Micro Persuasion: FedEx Blows a Big Citizen Marketing Opportunity

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

FedEx Blows a Big Citizen Marketing Opportunity

Coding Thumb
Imagine you have a customer who loves you so much that he is willing to furnish 100% of his house with your packaging and gush about it online. Would you: embrace him, fly him in to meet your CEO and put him in your PR or advertising campaigns? Or would you just unleash the sharks?

That's the situation FedEx faced with the FedEx Furniture Guy. For awhile, Jose was enthusiastically expressing his love for FedEx by posting photos of his apartment and also blogging about his antics. Not too long after he started, however, he naturally received a cease and desist letter (PDF) from the shipping company. You know how the movie ends, right?

Exactly. By making the wrong choice, FedEx is now the media's laughing stock. What's worse, they haven't budged a bit, according to Alexander Muse. For more, read Alexander's FedEx Furniture archive.

When will these companies learn the value of a customer evangelist?

Technorati Tags: FedEx, FedExFurniture

Posted at 11:23 AM in Citizen Marketing, Customer Evangelism, Weblogs | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c5e1c53ef00d83423f81253ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference FedEx Blows a Big Citizen Marketing Opportunity:

» Marketing Quiz from Heads-Up! on Organizational Innovation
If someone loved your product’s packaging so much that they actually built furniture out of it … in fact, furnished their entire apartment with it and blogged about it (with pictures), would you … A. Write about it in the [Read More]

» What is citizen marketing? from Musings from POP! PR
Is the homeless guy with a Safeway shopping cart an evangelist, say a citizen marketer, for Safeway? [Read More]

» Citizen Marketing?? from Joel's Blog
Nooo....this guy is a whackadoo. Period. There's a difference between citizen marketing (which is viral) and nut jobs. This gent is the latter, as Jeremy Pepper points out. Should FedEx embrace this guy as a *fanatic?* Maybe...a... [Read More]

» Federal Express "bekämpft" positive Mundpropaganda from ConnectedMarketing.de
Jose lebt in den USA, und er ist so begeistert von FedEx, dass er Möbel mit dem FedEx Logo beklebt und seine Bude damit ausstattet, darüber im Internet berichtet und auch einen Blog dazu betreibt. FedEx ist natürlich entzückt, lädt [Read More]

» FedEx gewinnt den Marketing-Dummenoscar from Basic Thinking Blog
Jou, gestern über den Fall FedEx versus Fan berichtet und heute lese ich via Steve Rubel auf weblogswork, daß: Jose, the FedEx Furniture guy, has been making the rounds on national media today. First up was CBN, then HDNet (Mark Cuban’s HDTV netw... [Read More]

» PR Bloggers Get Knickers in Twist Over FedEx Protecting its Mark from Desirable Roasted Coffee
Update: The more I investigate this episode, the more repulsive it becomes. Jose Avila registered the domain fedexfurniture.com on 22 June 2005. Four days later, Brian Oberkirch, a web consultant, who is Avila's web designer and PR representative , posts [Read More]

» FedEx blows it from ?ic @TomorrowToday.biz
Thanks to Steve Rubel for an awesome link. The FedEx Furniture dot com guy (Jose) loves FedEx. So much so, that his entire apartment is furnished with FedEx packaging. He raves about it online and has an eclectic readership who are fascinated by... [Read More]

» FedEx Speaks from Musings from POP! PR
The most interesting thing about blogs and bloggers is that they want to have their cake and eat it too. [Read More]

» FedEx Furniture from PunditGuy
Yep, it’s real furniture built from those (practically) indestructible FedEx boxes. They’ve got a couch, dining table with chairs, a bed, and a computer desk. Jose, the proprietor at fedexfurniture.com, says it’s 100% functional.... [Read More]

» FedExFurniture/FedEx: tarnished brand? from Mike's Points
There's been a lot of great discussion about Jose Avila's FedExFurniture.com site. Perhaps you read about it here, or there or even way over there. Thursday's "citizen journalism" posting by Jeremy Pepper was a great job, as he talked/chatted both... [Read More]

» Citizen Marketing? What Is That? from Pierce Mattie Public Relations Fashion Beauty Public Relations, Health PR and Fitness PR -Lifestyle & Wellness Media Relations
Jeremy Pepper has an informative post on citizen marketing, What is citizen marketing? Is the homeless guy with a Safeway shopping cart an evangelist, say a citizen marketer, for Safeway? Or has he just walked off with a corporation's property?... [Read More]

» Prom and Micro Persuasion: FedEx Blows a Big Citizen Marketing Opportunity from The Prom Blog
As it informs, TV also irks - Thomas, david banner and linkin park s chester bennington. my prom dress is at home, my homecoming dress is home, my. [Read More]

» FedEx Furniture from PunditGuy
Yep, its real furniture built from those (practically) indestructible FedEx boxes. Theyve got a couch, dining table with chairs, a bed, and a computer desk. Jose, the proprietorat fedexfurniture.com, says its 100% functional.... [Read More]

» Wow, Daimler/Chrysler/Dodge is cheap! from Into the mind of Gerlach
Ok, I have been reading blogs for about a year now. And I believe it was Steve Rubel who questioned... [Read More]

Comments