It’s only few weeks after the terrible terrorist strike in Paris on the 13/11/2015. This has been an attack that shocked the entire western world as we know it and spread sadness to everyone. Paris, similarly to New York have been terrorist targets not only because they belonged to France and the USA, but mainly because they are iconic cities with landmarks widely known to the world and synonymous to the western way of living. This is exactly the same reason these two cities have been vastly used in marketing campaigns of several products.

Few days after the attack, I visited my neighborhood’s supermarket for the weekly grocery shopping when I  saw a perfume product display with the promo message #myriseparisi (translate from Greeklish: #smellslikeParis).

I have to be honest with you. This product stand gave me the creeps in such a strong manner that I was not even able to make a picture of it. I quickly turned my head away and promptly surpassed it.

Using a trip to Paris as an incentive in a promotional campaign for perfumes is really a great idea, a bit overplayed however always on brief. Or almost always… The timing in this one was truly very unfortunate and I doubt if this has been in any way a successful promo for the company that organized this.

This triggered me to think what could have be the pathology in an organization so that this campaign was not immediately cancelled and I could think of 3 different ones:

• Lack of mechanism for going directly to the market (I would like to withdraw this campaign but I cannot do it with the means I have)
• Lack of accountability/ownership (I think this is not good for my company, but I work in Finance, so this is not of my business)
• Lack of empathy (Bombings take place every day, people will stop talking about it in a few days and our promo can go on)

Many say that marketing is all about generating demand for a product or service by evoking emotions. Lack of emotional awareness and empathy can truly be the Achilles’s Heel, even to the most competent marketer.

Closing on a general note: Let’s all wish that peace will prevail on earth.

 Source: http://www.etown.edu/centers/global/peace.aspx