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Tone-deaf marketing, empathy in customer experiences, and why brands should give qualitative data as much attention as quantitative:
A thread 1/?
A thread 1/?
This marketing email from Funko with some ideas for Mother's Day gifts includes the ostensibly adorable but also somewhat notorious figure of Grogu/Baby Yoda/The Child from The Mandalorian with Frog Lady's eggs, which he ate in a joke that landed very poorly in Chapter 10. 2/
I'm not linking to any of the articles which covered the controversy because they were poorly-researched clickbait, but the general audience reaction ranged from "meh" to "yikes," and many mothers fell on the "yikes" end of that spectrum. 3/
This is something that, whatever their own opinions on the response of some fans, one might expect marketing professionals to know when creating new emails designed to appeal to a specific segment. 4/
AND YET. It seems not. But before I delve into the specific problems with this email and the existence of the Pop itself, let's look an example of empathy in email marketing that led to wild success... 5/
In 2018, UK flower company Bloom & Wild heard qualitative feedback from some customers that receiving Mother's Day emails was triggering for them. These were people struggling with loss, estrangement, abandonment, and other painful family issues.... 6/ https://www.mindtheproduct.com/how-bloom-wild-made-customer-experience-more-thoughtful-a-case-study/
These customers may not have been represented in large numbers, but the company's core values of "Care" and "Customer First" led them to design a simple email to be sent out before their 2019 Mother's Day campaign, allowing customers to opt out of the campaign altogether: 7/
The results were instantaneous. Nearly 18,000 customers opted out of the campaign, but overall brand engagement quadrupled. Grateful messages poured in from customers who insisted they would use Bloom & Wild for all their flower needs in the future. One caring email did that. 8/
So, to recap, this company took their values seriously and acted on them even when the numbers did not indicate that there was any kind of revenue to be gained from this decision. They treated their customers like humans with emotions instead of wallets to be mined. 9/
Now, let's turn our attention back to Baby Yoda. If you're not familiar with the origin of the controversy, Chapter 10 of Mando featured a frog-like alien mother with precious eggs in tow, attempting to reunite with her husband so that they could start their family. 10/
There was great emphasis placed on how precious these eggs were to her, and how protective she was of them. And yet, in the course of the episode, Baby Yoda ate not one, not two, but three of her eggs, and it was passed off for laughs rather than drama or tragedy. 11/
Most viewers thought the joke was unfunny at best, but some were impacted on a more personal level, as the eggs reminded them of their own struggles with infertility. To them, seeing loss analogies and the desire for children treated as a joke was extremely painful. 12/
So, you can see how not only is promoting the toy associated with this episode potentially insensitive, but promoting it SPECIFICALLY as a Mother's Day gift is shockingly tone-deaf. It fails to consider either in-world or real-world context and demonstrates a lack of empathy. 13/
But I don't really want to dump on Funko too much, although they should know better. No, my real target here is Disney Lucasfilm, because of THEIR stated company values which are not being represented by this pattern of ignorant decision-making. 14/
At Disney properties, Cast Members are trained to give the best guest experience according to values known as the Five Keys:
Safety
Courtesy
Inclusion
Show
Efficiency.
Notably, Inclusion was just added to this list recently. 15/
Safety
Courtesy
Inclusion
Show
Efficiency.
Notably, Inclusion was just added to this list recently. 15/
The Keys are also ordered by priority, so Safety is considered the most important, followed by Courtesy, then Inclusion and so on.
Safety is not just physical, but emotional as well. Whether or not a customer FEELS safe dictates how they feel about their experience. 16/
Safety is not just physical, but emotional as well. Whether or not a customer FEELS safe dictates how they feel about their experience. 16/
Courtesy is self-explanatory, as it requires consideration of others, and of course Inclusion indicates the deliberate centering and welcome of diverse perspectives. A brand that follows these would consider the impact of their marketing on all customers. 17/
And yet even after the controversy when the Mando episode aired (which Disney certainly knew about based on reactions from multiple Lucasfilm employees), the brand appears to have failed to reflect and continue to carelessly cause needless harm to a portion of their audience. 18/
Further, this has been a failure at every step: first in the writing room, then in direction of the episode, then in the merchandising decisions, and eventually in the marketing. Apparently, the perspectives of hopeful parents and mothers in particular were never considered. 19/
One might counter that this is not a large enough group to warrant consideration in brand decisions, which is reflective of the current obsession with exclusively quantitative "data-driven" business choices. 20/
This is the result of treating customers like numbers instead of PEOPLE, of privileging quantitative data over qualitative. Not only is there unnecessary harm, but real opportunities for positive brand engagement (and eventual revenue) are missed. 21/
Successful brands listen to their customers and empathize with them. And most people would rather work for and buy from a company that respects and values their humanity rather than just their economic value. I hope Disney learns that one day. 22/22
