Background
As part of the marketing effort to promote a new anti-aging product called Peel Microbrasion, Vichy launched a blog named "Journal de ma peau" in April 2005, following the success of its counterparts' efforts in using blogs as advertising media (Vichy Korea has proven its success by raising 9,000 members in their blogs).
A problem started to evolve soon after they introduce a fictitious character called "Claire", a women blogger who was worried about her age and wrinkles. On the other hand, her photo posted showed more a professional model than a normal woman. Moreover, her comments and languages were somehow resembled Vichy ads. Readers' comments were also under high censorship. People started to get suspicious and questioning the real existence of Claire. Soon enough, other bloggers found out that this "Claire" character is totally bogus. They felt that this fraud was a disgrace and betrayal to blogosphere where transparency and honesty is highly appreciated. Vichy and its blog soon received massive criticisms, moreover those appeared on France's nationwide newspapers.
Vichy's credibility is at stake because of this disastrous marketing attempt. As the brand's product manager, Delphine took initiative to give explanation about the thinking process behind the blog's creation, admit that she had limited experience in blogging norms, ask for public's apologies, and also ask for inputs from readers through the same blog (although in my opinion her effort is more defensive than sincere attempt). New problem emerged, readers couldn't justify whether Delphine was another bogus or not.
Suggestions
If I were in Dalphine's position, I would consider following steps to control the damage:
1. Shut down "Journal de ma peau" blog, and create direct link to Vichy's homepage. In this case, there is no point to continue communicating in blog, considering that readers already lost their trust
2. I would also put a pop-up window for sincere apology letter to reader, or more effectively, post a video on webpage which I could directly make an apology speech. This video could justify that I am exist. I would tell the readers regarding my position as product manager, what I have done, and what my reasoning was in using Claire's mask as a persona
3. I would invite nationwide media in a press conference, stating that my intention is not to betray readers' trust, admitting my lack of knowledge about blogosphere norms.
4. Learn from mistakes. A creation of new authentic transparent blog could be considered, with a help and advice from respected and well-known bloggers. As Shel Israel wrote on his blog "Sophie Kune, a French blogger with influence on cosmetics, agreed to blog -as herself- alongside the Vichy team. With Kune's help five women bloggers agreed to undergo the four-week program posting unfiltered comments on Vichy's blog."
No comments:
Post a Comment