This video is a great example of a brand which understands their consumer and interacts with them to increase their brand image.
This campaign, illustrated through this TVC, presents how a brand (in this case the Argentinean beer Cervaza Andes) while being in a saturated and highly competitive market, such as the alcoholic beverage industry, can still grab consumers’ attention and offer them something unique, fresh and highly entertaining!
The ad has been highly successful since it aired in Europe in October 2009. It has gone viral and lead to increases in sales, brand awareness and a rapid rise in the brand’s Facebook Fan base.
Australian advertisers should take note of how powerful understanding your customer’s problems can be.
But does a clever and interactive campaign, like this one, lead to increased sales?
This week, the power of social media was well and truly illustrated.
On Saturday the 24th of September, a woman, Keara O'Neil, and her bridesmaids were shopping on Chapel St. in Melbourne for bridesmaid dresses. They entered the retailer Gasp – a store renowned for its over-the-top, glitzy, pageant-style formal wear which has a reputation for looking more street walker than runway walker. The women were greeted by an outgoing sales man named Chris. Keara chose a bright pink dress to try on. The sales assistant became very pushy repeatedly stating “she should get it” and after she repeatedly told him she “would think about it” with increasing frustration and attitude, he barged into the fitting room and whispered “with your figure I really think you should buy it”. Being self conscious of her size 12 frame, she became extremely upset. She stormed out of the store with her bridesmaids in tow as Chris called out “Have fun finding something at Supre” and “I knew you girls were a joke the minute you walked in”.
In his defence, Chris claimed that the Keara and her bridesmaids came into the store with the specific purpose to laugh at the out-there styles Gasp offers and were making loud critics of the clothes in-front of more serious customers who appeared hurt by Keara and the bridesmaids’ comments and this is what set him off.
In my experience, working in retail for over six years, I have encountered numerous situations where women have openly mocked the clothing in the store in which I was working, whether it was the styles they disliked or our lack of larger sizes. Yes, some women can become harsh and unnecessarily direct their frustrations towards the staff members, but I would never react to this and am always politely and try my best to assist them and diffuse their frustration. I understand that shopping can be an emotional and difficult experience for a lot of people. I think we’ve all found ourselves stressed out and exhausted at some stage when we desperately need something and nothing seems to work! I have had women brake down in tears when they’re having an “ugly day”, or have gained weight – many after having a baby. I have had women shopping to cope with their break-ups, divorces and even miscarriages and have found myself acting more like a shoulder to cry on and counsellor than stylist or sales assistant.
Bridesmaids, in particular, can be hard for some sales people to deal with. While you are provided with training for basic operations and sales techniques, you aren’t exactly told how to handle a pack of stressed out, time poor women, who’s spirits have been broken after the bride has said “your too pale for all the dress colours!” or “I wish you had boobs big enough to fill out this style like the others do” one too many times. The pack-animal dynamic tends to take over and I’ve seen bridesmaids turn on other female shoppers while in the change rooms because they are purchasing the dress they want. But it is my job to keep them happy and help them stay in high spirits, and to never to take my frustrations or bad day out on them.
Back to the story at hand, while many people have a story or four about a bad customer service experience, this story became worthy of the public’s interest after Keara O'Neil, sent an email discussing her experience to Gasp’s customer care team. The response she received (also available at the link above) has blown everyone away. She didn’t receive the apology she expected; instead a condescending rant that basically treated her like a morbidly obese, fashion inept and “undesirable” trouble maker. Instead of apologising for or discussing the sales person’s remarks, instead Chris was praised with “Chris whom served you is a qualified stylist whom has a sixth sense for fashion, and Chris’s only problem is that he is too good at what he does, and as I am sure you are aware, people whom are talented, generally do not tolerate having their time wasted, which is the reason you were provoked to leave the store” and “Chris is a retail superstar, who possess unparalleled ability, and I am sorry you feel upset by him, but he knew you were not going to buy anything before you even left your house” and concluded with “So if you would like to do us any favours, please do not waste our retail staff’s time, because as you have already seen, they will not tolerate it. I am sure there are plenty of shops that appease your taste, so I respectfully ask that you side step our store during future window shopping expeditions”. Upon receiving this disrespectful response, Keara decided the best revenge would be to simply make sure that the public were aware of Gasp’s treatment of her. She forwarded her email and Gasp’s response to the contacts in her address book and asked them to forward the email on. By, Wednesday the 28th of September the story had well and truly gone viral, becoming a major trending topic on Twitter Australia as well as appearing all over Facebook, Blogs, Forums and other forms of social media. By Thursday the 29th The Herald Sun, A Current Affair, Today Tonight and The Project, as well as other news outlets, were reporting on the issue. Yes, I think this is the definition of viral marketing, pulled off not by a brand or organisation but by a single consumer.
I think I can accurately presume that not one person has read this reply without an open jaw. To make matters worse Matthew Chidgey, the area manager of Gasp, has acted as a rep for Gasp and has gone onto A Current Affair, Today Tonight and The 7pm Project, and has not only defended all of Chris’ actions and the customer care team, but offered no apology to Keara. Any PR rep or retailer could tell you it is far better to just apologise and try to diffuse the situation so you can solve the issue and move forward.
A lesson has been learnt. Never underestimate the power of one consumer and PLEASE never assume you do not need the advice of a professional PR rep. In this increasingly communicative environment through social media, both good news and bad news can spread like wild fire and in my opinion, this case will not be the last.
On the flip side, I heard that this is perhaps a marketing ploy by Gasp who believe that any media coverage is good. It isn’t all that surprising considering the extensive world –wide coverage the brand has gained on the popular Perez Hilton blog site as well as tweets by Ruby Rose and Charlotte Dawson since the incident.
To back this up, about 4 years ago I spoke to a couple of former-Gasp employees who said they underwent vigorous training to become out-spoken, tough and forceful sales people. They were encouraged to barge into customer change rooms, to force customers out of the fitting rooms and on to the shop floor and to be very sales-focused and were offered a considerable commission scheme to back this up. One former-sales assistant told me that she was forced by her manager to tell customers who were size 12 and above that “this store isn’t for them” and to people who were perceived as being of lower-income or too young to afford the styles “I don’t think you can afford this store” as well as to discourage other customer types based purely on their appearance.It was their brand decision to be seen as arrogant and out-spoken and to reward favourable customer behaviour such as purchases with praise and customer criticism or “time wasting” with attitude and rude comments – much like the training of a dog.
The issues has gained lots of attention – some positive and most negative, with both customers and retail assistants expressing strong opinions both online as well as around the water-cooler and over skinny lattes. I can only hope that as a result, consumers will out poor customer service to the brand’s head office, as well as to the public, but more so, I hope that customers see this as encouragement to send praise to shop assistants and to contact a company’s head office when they have a positive experience in-store, as this story has clearly shown that good customer service is not always guaranteed, that your money is not always welcome in some stores and that in the minds of some sales people the customer isn’t always right. I do think Gasp sees this as an opportunity for some increased brand awareness on the back of a controversial marketing stunt, however I wonder at what cost? I can only assume at the price of the brands image and a whole lot of respect for the brand.
Have you had a bad, or for that matter a good, experience at Gasp? Where have you encountered good and bad customer service? And do you think that Gasp sees this as a controversial publicity stunt that will increase their brand’s awareness? Please leave you thought in the comments section below!
