Even donuts need good word of mouth….
You know its serious when even donut companies realise the value of web strategy. A small item in this week’s PRWeek about the UK arm of American donut company Krispy Kreme tickled me when I read it. Krispy Kreme have engaged Edelman’s digital division to redevelop the Krispy Kreme website and monitor comments on social network sites.
One of Edelman’s key roles will be to aggregate comments from sites such as Facebook and Twitter onto the official Krispy Kreme homepage. The website already shows tweets by staff mentioning the brand and a fan page for customers to submit their best donut stories. Amazing. Donut stories.
Krispy Kreme are not alone however, Skittles recently re-launched its website to showcase all tweets and 
comments in which they are mentioned. I wonder though, does this mean that if I go on Twitter and say ‘Skittles are crap’, will it appear on their website?
It’s an interesting question, because brands and organisations opting for this strategy are exposing themselves to a good degree of risk. But with risk comes the opportunity for gain. Web 2.0 is all about engaging with and creating dialogue with your stakeholders; by highlighting their comments on your homepage, be they good or bad you are inviting their dialogue into your business.
So plaudits to the companies taking the risk in order to stand out. The organisations doing this are one step ahead of the crowd. So while I may laugh, it’s a win for the donuts, high fat food doesn’t get much love these days but I think they are doing a good job here!
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April 20th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
A donut company..interesting. I do not quite agree with the risk factor, customer feedback is really important to companies whether good or bad. I think the Web 2.0 offer opportunities for companies to interact and engage better with stakeholders like you pointed out.
April 21st, 2009 at 12:39 am
Interesting post. I’ve heard about the success of the Krispy Kreme Donuts campaign. They have certainly done a great job in creating brand advocates. There are so many people who report of their personal stories in relation with Kripy Kreme, it’s incredible. One woman sayd, that her wedding cake was made out of it…one massive donut….what a freak
April 21st, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I’m pretty sure some bad comments have appeared on the skittles site, but you’ve got to treat them with a pinch of salt.
Unless the organisation is doing anything badly, they shouldn’t be exposed to too many genuine reputation issues.
You’re right though, opening yourself up like that does carry risk, but on the other hand people usually value transparency so its worth doing.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:33 am
I agree with Tom, whilst it does open the door for people to come in and say bad things – they should be welcomed to. We live in a democratic society and people are granted their own voice, so why should you only want to show the best opinions? It is affectively papering over the cracks and as a company, to think you are perfect or to atleast to try and hide faults, leads only to a large fall!