Ep 11: When a Brand’s Marketing Misses the Mark: Sainsbury's Case Study
Shownotes
You can watch the podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJWm72mUM2k&ab_channel=JoyannBoyce
In this episode, Joyann breaks down an example of when an ad misconnects with its intended audience. Using our model of examining an ad's intent, context, bias, and impact, we can discover how this might've happened.
Useful links:
https://twitter.com/awlilnatty/status/1613617928896741381?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1613946615936450561%7Ctwgr%5E46c0b299cb3e3be68b555868efcc45738b4e1e29%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.sky.com%2Fstory%2Fsainsburys-axes-advert-after-online-backlash-over-womens-safety-12787132
https://www.marketing-beat.co.uk/2023/01/17/sainsburys-apologises-ad/
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2023/01/sainsburys-ad-backlash/
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joyannboyce_quick-breakdown-of-sainburys-advert-context-activity-7020714335492546560-UxVy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
You can find Joyann at: https://twitter.com/joyannboyce
Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Marketing Made Inclusive Podcast. I am your host, Joyann Boyce. On this podcast, we're gonna discuss all things inclusive marketing, from persona creation campaigns, and even some of the mishaps we see in the media. Tune in and let me know your thoughts on how we can make inclusive marketing the industry.
[00:00:23] Welcome and welcome back to the Marketing Made Inclusive Podcast. You are here with your host, Joyann Boyce and got a really amazing episode today. We're gonna look at one of the marketing mishaps that happened recently in the press. So, January 2023, there was a little uproar on Twitter in regards to a Sainsbury’s ad. To break down what it was, essentially on their advertisements of clothings within the store
[00:00:50] they have these printed, I guess placards, probably not the name for it, and there was a woman walking in a park in a wrap dress. Um, she's a blonde woman. Wind is blowing in her hair. White woman just, you know, doing this typical catalogue model posing. The text around it states that it's a mini dress for 24 pounds.
[00:01:13] Dunno how much that is in US dollars. And with the woman in the middle of the text it states 'for walks in the park or strolls after dark.' Now, the two things together did not go down well online, and we're gonna dive into that. And essentially people were in uproar that it felt that Saintsbury wasn't taking women's safety serious because a woman going for a stroll after dark or walking in the park, it's not something that you can do as a woman and feel safe in 2023.
[00:01:51] I'm gonna caveat in the UK, but I feel in most places in the world, and many people pointed this out on Twitter to Sainsbury's, that it felt tone deaf. It felt that they missed a mark. People questioned if they had women as even part of their marketing team, and I've looked into whether I can find out if it was an agency or if it was Sainsbury's internal marketing team can't seem to find any information about that, but I did find that Saintsbury issued an apology.
[00:02:19] 'We are sorry that due to the design, some customers found this sign to be inappropriate and we're working to remove these from the store.' That's a Sainsbury's spokesperson. 'We'll work hard with our agency partner to ensure this doesn't happen again.' So that apology's letting me know that they're aware that it's the layout of the text and the design, but also it's the tone.
[00:02:45] It's not just design. It's also letting me know that essentially, they had an agency partner develop this and they're kind of putting some of the ownership on them. A lot of people tweeted about it. A lot of people kind of wanted to share their opinion on how this just doesn't work. I did a breakdown of it on Twitter using our model that we have internally when we're assessing anything like this.
[00:03:11] Now, the model itself, Focuses on intent, context, bias, and impact. So we can see the intent with this is pretty clear. The intent is to paint an image of where you can wear the dress, the life you could live in. This wrap, this £24 wrap dress and that life is someone who strolls in parks and I guess is as confident enough to stroll in those parks after dark.
[00:03:39] Um, it's targeted towards women. Wrap dresses are known to be your of various sizes and so forth. I don't see any kind of, it's one person in this image, so there's not a lot of diversity representation in terms of different body types, different types of women they can do, but it's targeted mainly towards women and women who want a dress for many occasions.
[00:03:59] Now, the context and the context it's giving me is that the campaign and imagery was clearly done before the copy, separately, and then the copy was placed on top. It kind of feels like the copy was written out of real context to either society or the images themselves. But she is in a park, so maybe they do know the shoots in the park.
[00:04:23] Let's write some copy for that. They're limited on space, so they needed to fit. Park and dark do rhyme. I'm somewhat reaching cuase it just feels not necessarily lazy. It feels easy. So yeah, it being a spin or use of words to kind of paint the image is typical within marketing. It makes sense in that case.
[00:04:49] But altogether just the idea of a woman going and walking in a park after dark in a wrap dress doesn't seem to sit well, one, within the society that we're in and two within the everyday lives of women. So the context wasn't, wasn't balancing there in terms of the context of society in terms of if this was a rush job, maybe they, they put it out.
[00:05:13] But with a quick search on LinkedIn, I can see that Sainsbury's marketing team, if it was done internally, is about 400 plus people. Not saying everyone would've had eyes on this, it could be anywhere, I would say the minimum amount of people that would've had eyes on this final post before it went to print would be at least five, probably more than five, but I'm trying to be as gracious as possible.
[00:05:36] The bias in all of this, there is essentially a huge lack of awareness on the target audience for distress. The target audience and their mindset in current society and the relation of the copy and the imagery that they're trying to paint. Does that actually reflect your target audience's life, lifestyle, that lack of awareness and that essential, that bias
[00:06:02] of not knowing that women don't feel safe in society and having, or there, there was some arguments online as well that maybe there weren't any women in the room when this was created or put together, and I don't necessarily agree with that. There could have been a woman in the room who one, could have been silenced. Two
[00:06:23] voiced an opinion, or actually they themselves feel safe walking in the dark. They are either in a certain background or of a certain, in certain neighborhoods or so forth. They just don't have that live experience of feeling unsafe after dark. That is a possibility. Um, but that's also a good thing to emphasize that just because the few people that represent the demographic in the room
[00:06:47] agree with the opinion, doesn't make the opinion standard or the thought standard for that whole demographic. So it emphasises doing that research, really understanding the target audience. In their different areas, in their different demographics, in their different groups, not just painting one image.
[00:07:06] And sometimes there's a little extra work, and not everyone does that. So we've spoken about the intent. They wanted to sell a dress, they wanted to paint a lifestyle. The context is that things were created separately. You know, it could have been a rush job. However, they have a large marketing team, it would've been seen by at least five people or so forth or more, but they were leaning towards the idea of women frolicking and being outdoors in the park.
[00:07:29] I can see the beginnings of that, that idea, that brainstorm, but the execution on the end wasn't great. And then the bias is the lack of awareness of how their target audience feels in that dynamic, in that imagery that they're trying to paint. And that's a real thing to be aware of because that disconnect suddenly takes that story from being, oh, I can imagine myself in that dress to they think I, I walk in the park after dark?
[00:07:56] Like, and especially in that dress, I don't even feel safe to do these things cuase society is what it is now. The impact this has had is that one Sainsbury's had to issue an apology. Uh, I would give that apology a, a six out of ten. You know, there was a tiny bit of ownership, but not really. They basically said it wasn't their intention.
[00:08:19] And didn't really apologize for the impact. However, they, they have now promised or committed to removing these printed, um, advertisements from their stores, which is gonna be a cost, it's gonna be a cost of the people's time and so forth. So they're losing some money. It's probably, it's not gonna be huge for Sainsbury's in the grand scheme of things, but it's a loss and it's disconnected with a target audience.
[00:08:42] How much has it disconnected? I don't know. I don't feel that it's done that severe damage, especially to the dress itself. I don't feel that people are going to see the dress and be like, that's the walks in the park after dark dress. Um, but it's left a taste in people's mouth of Sainsbury's between tone-deaf,
[00:09:00] impacts their overall brand, impacts the good work that they're doing. I see Sainsbury's doing quite a lot of good work in their various other ads and campaigns that I've seen. So it's a balancing act of trying to make sure your audience perceives you in the light that you want them to, and it doesn't damage what you're trying to sell.
[00:09:18] So in terms of, the direct impact of this ad. Like I said, it disconnected with a target audience could damage the sales address. I don't think so, but it's left a bad tasting in peoples, individual's mouth, in people's mouths about the Sainsbury's and their awareness of societies and societal issues. Will they bounce back from this?
[00:09:38] I, I don't see it having any impact. This is not a H & M situation. This is not a Pepsi situation. This is not drastic in those scale. Which in a turn also speaks to the way that women's safety is viewed in society in general. Anywho, that is a whole other conversation and a whole other rant. But there's a lot to be learned about this.
[00:09:59] There's lots to be learned about copywriting and imagery painting and understanding if you're trying to paint a story for your target audience, is that story not necessarily true to every day of life, but realistic, and I think that simple question in this scenario could have edged this copy and changed this ad
[00:10:24] drastically because even they could have even talked about, you know, on a bright winter’s day. There are so many other things that relate to the image that could have been shaped if they were going for the, the, the rhyming aspect of it. And they really wanted to stick, whoever wanted to stick with the rhyming is really what probably got them in the end.
[00:10:42] But there were other ideas there, other things, there were other approaches. Yes. Having women present could have diverted this, not necessarily, but having a process of checking bias and checking if they understand the context this is going to have once it reaches wider society and once it engages with their target persona and the variety
[00:11:08] of that target persona's background, experiences and so forth could have averted this and could have given an opportunity for something a little bit more creative. So yeah, that's my thoughts. If anyone wants to see the imagery, we're going to show it on our YouTube so you can check it out there, um, next to myself when I'm speaking about it, it's an easy mistake and a lot.
[00:11:29] Brands can make this a mistake by not really taking their copy and their language into context of where we are in society. And things are constantly changing. Uh, Sainsbury's has a lot of other campaigns, and I'm probably gonna do a case study on one of their other campaigns, but do send me campaigns or ads or anything that you've seen that you'd like me to break down using our formula.
[00:11:51] And thank you for listening to the Marking Made Inclusive Podcast. See you next week.
