Short-term, companies are likely to get a lot of goodwill and recognition for even being able to respond to problems this way and this should more than balance out the negative. However, I’m not sure this will be the case in the long run. Surely, those companies that are lacking in traditional forms of customer service will be the first to find out.
We do a lot of work with “green” clients. Not surprisingly, we monitor the influential blogs having to do with environmental issues. All told, we review more than 2,000 environmentally-related blog posts a month. Our favorite all-around green blog is www.treehugger.com. You can read about what makes Treehugger so valuable on the StalkMarket blog. Another one of our absolute favorites is Ecopreneurist.
But I also have learned – occasionally the hard way – there are times when edgy is simply not the right tool for the job. A recent ad campaign by BBDO Dusseldorf and Pepsi provides an awesome example of where edgy is definitely uncalled for.
