It’s a sad but true fact that one of
the best way to learn in business if from others mistakes and I would like to
share an absolute classic from Colgate. Colgate’s brand has grown from
toothpaste to toothbrushes and now electric toothbrushes.
The latter is a very competitive
market with brands such as Philips and Braun’s Oral B spending vast sums on TV
advertising. So you can sympathise with the marketing team at Colgate when
thinking how they could make some noise about the launch of its new electric
toothbrush.
What they came up with was
BrushSwap. Create a viral noise by having a stand at Waterloo station for a week followed by another at
London Victoria
The problem with
giving away free stuff and announcing it on social media is that it tends to get
shared, a lot. On the first day people starting queuing at the stand at 5am, it
wasn’t planned to open until 7am. By 9am they were forced to shut the stand
after being swamped by people and having run out of brushes. Cue lots of annoyed
people who had travelled to London
To be fair to
Colgate on paper it was a good idea using a tried and trusted technique. The
reality was different. Colgate has now learnt not to underestimate the reach of
social media to spread both a good message and a bad one when things go wrong.
It has also moved the initiative online to an open to all draw for one of 7,000
brushes they are giving away. Network Rail is also reviewing what promotional
opportunities it allows after numerous complaints from angry commuters caught in
the chaos.
Maybe the real lesson comes from
Philips who placed a press ad appearing in national newspapers reading, "The
best things in life aren’t free." The ad had an image of the Philips Sonicare
electric toothbrush and the strapline, "The UK’s No1 sonic toothbrush. And worth
every penny." Now that’s marketing.
Tim Youngman is director of
marketing for Archant
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