A Wren Says

Sigh, I just made a major email mistake at work today. I mixed up the email message and senders, so that I sent the absolutely wrong message to the person I was trying to reach. As work mistakes go, it was pretty minor, but nervewracking nonetheless.

I think there are some marketers who feel that right now. They had a person they were hoping to reach. They crafted the message expertly. And then it got read by completely the wrong person.

As hard as you try to narrow down your target market and hone your message, you can’t guarantee who will or won’t see it. And thus, you can’t force who will or won’t get it. The question that you have to answer is, “What will you do with that?”

If your message is the source of a major national controversy because you think it got taken out of context, what will you do next? You know what you meant and you know how it was received, how will you repair the mistake? And yes, even if you didn’t mean it that way.

I can think of one brand in particular who is likely having to deal with this moment right now, but there are so many out there. How do you want brands to handle something like this? What do you think is the best course of action when controversy comes from what you thought would be an innocent little marketing campaign?