Motrin's Mommy Headache: A Lesson in Social Media Experimentation

Thèmes abordés

Motrin's Mommy Headache: A Lesson in Social Media Experimentation

Résumé du document

“Brands are delicate things, but social tools exist not only to hear bad news but to engage even that part of the crowd which has made it clear you have tripped up — maybe, especially that niche.”

This quote essentially summarizes how Johnson & Johnson should have reacted to the situation and its target market. Brands are delicate things indeed, significant amounts of funds are invested in creating and building brands and it does not take much to wreak havoc on your brand image.

Media tools such as social networking sites Twitter and Facebook can be used by firms as a means of communication with their target market. Consumers can express their discontent through such social tools and news travels rather quickly on these media. Similarly, firms can also use this to their advantage.

Tags: Motrin Mommy's Headache, social media power, building brand image

Extraits

[...] They would have achieved this by joining the debate, defending and explaining their ad. What Motrin needed was the moms input and suggestions. The negative energy was amplified when Motrin removed the ad and apologized, as if they were completely in the wrong and acknowledged it. Ultimately, the company was not prepared and simply lacked the knowledge of social media, which would have allowed it to engage its target market in real time. This resulted in financial loss and hurt the Motrin brand. [...]

[...] It is important to let people share how they felt when they watched the ads to better respond. Get a social media presence: I would propose starting a parenting blog sponsored by Motrin about useful parenting tips. The blog would also give Motrin access to its target audience and so it may have the opportunity to feel out ad campaigns before launching them. After, it could expand its audience with Twitter thanks to micro parenting tips and ideas and join the conversations. [...]

[...] On November 20th, the brand's response on the site had shifted to better address its audience. "We are parents ourselves and take feedback from moms very seriously. We are in the process of removing this ad from all media." says Kathy Widmer, marketing vice president. Explain the following sentence: “Brands are delicate things, but social tools exist not only to hear bad news but to engage even that part of the crowd which has made it clear you have tripped up maybe, especially that niche.” This quote essentially summarizes how Johnson & Johnson should have reacted in response to the situation and their target market. [...]

[...] I would talk about what will change or be different and incorporate feedback to see if people are satisfied. Finally for apologizing, the most important for me is to follow the 3 rules: be sincere, be transparent, and be consistent. Today, having an established social media is very important and would have been immensely helpful for Motrin. If it had been more careful about social media before, the company could have realized the negative feedback before it turned into a crisis. [...]

[...] On September 30th Motrin launched a new online ad campaign. The advertising was about how wearing a baby can give you a backache days after the first blog post on the video is discovered and moms started to react against this video through social media. Some of them saw the ads as snarky pokes at motherhood. On November 15th, the first critics of the ad surfaced on the web. And so a growing number of mommy bloggers filled up many pages of angry reactions, they also created especially for this episode a new Twitter page. [...]