Once again a big brand has made a social media mistake and they are getting raked over the coals for it. Yesterday Kenneth Cole tweeted the following:
Now as most know the situation in Egypt is not a laughing matter and this tweet is being called the most offensive Egypt Tweet yet.
When using social media we must always keep our brand in the forefront of our minds. How will our customers, our fans and our followers react?
We all know that the great thing about social media is its transparency and that transparency works well in complementing and when marketing your brand.
Transparency is what consumers crave. They want to like you before buying from you. It's about connection and engagement. The bad thing about social media is that same transparency. Social media transparency has the ability to throw your company in crisis and recovery mode because of an employee's actions.
It might be time for Kenneth Cole to evaluate their social media practices and perhaps even look at implementing a social media policy to protect their brand from sabotage and a public relations crisis that could have been avoided.
Your opinion: What do you think about this tweet - out of line or just bad approach at humor?
Offensive, and way out of line! I don’t know how someone can make a joke about what’s happening in Egypt, or any kind of tragedy. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but I think in this case, that’s not true.
I have a Kenneth Cole purse, and before this tweet, I had a positive view of the brand. Not any more.
I agree, it was poor taste. We really don’t know how things will end in Egypt.
poor taste doesn’t even come close;that’s what ruthless marketing person will try to do to adapt to today’s social environment. google rewards headline mention to become viral.
I’m from the UK and the Kenneth Cole brand isn’t big over here, in fact, I’d never heard of it until this Tweet issue. Some may say that this means it’s all worked as intended, as I now know about a brand I didn’t know about yesterday. People saying this would be those who subscribe to the school of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”. However, there clearly is and this is an example of it. What KC has done is to illustrate that they are an insular brand detached from the real world. If they already had a lot of experience outside of North America (and specifically in Europe or the Middle East) I doubt they would have issued the said Tweet in the first place. Sadly they have demonstrated their ignorance just at the point in time when they’re pushing into Europe. Mistake.
Obviously, this tweet was in ill taste and bad humor. It seems evident that the staffers responsible for tweeting on behalf of the Kenneth Cole brand, have not been trained properly, i.e. what are the Kenneth Cole core values and how does the organization live by them or protect them.
I’ve worked with many companies who simply did not understand the true nature or value of brand management as an organizational mandate, and therefore, they’ve dropped the ball on-boarding their employees.
A social media policy and procedures would certainly help guide and/or checks & balances can be implemented, but I suspect that this communication issue is evidence of a breakdown internally and organizationally. Employees need to be well-trained and educated in order to effectively be true brand ambassadors at every touch point.