Mistakes come in all packages. This one comes on a 5 x 11” piece of paper.
The slick color direct mailer went out to 10,000 customers with a nice $5 coupon. The mailer trumpets a newly remodeled Applebee’s in Maple Grove, MN. Any marketing executive would tell you it’s a great and efficient “activation” driver to bring lapsed users into the restaurant. Tragically, the headline on the back of the mailer launches another driver: Buzz. And this buzz is not good.
Here’s the headline: “REDISCOVER YOUR WHITE MAPLE GROVE APPLEBEE’S!”
Applebee's Mailer
It speaks for itself. Applebee’s did not.
Several irritated viewers contacted us about the mailer wondering how could the neighborhood restaurant be so insensitive? It turns out it was a printing
mistake. Similar mailers were created earlier in the year for the reopening of the Applebee’s in White Bear Lake, MN. Applebee’s believes the printer didn’t quite
interchange all of the words.
When Fox 9 contacted the corporate spokeswoman, there was no apology and little explanation. My colleague Erik Runge, a good and seasoned reporter, was stunned. He inquired about getting an interview from someone at Applebee’s explaining the error and was denied. He then asked about getting a written statement and again—denied.
There are some basic rules about crisis management. One of them is get ahead of the discussion. But the most important rule is to become a part of the discussion. Applebee’s corporate silence is equivalent to sticking its head in the sand. By not becoming a part of the narrative, they let everyone else—including their customers and the media—create the narrative for them. Once that happens, they have lost control of their brand.
Those of us who are Applebee’s customers know it as a good neighborhood restaurant chain with great service. The tragedy is it’s painfully obvious that the spokeswoman in the corporate office is not committed to the brand or its soul.
She needs to be force-fed some PR soul food. And then she needs to be fired.
Stand by... 
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