Remember, the Greenpeace vs. Nestlé case ?Well, I will not put the whole story here, since this huge social media clash case has been analyzed and commented many times.
For the ones willing to have the long story short, you could visit this post.
Main conclusion of the case was, no doubt : in crisis communication, you should better have strong social media guidelines (and the right people to operate it) in your company if you want to avoid any major social media #fail...
Since then, Nestlé had probably improved and learned from the past, at least on how to deal with communication crisis, but I didn't actually have had any opportunity to notice how effective this learnings were integrated into the #1 worldwide food manufacturer marketing approach...
And then suddenly, Nestlé hits again the buzz world, with one of its iconic brands, Nespresso...
Solidar.ch, a Swiss-based non profit organization supporting fair trade policies, launches a web-based buzz campaign portraying a parody of Nespresso's George Clooney acclaimed "What else ?" advertising spot...
The message, in a nutshell : "This multinational is serving you the most expensive coffee cup in the world ... while exploiting third-developing countries farmers. Ban Nespresso from your shelf and tell to George Clooney how bad you feel about it"...
In a few weeks, over 10.000 YouTube views and negative comments on the brand appearing in social networks...
I joined the wave, mainly because the parodic George Clooney's spot was quite funny to see and compare to the original one...
But also because, yes, Nestlé was in my eyes probably acting the wrong way with their supplying chain, at least, that was my though at that time... I have been working for about 10 years in the food industry and have some knowledge about food supply chain practices in the farming industry...
So I posted it on my Facebook wall and share it through my professional Twitter account.
Surprise : I got very quick an answer from Nespresso (who is really monitoring social media activity...) : to the point, a link to the official press release issued by Nestlé's management on the subject, and, even more convincing, a video testimonial of a Colombian farmers association delegate. No personal attack, no threat, just a simple "Hello" and facts...
I read of course the PR statement and watched the video testimonial... Nespresso succeeded in getting me 180 ° back on my point of view... From a negative post they have turned me in into a hot brand defender...
This could have been the end of the story. Negative buzz managed efficiently and ending up into a positive end-statement. Everyone is happy...
But this is not the end of the story. I am a Nespresso client/consumer... (because yes, I really enjoy their coffee !).
A few days after this conversation occurred, I got in my mailbox a promotional email inviting me to discover Dhjana, the first AAA Sustainable Quality coffee of Nespresso ...
Waow ! Since this was just the "trigger" that pushed me into my initial postings, having such a message was, no doubt, a perfectly timed and appropriate marketing answer...
Of course, I have placed an order ;-)
There is no way for me to know if this was a conscious follow-up step in my engagement with the brand or if it just accidental... (but I would really appreciate having some comments from Nespresso marketing people on that... please feel free to share a comment ;-) ).
Although I guess that this was for sure a just-in-time managed product launch to counter negative Solidar.CH buzz on Nestlé supposed negative impact on farmers sustainability...
Conclusion : through a close monitoring, social engagement, non aggressive but assertive arguments, Nespresso has been able to turn me from a quite critical consumer into a positively convinced Nespresso brand ambassador... And all this by having added up some Euros onto Nespresso's bank account ;-)
Chapeau guys, good job and an interesting for marketers still looking at cases that show R.O.I. on Social Media... ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD4wi__8rwo
