Marketing Roadmaps

Blogging

Does the momosphere reflect moms?

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In the comments here there and everywhere on the Motrin ad flap, a common theme was that the online moms — momosphere, Twitter moms, whatever — were NOT representative of moms in general.

Which of course got me thinking. How representative IS the momosphere? My gut tells me that it is highly influential and increasingly representative. And when it comes to extremely sensitive issues, like breastfeeding and babywearing, even more so.

But my gut instinct may not be enough for the average Fortune 500 company. While that’s a pity, I get it.

So, let’s prove it.  I know it is there. Please send me links to whatever hard data you have about moms and the blogosphere. I’ll pull it all together in a follow-up post. I’ve got bits and pieces, but that’s not enough.

What we really need is a data. And a market research firm willing to support the question. Any takers?

Thanks!

The #motrinmoms lesson

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I was offline most of the day yesterday at a dog club event so missed the tweetstorm around the Motrin babywearing commercial. If you aren’t familiar with the tale, Amy Gates, Katja Presnal and Robert French have the full story.

Short version: Motrin created what it must have thought was a humourous ad targeted at babywearing moms. Except the target audience didn’t think it was so funny. In fact, it was offended, and in my opinion, rightly so. Among other things, the copy was condescending and rang completely false.

Tweetstorm. Blogstorm. Motrin apologizes and takes video down.

And the analysis begins. While most of the reaction I’ve seen so far understands the fundamental marketing errors, even as I am catching up on the story, Shannon McKarney points out on Twitter, there is a chorus of folks who don’t get it and class the #motrinmoms reaction, and action, as overreacting.

So I thought it would be helpful to the slower students to review some fundamental issues.

The ad was targeted at babywearing moms. Lots of babywearing moms didn’t like it. That’s a FAIL. Full stop.  Doesn’t matter whether some babywearing moms didn’t mind it or non-parents thought it was funny. If you fail to connect with a significant portion of your audience, your ad has failed. Extra demerits when, as in this case, you not only fail to engage, you actively piss them off.

Much of the online commentary I’ve seen so far has been on the power of the social networks. That consumer brands should take heed of them. Or not, at their peril. True enough. I agree, but the power here is not simply the network. It’s the community. The technology — the Internet, Twitter, blogs, YouTube etc — just helped the outrage build and spread further faster.

For which McNeil should be grateful. An ad as fundamentally bad as the babywearing one would have offended 20 years ago too.  It just would have taken longer for the boycott to spread, and for the company to react, during which time sales might have really suffered. At least here, they can begin damage control sooner rather than later.

The power of the parent-blogging community makes crystal clear the consumer power of moms. The technology simply gives us new tools and new ways to wield it.  We don’t just vote with our pocketbooks. We use our voices too.

Some social media consultants probably will use this example as “further proof” that bloggers are “dangerous” and brands must hire them to navigate the dangerous waters.  While I agree that it wouldn’t hurt the big brands to get a little expert help (I’m available), especially if they plan to do proactive outreach, it shouldn’t be out of fear or worry that bloggers will attack. That only tends to happen when brands don’t do their homework.

Make sure there’s water in the pool before you jump.

In this case, of course, McNeil wasn’t reaching out to bloggers. And that’s the second important part of the lesson. Why not?

It’s not a big secret that the mom-blogging community is large, active and increasingly powerful. Mainstream media has written stories about it. Johnson’s, another unit of corporate parent J&J, had a much publicized mom blogger event last spring. There are bloggers with babywearing in the blog title so it’s not like it would be really hard to find a few 🙂

It’s always a good idea to put your listening ears on and apply a little common sense. The team behind this ad clearly didn’t do either, or it would have known that babywearing is an issue about which many moms are very very passionate. The ad’s content and tone were quite simply wrong. FAIL.

Why didn’t it ask a few babywearing moms to weigh in on the ad? Or maybe even be in it? I can think of quite a few reasons why moms might want to take a painkiller, and real voices would have rung so much truer than the chipper voiceover in the ad.

It might not have been as funny… but then again, it wasn’t really funny anyway, was it?

Now, McNeil and the Motrin team have an opportunity to turn this around. I hope they take it.

Four years, wow!

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This week marks the fourth anniversary of Marketing Roadmaps. It’s also the first full month at the new WordPress site.

So, first things first: thank you to all my friends and readers, especially those of you who have resubscribed to the new feed.

I thought it would be fun to look back at the archives and link to some of my favorite posts from the past four years. If you have any particular favorites that I missed, please share with the class in the comments.

Why corporate websites suck and some ideas for fixing them (January 2005)

When is a blog a “fake blog” (February 2005)

A good B2B website is… (February 2005)

Personas and fictional blogs (April 2005)

Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated said the press release (March 2006)

Bloggers aren’t journalists (June 2006)

Open your eyes: blogs and gender (August 2006)

What’s so viral about marketing? (September 2006)

The ethics lesson from the Wal-Mart Edelman flog fiasco (November 2006)

Viral Marketing…not: Boston Bomb Scare (January 2007)

The Jet Blues and Social Media (February 2007)

More Blogger Relations (April 2007)

Blogger Relations Step by Step (May 2007)

Defining Social Media Success: The New Adventures of CBS (June 2007)

Defining Social Media Success: Part III (June 2007)

The week in PR:Blacklists, sex, education and breaking down walls (November 2007)

The Four Ps of Social Media Engagement (December 2007)

Camp Baby Blogstorm (March 2008)

PR People: Do your homework BEFORE you reach out to bloggers (March 2008)

Camp Baby: Final Chapter (April 2008)

The secret sauce for the perfect pitch (August 2008)

Where’s the beef: the content of a good blog pitch (August 2008)

Dunbar’s blogs fans and community (September 2008)

Revisiting the 3Rs of Blogger Relations, Part 1: Respect

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Quite some time ago, my friend David Wescott wrote a post outlining the 3R’s of blogger relations: Respect, Relationship and Relevance, a framework quite similar to my own approach both at the time and still.

Not at all surprising, since a shared conviction about how to engage with bloggers was how we met in the first place.

Since I am more or less relaunching Marketing Roadmaps at this new URL, I thought it would be a good time to revisit these core concepts.

Let’s start with Respect.

What made David’s post so good was the introduction of the word Respect. Most of the thinkers in the space (myself included) had been talking about Relationship and Relevance as well as the ideas he categorized as Respect. But his post was the first time, to my knowledge, that anyone applied the actual word.

And it is such a perfect word to describe the attitude with which you,  the pitcher, should approach the blogger, the pitchee. Yes I know that is not a word. Sue me.

With respect. For his time. For the passions that fuel her blog. For the person. For the blog.

Here are some of the things that demonstrate lack of respect for the blogger that have crossed my desk in the last few months, either directly or forwarded from friends.

  • Messy emails, with multiple fonts, addressed to Dear Blogger, Name not available or some such. Probably forwarded more than once,
  • No actual signature, just a boiler plate email signature. Even worse  –  an email sent from one account but signed by another person. Really has that personal touch, you know.
  • Pitches to review books that want the blogger to flog the book or interview the author but don’t offer a review copy. Why on earth would anyone do that?
  • Repeated follow-ups, often through multiple channels. One is acceptable. After that you are stalking. Back off.
  • Refusing to provide review product after sending a pitch. Hullo — you got a hit. Assuming you targeted properly (yeah I know, big assumption), you should PLAN on sending review product. Offering a jpeg? Not good enough.
  • Pretense. Here’s a recent example. Sara from Suburban Oblivion relates a pitch she received from a product geared to preteen girls. She was somewhat interested and requested review product. The company refused, and not in the most elegant fashion. Bad enough, really, but when Sara blogged the story, someone related to the company left an unattributed positive comment on the blog. Read the denoument on Suburban Oblivion. Remember — pretend is a great game for children, and even has its place in our adult lives, but it is not an appropriate blogger relations tactic.
  • Invitations to events the blogger couldn’t possible attend.  Even worse, press releases about PAST events to which you did not invite the blogger at all.

If you are going to reach out to bloggers, you must develop a very healthy respect for the the fact that most bloggers have no intrinsic reason to be interested in what you have to say. They may indeed be your customers and interested in your product, but it is not their job to promote your product. That’s your job. If you want their help, you have got to put it in a context that is important to them. That’s the concept of Relevance, which we’ll review later this week

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In a special hell all its own is the absolutely awful pitch that made the rounds last week following the family tragedy of actress Jennifer Hudson. I won’t link to it here, but here are some commentaries from Twitter pals Katja Presnal, David Parmet and Kevin Dugan.

I wish this was the first time in my life I had seen such a piss poor PR reaction to a tragedy, but it isn’t. People are blinded by the perceived relevance of their product and lose all perspective about the personal nature of tragedies. It’s stupid, tasteless, disrespectful and shows a total lack of common sense. And happens all the time.  It’s also easy to avoid. When the temptation strikes to capitalize on tragedy, and it well may, just say no. There is absolutely no way your product is SO RELEVANT that it merits the disgraceful behavior of capitalizing on another person’s tragedy. Full stop.

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Finally, all practicing PR people should read BL Ochman’s post PR Industry Leaders Put Their Feet in Their Mouths at Critical Issues Forum and ask themselves, is this me? Am I doing better or perpetuating the problem? What can I do better?

One of the things we can most definitely do better is to improve the relevancy of our pitches, and not just to bloggers. To journalists too. More on that later this week.

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UPDATE, 11/3: This post hadn’t been up a day before a friend, a Massachusetts mom blogger whose home page clearly states her name and state, tweeted about the pitch below. Unfortunately, I couldn’t ask for a better example of the importance of respect for the blogger, especially since the event is for a good cause which is also tarnished by the bad pitch.

About bloggers: our bark is worse than our bite

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Earlier this week, a friend tweeted from the Marketing2Moms conference in Chicago that one of the panelists had commented that marketers needed to be careful with bloggers because they might bite.

I thought about this. Thought about it some more.

And the more I did, the more the concept irked me. Because it’s not true. Bloggers don’t bite. Not really. We  bark. Sometimes very loudly.

But — for the most part —  it’s not about hurting you. It’s about being heard.

Now, before I take this analogy any further — and I am going to — let me be clear. I am not saying bloggers are bitches or dogs. They might be… but not generically or collectively. That’s something you have to decide on a case by case basis 🙂

I do however find some interesting parallels in canine behavior and figured, let’s have a little fun on a Friday night.

I realize however that not everyone finds such comparisons apt. I remember a former co-worker who took umbrage when I described  her hair color, which I thought was lovely, as brindle. Like a Scottish Terrier coat. To me, it was a compliment. To her, not so much.

So, if this sort of parallel bothers you, read no further. Perhaps pop over to Snapshot Chronicles and see the election videos I posted earlier today.

Still with me? Okay, let’s go.

Why did this comment about bloggers biting irritate me so much? In part because it sounds like scare tactics designed to make the assembled marketers so worried about engaging with bloggers that they will hire the consultant who made the comment. Now, perhaps they should hire a consultant with experience reaching out to bloggers but fear creates the wrong atmosphere for authentic engagement.

But what irritated me the most was that it is not true. Most bloggers bark, not bite. Just like most dogs.

Sure, there’s the occasional ranter who goes off on anything and everything with no warning. Just like the dog years and years ago that jumped up and bit me on the upper arm for absolutely no reason and with no warning while I was speaking quietly to the owner during a canvassing effort for NARAL.

But if you pay attention, bloggers tell you what’s important to them. What they care about. How to engage with them. Just like dogs bark to go out, bark when they want dinner, and bark like crazy when the UPS driver pulls up or they sense stranger danger. They warn you off and they defend their territory.

Just like bloggers.

Now, if you don’t listen, maybe you will get bit. But it is rarely without warning. Rarely unavoidable. And quite simply rare. Dogs don’t bite as a matter of course, and neither do bloggers.

There’s no reason to be scared. Approach slowly. Look for the clues. Pay attention. Get to know the other party. Reach out carefully.

And you might just make a friend for life.