There is viral trend on Twitter against HUL with #BoycottHUL. Last few days has not been so good for Unilever India. There are negative sentiments trending on twitter with hashtags like #BoycottSurfExcel #BoycottHindustanUnilever #BoycottHULproducts #HindustanUnileverboycott #BoycottHUL and many more. People are posting lists of famous HUL brands in India and asking to boycott and switch to others (Patanjali is the most mentioned choice!).
This boycott trend started due to two video ads. The first ad was about the Kumb mela (one of the largest gatherings of people in the world). HUL tried to highlight the message that people leave elders in the Kumbh mela which created anger among masses. The Kumbh is considered highly religious and spiritual event. Later on, HUL changed the content, but the damage was done as people have screenshots of the first message. In many reply tweets, people posted the earlier message.
Kumbh Mela is a place where old people get abandoned, isn’t it sad that we do not care for our elders? Red Label encourages us to hold the hands of those who made us who we are
The first tweet
Red Label encourages us to hold the hands of those who made us who we are
The updated tweet after firestorm
Within two days of this drama running on high emotions (elections and recent India-Pak confrontations were another fueling factors), HUL released another ad for Holi. That ad broke the last barrier consumers were holding, and the spark became a firestorm. If any negative message becomes viral it is termed as ‘firestorm’. Pfeffer defines firestorm as the sudden discharge of large quantities of messages containing negative WOM and complaint behavior against a person, company, or group in social media networks. There are many famous incidents of firestorm such as #McDStories and Zomato recruitment ad comparing Delhi and Bengaluru.
As of 13th march the Holi ad has 9 million views on YouTube. Interestingly, the messages in YouTube are mostly positive but on Twitter situation is very different. Readers are advised to read the contrasting content on the two sites. Since content is sensitive and may hurt sentiments, I am refraining from posting it here.
The important and most interesting questions is how HUL or any big company can handle such issues? The first thing is that it is high time to move out of deep routed philosophy (proposed and proliferated by Ogilvy and others) of using emotions to connect with consumers. Jack Trout (he coined the term positioning) suggests to adapt a balanced view of using emotion or rational focus in ads while communicating to consumer. Recently, firms have started using festivals as a means of promoting their brands. Check this for Diwali – festival of lights.
Even in Western countries, the marketing firms have successfully reduced Christmas to a ‘Black Friday sale’’ where people have to buy and gift something! The same is happening to Indian festivals (watch TV or read newspaper during Diwali, Holi, Akshay Tritiya or Pongal). That is a disaster waiting to happen where a consumer backlash will definitely happen. If all goes well, people like ad – views on YouTube increase, video gets shared on WhatsApp. But the moment a line is crossed (again this is debatable, but that’s not the point of this article). This whole goody feelings stuff turns to consumer’s feelings of exploitation by global firms. So, as a first step, make sure the ad is within acceptable limits – try a trial run. Watch carefully public response, and if there is any indication of something may go wrong, immediately backtrack and control the damage. Second, stop playing with emotions of people in the name of cause-related marketing!
When people buy a Rin, Ariel, or Surf excel, do they buy it because they remembered some happy feeling wali ad? The ads are NOT Bollywood movies where SRK weaves his magic of love and people fall in love with his charm (nowadays even he is getting flops in a row!). So, if SRK can fail then who the hell ad agencies are? In 2 minutes, do not try to become a SRK. Do not blindly trust the ad agency creatives who are still selling the emotional and social formula! We all known how difficult it is to acquire a customer and even more difficult is to snatch customers from your competitors. But unfortunately after spending millions in ads, HUL is gifting its customers to Patanjali and others on a plate. May be HUL should wish ‘Happy Holi” to Baba Ramdev.
This incident is widely covered in various media – which means it will forever stay online, it will be part of Google search results, and the tweets will continue to serve reminders to HUL and other firms who are still in the mood of exploiting emotions of consumers. If a genuine consumer wants to see the ad – a simple Google search of HUL Holi Ad results in the following. So much for the emotional ads! Irony is that HUL used tag #RangLaayeSang, which means bringing colors together, but it is resulting in consumers breaking their years old relationships with HUL brands and switching to other options. So, the hashtag is more of #BhagayeConsumer.
Aftermath:
Though, a really unexpected and hilarious outcome of this fiasco is faced by Microsoft as they share name Excel with Surf Excel. I suspect some mischief (sarcasm) from the consumers in support of such ads. But as a reality check, people who use twitter and know hashtag should be aware (or unaware) of what is Microsoft excel!