title sponsor, a humongous 37% believed Nike was one.

Crisis Management

Crisis communication refers to the deployment of technologies, systems and protocols during a crisis to rectify and improve a company’s consumer relationship management (CRM).

Maggi -A legendary example of post-crisis success

Crises happen every now and then. If the brand is able to mobilise a crisis management strategy, the ill-conceived image of the brand is cured to a great extent.

In April 2015, the infamous Maggi lead case took the whole country by storm. Nobody was ready to bid goodbye to their 2-minute meal - neither the brand nor the consumers. A series of emotional appeal ads evoked every Indian household’s attachment to Maggi and brought it back on shelves after a five-month ordeal.

There are always some marketing stunts that are taken lightheartedly. Quirky Gai is ready to amuse us. Let’s find out!

QUIRKY GAI Dives into some not-so-tiny Blunders

Interesting but unintentional

Heinz

First witnessed by a German resident, Daniel Korell, the QR code on the Heinz ketchup bottle redirected him to a pornographic site. Truth be told, the company had not renewed the URL registration, due to which it had expired and got picked up by the adult website. Although, this marketing fail did give many a laugh.

Source

Bud Light

Back in 2015, Bud Light came up with a new label - Up for Whatever, which is, to date, considered a big goof-up by the beer brand. It proved to be a double whammy for the brand because it not only stirred up people’s emotions of unease but also promoted rape culture. Anyway, it got people talking.

Source

Casa Sanchez

Casa Sanchez, a San Francisco eatery, rolled out a campaign wherein people who got their logo permanently tattooed could eat there for free for a lifetime. But seeing people enter a frenzy made the co-owner tweak the campaign restrictions to only one meal per day, and the tattoo must be a certain size.

Source

While some mistakes were laughable, others cost a heap load of money to the brands. Either way, a full suite of learnings can be derived from these mishaps:

• When it comes to marketing, more heads are always better than one to test the message from different perspectives.
• There is a thin line between funny and offensive. Funny wins big, but brand values shouldn’t be forgotten in the process.
• Pre-testing can be done before rolling out a campaign.