PR marketing. Failed Marketing Campaigns – How To Handle A Marketing Nightmare.

We all do our best, but even the masters have on occasion made a PR marketing blunder. This article is about what to do if you find yourself in a failed marketing campaigns nightmare.

When you see a marketing campaign that majorly fails and adversely affects your branding or customer base, the first thing to do is listen. Listen to your audience and define the issues more closely. Objectively look at the ad from the audience’s standpoint and relate to what they are feeling.

Believe it or not, big corporations can come off as utterly insensitive or prejudiced even in today’s world. For example, Bic, a company known for reliable pens and office supplies, found itself in a PR marketing disaster when it launched a social media campaign on International Women’s Day. The digital marketing campaign used the phrasing, “Look like a girl, Act like a lady, Think like a man, Work like a boss.” The brand’s insensitive and discriminatory messaging yielded a negative uproar. Bic’s followers, not surprisingly, responded negatively online in a social media frenzy.

Bic rightfully brought in PR marketing to handle the failed marketing campaigns backlash. Once you discover that your customer base is upset, get right to fixing the issues. Although it is true that you can never please everyone, when there is a sweeping reaction to an ad, give it the attention it rightfully deserves. Close it down and look at what the customers are saying. PR marketing then determines how best to correct the marketing blunder and gain back the trust of the customers you love.

As a company, you’ll never want to find yourself caught in the sticky web of these three humongous marketing disasters.

As a category, we refer to “offensive” marketing as anything that produces intense feelings of negativity, hatred, disgust, or displeasure with the audience. These include offensive material, insensitive material, or downright prejudiced materials. You may strike an offensive cord with the audience due to poor taste and judgment, a bad joke, or even insensitive timing. When dealing with social concepts that bring emotional attachment, the PR team checks that all your content is supportive and positive to the cause. Construct the marketing campaign to be widely inclusive so as not to come off ignorant or to exclude other groups.

If your marketing team has done their research, then you’ve built a target audience based on who is most likely to purchase your product or service. Your marketer keeps the target audience in mind during all steps of the marketing process. Whether it’s text style, tone of voice, images, music, or any other aspect of content marketing, the message must convey what your target audience is looking for. The moment you forget to veer your communication for your target audience, you have effectively stopped the advertising from working. Consequently, never forget who you are targeting and how best to reach that audience.

Failing to provide your customers what you have promised them breaks the consumer bond. Lack of fulfillment often happens in one of three ways. The first possibility is that the product or service is not living up to the expectation you have set forth. Secondly, poor customer service destroys the experience for the consumer. Therefore making your product or service not something that the consumer is willing to do or try again. Lastly, underestimating the quantity of stock needed so the customer cannot obtain the product. Insufficient stock is highly frustrating to the customer. One or two times is all it takes before they no longer trust you’ll provide what they’re looking for and look elsewhere.

The first step in your PR strategy to recovery is to apologize. Do not justify or explain your actions. The audience is already upset, and justifying how and why you did what you did that made them angry will naturally upset them further. A PR professional will likely advise you that justifying yourself comes off as an excuse or not communicating that you hear the customer’s complaints. The customers need an apology. Instead of explaining what you meant to relay in your communication and inadvertently failed at, apologize and recognize their feelings. Be honest and sincere. See things from the customer’s perspective and let them know you understand and sincerely apologize.

Second, on your list, and only to be followed by step one, is to let things settle down. Now that you have offered an apology and the audience knows that you heard them take a step back to let the waters calm down. Dial down marketing efforts to a minimum. Please don’t throw in their face the rise of the next big thing. Rushing into the next media campaign makes them feel like you’re trying to avoid or undermine the issue by moving on to something else. The audience needs time to heal. Moving forward too quickly with a new campaign takes away from your apology.

The next step is to follow up on your claims. Follow through with actions that show value to the audience. Bring your advertising back in a way that helps support everything you just promised them as a correction and apology. Your marketer will focus on your wording so as not to undermine or instigate the audience further. Follow through by showing your company values and supporting the importance of your audience.

For example, covid vaccinations are a touchy topic and must be approached delicately so as not to be offensive. Budweisers social consciousness covid vaccination marketing campaign addressed the issue from a brilliant advertising viewpoint. Budweiser’s content marketing strategy focused on social occasions and the feelings we get from social connections. It did not attempt to push people into a decision about getting the vaccine but recognized the people’s concerns. The message of, “Good times are coming. Now we have a shot.” rang true for the audience and came through clearly as understanding the importance of connections. In this way, Budweiser supported its audience’s values and beliefs. This PR advertising campaign is a prime example of focusing on the wording to support your target audience’s views. It is not an easy thing to master.

Finally, consider the generation of your target audience. Hone in on what matters to that particular generation. Generations do not all hold the same core values. Each generation, having gone through different world experiences, actually sees the world differently. If you are going to connect to a specific era, you’ll need to understand what they value and why. Generational marketing helps you build a stronger bond with your customers. Concepts creating a generational marketing plan develop from within the beliefs, attitudes, and world experiences that the specific generation lived through and was brought up in. These feelings and events distinguish them from other generational groups. Find your target audience’s age and decipher what values that generation is known to hold as important. Your new marketing tactic will work around the values for your generational target audience.

To summarize, trying a risky marketing campaign that touches on cultural ideas and current issues can be very risky. Hence, it may also pay off incredibly if you get it right. Try your best to keep the rules of public relations marketing in mind. Always remember your audience’s core beliefs and values. Work hard to portray the correct message to the audience. When you find yourself in a nightmare situation, correct it! Don’t wait for it to go away on its own. Listen to your audience and always let them know how important they are to you. The human condition is full of uncertainties. Stay nimble in your PR marketing, assessing each step along the way. If you find yourself in a media marketing failure, stand up, maneuver the direction of your marketing and correct the situation.