So the office is a-twitter right now (apologies for the obvious social media pun) over this afternoon’s Facebook post by Nine West. I’m wearing their shoes right now…I invite them into my news feed and my inbox…but today’s post strayed a little outside the foul pole. In an attempt to mirror the voice of a television show embraced by a portion of their target, they used some slang that other parts of their target found off-putting. See below.
Honestly, when I first saw it, I wondered if they had been hacked. I was surprised this post ever made it through internal reviews. Apparently I wasn’t alone. A few minutes after this was posted, comments started pouring in from fans (and not of the positive nature), and within 15 minutes the entire post was gone from their page. The only reason you’re seeing it is that, in my moment of surprise, I grabbed it and shared with our team over here.
My takeaway? It doesn’t matter how close you’re trying to get to the voice of your target consumer, they still expect you to maintain a certain level of decorum. One consumer did come to the defense of the brand, reminding fellow brand followers that we all make mistakes and say things that may seem a little inappropriate, and that we wouldn’t de-friend someone else in real life for a conversational misstep.
What do you think? Do brands deserve a “pass” when they fumble their conversations with consumers? And for those of you out there who may communicate on behalf of brands, do you think our friends at Nine West should have anticipated a little backlash, or were they just trying to leverage the equity they had with this show, and the consumers in their target who would appreciate it?
