For whom the bell tolls

Pop Quiz!

Q. Please identify the commonality among these companies?

Time Warner Cable

Maker’s Mark

HMV

I’ll wait…

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Time’s up!

A.     All have taken a beating regarding their digital marketing over the past few weeks.

Starting with the least crippling digital misstep among that three is Time Warner Cable.  What will come as unsurprising to most, Time Warner Cable displayed less than stellar customer service several days ago with one of their customers. What could have begun and ended quickly became a story recounting another example of poor customer service because of poor digital strategy. With a company regularly mocked (see below), they need to step up their game and realize while they may have some markets cornered, they won't always and customers rarely forget.

Marker’s Mark has also not had the best week ever. In an email (emphasis mine), Robert Samuels, the COO of Beam, Inc, wrote that to meet increased demand the company would be reducing the alcohol content of Maker’s Mark. This created a controversy among the blogosphere that spread the news wide to many a fan and an uproar ignited. Finally, after several days the company relented. This time, using better use of all their digital means to spread the word and improve their watered down reputation. To announce the reversal, they posted on their website, Facebook and twitter yet the initial step is found on none of these. If Maker’s Mark had copied their efforts in making amends when making the announcement, this uproar might have been minimized to a begrudging whisper.

Now onto the best/worst example of digital marketing and failure to adopt and fully realize its importance in the world we live in is... HMV.

HMV is just the latest example of brick-and-mortar stores not recognizing the change in their competitive environment and increased emphasis on a digital strategy. As indicated in this blog post,

“They saw themselves as a physical store that sold music, rather than a pure music retailer.”

I agree, that this is the principle concept that led to HMV’s demise. They did not correctly identify their competitors and what their core purpose was. They didn’t adapt to the changing environment and treated digital as an add-on, something they needed to do, but they didn’t truly recognize how or why. 

There is no better evidence of their thinking then the twitter feed of the company during a recent mass firing… 

Modern companies MUST recognize that digital marketing isn’t just a fad or simply updating a twitter/Facebook feed somewhat regularly. These methods are used to create conversations and relationships with their consumers.

For HMV to recover from after this death knell they will need to work hard and use all their marketing tools, particularly the cheap, effective digital methods to reach out to consumers and influencers to recover their reputation in the hopes that they can build the company back up.

I believe that there is a chance they can recover but it will be a hard road and hard examination. They need to examine what their customers need now AND in the future.