retail news in context, analysis with attitude

Published on: April 16, 2014

by Kate McMahon

Two brand blunders are dominating social media this week, one shockingly cringe-worthy and the other just stupidly insulting.

We are talking about The Tweet, and the Veet commercial.

The pornographic tweet occurred Monday on US Airways’ official Twitter feed, with more than 400,000 followers. A link that was supposed to take an unhappy flier named “Elle” to a customer service site instead revealed a revolting lewd photo of a nude woman and a toy airplane. Enough said.

It gets worse. The photo was on the site for almost one hour before US Airways yanked the “inappropriate image” and apologized. But cropped, blurred and even unedited versions are everywhere. The airline said it was investigating how the XXX-rated shot that was posted to its feed by another user and then red-flagged “inadvertently” ended up as an official response. It appears to have been human and/or computer error, not an outside hack job.

This has already catapulted to the top of the worst-ever corporate Twitter fail list, but I am stunned that a major airline’s social media team didn’t catch this calamitous tweet sooner. One hour is more like a century in the Twitterverse, the most real time platform of all social media.

In fact, the apology was retweeted 4,000 times in just 20 minutes.

The response on Twitter and elsewhere? Shock, and not surprisingly, a slew of posts ranging from humorous to raunchy.

The Veet commercial is an example of a self-imposed really bad idea imploding on social media.

The hair removal brand promised its 300,000 plus Facebook followers a sneak peek of its new “Don’t Risk Dudeness” commercial before it premiered on “Dancing with the Stars.” Veet should have pulled the plug right then and there.

The first commercial of the series shows a couple lazing in bed in a hip urban apartment. But when the hunky (and practically hairless) guy goes to reach for his girlfriend’s leg he is shocked and horrified to find a fat, bearded hairy guy in a pink camisole. “I know. I’m a bit prickly,” the character says in a high-pitched voice. “I shaved yesterday.”

Seriously? Less than 24 hours?

The other ads showed the same hairy oaf (think Zach Galafianikis) in a dress being snubbed by a cab driver and scolded by a masseuse for stubble.

The tagline was: "Don't risk dudeness. Feel womanly around the clock.”

The internet lit up with criticism in less time than it takes to rip off a waxing strip, starting with Veet’s own Facebook page, and the posts slamming the ads far outnumbered the “Geez, lighten up ladies” comments.

For example:

• “You've managed to offend just about everyone - the ads are sexist, homophobic and transphobic. The body shaming is deplorable.”

• “You just alienated your entire target audience. Bravo.”

• “When this commercial aired I was sitting at a table of two women and three men, and ALL FIVE of us found this to be completely offensive and degrading toward women.”

Veet got the message, pulled the entire campaign (even from YouTube) and its marketing team responded on Facebook , saying "We just wanted to let everyone know, we get it - we're women too. This idea came from women who told us that at the first hint of stubble, they felt like 'dudes.' It was really simple and funny, we thought. To be honest, the 3 of us could really relate to these real-life moments and they made us laugh. Not everyone appreciated our sense of humor.”

They should have tested that “humor” with a larger female audience. And remembered that women are more inclined to purchase products (even/especially hair removers) that make them feel good about themselves, as Dove’s successful Real Beauty campaign has illustrated.

Though The Tweet and the Veet campaign are two drastically different scenarios, there is a shared business takeaway. Good, bad or unintentionally pornographic, a tweet or Facebook post can go viral in less than a minute. Ditto backlash.

Companies must be prepared to react even to the unexpected immediately and apologize if necessary, or face the consequences.


Comments? Send me an email at kate@morningnewsbeat.com .

Published on: April 16, 2014

by Kevin Coupe

Okay, this is one of the weirder ideas I've ever heard of.

USA Today writes that KFC has developed a prom season promotion that consists of "corsages showcasing the Colonel's famous fried chicken drumsticks resting on a bed of baby's breath. The corsage kits sell for $20 and come with a $5 KFC gift card so teens can select their preferred style of chicken (Original Recipe, Extra Crispy or Kentucky Grilled Chicken), according to Nanz & Kraft's website, the florist company working with KFC on the promotion."

The kits can be ordered online, and then customers go to their local KFC to get the chicken to attach to the corsage. And then, one presumes, it is off to pick up their dates.

According to the folks at Nanz & Kraft, the kits are selling like hotcakes. (Albeit hotcakes that smell like chicken.)

When I saw this story, I immediately checked the date. But it seems legit.

Weird, but legit.

Published on: April 16, 2014

Tesco this morning announced that its annual trading profit dropped from the equivalent of $5.78 billion to $5.54 billion during the most recent fiscal year, on sales that were flat at about $118 billion. It is the second consecutive drop in annual profit, and combined with estimates from Kantar Worldpanel that its March sales were down more than eight percent and its most recent quarterly sales were down more than two percent.

The Financial Times, in its analysis of the situation at the world's third largest retailer, said that CEO Philip Clarke faces five major challenges: rebuilding a troubled UK business, sorting out the company's global businesses, dealing with a perceived lack of bench strength in management and at the board level while simultaneously "experimenting with new management structures in stores," finding a way to rebuild confidence and eliminating what has become a "culture of fear," and defining a sustainable approach to pricing that will deal with the competitive threat created by the growth of discounters such as Aldi and Lidl.

"Our results today reflect the challenges we face in a trading environment which is changing more rapidly than ever before," Clarke said in a prepared statement.

Published on: April 16, 2014

The Wall Street Journal reports that early users of the Amazon Dash, the retailer's new handheld grocery ordering device, are responding positively to the technology.

According to the story, the device - free for now and available only to Amazon Prime Fresh customers in Los Angeles and San Francisco who are invited to test it - "allows users to order goods by scanning barcodes of everyday groceries. When there is no barcode - as on a pineapple - a microphone and voice recognition technology allow users to speak their additions to a shopping list."

It is early yet, but shoppers are saying that they find the Dash easy to use, that it increases their shopping on Amazon, and while there have been some glitches, it also results in other, related products being recommended to users.

Published on: April 16, 2014

The Financial Times reports that Facebook has applied for regulatory approvals - in the UK - to develop a mobile payments system that would allow it to gain access to customers' wallets.

The Wall Street Journal, following up on the story, writes that "it's long been rumored that Facebook might start a mobile-payments system. Like PayPal, Facebook could charge a commission for each transaction and collect a portion of payments, giving the company a new revenue stream beyond just advertising … A mobile payment system would also allow Facebook to gather even more personal information about people that it could use for targeted advertising, which is at the core of the company’s business. Knowing the spending habits of its customers also could allow Facebook to match purchases with ad campaigns, helping the social network prove the efficacy of its advertising.  Right now, Facebook partners with third party data brokers to accomplish that goal."

Published on: April 16, 2014

Reuters reports that Starbucks will move its European headquarters from the Netherlands to the UK, following criticisms last year that it located its offices in Holland to avoid corporate taxes. In fact, Starbucks paid no corporate taxes in Britain in the year leading up to September 2012, which led some lawmakers there to call for a review of corporate tax policies.

According to the story, "Starbucks said it would pay more tax in Britain following the relocation, which it expects to come into effect before the end of the year, although globally its bill would remain 'relatively neutral'."

Howard Schultz, Starbucks' CEO, is quoted as saying that the company has no intention of raising prices, citing concerns about a still-fragile economic recovery.

Published on: April 16, 2014

• The Bergen Record reports that Inserra Supermarkets, which owns and operates 22 ShopRite stores in New York and New Jersey, plans to open a PriceRite store in Garfield, NJ, in a former A&P. It is Inserra's first PriceRite, though Wakefern - which originated the low-price format - has 55 of them in six other states.

As the Record, "While the ShopRite brand was built on low prices, PriceRite's motto is 'impossibly, incredibly, inconceivably low prices everyday.' The brand, which was launched by Wakefern in Massachusetts in 1995, competes with limited assortment, budget chains such as Aldi rather than full-service supermarkets."


• The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) yesterday announced the 25 finalists in the Supermarket Chef Showdown, the competition that is scheduled to be held at this year's FMI Connect trade show in Chicago, scheduled for June 10-13.

According to FMI, "the finalists represent retailers from across the country, including: Balducci’s, Dorothy Lane Market, Inc., Farm Fresh Supermarkets, Foodland Super Market, Ltd., FRESH by Brookshire’s, Fry’s Food Stores, Hy-Vee, Inc., Kowalski’s Markets, The Kroger Co., Meijer, Inc., Orchard Fresh, Publix Super Markets, Inc., Roche Bros. Supermarkets, Co., ShopRite, Whole Foods Market, and Winn-Dixie. The reigning champion from the 2012 competition, Keoni Chang from Foodland Super Market, will also return to defend his title."

The 25 finalists, FMI said, "entered their recipes in one of five categories: Healthy Meals; Family Meals; Ethnic Meals; Dessert; and Side-Dishes/Mini Meals/Snacks. In order to qualify, the recipes used at least three eligible sponsor ingredients and took 20 minutes or less to prepare."


• Salon reports that there is a "rampant banana disease" called Fusarium wilt TR, or Panama disease, that the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns could threaten the world's banana supply.

The story says that "the fungal disease recently spread from Asia, where it’s already caused significant losses, to Africa and the Middle East, and the FAO believes Latin America could be next. That would ramp the crisis up considerably: About 70 percent of the world’s banana exports are grown in the region."

Published on: April 16, 2014

…will return.

Published on: April 16, 2014

Yesterday was an important anniversary for Major League Baseball - it was 67 years to the day that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by taking the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. If you watched any game yesterday, you would see every player wearing his number - 42 - honoring the man who paved the way for so many other players of color.