Tesco Top Trollers
The customer is always right? No. Should you disrespect customers? Yes. You would not think it but this is the belief of the giant supermarket chain Tesco, in particular their mobile sector. Tesco Mobile is arguably the troll Kings of Twitter. Amongst the advertisement and selling, the 83,400 followers all look forward to the next time Tesco Mobile let loose on the public. Some may say this is risky, others will argue genius, but the strong established online presence they have agrees with the latter.
Defining online presence is difficult, but there is one thing that we can all agree on, that gaining publicity and awareness gives you a foothold in the online world. Trolling is one of the most effective ways to do this, and Tesco knows. Constant whimsical, quick-witted responses aims to gain revenge on the people who try to troll them. They out troll the trolls. In a company that is worth £100m a year in profit you would assume they are a big player in the market, but not in this instance. Tesco Mobile is notoriously known for being a joke in the mobile industry, and not being a serious competitor and this campaign launched by Tesco had a very real plan behind it.
The ‘nojoke’ hashtag proves it. These hilarious tweets have a deeper meaning, they are to show people that they are a serious competitor in the market, that they are ‘nojoke’. They are slowly changing the perceptions about the brand in order to attract the public through their engagements on Twitter and doing so successfully. Their consistently abusive but highly popular tweets have got people talking about the brand, increasing its awareness. People are treating their Twitter account as a human rather than a business; they are as much about entertaining people as they are about selling products, and this is the beauty of their account.
If you ever feel lonely, you can even have a chat with Tesco Mobile, just say hello and they will reply, they want as many followers as possible, because we all know Every Little Helps.
There are two aspects of their Twitter page which has helped to create the hype they have established, honesty and consistency. This is a clear strategy from Tesco Mobile, trying to find every opportunity to reply with witty and sometimes controversial tweets, and even where there is no opportunity they create one. They have done their research seeing how honesty has helped celebrities such as Piers Morgan and Kanye West to accumulate such vast numbers of followers, which gives them a strong presence in the online world. Their tweets are refreshingly honest, and people have reacted positively towards them for doing so, the public like to see big companies letting their hair down. This unprofessional approach is one some companies would not dream to even think about, but Tesco have ventured out, and it has worked, having huge followers and being talked about all over Twitter.
