Tiffany’s Fading Shining
One imprudent promotion and reputation comes crashing down — now Tiffany knows it. Just one foto of model Sun Feifei, posted in Twitter increased strong indignation in China’s market.
Maybe, it is not just a coincidence?
A woman covering her eye, is showing rings — ordinary photo for commercials. It used to be, except when some people found similarities between the model’s pose and a protestant, who was hit in the eye during protestations in Hong Kong. After that, the brand was accused in support of the violation and defamation.
Or maybe, everything is unbelievably simple?
As soon as the brand got negative feedback, a Tiffany’s spokesman tried to explain this inconvenient situation by claiming that the photos were taken in May, before any demonstrations got started, so that company wasn’t trying to engage politics into promotion campaign. However, Tiffany apologized and deleted the post, some people still consider that posting such photos during sensitive times is not best way to increase sales.
Any chance to get away with it?
To my mind, the brand found the best way to calm down angry buyers. They realized their oversight and immediately apologized and delete the core of the conflict in order not to continue it. This strategy is always working — give excuses even if you not guilty or it will not end up soon.
Unfortunately, nowadays companies should think twice before posting something because it may hurt someone’s feelings even if there is no hidden agenda. This situation could not appear if Tiffany noticed a resemblance between photos and decided not to post it at all. Another variant may be to postpone the promotion campaign until everything will fall into place.
There are no sharp boundaries for who is responsible for such crisis — it is possible that both PR and marketing involved. PR and marketing have one aim — to establish rapport, trust and earn perfect reputation among clients. To my mind, PR is holding more responsibilities than marketing because it is oriented on public opinion and should take into consideration all the potential factors that can affect relations between company and customer.
References
Mailonline, R. I. F. (2019, October 8). Tiffany removes photo after Chinese consumers accused jeweller of supporting Hong Kong protests. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7549977/Tiffany-removes-photo-Chinese-consumers-accused-jeweller-supporting-Hong-Kong-protests.html.
