Interesting post from Ben Bold describing P&G’s frustration with the way that social media appeared to exagerate customer complaints about the latest Pampers product. When looked at from a positive perspective, social media is ‘word of mouth of steroids’, but, as P&G has discovered, it can also ’amplify the volume of moaning.’ To paraphrase the old tree falling in a forest line, if a customers moans but you can’t hear them, does it make it a complaint?
Ironically the fact that 11,000 people chose to join a Facebook Group demanding that the company bring back the old version of Pampers is a massive testament to the power of the brand. It should also guarantee P&G’s social media department a decent budget increase during the next round of internal negotiations.