The best intentions can still backfire in the media game.
In an attempt to address the issue of race relations, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz faced an immediate and intense social media backlash to his “Race Together” campaign. “Our objective from the very start — dating back to our first open forum in Seattle last December — was to stimulate conversation, empathy and compassion toward one another,” he defended. And then to broaden that dialogue beyond our Starbucks family and the public .”
Mr. Schultz’s approach was that the message of #RaceTogether was to be handwritten by the barrista onto each customers’ coffee cup in order to begin a dialogue between Starbucks employees and customers about the issue of race.
Photo Courtesy of usatoday.com
While a dialogue into issues as current and complex as race may be a good idea, there is a time and place for everything. Many customers criticized the location of a coffee line as not an appropriate time or place for such a conversation. Others on social media sites like Twitter called into question the legitimacy of the campaign pointing out that most of the top executives of Starbucks are white males. Numerous Starbucks employees have since stepped forward claiming they did not receive any training or coaching on how to approach this controversial subject. Communications skills and presentation training are crucial before launching any campaign and many employees felt unprepared to discuss such an important topic.
Still others, like NPR’s Karen Grisby Bates fell somewhere in the middle saying, “Some people think it’s just a naked marketing ploy, kind of a catalyst for free advertising. Other people think it was well intentioned, but really poorly executed.”
Whether it is a marketing attempt or a genuine concern, both intention and execution are important in corporate branding.
One week after the start of the campaign, Mr. Schultz sent out a memo ending the practice of writing the message on customer’s cups. Good intentions can have unintended consequences, and managing the backlash is as important as managing the message.