Recovering from a Marketing Blunder

Posted by Rahna on February 18, 2008 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

My 10-year-old had a basketball game this weekend. Right after a free-throw, he rebounded the ball and immediately put it back up on the boards to make 2 points. Unfortunately, it was 2 points for the other team. He forgot that it was the other team doing the free-throwing.  

Not to worry though. On the next play, when his team in-bounded the ball, he took the ball down the court and was able to score 2 points for his own team, immediately redeeming himself (to the relief of his team, his coaches, the ref, as well as all the parents in the stands).  Thankfully, he did not let it ruin the rest of the game.  He moved on….but I bet he won’t make that mistake again any time soon. 

Have you ever had days like that where you just feel like you are doing more to help your competitors than to help your own company? I always think about what the marketing lesson of everything is (because I am always thinking about marketing).   And here’s what it reminded me of:  it’s never too late to make a change.  It may be embarrassing, painful, or expensive, but you can always make it right. Remember New Coke?  They bit the bullet, admitted they had gotten tied up with innovation and had forgotten about the consumer.  When they went back to listening to the consumer, they were able to increase sales from 9 billion cases to 15 billion.   

So here is the marketing lesson for today: when you believe that you’ve had a really bad day, or a really bad streak, or somehow “scored two points” for your competition, just re-double your efforts, re-focus on your goal and “score 2 points” for your own team. Don’t let it ruin your day/week/year.  Think of my son and remember, it is never too late to recover.