Ouch! What to do when your brand launch is highjacked...
Oh dear. Ikea Canberra’s launch has been highjacked by a special interest group, and even some of one of the town’s biggest interest groups has fallen for ruse. It just goes to show you can spend 12 months building hype and teasing customers, but even multinational companies can fall victim to interest groups with an even more clever marketing campaign.
Image: fairgoforcanberra.org.au
As (allegedly) thousands of people queued for the first look at Canberra’s Ikea store, an energetic bunch from Fair Go for Canberra was out in force, making a fairly transparent and well-founded point that the Big Blue Box is among the most skilled in Australia when it comes to corporate tax avoidance.
Image: fairgoforcanberra.org.au
However, it wasn’t just the protestors at the entrance of Ikea that were getting up to mischief. A fake Ikea Canberra Twitter account appeared, and was having a field day as it fired off tweets that clearly didn’t come from HQ. We’re yet to discover who was behind it, but needless to say they were having a bit of fun at Ikea’s expense.
@FairGoCanberra Hej guys, thnks 4 the tweet! Not sure if you've seen the price of meat at @woolworths but we gotta make cuts. Tax went first
— IKEACanberra (@IKEACanberra) November 16, 2015
@city_news Why would we open up in different countries if it wasn't beneficial to us? This might help you out - https://t.co/Y6O5n0Ggj6
— IKEACanberra (@IKEACanberra) November 16, 2015
One quick look at the accounts page o twitter would give away the fact this isn’t quite legit, however that didn’t stop The Canberra Times reporting it as fact yesterday (now edited) in their coverage of Fair Go Canberra’s activities.
Image: fairgoforcanberra.org.au
So, what do you do when, despite your best-laid plans of a massive product launch, competitors or those opposed to your operation come in and steal your thunder, just run the company line. As CT reported, Canberra Store Manager Mark Mitchinson did just that. "IKEA pays all taxes incurred nationally and locally in accordance with Australian laws and regulations."
Good boy.