Samsung "Night Owls"

Source: Samsung.com

In the last few days, Samsung released and then apologized for a video depicting a woman running at night titled “Night Owls.” The story was meant to be aspirational in that (with the support of Samsung technology and products) you can exercise on your own terms, even in the middle of the night.

Honestly, you can see where the brand was going but I wonder if a little bit of market research would have helped them alter their story a bit to better resonate. Many saw the ad as being “tone deaf” to the dangers that women face when running alone at night and tone death to the recent victims who have faced danger in the middle of the night. You can read a little bit about that here.

Yes it’s important for a brand to be inspirational, but also balanced with reality … we must be realistic about how consumers feel in the moment. A keen understanding of consumer perception is the only way to in fact be inspirational.

As marketers we have to be aware of what is on your consumers’ minds and to be aware of cultural sentiment when releasing marketing materials. It’s easy to slip into misunderstanding when you aren’t aware of the impact that your marketing can have.

Samsung quickly apologized and is righting the course, which is proper and appropriate of them to do. Let’s learn from each other as we all look to make connections with our consumers, in a way that does in fact inspire them.

What’s your experience? JIM