Lush’s recent announcement (on Instagram, ironically) that they are closing down all their social media channels has been greeted by the reputation management aficionados of this world as either a very, very clever move (so clever that nobody appears to be able to work out why they’ve done it) or utter madness. Some of their feeds boast around half a million followers – surely this is a goldmine for any consumer facing company? Why would you stop talking to millions of folk who have expressed enough of an interest in you to follow you?
Apparently the team at Lush, who have famously grown their business with almost no advertising or marketing spend but instead have grown a vibrant community based on user generated content, is tired of having to pay to appear in newsfeeds – as they said in their announcement: “Increasingly, social media is making it harder and harder for us to talk to each other directly. We are tired of fighting with algorithms, and we do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed.” Instead they are trying to encourage the conversation to move to a chat application on its website (operated by Olark a third party which specialises in automated on-line chat), a customer services email and a good old-fashioned telephone number.
We all know there are toxic elements to social media platforms, and that brands need to be more careful about where they appear and how, but Lush’s reaction to the problem appears draconian. It appears that Lush’s focus on conversations with the outside world is destined to return to what brands have longed to escape from, customer complaints and little else. Calling a number in Dorset to complain that a bathbomb has given you a rash is not the same as having a proper dialogue between the company and its customers. Lush might be realising that product marketing on digital platforms is becoming more expensive and less cost effective, but in closing their channels, they are also closing down the perfect platform to talk consistently to their customers and other audiences about their purpose, their vision and what they stand for as a brand. Lush has never been one to follow the trend, but this is a move that they may come to regret.