Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

...While all these have been discussed, in the recent Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy, Kmart still did not learn a lesson. On the pretext of sending out condolences, they tagged #Fab15Toys, which referred to a toy-focused "Twitter party" they held previously....

Yes, you end up getting attention. But no, I don't think people will be spurred to buy your product. Stop hashjacking (hijacking popular hashtags) to promote your products. Though it is inevitable to start marketing online, basic etiquette is still greatly appreciated....

Previously a darling of the social media scene, retailer Woolworths had its fair share of digital travails this year, from Halaal hot cross buns, to accusations of ripping off Frankie’s Olde Soft Drink Company, to calls for boycotts over perceived racist job adverts. But it was not alone. Around the world companies – in fact, very often retailers as well – had online conversations turn nasty.

In Woolworth’s case, things came to a head in September with calls for the stores to be boycotted after a so-called whistle-blower accused the company of being racist based on the content of its job ads. Woolworths replied that it, like all South African companies over a certain size, was legally obliged to comply with the country’s Employment Equity Act. But by then the storm in the teacup had spiralled out of control, and Woolworths eventually was forced to close its Facebook page to control the barrage of “hate speech” and “vitriol” people were spewing forth....

During a major crisis like Hurricane Sandy, it's best for PR reps to keep quiet if they represent a company selling something frivolous like V-neck T-shirts. Unfortunately, not everyone has that kind of good sense.

There's been a small treasure of social media fails since the storm hit last night. Most notably, American Apparel are taking serious criticism for sending out an advisory last night for a 26 hour storm sale special: 20 percent off in all states affected by Sandy. That means sales in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland.

But American Apparel isn't the only company taking criticism for capitalizing on Sandy in name of capitalism. The Gap, the chino-peddling bastion of innocence, got caught up in the storm and tweeted this...

[Let's be clear here. These are marketing muckups. PR usually comes in after to apologize and try to clean up the reputation mess!  ~ Jeff]

Here is the back story: DKNY approached Brandon Stanton, a New York photographer, with a proposal to use 300 of his slice-of-life pictures in their store windows around the world. They offered him $15,000 for the rights. Stanton turned them down thinking DKNY was under-pricing his goods.

Some time later Stanton stumbled across a photo of a window display of a DKNY store in Thailand displaying many of his images which he says were used "without (his) knowledge , and without compensation."...

Just like NetFlix, Virgin America is alienating its customers--but with some deft moves, it could win them back...

Being hip is all very nice. But being reliable, functional and at least appearing to care about your customers matters a whole lot more. That's the lesson Reed Hastings has learned at NetFlix and the lesson that Virgin America is still learning.

With the cute tag line "We're shaping up our back end" Virgin America may have thought it had prepared their customers for a bumpy ride, when it changed over to the Sabre reservation system. But everything that could go wrong did go wrong - including Virgin's catastrophically blasé response to their customers' outrage....