An article in today's New York Times exposes Target's reluctance to recognize the trends of new media.
Apparently, Amy Jussel, founder of the blog ShapingYouth.org, called Target to complain about their latest advertisments, specifically the one pictured on the right. While the image seems innocent enough - featuring Target's ubiquitous logo and color scheme with a happy-go-lucky young woman in the middle - Jussel sees the ad as "targeting crotches with a bull's-eye."
However, instead of sending Jussel a typically placating response, a public relations person responded with this: "Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets."
I'm sorry, what?
I'm sorry, what?
Given the current changing media environment, I can understand a certain misstep in handling the blogosphere. However, for Target to have an official policy stating they do not "participate" with bloggers seems extremely shortsighted. Company spokesperson Amy von Walter explained that Target's policy is to focus its limited resources on major media outlets with the potential to reach the largest audience. I can understand the idea, but it should apply to their proactive efforts, not simply responding to inquiries or complaints.
I worked in public relations, with a firm of three employees - including the other co-op and me - and a list of five client companies/organizations. And we always had time to respond to inquiries. For a multi-billion dollar corporation to use the excuse that their public relations team is too limited to respond to an inquiry, simply because it came from a blogger, is inexcusable.
It is true that bloggers have yet to truly find their place in the media - the reader comments to the Times article demonstrate that clearly enough - but this situation should serve as a lesson to the business world. Get on the bad side of one blog, and in a short time, the whole world knows.
My word of advice: Recognize the power of the blog.
I worked in public relations, with a firm of three employees - including the other co-op and me - and a list of five client companies/organizations. And we always had time to respond to inquiries. For a multi-billion dollar corporation to use the excuse that their public relations team is too limited to respond to an inquiry, simply because it came from a blogger, is inexcusable.
It is true that bloggers have yet to truly find their place in the media - the reader comments to the Times article demonstrate that clearly enough - but this situation should serve as a lesson to the business world. Get on the bad side of one blog, and in a short time, the whole world knows.
My word of advice: Recognize the power of the blog.
1 comments:
As the Times story pointed out, it was particularly odd coming from Target, which likes to promote an image of being more sophisticated than the competition. I can't imagine the top executives at Target were too happy to see that story — I'll bet the next blogger who tries to get a comment will receive a different response.
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