I had to jump on this immediately. During the debates tonight, the master brand manager behind @KitchenAidUSA responded to President Obama’s story about his grandmother with this tweet:
I’m sorry but what kind of idiot are you that this tweet seemed reasonable? Not only is it insensitive and disrespectful, but it completely undermines your brand Kitchen Aid. I’m no marketing guru, but I do know that you never want self-inflicted nuisance variables like this undermining your brand and/or the confidence customers have in your brand.
What’s even better is a nicely packaged pr statement follows this jewel in an effort to do some damage control. Unfortunately, 140 characters does not give you nearly enough space to adequately apologize. In addition, what happened here? Did the person that sent the tweet in the first place effectively send out the pr apology or was that another representative chiming in on the same account? Confusing and ridiculous all at once would describe this debacle.
Nothing much in the way of HR coming from me on this-except, a firm warning and/or termination for this egregious error is probably likely. Oh and sensitivity,social media, and common sense training are probably in order as well. If I was the employee that had this lapse in judgment- I would be praying that tomorrow takes its time getting here.
In all fairness to the genius tweeter this is in no way different from people that don’t think before they speak. For those that have this affliction- a word of advice- think, pause for a few moments and think again before you tweet.
Stay tuned to the conclusion of this debacle.
P.S. Kitchen Aid I still love my professional mixer and make masterful pastries because of it. Love your brand, but do get the social media stuff together.