Kenneth Cole believes that his controversial tweets improve business and provoke conversation and awareness. Is this an effective use of social media to engage customers with the brand? Why or why not?
According to one survey, 92 percent of U.S. companies now claim that social media marketing is important for their businesses. Fashion designer Kenneth Cole took advantage of the trend in 2011 by posting the following tweet: "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at bit.ly/KCairo -KC." Kenneth Cole was criticized on social media for capitalizing on the strife of the Egyptian revolution to promote his website. The offensive tweet was deleted, and Cole apologized by tweeting: "Re Egypt tweet: we weren't intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment -KC."
Most marketers would not make the same mistake twice. However, in September 2013, as the United States deliberated military action in Syria, Cole tweeted the following: "'Boots on the ground' or not, let's not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear." To justify this action, Cole told Details magazine, "Billions of people read my inappropriate, self-promoting tweet. I got a lot of harsh responses, and we hired a crisis management firm. If you look at lists of the biggest Twitter gaffes ever, we 'real ways one through five. But our stock went up that day, our e- commerce business was better, the business at every one of our stores improved, and I picked up 3,000 new followers on Twitter. So on what criteria is this a gaffe? Within hours, I tweeted an explanation, which had to be vetted by lawyers. I'm not even sure I used the words I'm sorry-because I wasn't sorry."