Back in 2014, Whirlpool Brand, USA found itself on the wrong side of the social media market. Despite maintaining social media pages for the brand, the only interaction they were experiencing with their customers was when the customer had a complaint to register. Whirlpool sought to change this narrative. Through research they discovered that consumers had lost track of the values they were providing to their families each and every day. Washing laundry, cooking dinner, etc., had turned into unfulfilling chores. Whirlpool carefully planned out a social media campaign that they hoped would change the narrative of their social media interactions, and reinforce the value that was being provided by caregivers with their products. Through their “Every day, care” campaign, they successfully achieved both of these tasks and created an emotional bond between the product and the consumer.
In October of that year, Whirlpool unveiled their new social media campaign and provided a pulpit for the world to share images and stories of their day-to-day chores and the impact that they had on the world. They saw immediate success across all of their platforms, most notably on Facebook and Twitter. Real stories flooded the feeds using the hashtag #EveryDayCare. Their target audience, largely caretakers and homemakers, immediately latched onto the campaign as an emotional stepping stone. The campaign spread like wildfire through word-of-mouth, and before it had extended its reach far and wide into the consumer pool, inviting anyone and everyone to join in the conversation.
The user experience could not have been more efficient. A microsite was created off of Whirlpool’s index URL, and served as a library for the consumer stories that came flooding in. The site laid out stories in a user-friendly way, while also inviting visitors to get involved by telling their own stories. The campaign expanded to social media platforms in various ways, engulfing the target demo in the storyline. Broadcast, digital and social media were captured in the campaign, leaving no consumer out of earshot. It was a broad and far-reaching campaign that canvased every avenue possible. On their social media pages, consumers were directed to use the campaign hashtag in their posts. Posts then fed into the library that was created on the microsite, wallpapering the page with story after story of inspiration and authentic emotion.
The campaign catapulted Whirlpool sales by 6.6% year over year, and Whirlpool aw a 12% growth rate during that time. The campaign was prepared ad rolled out in such a streamlined manner that I can’t imagine any ways that could have made it more successful. The call to action was both simple and stimulating, and became inspiring to follow. The best part about the campaign was that it was very much a consumer-driven campaign. Aside from the initial investment into the supporting collateral, the campaign was driven by word of mouth as consumers spread stories like wildfire across the internet. In the end, Whirlpool successfully created an emotional bond between their brand and the consumer.
Even now, their website and major social media platforms are tailored to that bond. Family imagery is carefully utilized throughout their media to reinforce the emotion and pride that they created in their movement. Their posting has become much more dispersed, and with a quick glance you can see the complaints starting to once again become the focus of the pages. Whirlpool does a great job of interacting with and trying to resolve situations, but if the negativity continues to creep into the public eye, the momentum from their very successful campaign will diminish and they will ultimately start from scratch.
Additionally, the do offer mobile applications. The first allows people to connect to and monitor their smart devices. The application is not well rated, and seems to follow the same pattern of the social media sites: complaints about poor performance. Another Whirlpool application, designed as a customer service tool, is even more poorly rated. Every visible rating on the app homepage is a one-star review, with the highlighted review stating, “Worthless, just like their products”.
It seems like Whirlpool is losing, or perhaps has already lost, the magic that it found with the “EveryDayCare” campaign. Their dwindling engagement is becoming more and more futile. A reboot campaign is much needed to recapture the momentum that the company saw throughout their once-successful marketing agenda.