Customers Divided Over UniTea Campaign
Perhaps we can agree religion and politics have no place in retail email marketing?
While many can play it safe and avoid references to Christmas with “holiday” or “season,” political-themed emails may require the same finesse. Chad White of the Email Experience Council flagged some examples of some election-themed retail emails that may offend. For example, Spiegel used “Luxury First!” in an email, which may be received as a mockery of the Republican presidential slogan “Country First.” Says Chad, “It stops being clever when people are feeling attacked.”
An online tea-tailer sent this email post-election:
United States of Tea
Unite our post-election nation by sending a gift of tea across the blue/red divide. Mail a gift of tea between any blue and red states, selecting $19 or more and your shipping is free.
Other than the fact that this email clicks through to a home page that doesn’t repeat the offer or promotion, I didn’t find anything offensive about the email (but then again, I’m Canadian).
It does seem a bit complicated (requires looking up a voting map and figuring out which friends/family live there and predicting what kind of tea they may fancy).
But apparently this email did cause a stir, according to Adagio Tea’s Twitter posts:
Says one Twitter follower:
Regardless, kudos to Adagio for being open and addressing the issue through Twitter (and inviting email subscribers to engage through Twitter in the email campaign). I’m curious if a formal correction, clarification or apology will be sent via email, as well.
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We sent emails explaining our intent to the dozen or so unset people who contacted us about the wording of this promotion. Many were understanding and told us they initially over-reacted, but later realized the idea behind the promo was cute.
The reason you did not see the offer on the home page is because it was an offer targeted to our existing users. Almost everyone who had received the email was already a customer.
I find it hard to imagine being offended by a promotion like this. (But then again, I’m Canadian too!)
It’s a good example of how some people will react to communications in the most unexpected ways. You have to be soooo careful these days.
On the other hand, communications can get very boring if you water everything down to ensure absolutely NOBODY could ever be offended. I’ve seen some potentially great promotions get nixed by clients because they were afraid of getting complaints from the 0.001% of their customers who were hyper-sensitive.
Politics and religion do not mix with business. It is taboo, something to stay away from. While only a handful complained, how many were offended and did not complain?