Think about what your brand stands for …
Social media opens up a world of opportunity and creativity for companies to get their messages out. It’s an exciting playground, but in every playground are often obstacles to trip over so it’s vital that you put some thought into your campaigns before they start as failing to plan could totally undermine and reverse what you’re actually trying to do…
Social media is especially good for taking an offline campaign online but don’t forget that once your brand is out there in the playground, it’s out there in the playground. You’re in ‘the game’… So think about how you want to be perceived and why you’re playing the game in the first place.
Starbucks is a world-famous brand and they’ve been practising their ‘brand’ for a long time both online and offline. So how could their #RaceTogether campaign have gone so horribly wrong?
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/racetogether-3-reasons-behind-starbucks-failure-tai-tran
Starbucks had such good intentions but missed some fundamental brand campaign rules. They should have asked themselves:
1. Why are we doing this? What are we trying to achieve?
2. What does our brand really stand for? Are we staying true to our values.
3. What responses are we likely to get? How could it go wrong?
4. Should we be doing this?
Now, you know we recommend social media as a communications channel. It is very much part of the marketing toolbox. But as with all tools, it needs to have a purpose and it needs to be fit for purpose.
So this is not a warning, just guidance… 🙂
Call us if you’re not sure…
