Bad Time + Bad Decision =Nightmare
Covid-19 has huge impacts on us in 2020.
As Marketers, this might be a great year to build brand awareness and reputation. Because most people are staying home and social media is the place people would be on during most of their days. It is easy to show to the public how your brand reacts to this pandemic and to the community.
But everything has a double side. A bad PR decision can be a nightmare for a company.
Oh Polly is a woman cloth brand based in London. Their major target audience is students and young females. Oh Polly uses social media a lot to make sales and reputation to its target audiences.
Oh Polly ran a photo competition during the COVID-19 time for NHS employees and gave rewards to the winners. One of the winners named Lara Harper could not make the brand’s celebration party on Zoom due to her frontline NHS shift. Then she was told that without attending the cocktail night, she could not get the care pack and dress that she won as a prize.
This had been a really serious problem for Oh Polly in PR. Especially during the pandemic, when all people are on social media and care about the health workers. This misunderstanding circumstance is unforgettable for the public to this brand. Lara’s posts have racked up more than 60,000 likes — with hundreds of social media users sharing their disgust at Oh Polly in the replies.
Even with the brand’s apologies later on, the negative effect on the brand image will not be forgotten for a while.
