Vichy Case

This is a case we had to prepare for our Information System class at IE.

France Vichy Cosmetics: To Blog Or Not To Blog?

Situation – Context

On April 27, 2005 Vichy Laboratories launched in France a blog called “Dairy of My Skin” with the goal of promoting a new anti-age product: Peel Abrasion. The blog would act as a marketing tool where “Claire”, a false character, talks to women about common wrinkles worries.

“Dairy of My Skin” was not Vichy’s first experience using blogs a marketing tool. In February 2005, Vichy Korea ran two blogs with successful results.

Vichy hired the advertising agency Euro RSCG4 to implement the “blog” marketing plan. This multinational agency had a department specialized in Digital Marketing.


Problems

“Dairy of My Skin” was highly criticized by bloggers, marketing, and blog marketing specialists. The main causes of the criticisms were:

- Writing style: “Claire” was clearly not writing the blog but a designer was in charge of doing so.
- Lack of spontaneity: everything in the blog was programmed and done in advance.

Bloggers negative comments about Vichy’s blog disseminated quickly around the French blogosphere.

Even after the apologize of Delphine, product manager of Vichy in France, the news spread to national press: Le Monde criticized the cosmetic company for using blogs to communicate with costumers.


Alternative Solutions

Vichy France has to decide about a response strategy. Should Vichy act nationwide using traditional communication methods or new ones? Should Vichy let the time go by so that this “problem” is forgotten? What to do with the blog?

No doubt, the “Dairy of My Skin” experience was not a happy one. There are different reasons that Vichy should adjust to avoid this kind of failure. Moreover, the response given by product manager Delphine in the blog was not convincing and bloggers wondered whether Delphine was a true character (another Claire?).

I will mention a list of alternative solutions for the case:

- Avoid using blogs for future marketing plans and use traditional channels of communication.
- Organize press interviews for Vichy executives where they can talk about the company strategy and briefly refer to the blog issue.
- Discontinue “Dairy of My Skin”.
- Continue with marketing plans that include blogs but considering the mistakes from this experience.
- In relation to the last alternative, ask for advise to Vichy Korea, which was very successful with its blogs experiences.
- Take advise from bloggers to develop and run future blogs.


My Choice

Rather than accepting just one of the alternatives, I would combine most of them.

First, I think that Vichy should not abandon its idea of using blogs as a marketing tool and as a means to communicate with costumers. In fact, as mentioned in the case, most companies are creating blogs to promote products and interact with costumers.

Asking for advise to Vichy Korea would be a good idea. Although it is very possible that costumers differ greatly between the two markets, Vichy Korea was able to run blogs successfully and, apparently, without major criticisms.

I will also ask for advise to experienced bloggers in order to find out how they relate to each other and how they communicate with followers.

Then, I would discontinue “Dairy of My Skin”. It would be very difficult to build trust with costumers through this blog and change perceptions coming from them, from the press, and from bloggers.

Finally, I do think that Vichy should explain the reasons behind its bad experience with “Dairy of My Skin”. By doing so, the company admits its mistakes before costumers and commits to avoid future similar issues. In my opinion, the best way to do it is through press interviews in which company executives talk about different subjects, including the blog failure and how they will deal with it in the future.