Waitrose’s recent Twitter campaign sparked a torrent of ‘posh’ jibes and quips from social media jokers and divided opinion among marketing experts.
The grocer asked its Twitter followers to complete the sentence “I shop at Waitrose because…” using the hashtag #waitrosereasons. That triggered an avalanche of comedic comments, unlikely to be the sort the grocer had hoped for, prompting a debate on whether the campaign was a great success or a spectacular failure.
Tweets such as “because I think food must automatically be better if it costs three times as much” could damage brand reputation. But it was mainly humorous tweets, such as “because Clarissa’s pony just will not eat Asda Value straw”, that were the ones retweeted. National media also reported on the reaction, giving the campaign further legs. According to market research agency YouGov, when the campaign launched, only 7% of UK Twitter users had seen or heard about the tweets. Once The Guardian picked up on it, that figure jumped to 12%.
Jason Woodford of digital marketing agency SiteVisibility said it was “a clever marketing ploy” that should not damage the brand image, and that the jokes would actually have reinforced “values of quality and excellent service”.
Though Waitrose took the jibes on the chin, surely it was not looking for jokes at its expense. The naysayers say Waitrose has spent four years moving its brand away from perceptions it is expensive and emphasising value, such as by price-matching Tesco on brands and introducing the Essentials range.
Have the sometimes barbed jokes damaged the brand and undone such work, cementing a ‘posh’ reputation? The answer – given the light-hearted nature of most of the comments – is probably not, although it is clear the retailer has not entirely shed its image as grocer to the middle classes.
The other point, once again, is that you cannot control what consumers say on social media.
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