We have had a few big brand blunders this year and most of them you’ll certainly recognise! Some of these brands’ reputations will recover, be forgotten, or never be forgiven. Here are the top 5 Online Reputation Disasters of 2010 so far:
1. BP
The blown-out well that has been spewing oil into the ocean for months now, is the worst thing that could’ve happened to the large oil company, BP. Marked as the largest oil spill up to date and with an estimated 71.2 million gallons of oil already in the Gulf, BP would most likely need years to recover from the damage this oil spill has done to their reputation and of course, to the environment.
2. Fifa
Bad refereeing and furious fans have caused Fifa president, Sepp Blatter to reopen the debate whether to use technology to aid referees. This comes after England lost to Germany after a goal was not awarded during the round-of-16 and Argentina scoring an offside goal against Mexico. Sepp Blatter has apologised for refereeing mistakes that have devastated millions of fans across the globe, but fans feel more needs to be done to avoid future mistakes.
3. Toyota
It’s always great to see someone admit to their mistakes and try and rectify them but it can attract a lot of criticism as well. Toyota started experiencing quality problems causing unintended acceleration. More than 9 millions cars world-wide has been recalled so far and Toyota customers are still very concerned. Even though Toyota has been open about the whole situation, the damage to their reputation as a reliable car manufacturer is immense and would take a lot of work to rebuild.
4. Nestle
Earlier this year it was made public that Nestle used a specific palm oil ingredient in their chocolates that’s threatening the lives of orangutans. Greenpeace found evidence of Sinar Mas clearing rainforests which are forcing orang-utans out of their habitat. Sinar Mas supplies numerous companies with the palm oil and Nestle has been linked to buying from a few of those companies. This situation has caused outcry and protest around the world.
5. KFC
In April, KFC launched a digital campaign called Super Tuesday on China’s top e-commerce site Taobao. KFC in China thought of promoting their product by handing out coupons for 50% off on 3 of their most popular meals. These coupons were available only on Taobao and can only be used at specific time periods. Later on KFC discovered their coupons were being counterfeited and put a halt on all promotions. This caused protest all over China as customers who’ve already bought coupons felt cheated since all coupons were seen as fake. KFC customers soon started boycotting the brand.
Read more posts by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg
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You forgot to put Apples latest Iphone 4 disaster on you list. For me, owning one of this things, which I can still not use because went in repair 2 days after I bought it, I’m quite disappointed.
Good read – love the opening line: “Some of these brands’ reputations will recover, be forgotten, or never be forgiven”
Would be good to get some links to examples to back-up each case study though.
Hey Louis, I think it would have been even better if I remembered to add those juicy links of all the latest news on whats happening in these case studies.
Well, there you go! Links are added
mmm What about the BP phtot shop scandal that was also a interesting an funny one.
http://theweek.com/article/index/205197/bps-incredibly-amateur-photoshop-scandal
Definitely Christiaan!
Would the whole Cell C experience crack a mention from a South African context? Trevor Noah seems to still be involved with the whole simba experience till it finishes. If I was Cell C I would have waited a little longer before starting the whole experience and ensured that his endorsement and involvement with Simba was completely finished. And possibly spun it differently to avoid the whole astroturfing incident.
I agree Rory, Trevor Noah is everywhere at the moment. Simba, Kulula.com, Cell C and of course, his own show… The shine is taken away from the brands and focused on Trevor himself. I think Cell C’s rebranding was a good step to take but it would be interesting how things with Trevor Noah and Cell C play out.
Yolandi,
From a brand perspective it seems all fun and games for them to all be using him and I am sure he is benefitting in a major financial way, however as the average consumer why do we want to see the Simba guy in the Cell C ad?
Surely the dilution as you pointed out outweighs the benefit of having his celebrity? I would have loved to see Cell C be brave and create the campaign that they did around someone unknown(without the astroturfing)
If someone can create a following around the previously unknown and now Pseudo Celebrity called Vernon Koekemoer, surely using a “man off the street” it would have connected with their target market more?
Having said that I am also interested to see if the delivery on promises by Cell C actually happens, if so they have gone a major step forward in properly taking on Vodacom and MTN.
Just a random thought early in the morning before my cup of tea!
Definitely! Exciting times for Cell C!
The Toyota example is interesting as various other motor vehicle manufacturers had similar problems during the course of this year. It would seem that they learned from the Toyota “incident”
You could almost see that counterfeiting of the KFC coupons in China coming a mile away.
cell C should have been included, kit kat for me were the worst of teh lot in teh socialmedia space. perhaps GAP also needed to make teh list – teh logo debacle