The Nestle Debacle

Kristen Bostedo-Conway 1

The Nestle Debacle Why Harassing Your Facebook Fans Is Not A Good Social Media Strategy Kristen Bostedo-Conway Communication 605 Integrated Strategic Communication Theory Queens University Dr. John McArthur

The Nestle Debacle

Kristen Bostedo-Conway 2

Introduction In March of 2010 Nestle made some egregious errors regarding their social media strategy. These errors resulted in alienation of consumers, boycotts of their products and an escalated public relations nightmare regarding their business practices. To understand how Nestle's communication created these negative outcomes, this paper will analyze the communication patterns of both Nestle and the public sphere using Niklas Luhmann's ideas of circular communication and reflexivity versus reflection. By analyzing the communication of Nestle and the public, communication escalation points will become clear proving that a strategic approach to social media, which includes reflection, is imperative to successful implementation. Event This week the Nestle company made a critical social media mistake when they begin harassing their Facebook fans. Nestle has recently been under fire by activist groups because of their use of palm oil and child labor, among other complaints. The company's Facebook moderator took it upon himself/herself to inform Nestl's 90,000 Facebook fans that if a fan altered Nestl's logo in any way and posted it as their profile pick they would be deleted from the fan page. Consumers were altering the traditional logo of a nest of birds to depict environmental damage. To make matters worse, the moderator continued to argue with the fans as the comment thread grew to over 100 posts commenting, "Thanks for the lesson in manners. Consider yourself embraced. But it's our page, we set the rules, it was ever thus." Finally, the moderator posted a link to an article about proper branding guidelines. Although Nestle has not made an official statement, their last comment was, "Social media: As you can see we are learning as we go. Thanks for the comments." Despite the half hearted apology, Facebook fans began declarations of boycotting the product and people also turned to Twitter to voice their frustrations. What was once an activist issue regarding product ingredients and child labor, has turned into a global PR crisis overnight. Method Luhamanns dynamics of circular communication will provide insight into how the conversation between Nestl's moderator and Facebook fans occurs. Luhmann defines communication as the process of selection (Luhmann 1984). Communication occurs through the synthesis of information, utterance and understanding. Luhmann defines information as a selection from the specific referential horizon. Utterance is defined as a selection from various forms of expression and understanding is defined as the distinction between utterance and information. Luhmann believed that communication was a closed social system that is self referential and takes on a life of its own constantly repeating the pattern.

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Kristen Bostedo-Conway 3

The concept of reflexivity and reflection will be used to determine the motives behind the Nestle moderators utterance. Luhmann defines reflexivity as the narcissistic perspective occurring within an organization and the organizations view that their world view is the only truth. On the other hand, reflection is an organization viewing itself from outside. Through reflection, the organization orients itself based on its environment and not an inside world view. Analysis Informational, Utterance & Understanding The analysis demonstrates the circular dynamics of Nestl's communication as well as the communication between the public sphere regarding Nestle. In building the circular dynamic models it became apparent that each sphere's cycle needed to be modeled sperarately and then compared to maximize understanding. The diagrams for Nestle's communication cycle and the public spheres communication cycle are below (Appendix A, Appendix B). From the communication cycles, it is easy to see that Nestle employed an aggressive communication style toward its Facebook fans in a medium where fans expect the ability to engage in a conversation. Thus, dissonance is created because Nestle and the public are basing the use of Facebook fan pages on different foundational ideas. Nestle believes that they "own" the page and, therefore, have the right to make rules governing the use of their page. The public believes the pages is an open forum that Nestle has created to engage in conversation with their consumers. Reflexivity versus Reflection Nestle has completely misinterpreted the spirit of social media communication. Their foundational idea is based in reflexivity. Nestle is operating using the perspective that their world view is the only truth and that they have the ability to prevent the public from voicing their opinion. By asserting this narcissistic view, Nestle creates a backlash which ultimately enhances their public relations crisis regarding the use of palm oil and child labor. If Nestle used reflection, the public relations crisis could have prevented. Reflection is when an organization views itself from the outside and orients itself based on its environment. If Nestle viewed the altered logos using a reflection view point, Nestle would have been able to reframe their Facebook fans thoughts by supplying information that showcases the brand's values. Additionally, they should have created a dialogue with asking their opinion about what was most valuable to them regarding Nestle's products. This information could have been used to enhance the company's growth thus aligning themselves more closely with their environment and the public's word views.

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Kristen Bostedo-Conway 4

Conclusion The Nestle debacle was self generated. Nestle used a reflexive inside world view to create their social media strategy. This strategy created dissonance regarding how a Facebook fan page should be used. Instead of orienting themselves in their environment, Nestle continued to try and dominate the public going as far as to post articles regarding brand consistency. The backlash that they received regarding boycotts and further outrage over their business practices was the result. If Nestle had created a social media strategy using reflection as the basis for understanding, the public relations nightmare that they are dealing with today could have easily been avoided. References

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Kristen Bostedo-Conway 5

Appendix A
Informational Activists learn about Nestle's business practices

Understanding Entire public sphere learns of Nestle's poor business practices and poor consumer treatment

Utterance Activist retaliate by becoming a fan of Nestle and then posting altered logo pics

Dynamics of Circular Communication Public Sphere Perspective

Utterance FB fans retaliate with attacks of free speech and boycotting and use other tools such as twitter to convey message Informational Nestle informs fans they are not allowed to alter logo or they will be deleted Understanding Other Nestle FB fans see the pics and learn of Nestle's poor business practices

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Appendix B

Utterance Nestle realizes how large a mistake their first utterance was as now everyone in the world is aware of the activists issues

Informational Nestle sees altered logos Utterance Nestle posts on wall that any fans with altered logo profile pics will be defriended

Utterance Nestle follows up with one final post saying they are new to social media and are obviously learning as they go

Dynamics of Circular Communication Nestl's Perspective

Understanding Nestle learns that the altered logos are direct attacks against their brand values and business practices

Understanding Nestle quickly learns fans and publilc sphere care more about business practices then thei consistency of their logo

Utterance Nestle continues to post regarding their position of maintiaing brand standards

Informational Nestle receives responses about FB fans boycotts and dissatisfaction