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First, there was the Tylenol incident--an example of how to respond to crisis. Now, there is the Motrin incident--an example of how not to respond in a crisis. Interestingly enough (and many people don't know this), both products are marketed by the same company, McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. So how can the company that did such an exemplary job in handling the Tylenol tragedy (and ensuing scare) act so slowly when it got caught in a social media groundswell over the weekend? While I'm sure Motrin's business won't die because its web site was offline for the better part of a day, I still have a hard time wondering why they didn't have a backup site ready to go, or at least another video ready to go. But more importantly, McNeil, like so many companies producing multimedia content for consumption online, failed to look at social media for anything more than a tool for marketing to the consumer. The folks at Motrin could've used all of the social media tools and services at their disposal to test messages with a smaller audience before releasing it to the general public.
The folks at Motrin should consider using their web properties for more than just marketing, but for creating, leveraging and/or interacting with the online communities that they care about--using the feedback they collect to improve not only their marketing messages, but ultimately (however slowly in the case of pharmaceuticals) their products. In my conversations with folks in the biotech and pharmaceutical worlds, the phrase "social media" tends to evoke sighs of frustration and complaints of legal restrictions and slow-moving bureaucracies. It doesn't have to be that way. Plenty of smart companies are embracing social media. They may not be blogging with the outside world, but they are blogging on their intranet, and using wikis and microsharing too! I would like to invite Motrin to take us up on an offer to deliver an Idea Mine session to help identify ways in which they can use social media responsibly and efficiently to help avoid this in the future and identify some killer Web 2.0 strategies for their business.The goal of this program is to recruit and identify a representative group of passionate online influencers who are willing to help your company succeed, and then invite them to participate in a 4-week, online community discussion that results in a formal set of recommendations for your social media strategy. Give us a call if you're interested!
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