Bloopers are often associated with actors falling on the set or fluffing their lines. Marketing has its share of bloopers, which can lead to a negative impact on brand reputation.
Marketing blunders can not only cause reputational damage, but they can also severely drain your promotional budget. Poor campaign strategies, misplaced messaging, poorly-designed imagery, and investments made in the wrong channels are some of the brands’ most common marketing mistakes.
Lunya’s uncouth HandMaid’s Tale underwear campaign, Pepsi’s macabre tagline Translation, GAP’s bizarre temporary branding changes, and beyond–marketing bloopers are not uncommon.
While some bloopers may be small or large, they all share one thing: bouncing back from them requires effort, time, and resources.
We’ll show you how to avoid making the same mistakes we made in marketing this year.
Burger King’s marketing disaster
This tweet was an attempt to backpedal from a marketing communication error that was quickly deleted after it caused outrage across the Web. Although the initial marketing hook was “women belong in the kitchen”, it had no context and became a slogan for sexism. It was especially unfortunate that the tweet was sent on International Women’s Day, which is a day to celebrate female empowerment and gender equality.
This unwise feat of social marketing earned a bitter 527% more engagement than the brand’s announcement.
Men indeed dominate the culinary industry. The campaign was focused on changing the culture for the better, but it was more than just a slice of pickle.
It would help to consider these things when creating your marketing campaign messaging to promote a particular event or celebration.
Internally, share your ideas and content.
Before signing off, gather feedback
Controversial copy should be avoided
Carefully choose language, imagery, or concepts
Your message should empower your audience and not cause alienation.
Snickers’ advertising campaign fail.
Snickers Spain was in serious trouble this year after it released a video advertisement that used one of its trademark taglines, you’re no longer yourself when you’re hungry.
The tagline isn’t bad (in fact, it’s a good piece of copywriting), but it caused a lot of unwelcome engagement.
After eating a Snickers bar, influencer Aless Gibaja transforms into what snickers call a “manly man”. The homophobic narrative suggesting you are effeminate was bad and received negative publicity at the highest levels almost immediately after its launch.
Even Irene Montero (Spanish equality minister) publicly criticized the advertisement with a tweet that said:
“Our society is pluralistic and tolerant. We hope those with the ability to decide what we hear and see in TV and commercials will be able to learn how to do so. “
Even if you offer a sincere apology, you will likely lose large segments of your target audience and existing brand advocates if political figures or parties criticize your marketing campaign.
Before working with influencers, ensure they are relevant to your industry or niche. Also, ensure that you have a close working relationship with them to ensure that your messaging is consistent. It is a good idea to build strong relationships with influencers.
Timothy’s World Coffee’s Prize Promise Mishap
Lastly, we have Timothy’s World Coffee, a well-known brand still trying to recover from its marketing mistakes.
The brand gave its fans and potential customers a coupon and a free sample to follow on social media. This was a common and effective way to increase engagement and loyalty.
Timothy’s World Coffee was unable to deliver and ran out of K-cup packs within three days. Two weeks later, Timothy’s World Coffee published a public statement stating that the samples and coupons were distributed first. Although this statement was a good fit for its consumers immediately, it caused outrage and dragged the brand deeper into a promotional hole.
The damage was done despite an apparent second apology and the offer to send disgruntled customers a coupon by post.
It would help if you delivered on all promises, whether in the form of an incentive, coupon or freebie. There are no exceptions. No compromises.
It would help if you never offered less than the best. Your marketing efforts will fail if you don’t offer value or prove trustworthy.