N-E-S-T-L-E-S
N-E-S-T-L-E-S
Nestles makes the very best…
CHOCOLATE
So, you may ask yourself, what would happen if I crossed Greenpeace with Nestle? Would I have:
a) environmentally safe chocolate bunnies
b) wrappers made from recycled materials
c) some very unhappy Facebook fans
If you chose “c” you would be correct. Greenpeace has been after Nestle to remove palm oil from its products. The production of palm oil has been documented to, among other things, cause greenhouse gas emissions and loss of animal life. Greenpeace has been known to go to some pretty strong extremes to make its point – everything from repelling off skyscrapers to intercepting whaling ships. This time, Greenpeace produced a video showing how the production of palm oil affected orangutans and placed the video on YouTube. Nestle fought to have the video removed citing copyright issues. Greenpeace then activated folks online and urged them to send a message to Nestle on Nestle’s Facebook page.
Nestle Life Magazine advertisement from 1967.
Well, the Nestle employee monitoring the Facebook site did not realize, in this day and age, that one cannot control the message the way one could with traditional forms of media. In addition, comments posted by the employee only fueled the fire on Facebook eventually leading to an apology from the employee, “This (deleting logos) was one in a series of mistakes for which I would like to apologize. And for being rude. We’ve stopped deleting posts, and I have stopped being rude.”
The power of emerging media is awesome in that the public is truly empowered and can make a quick impact on business. The power of the consumer has become visible and large. Complaints that used to take a written letter, stamp and envelope to produce can now be done in seconds with the click of a few keys. Consumers expressing unhappiness with a company can now notify their online social networks and encourage others to contact a company. Those “friends” can now notify their friends and on it goes.
Company executives used to take media training to teach them how to behave with reporters and television crews… What companies today need to realize is their corporate training needs to be elevated to a different level and that EVERY employee has the potential to make or break a company online. I predict the next big trend in corporate training will teaching employees how to use emerging media to the company’s benefit.
http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/03/17/nestle_taking_a
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20000805-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
July 14, 2010 at 7:27 pm
[...] N-E-S-T-L-E-S Greenpeace, through continued social media pressure and activism, has claimed victory. According to a May 17, 2010 Greenpeace blog, Nestle has agreed to “ensure its products have a zero deforestation footprint.” Nina Backas, Nestle spokeswoman, is quoted in a Wall Street Journal article as saying, “Like all companies, we are learning about how best to use social media, particularly with such complex issues. What we take out of this is that you have to engage.” [...]