Woolworths Pride Collection: experts weigh in on how retailer can survive the online outrage
|Published
Staff Reporters
Johannesburg - Woolworths will not buckle in the heat of the backlash over its WPride campaign supporting the LGBTQIA community.
Brand experts said yesterday the retailer was able to make bold statements and take strong positions because of its reputation.
“Brands like Woolworths can take a stand, and stand with the LGBTQIA community regardless of the backlash it may bring. Smaller brands tend to make safe stances. They will be generic and rather say they stand with ‘everyone’ because they risk their... reputation because they have not gained the trust of people as yet,” said brand expert, influencer and marketing specialist Moyin Oloruntoba.
She said the company understood its consumers and products, which helped it make its decision.
“Know the values of your brand company. You can’t please everyone and choose a stand and make a decision,” she said.
Brand expert Lebo Madiba said companies could enhance their image by taking on social causes if they were well thought out and done cautiously.
“Brand safety is a key element that needs to be carefully crafted when embarking on a campaign that is bound to create social dialogue, negative and positive. This essentially means that before a campaign launches, all scenarios need to be considered – with Q&As in place about nearly all possible questions and comments that consumers could have. These Q&As should serve as a response plan by the customer care centre and social media teams,” she said.
“This level of preparedness means that when the tough questions and comments come, teams are not overwhelmed and can handle the situation with confidence.”
She said dealing with negative comments on social media could be used as an opportunity to educate concerned customers about their campaign.
“There is an opportunity to extend the campaign off the retail floor by engaging with experts who can work with Woolworths on creating conversations on various media platforms, for example, radio, Twitter spaces and other platforms that allow two-way conversation,” Madiba said.
If it was done well, companies could get a lot of brand mileage out of social causes.
“Nike remains a good case study of such, one of their most recent ones being when the brand supported Colin Kaepernick after he took a knee during a football game to protest racial injustice," she said. “What is important is for brands to not jump onto each and every social cause that comes their way. The cause a brand supports needs to be aligned to the values of the brand, with evidence of how these values are experienced by its staff, communities and consumers.”
The retailer said this week in response to angry online exchanges – some of which it blocked – that its “social media community guidelines don’t allow for hate speech or discrimination. Our values are firmly in favour of kindness and inclusivity and we actively moderate our comment section on social media to exclude any offensive remarks”.
Prominent KZN politician and LGBTQIA supporter Martin Meyer said: “I have been following the Woolworths situation and there is clearly a confusion between things that are part of the cultural wars in America and what this means in South Africa. And this is worlds apart. Pride is plain and simple a celebration of the LGBTI+ community standing together to say we’re not ashamed of who we are, and we’re proud of who we are.
“This is not forcing anyone to do anything, or believe anything or join anything. It is purely saying we are in a situation where our brothers and sisters in places like Uganda are still being arrested and put in jail, where in this country people are still being bullied, and killed for being who they are, and loving who they love.
“We are grateful that companies like Woolworths are finally saying ‘we celebrate with you, we accept you for who you are’.
“What we are seeing now is people either willfully or through a lack of understanding misrepresenting what is happening.
“At the end of the day, no one is being forced into anything. I saw the letters about part of what you buy will go to LGBTI communities. But only when you buy that merchandise. So if you don’t want to give money to a gay organisation, don’t buy the gay T-shirt. It’s as easy as that. Nothing’s being shoved down anyone’s throat.”
One of Gateway Woolworth's customers, who asked not to be named, said she was impressed with the bright rainbow colours branded on each item.
“I am not a member of the LGBQTI community but I would definitely purchase these items. I have nothing against the community and wearing the items would display the support I have for them,” said the customer.
Woolworths in Cape Town CBD did not shy away from having stickers on their doors in declaring a celebration of pride month. Consumers conducted their shopping unmoved and unaware of any controversy.
Nora Daniels said she was not offended by any of the displays and said she did not notice any “rainbows” or multifaceted colours in any of the displays.
“I merely came to buy socks for my son. Nothing else. I didn’t even see anything untoward. The colours were the usual winter colours,” she said.
Consumer Nosipho Mkhwananzi said she was unaware of any of the social media buzz.
“Had you not asked me about it, I would’ve never known. I did not see anything different. The displays had nothing different,” she said.
Woolworths was asked yesterday for a response to the furore, and referred reporters to its statement of June 6, in which it said it appreciated and valued feedback from its customers, which had largely been positive, though “we are deeply saddened that the campaign has been felt to be offensive and negatively received by some people in our communities”.
It said it did not intend to cause division but “to contribute to a world where everyone feels they belong”.