PR vs Marketing on Responsible For Social Media Crisis
As you all know, social media has been significant for not only just people’s life but brands’ life too. Particularly in recent years, brands have gradually spent more budget on social media marketing, according to the report. Usually, social media is a platform for companies to spread out messages and for customers to receive messages or ask questions. The interaction is often organic and can always bring a positive effect to both sides. However, bad management of social media may cause a brand’s reputation in crisis and damage itself. This kind of trouble, unfortunately, often happens from time to time for a brand.
Burger King Case
We all have tasted fast food before. We all have our own favorite fast food. Nowadays, every fast-food brand has its own social media platforms where they update new products or events. Burger King no doubt is one of them. Burger King has a relatively positive image comparing to other fast-food chains. In April 2019, however, Burger King in New Zealand posted a clip with a person trying to eat its new Asian flavored burger by chopsticks. As I’m guessing, marketers in the Burger King thought it was an excellent idea to promote its new Asian flavored burger, a lot of Asian people feel offended.
Good Move?
Burger King acted immediately. It deleted the clip and made an apologizing statement. Smart and right move by Burger King, I would say. At this point of time, when a company publishes an inappropriate post or clip, all you can do is apologize and hope consumers can forget shortly. They might also have to get rid of this new product since it may remind people of this incident.
My Perspective
What I would do differently is that, since Burger King is a huge and dominate company, Burger King in New Zealand should have a short term promotion (such as a buy-one-get-one-free event) as an apology. The damage was done to a portion of consumers and the company, the company should make up for it. For those who were harmed, this was Burger King’s apology. For those who were not aware of the incident, they would just go to Burger King, thinking it’s just a pure event or something.
Can This Be Avoided?
I believe incidents like this can be avoided. Since Burger King knew they were targeting Asian to a burger industry. It should have had an Asian marketer doing the project. It would be best if he and she were from a pure Asian family whose life is mostly Eastern culture. Moreover, before published on social media, it could give it to a few Asian people to see what they feel about it. Based on the reaction, it could decide if the clip needs to be adjusted or can just be published right away.
PR vs MKT
When it comes to who should be responsible for the case like this, PR or Marketing, I would say both. Even though It was the marketing department’s idea, PR is responsible for public speaking. Even though PR should stand out to speak, marketing needs to talk to the PR department to find a good solution. The communication between the two departments is necessary and vital for the apology and future make up.
Hope right now you understand that the PR & marketing department is supposed to work together to solve any social media crisis.
Have a great week!
TC
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The first Instagram photo featured what animal?
A: A dog
