The last five days have been a wash with news articles and blog posts covering the fallout of a recent Twitter campaign by Waitrose. Received with mixed applause – some titles came down hard on its use, with no surprise The Daily Mail leading the way, whilst others were a bit more accommodating. But was the #WaitroseReasons campaign really that bad? Are people really put out by it? Do they really find it offensive? It my opinion not, and here’s why…
1. Defined Brand Identity
By understanding the profile of its customer, Waitrose have successfully created a defined brand personality that clearly matches the nature of its customer. The outset of this campaign would probably appeal to the their customers anyway, they’d probably muse on its very nature and use it as a topic of conversation when speaking with other Waitrose shoppers. What’s more, those people don’t shop at Waitrose already understand this pretense, meaning the outset of the hash tag campaign is probably nothing new to them!
2. Case Study Review
With a wealth of case studies available, take for example the #McDStories campaign by McDonalds, the outset of conducting campaigns of this type are heavily documented. I personally think that they knew what they were doing. They new the personality of their brand and they know what the outcome would be.
3. It got people talking
Isn’t the most important thing about social media is getting people talking? This campaign definitely did that…I had my girlfriends mum, a loyal Waitrose customer who doesn’t even use social media tell me about it!
