Here in Southwest Michigan, Whirlpool is a BIG deal. Their world headquarters are located about a half an hour away from me, in Benton Harbor. They are a huge employer in the area. So today, I thought I'd take a look at their online presence, specifically their "Every day, care" campaign and their Facebook page.
So I'm pretty skeptical of big corporations. I think profits are their biggest concern and for the most part they don't care that much about individual consumers, or about the communities those consumers live in, aside from how their public relations affects their sales. I'm not sure if this "Every day, care" campaign changes my mind about that, if I really think about it, BUT I'll admit, the idea behind the campaign is great, and the content they've created for it absolutely got to me on an emotional level.
I think it is a big challenge for a company to find a way to engage with it's customers on a more emotional and less practical level. Especially a company like Whirlpool, that makes such practical products, like dishwashers and refrigerators; appliances that are meant to blend into the background of our lives. So I love the idea behind "Every day, care". On their website they have a dedicate page to this program, with scrolling photos of kids and families accompanied by numbers like "Behind every graduate there are 7, 488 loads of laundry". A video titled "Congrats Parents, you did it" highlights the years of laundry and dishes and cooking (every day, care tasks) that are behind the success of every high school graduate. It's a tear jerker, not gonna lie. It makes the mundane and routine seem important and noble, which I think is the real brilliance of this idea. Also highlighted on this page are statistics about the well-being of kids and families related to household tasks, such as the fact that clean clothes are linked to better school attendance rates of kids. This leads into programs such as Whirlpool's partnership with Habitat for Humanity. All of this makes me feel good about potentially being a Whirlpool customer.
Unfortunately, a lot of that changed when I looked at their Facebook page.
At first their Facebook page drew me in in much the same way the "Every day, care" page did. There is lots of great content. The videos showing kids and teachers, talking about the importance of clean cloths and how Whirlpool is helping address this issue were especially compelling to me. The dark side comes when you start diving into the comments...ho boy. NOTHING but complaints. The vast majority of the comments have nothing to do with the posting, they are just customers complaining about broken products and subsequent horrible customer service. Now I think with any company/product, you'd expect to see a little of this. Cranks gonna crank. But in the case of Whirlpool there seems to be no one with anything good to share about the product or the company.
Making it even worse are the replies from the company. Most echo the same lines. "Please send us a private message with such and such information", "We are sorry for your frustrations", "Your concerns have been documented". None of it feels genuine, and it shows. Disgruntled customers actively warn others not to buy Whirlpool products. Ouch, as a company, that's gotta hurt.
I think the idea of "Every day, care" was really solid. It cleverly met the need for a sense of importance for overworked (and often underappreciated) parents and caregivers, who are of course a target audience for a brand like Whirlpool. They made a solid attempt to address the social and consumer experience of interacting with Whirlpool, by engaging with the universal experience of family, something that could have gotten people sharing their positive experiences with the brand, cute pictures of their kids, stuff like that. Unfortunately it backfired, or misfired, or however you want to look at it, because the comments were overrun by complaints, and the complaints were not well addressed. This isn't the fault of the marketing team, it seems to be a failing of the quality of the product and customer service, but either way, it undermines the marketing strategy.
It's hard to suggest areas for improvement, because it seems like Whirlpool just needs to make a better product that doesn't break. Or have better customer service and warranty policies for when it does. Outside of that, I think it would be hard to recapture the narrative on the Facebook page. Perhaps a specific ask for positive stories that could then be heavily promoted could help, but it would be risky, as it would probably seem disingenuous. The smartest move might be to step back from Facebook, with it's highly visible comments, and focus more on other social media platforms that would not provide as much of a megaphone for complaints. Their Twitter site already does a pretty good job of that, as well as Pinterest and YouTube. It seems Facebook is the platform people are most likely to share their grievances.
So in conclusion, well done, marketing team at Whirlpool who came up with "Every day, care"! I hope your company starts making better products to make your job a little easier.
So I'm pretty skeptical of big corporations. I think profits are their biggest concern and for the most part they don't care that much about individual consumers, or about the communities those consumers live in, aside from how their public relations affects their sales. I'm not sure if this "Every day, care" campaign changes my mind about that, if I really think about it, BUT I'll admit, the idea behind the campaign is great, and the content they've created for it absolutely got to me on an emotional level.
I think it is a big challenge for a company to find a way to engage with it's customers on a more emotional and less practical level. Especially a company like Whirlpool, that makes such practical products, like dishwashers and refrigerators; appliances that are meant to blend into the background of our lives. So I love the idea behind "Every day, care". On their website they have a dedicate page to this program, with scrolling photos of kids and families accompanied by numbers like "Behind every graduate there are 7, 488 loads of laundry". A video titled "Congrats Parents, you did it" highlights the years of laundry and dishes and cooking (every day, care tasks) that are behind the success of every high school graduate. It's a tear jerker, not gonna lie. It makes the mundane and routine seem important and noble, which I think is the real brilliance of this idea. Also highlighted on this page are statistics about the well-being of kids and families related to household tasks, such as the fact that clean clothes are linked to better school attendance rates of kids. This leads into programs such as Whirlpool's partnership with Habitat for Humanity. All of this makes me feel good about potentially being a Whirlpool customer.
Unfortunately, a lot of that changed when I looked at their Facebook page.
At first their Facebook page drew me in in much the same way the "Every day, care" page did. There is lots of great content. The videos showing kids and teachers, talking about the importance of clean cloths and how Whirlpool is helping address this issue were especially compelling to me. The dark side comes when you start diving into the comments...ho boy. NOTHING but complaints. The vast majority of the comments have nothing to do with the posting, they are just customers complaining about broken products and subsequent horrible customer service. Now I think with any company/product, you'd expect to see a little of this. Cranks gonna crank. But in the case of Whirlpool there seems to be no one with anything good to share about the product or the company.
Making it even worse are the replies from the company. Most echo the same lines. "Please send us a private message with such and such information", "We are sorry for your frustrations", "Your concerns have been documented". None of it feels genuine, and it shows. Disgruntled customers actively warn others not to buy Whirlpool products. Ouch, as a company, that's gotta hurt.
I think the idea of "Every day, care" was really solid. It cleverly met the need for a sense of importance for overworked (and often underappreciated) parents and caregivers, who are of course a target audience for a brand like Whirlpool. They made a solid attempt to address the social and consumer experience of interacting with Whirlpool, by engaging with the universal experience of family, something that could have gotten people sharing their positive experiences with the brand, cute pictures of their kids, stuff like that. Unfortunately it backfired, or misfired, or however you want to look at it, because the comments were overrun by complaints, and the complaints were not well addressed. This isn't the fault of the marketing team, it seems to be a failing of the quality of the product and customer service, but either way, it undermines the marketing strategy.
It's hard to suggest areas for improvement, because it seems like Whirlpool just needs to make a better product that doesn't break. Or have better customer service and warranty policies for when it does. Outside of that, I think it would be hard to recapture the narrative on the Facebook page. Perhaps a specific ask for positive stories that could then be heavily promoted could help, but it would be risky, as it would probably seem disingenuous. The smartest move might be to step back from Facebook, with it's highly visible comments, and focus more on other social media platforms that would not provide as much of a megaphone for complaints. Their Twitter site already does a pretty good job of that, as well as Pinterest and YouTube. It seems Facebook is the platform people are most likely to share their grievances.
So in conclusion, well done, marketing team at Whirlpool who came up with "Every day, care"! I hope your company starts making better products to make your job a little easier.
References
The Official Every day, care.® Site | Whirlpool. Retrieved from https://www.whirlpool.com/everydaycare.html
Whirlpool USA (@whirlpoolusa) on Twitter. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/whirlpoolusa
Whirlpool USA. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/whirlpoolusa
Whirlpool USA. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/whirlpoolusa/
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