First off, I have to apologize for the way off topic blog article. I’m writing about Nutella, though I will mention Starbucks. Those who have been reading this site for years know that I rarely do this.
I saw in the news that a Nutella super fan is being shut down by Nutella lawyers:
This is a shockingly backwards move by Nutella. It’s so shocking that I cannot imagine what they’re thinking.
Nowadays, it’s fairly common for ordinary customers to start writing things in blogs (or tweets, or in Facebook status updates) about the brands they love. Just by way of example, there are fan-created brand-centered websites like Effortless Anthropologie, What’s Good At Trader Joe’s, IkeaFans.com, a Lululemon fan blog, and previously one man wrote about Method Soap. If you spend time using Google, you can find more examples. The number of Disney fan sites out there is phenomenal.
And within the past year, critical thinkers in the marketing arena have been publishing books on this topic. This is indeed a hot topic. There are corporations that hope to create rock star, monster loyal fans. They WANT to have fans like those I have mentioned above. Yes, I can understand why some brands would despise a website called WalmartSucks.com or ChipotleSucks.com, but that is not the topic at hand.
All within the last year, several books on creating enthusiastic customer evangelists have been published:
- Brand Advocates – Turning Enthusiastic Customers into a Powerful Marketing Force – by Rob Fuggetta. On Twitter, he is @Zuberance
- Think Like a Rock Star – How To Create Social Media and Marketing Strategies that Turn Customers into Fans – by Mack Collier. On Twitter, he is @MackCollier
- Monster Loyalty – by Jackie Huba. On Twitter, she is @JackieHuba
Turning back to Nutella, their move is bad, bad, bad. It’s just not in keeping with modern marketing thinking. The owner of the fan site NutellaDay.com had a Facebook page with nearly 40,000 likes! Her website and Facebook page will go dark May 25, 2013. The PR people at Nutella could have attempted other strategies first. If they had thought there copyrighted images on the site, or too much use of the Nutella trademark, there could have been less caustic intervention rather than a cease and desist letter!
From a legal perspective, I am not even sure what Nutella’s basis is. The url alone is not enough to cause problems. The law weighs in favor of allowing ordinary people to create domains about brands to foster discussion about brands. This is why WalmartSucks.org is real domain – and undoubtedly, someone at WalMart hates that blog. Certainly, there are times when a brand could ask that certain images be removed, if copyrighted images are being used on a site. However, given the modern thinking on marketing, it’s often not worth it to the brand to do that – they’d rather have the good PR. Pick up anyone of the three books mentioned above, and you’ll see that brands want customers to passionately talk about them.
Today, May 21, 2013, I am sitting at home. I took the day off from work. The Starbucks PR department reached out to me last week, and sent an email, inviting me to an event at their headquarters this afternoon. I will be trying the new La Boulange pastries, soon to be offered at Starbucks. The founder of La Boulange, Pasco Rigal, is in Seattle, and will be there at the event to talk about La Boulange goodies. I am flattered to have this fun opportunity. And, truly this is 100% the opposite of how Nutella has dealt with their superfan, NutellaDay.com. I have a relationship with Starbucks – at least in the sense that I have someone to reach out to for questions, and now and then, Starbucks has given me the opportunity to have unique experiences. Today is a perfect example of that. To be clear, I won’t be alone this afternoon at the Starbucks headquarters. I am under the impression that other media will be there also, and I will be along side it all, overdosing on pastries. If you see me rolling out of the Starbucks headquarters this afternoon, you’ll know I ate too much!
And that is my commentary on Nutella: backwards thinking!
For further reading on this, visit Mack Collier’s commentary: Fan Organizes Global Movement Celebrating Nutella, so the Brand Sends Her a Cease and Desist Letter.
Edit: It’s now several hours after I wrote, and published this article. If you look at NutellaDay.com, it appears that Nutella has reversed their decision. That update came shortly after I published this article. Props to Nutella for doing the right thing!
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Melody enjoy your pastry overload and I look forward to your blog post on this event. What are the lawyers at Nutella thinking? Seems so odd to me that they feel there will be no backlash from them shutting this site down. Wonder if it worth their time and aggravation.
Great thoughts here, Melody! Enjoy the La Boulange tasting! I’ve heard amazing things about the chocolate croissant!
Hey Melody, thanks or the mention!
First, I know exactly what Nutella was thinking; they were thinking that they can’t have fans using their brand likeness, etc, and they are no doubt afraid of how they could start using that logo etc in ways they don’t like, such as altering it. And remember how Kit Kat and Nestle have been attacked on SM and their logos misused. So from that standpoint, I totally get their thinking.
But…..
It is INCREDIBLY difficult for a large and global brand to build a platform where they connect even dozens of their fans. Sara Rosso has literally created a community of tens of THOUSANDS of Nutella’s fans! I would conservatively guess that it would cost Nutella at least half a million to build a fan community with that many members, and Sara has done most of the work for the brand. So there is a HUGE missed opportunity here for Nutella and they are missing the BUSINESS VALUE of this community.
IF they are smart (and I honestly think this will happen), they will work with Sara to bring the World Nutella Day community under the Nutella umbrella. That makes complete sense and would be a boon for Nutella, even moreso than it is now.
But it’s incredibly frustrating to see a brand that has fans that are so passionate that they self-organize in such large numbers, then that brand slaps them on the backsides for doing so.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. Or at least lock the lawyers out (no offense, Melody ;))
I was reading another blog about this yesterday. And while I think it’s a bad move for Nutella, someone made a good point. According to her site, she’s profiting from using the Nutella name. Over on the right hand of that screen cap she’s selling a Nutella cookbook. I would gather that’s part of Nutella’s problem. Now, are they going about it the right way? I don’t think so. But they have a brand to uphold and that cookbook may be part of the issue.
I agree, Amanda. Time will tell whether or not it was a bad move. But it’s their property and they have a right to make decisions, good or bad, on how it is used. Of course, I come to this only as a (pretty non-vocal, super-only-in-my-heart) fan (of Nutella and Starbucks) and someone who owns a bit of intellectual property.
The web is full of people profiting from other people’s property in many ways. I don’t think it’s all forward thinking (not in any specific case).
Starbucks’ perspective is clearly the exact opposite of Nutella’s. Starbucks is leveraging you as part marketer, part press; in some ways you’re an informal extension of their marketing team. I would imagine this sort of model would make complete sense for Nutella as well, but clearly they don’t see it that way.
Have they never heard of Word of Mouth?
If I was the CEO, I would fire the legal team, and maybe most of the marketing people, too.
The correct response: send her a case of Nutella for her brand evangelism.
There is no question that Nutella still has all their intellectual property rights. I’m on my phone, sorry short and sloppy. The domain itself isn’t a basis to go after a fan. And for most brands, It’s not worth it to go after super fans. The benefit outweighs the small trademark and/or copyright problems. FAR outweighs. Starbucks could tell me to remove my background image, for example, but its not worth it to them. Nutella could have simply asked that the production of Nutella book stop. There have been Starbucks books of various kinds…
Wow, how sad & stupid of nutella. I guess they didn’t want all the free advertising they were getting. If I were her I would boycott their product, they suck.
Back to Starbucks, I’m in So. Cal & I recently asked about the new pastries & I was told they switched over a while ago. I was confused because they have had most of the same pastries for what seems like forever. I guess they are just made by a different company now. What a disappointment I was so looking forward to something new & different. I really miss some of the old pastries & breads they used to have, now I rarely buy anything other than coffee & maybe a walkers shortbread cookie
Mack you are so right
Hi Melody, You’re right a strange move by Nutella. But on to better news, congrats on the pastry tasting event. I am so jealous! I wouldn’t be surprised if someday you don’t work for Starbucks. You’d be a huge assest to the company, just sayin.:) Still enjoying your blog.
In an even stranger turn of events, it looks like Nutella has reversed itself. There is more information on NutellaDay.com – her website.
As I mentioned, it is rarely worth it for a brand to come after a super fan/evangelist and just shut them down. There are exceptions to every rule, but generally the value of brand evangelists outweighs much of anything else.
They should send her a case of Nutella!
Brand Advocacy is a powerful thing, and sometimes the best thing a company could ever ask for without ever asking for or knowing about it. Brand advocates, like you – Rock!
Thanks for the Zuberance and BrandAdvocateBook.com shout out!
@Chelsea – Thanks for the great comment! I am stunned when brands don’t recognize a brand advocate when it’s super obvious – like this person writing about Nutella. Oh, and I fixed the blog article, and included the link to the Brand Advocate book.