Friday, November 2, 2012

What happens when Duracell offers relief to people who don’t need it?


It sounded like a no-brainer.  With people increasing dependent upon electric devices, why not create a traveling exhibit designed to go to the scene of emergencies and provide a much needed opportunity for people to power up.  (Neff, 2012)

But, as they say the devil is in the details. 

Perhaps it’s because Duracell is located in Bethel, Conn. and is now dependent on a back-up generator themselves.  But all you had to do was watch some of the non-stop TV coverage of Superstorm Sandy to know that the only area of lower Manhattan that didn’t lose their power was Battery Park City, thanks to the fact that they are on a Brooklyn power grid.  So Duracell sending their “Power Forward Community Center” there was an odd decision.  One can only imagine that turnout was poor, and photo opps, which were undoubtedly the point of the effort were non-existent.

So what happens when an effort to build good will fails?  Will anyone even notice?


Neff, J. (2012, October 31)  Duracell Brings Charging Stations to Battery Park After Hurricane Sandy. adage.com.  Retrieved November 2, 2012, from

(2012, November 1)  Downtown Will Have Power by Saturday, says Con Ed.  downtownexpress.com.  Retrieved November 2, 2012, from

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The idea was interesting to my mind. After spending four days without electricity and hot water in East Village I would have appreciated Duracell setting up a charging station somewhere in my neighborhood. But the fact that they set the station in Battery Park sounds like Duracell hasn't thought the idea fully through. The misplaced traveling exhibition might even cause bad publicity to the brand as people were quite upset for the power loss. I would have placed the charging stations somewhere in Queens, where people suffered more from Sandy than in Manhattan.

Kaisa

John Sherman said...

I think this was a major blunder on behalf of Duracell. It made the company appear out of touch with the current situation. Evidently, they recognized the error and moved the relief center to Lower Manhattan. This decision was announced on Facebook and attracted immediate attention and praise according to adage.com.

Ultimately, Duracell just created a mess for the public relations team to clean up but at least it was handled in a timely manner.

Anonymous said...

This ideal increasing awareness for Duracell in a positive way. I think when those people don't have power, they are looking for anyone that can help them with that. By being there, when people need them, is very good for Duracell. I talked with my friend who lives in lower East side. She never know about Duracell setting up a charging station in her neighborhood. She had to walk about 50 min go to store to charged her cellphone. She said it would be good if Duracell to help in her neighborhood too. However, i appropriate for a company like Duracell to do this and help people.
Praepat

Anonymous said...

I think Duracell had good intentions and the idea was great. However, the planning was poor in terms of their location in Battery Park and the lack of people that knew about it. The fact that they provided batteries and centers for people to charge their devices is awesome but it was not implemented effectively. So it was not a complete success as they would have hoped for, but good try.

Jennifer

Unknown said...

Having Duracell stationed up in Battery Park City was definitely an odd area to choose especially since it was virtually impossible to get anywhere downtown for a few days...unless you walked. They should of thought about their "target" more and realized that more centralized areas would have been a better solution. Not only would more people been able to utilize their batteries, but people who actually needed them would of had access to their stations.

Carlota said...

I believe Duracell was about to do a GREAT marketing strategy and to gain lots of brand awarness and bonds with the consumers, until they decided to go to the only area of lower Manhattan that didn’t lose their power. Instead of being a great sucess, I think this move could question the brand´s reliability and image. Even the intention may have been good, today´s brands can not take the risk of making any marketing strategy without doing a complete situation analysis beforehand. Now, duracell will have to do a good PR work to explain people what they were thinking…