Comcast: The Evil Empire? When Viral Marketing Comes Back to Bite You
Posted by Katie Farrar on Wed, May 14, 2008 @ 11:49 PM
Most of the time viral marketing campaigns, if executed right, are one of the best ways to spread your message. The best ones use the search engines, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, email applications and numerous other avenues to promote and start spreading their messages.
This is all great stuff when the viral messages are promoting all the GOOD things about your product/services/business. But what about when viral messages pop up that are saying all kinds of BAD things about your product/services/business? Uh-oh.
See, the thing is, with our unlimited access and ability to communicate with each other via our blogs, email, forums, social media sites, etc. it's inevitable that customers will voice their opinions and share their stories. The good, the bad, and the really ugly.
Below are two examples of how customer dissatisfaction has lead to a very undesirable portrayal of Comcast. If you are a regular reader of my blog you may have noticed my numerous comments about my lack of TIVO or DVR. That maybe because I'm also boycotting Comcast. It's not because of either of these videos, but you can be sure that I have had some similar experiences and thought these videos were hilarious! (I'm currently considering Verizon or The Dish so any recommendations would be welcome.)
I would guess that Comcast came back with some damage control (surely not those annoying commercials where people are singing instead of talking) but in my opinion, the damage was done. Not to mention that there are hundreds of other videos posted on YouTube with additional complaints.
I think the moral of the story is this: If your company screws up or has unhappy customers don't assume that no one else will hear about it. Rather than being reactive to these types of situations try to be proactive. Make sure that your positive marketing messages are visible if not before, than at least just as much as the negative messages and complaints. Because whether or not you like it, people are already talking about it and passing it along to their friends and families.
Now, grab your popcorn and prepare to literally laugh out loud. If you're at work you definitely need the sound on! The backround songs make these videos...
Whoa... talk about a really bad day huh? I'm still laughing!
What did you think? Do you have any funny stories like this about your cable provider? We'd love to hear your experiences so leave a comment!