French Vichy Cosmetics

Case: France Vichy Cosmetics

Due to the use of an innovative way of advertising for a new anti-aging product concerns have grown within the bloggers community. Hence, Vichy’s Blog credibility has been questioned by one of the most important newspapers in France, regarding the brands truthfulness and stating that  “brands that try to hide as authors do not have credibility”.

As it is stated in the case, Blogs are playing a very important role for companies marketing brands in the USA. They are used to experience direct feedback from their buyers regarding different segments. However blogs have evolved and created certain rules that must be followed by the bloggers. The first and most important rule is the necessary transparency; therefore the owners of blogs have to be known. Another important rule is that companies that own blogs should never give information related to the company. Companies have experienced a challenge to follow this rules considering that they are a limitation for their interactive marketing strategy. Anyway there are many successful examples in marketing campaigns were the creation of a Blog was taken into account.

In the case under analysis Vichy France in coordination of a very important marketing agency decided to look for an innovative way to advertise their new product. So they decided to create a Blog named “Diary of my Skin” were a woman, called Claire shared her worries about her skin with those who interacted in the blog. This blog went against the main rules shared by the bloggers community, lacking transparency and using an inexistent person to share experiences on the blog. Anyway this strategy was considered to be the latest trend in interactive marketing on an article published in May, taking into consideration how innovative Vichy was by using a blog as advertisement.

As a consequence, the bloggers community confronted the campaign by giving negative opinions about how Vichy had used the blog for a purpose that went against transparency and linking the company by using key words. Important bloggers like Benoit Drouillat said that the dialogue was programmed and anticipated, and that it didn’t fool woman consumers. Another critic Julien Menichini stated that there was a fraud, I assume due to the violation of transparency. Considering the critics and most of all Benoit Drouillat I consider that the objective of advertising the new product was not accomplished, because woman consumers were not getting the message, and the brand credibility in the market got questioned.

Therefore, Vichy France has to focus on improving the brands credibility. By creating a new strategy that can influence the consumer directly and indirectly so that the real quality of the product can be appreciated. Leaving no doubt about the brands quality and positioning in that segment of the market. Regarding the Blog it must be eliminated to reduce the tension with the bloggers community. Nevertheless, it can be part of their new strategy if it really shares the consumer’s thoughts and has transparency, in order to gain respect from their interactive costumers and the bloggers community in case of future projects. Given that blogs are a great channel between the customer and the product. Therefore, the company can always use a blog to increase their data on the reception the product has within the customers by relating it to the brands web page.