Striking a balance between creativity and appealing to customers is often a tenuous one for marketing teams. Add in the massive competition for traffic and sales, and you might find a brand or two swinging for the fences only to end up striking out spectacularly. There’s also the fact that brands are constantly looking for new ways to stand out and achieve goals. As customers, we often praise brands taking daring approaches. We’re more apt to see brands making waves than observing the status quo.
Striking a balance between creativity and appealing to customers is often a tenuous one for marketing teams.
Add in the massive competition for traffic and sales, and you might find a brand or two swinging for the fences only to end up striking out spectacularly.
There’s also the fact that brands are constantly looking for new ways to stand out and achieve goals.
As customers, we often praise brands taking daring approaches. We’re more apt to see brands making waves than observing the status quo. ... (READ MORE)
Striking a balance between creativity and appealing to customers is often a tenuous one for marketing teams.
Add in the massive competition for traffic and sales, and you might find a brand or two swinging for the fences only to end up striking out spectacularly.
There’s also the fact that brands are constantly looking for new ways to stand out and achieve goals.
As customers, we often praise brands taking daring approaches. We’re more apt to see brands making waves than observing the status quo.
Of course, there’s an element of risk-taking this route: sometimes the campaign lands, but other times it just leaves customers disappointed and dunking on a brand across the social media landscape.
So here’s a question: how do you feel about a brand announcing a sale (90% off!) and leading you to a landing page only to find out there’s no such sale?
The tone of the landing page struck another sour note: how could you be so foolish as to think we’d even have a sale?!
Alohas, a sustainable fashion brand specializing in small-batch leather and vegan leather shoes, did just that.
Brand fans were upset at the seemingly bait-and-switch approach. So much so that Alohas needed to add a note to the graphics that the ‘campaign is not misleading.’
Regardless of the intention behind the campaign (Alohas states it’s educating customers on how to shop more sustainably), a quick scroll through the pinned image on the brand’s Instagram feed, and you’ll see dozens of comments that polarized fans and customers alike.
Some voiced opinions stated that the messaging came off as ‘condescending and entitled’ or ‘tone deaf and classist.’
Others didn’t have a problem with it because they knew the brand and what it stood for (we’ll dive into this more in a moment).
In other words, these customers highlight that Alohas campaign served its purpose and the bigger message.
Seeing customers land on both sides with a campaign isn’t new.
This is a conundrum facing brands such as Alohas, which strives to make a mark outside the fast fashion game so many are used to seeing (especially when there’s an emphasis on excess and overconsumption).
How do you step outside the box and bring awareness to issues without alienating a huge part of your customer base?
So what makes Alohas different from other fashion brands, and why would this campaign upset customers?
One aspect is the on-demand production of products.
The brand drops new products weekly, and for those who pre-order any of the shoes or accessories, there’s a 30% discount available for a limited time. Anyone who places a pre-order request three weeks after the initial drop will receive a discount of 15%.
This model helps the brand figure out how many units and how much material is needed to satisfy pre-orders. Anyone who wants to order goods after production will pay a higher price, as the early bird savings won’t apply.
In many ways, this is golden for a brand and appeals to conscious shoppers.
Alohas contrasts this shopping experience with a traditional model and highlights some of the benefits of using on-demand purchasing:
Despite the negative feedback from customers, Alohas continues to stand by the messaging.
Replying to dozens of comments on Instagram (at the time of writing, direct requests to Alohas for comment have gone unanswered), the overall response from Alohas is this:
“We wanted this educational campaign to send a clear message about a problem that concerns us deeply: join us in fighting overproduction. We realize, however, that the delivery of the message might have been disappointing. We urge you to check out our website to learn more about our on-demand business model and why we stand against Black Friday.”
Still, the responses didn’t satisfy fans. Others were baffled about why the campaign was pinned to the top of their Instagram feed.
And there seemed to be more to the conversation, too. One comment left on the pinned post called out the brand for allegedly having an ulterior motive.
“You don’t support impulse buying or overconsumption? How about removing calls like ‘Buy now and save’ [or] ‘expires?’
At the end of the day, for Alohas to remain viable, it does need to participate in marketing language and tactics that resonate with customers.
Using phrases like ‘buy now and save’ speaks to the brand's overall messaging and encourages shoppers to take advantage of savings with on-demand orders.
However, there’s no denying it tiptoes into the idea of FOMO (fear of missing out) to get customers to shop.
This leads to another question: how do conscious brands like Alohas market to customers in a way that feels authentic while, let’s face it, actually selling goods?
Sure, Alohas could have done much better at articulating the message behind the anti-sale campaign.
The overall conversation around discounting goods grows every year for brands and customers. But how can a brand balance highlighting efforts while still attracting customers?
HubSpot shares four strategies for brands to implement:
While the Alohas campaign didn’t go as well as they might have hoped, the silver lining is they have room to do better in the future.
Aaron Orendorff, head of marketing at Recart, shares this in response to Jacob Sappington’s post about Alohas on Twitter:
“Take big swings. Then learn from mistakes. That’s all any of us can hope for.”