Comments on: On Missing the Mark

By: PunditMom/Joanne Bamberger

PunditMom/Joanne Bamberger — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:06:41 +0000

The shocking thing to me is that Nestle and much of corporate America view women who write online (I’m trying to stop using the word ‘bloggers’) as not worthy of taking the time to truly understand their values and community AND that these women are bright, savvy and educated. It really isn’t rocket science to know that if you reach out in a constructive, engaging and honest way, you’re going to get a lot more in return, even if you have to disclose your mistakes.

As long as corporations try to use women online as merely an extension of their PR staff, they will continue to fail.

By: Lay Down With Dogs, Get Up With Fleas – Old lesson, New Perspective - Forty Weeks

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:58:57 +0000

[...] lay where. I took a hard look at Nestle as a case study in failed marketing to/with Moms (On Missing the Mark,) . @crunchygoddess took a long well considered look at the lessons of the Nestle Family tweetstorm. [...]

By: Mike Brady

Mike Brady — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:00:09 +0000

Nestlé has a history of events like this, with more conventional media at least. I came across this one due to the volume of traffic to Baby Milk Action sites from links posted on Twitter – thanks to everyone who did that.

Here is something about our experiences in the UK:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2008/04/nestle-uk-strategy.html

For answers to some of the questions raised on Twitter see:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2009/10/twitter-answers.html

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:50:54 +0000

Excellent post. Clean your house before you invite people over, Nestle!

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:55:21 +0000

When social media comes into play, companies lose control of the message. Period.

Just like when your terrible movie comes out in the theater and twitter and facebook negativity kill it before the weekend is out.

If you’re a large company with skeletons in your closet, maybe a parent blogger junket is not the appropriate vehicle.

By: Kevin Burke

Kevin Burke — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:45:06 +0000

The position the moms attending have been put in is well described. Big marketing blunder, let’s see how they attempt to recover.

By: kakaty

kakaty — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:08:33 +0000

Exaclty!!! Like Nestle or not, the issue here isn’t about the “blemishes on your corporate resume” and breastfeeding vs. formula; it’s about how they failed at the marketing aspect of this event. I was just watching the fray yesterday until I saw several tweets from attendees about how Nestle wanted to be part of the conversation on Social Media…and here they were NOT part of the conversation at all and allowing the bloggers to take the brunt of the attacks. The second they provided a hashtag (#nestlefamily) they are either directly or indirectly asking the attendees to tweet about the event. And by not being on Twitter themselves they created a huge storm and placed the unknowing bloggers right in the eye of that storm.

And I hate (HATE!) how some people are now saying that companies will re-think marketing to “mommybloggers” – this is in no way their doing…it’s was a failure of Nestle’s marketing strategy.

By: Boston Mamas

Boston Mamas — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:06:46 +0000

Thanks for this thoughtful post — your second to last paragraph really hits the nail on the head re: a major component of what bothers me about this whole situation. I’m seeing a lot of attendee tweets saying, “I’m just relating what was told” — which of course is all they can do at this point. It’s a horrible situation to be put in.

I was invited to this event and declined; yesterday I wrote about this situation on my personal blog: http://popdiscourse.com/2009/09/on-bloggers-breastfeeding-formula-morality-changenestle-family-event/

best, Christine

By: Did we learn anything from the Nestle Family Twitter-storm? | Crunchy Domestic Goddess

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:38:59 +0000

[...] have written more about this, like Julia from Forty Weeks who wrote On missing the mark: To me this is a case study for poor planning, short-sighted thinking and other classic marketing [...]

By: Selfish Mom

Selfish Mom — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:26:26 +0000

I’m guessing they thought that they could invite some bloggers to talk about products without the weight of an entire company’s worldwide practices coming into play. I think the message of the people attacking the bloggers is getting lost due to the fact that they’re shouting at people who shouldn’t be held responsible for the issues you’re bringing up. Ah, but it’s so much easier to shout at the bloggers.