Old Navy Flops. Anybody Home?
By Hazel on May 23, 2009 in Age of the Super Consumer, Featured
Twitter tweets were buzzing today about their frustration and anger with Old Navy’s $1 Flip Flop Day.
Apparently the marketing gurus in this company (and most other corporations for that matter) have not taken into consideration every move they make…we are watching them…and Twittering!
All over the country people were Twittering about their unhappy experience in “real-time“. This is the power of the Social Network folks!
It’s for certain, many folks on were not happy campers. Just look at some of the comments I saw coming across Twitter…
one dollar flip flop day at old navy : hate hate hate flip flops : hate hate hate old navy : hate everyone buying flip flops right now
I just hope that Old Navy took names of everyone who CAMPED OUT for flip flops, in the interests of future gene pool cleansing
Da%$#^…old navy is out of $1 flip flops…i should have known.
In Old Navy people are fighting over the flip flops.I’m not even joking.
No more flip flops at old navy. Like 0 pairs left. People are intense.
Old navy was a bunch of B.S.
OLD Navy will remember the next time they have a $1.00. They had to close the store!
Craziness at Old Navy, all for cheap plastic shoes! So not worth it!
Will Old Navy try to do damage repair? That remains to be seen. What I do know is this should be a lesson for all of us in business but especially for you big guys.
No longer are you in control of your brand. The people are! Anyone in business not recognizing this must have checked out awhile back.
But here the thing, it’s not enough to just recognize this. You better be proactive and THINK through your marketing, services, products, advertising, etc.
Just sitting around the table dreaming up promotions and such is very dangerous in this new era. Heck, I’m still upset with KFC when they would not take my coupon I downloaded from the Oprah offer. That turned into a PR nightmare for them even if they don’t know it.
What matters is what the customer thinks…PERIOD!
3 Comment(s)
By Dave Van de Walle on May 26, 2009 | Reply
Hazel,
Great post. “No longer are you in control of your brand” should be tattooed on every brand manager’s forehead.
Well, tattooed in reverse, so that when they look in the mirror they will see that it’s not them in control.
Yes, there’s real-time reality, too — can’t imagine a brand like Old Navy isn’t paying attention, but apparently not.
Keep on sharing stuff like this!
By Alida on May 26, 2009 | Reply
I am disappointed that Old Navy did not learn from the experiences of Denny’s, KFC and other companies that have done similar promotions this year. I know that other companies will continue this trend and hope they finally learn to prepare for a large consumer response.
By My Amazing Weight Loss Story on May 28, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for posting, I very much enjoyed your latest post. I think you should post more often, you obviously have talent for blogging!