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There’s been some buzz among car enthusiasts over the past couple days surrounding a new Facebook Page that was launched by Honda to promote their soon to be released Accord Crosstour. The company expected to be embraced lovingly by fans but instead the crowd turned ugly. Numerous comments were posted by users, stating how ugly the car was and that they’d never buy it.
Eddie Okubo of Honda then posted a comment to the page stating that he loved the new car design without disclaiming that he works for the company. Honda eventually removed the comment from Eddie, but not before the damage was done and one of the largest auto blogs had covered it. Today, the company has posted the following response on the Facebook Page:
Hi, Facebook fans. We’re listening, and we want to address a few things you’ve been talking about over the past few days.
- The photos: Arguably, the two studio photos we posted didn’t give you enough detail, nor were they the best to showcase the vehicle. There are more photos on the way. Maybe it’s like a bad yearbook photo or something, and we think the new photos will clear things up.
- It’s not the European wagon: We’ve seen a lot of comments about the desire for a wagon, but this is neither a wagon nor designed for wagon buyers. We think the Euro wagon is a cool vehicle, too, and we appreciate the feedback… but a version of that wasn’t our intention here. That’s another segment worthy of our consideration, but the Accord Crosstour, built on the larger, Accord platform, is meant to give you the best of two worlds – the versatility of an SUV with the sportiness of a car.
- Many of you don’t like the styling: It may not be for everyone. Our research suggests that the styling does test well among people shopping for a crossover.
- You want further details about the Accord Crosstour: We typically can’t give you details so far out from when the vehicle goes on sale for a number of reasons, including competitive intelligence and pure availability. However… we hear your frustrations, and while specs on the vehicle aren’t finalized, we’re trying to get some stuff together that we hope will satiate some of your curiosity and give you more to think about.
- Honda associates participating in the wall comments: We didn’t remove comments out of embarrassment. We removed comments that were posted contrary to American Honda’s consumer-generated media policy for associates: We must first clearly state that we are Honda employees and that a posting is a personal — not Honda’s — opinion. Eddie forgot to add that, so his comments were removed.
Thank you for all of the interest, and we’ll be in touch again soon…
Did Honda Take The Right Action?
It’s not exactly a new lesson in social media that sometimes the fans can turn ugly and post negative comments. It’s well known that deleting negative comments will only enrage users, so how do you combat the negativity? My recommendation: don’t. Instead, embrace negativity, post open feedback and then move on. I’ve found that your community will eventually begin to defend your brand without you having to post any updates.
Even if they don’t, the users didn’t all become a fan of your page just to post negative updates. Negative sensationalism keeps the failing news industry alive and any smart marketer can learn from this. By embracing negative comments, you show that your company is open to feedback and are listening. While mob mentality can create a disaster, engaging users is a great way to ensure that the fans don’t become too unruly.
At the end of the day, Honda’s Facebook page for the new car, which has less than 6,000 fans, probably wouldn’t have received so much coverage if it were not for the negativity. What do you think Honda could have done better? What are the best practices for brands to engage unruly fans? Are unruly fans the same as trolls who shouldn’t be engaged?
I have to say full marks for trying and I hope that Honda aren’t put off by this experience and use the feedback to get better at using social media.
Disclaimer: I don’t work for Honda and I really like the looks of the Crosstour.
I think Honda made three mistakes:
(1) They just released two pictures - that’s it. They should have released a bunch of information: multiple colors, multiple angles, 0-60 times, cargo capacity, videos etc. In other words they should have SOLD all the good features of the car. Instead all they did was throw two unflattering pictures up on Facebook and therefore there was nothing to debate or comment upon other than the pictures themselves.
(2) They used Facebook (which has a certain demographic) to market their Crosstour (which has a different demographic). Most of the people making comments are probably young, work-from-home bloggers, designers, creative types who have strong opinions on visual design. Most of the people Honda thinks are going to buy this car probably are too busy with kids or work to join Facebook, let alone comment on their car (especially given all the negativity).
(3) Viral works both ways. Right now the negativity is feeding on itself where more people are being drawn into the conversation because they see an opportunity to crack on somebody / some thing. At the same time people like myself who like the looks of the car don’t see any upside to posting to the wall amid all the negativity.
In the end this car will probably meet all their sales targets. There truly is no such thing as negative publicity. The Case Study will basically be about how naive attempts at social marketing can come back and bite you if not well executed.
What could Honda have done differently? Actually listen to their fans, customers, and prospects BEFORE one month prior to launch…I’m sure a lot of this (free) feedback could have helped their stylists, designers, engineers, and marketing mavens avoid putting such an awful product into the marketplace.
Well, to be fair, that car is hideously ugly. I’m not at all sure WTF Honda was thinking there.
Anyway, the solution to negativity on social media is to let it happen and watch for signs of truth. See, if you have a whole lot of people telling you that your car is ugly, then either a) the greater internet-fuckwad theory is in full effect or b) your car is ugly. Sometimes it’s A, but once in a while it’s B and you need to pay attention in order to not release an ugly car which will tank in the marketplace.
So don’t engage those people, but do pay attention to them, because they might not just be jerks.
I think Honda could have saved some money and gotten some more followers had they placed 3 design ideas up on their facebook page and allowed people to vote / comment or done it in the form of a contest! opening up their ideas to the public would have gone far. And it is true … not everyone is going to like every design.
A crossover at this time? Really? Honda seems a little late to the game.. As for the car being ugly.. Sabaru’s SUV was a joke in the ugly department..
Does anyone have a link to Honda’s social media guidelines for staff policy? I’ve collected around 40 here from various companies
http://laurelpapworth.com/enterprise-list-of-40-social-media-staff-guidelines/
… if companies don’t post their guidelines publicly, they are wasting their time. Public guidelines go a long way to protect brands when staff contravene them. Private guidelines means the consumer just has to take their word for it. Never a good idea!
This is the first I have heard of a Honda Cross over - see there is no such thing as bad publicity.
I think Honda did a great job posting that response. Why? Because it has PERSONALITY. And mega-corporations like that are used to providing anything but in their correspondence with consumers unless it’s part of a finely-tuned ad campaign.
Social Media 1, Honda 1…Snarky Facebook Users 0
Can someone please tell Corporate America (or the Corporate America office of Corporate Japan, in this case…) to please stop talking like Corporate America and talk like real people. I think Honda’s intentions in responding were in the right place, but it’s what they said that irks me:
“Our research suggests that the styling does test well among people shopping for a crossover.”
That is a market research geek talking, not a person.
“We removed comments that were posted contrary to American Honda’s consumer-generated media policy for associates”
That is a corporate communications flunkie talking, not a person.
“…but the Accord Crosstour, built on the larger, Accord platform, is meant to give you the best of two worlds – the versatility of an SUV with the sportiness of a car.”
That is a press release writing nerd talking, not a person.
There are a few glimmers of reality in their response, but not enough to make me feel there are actual people on the other side of the conversation who really give a rat’s a$$ about what the consumers have to say about their product.
Learn from your mistakes Honda (and everyone else who dives in the social media pool…).
In my opinion, all this publicity would drive more people to check the car out. This is the first time i’m hearing of the Honda Crossover and to cure my curiosty I felt a need to google the pictures. I think it’s a decent looking car.
The same way some celebrities aim for being on the worst dressed list, bad press is better than no press.
I like the Honda crossover ever see an ugly baby?
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If Honda wasn’t ready to share all the car details, specs and pics maybe their marketing on facebook was a little premature or they simply created the wrong expectations. Also, anyone else noticed that there are over 100 fan photos but we can’t access them - what’s up?
nothingGrinder have also done a short post on the impact Facebook has had on High end design please read about it here!
http://blog.nothinggrinder.com/investment-design
None of the three Honda Accords are attractive in my opinion. As a former employee in the service department in two Honda dealers, I feel confused by Honda trying to be like other car companies. This Crosstour model strikes me as a bad idea. In my opinion the leadership of Honda is allowing the American management too much control. We have seen the consequences for Toyota. Honda is a Japanese company, that is why consumers have confidence in their purchase. Don’t change. We have U.S. companies for those who want to buy that.