That Wascally Wal-Mart

For corporations providing goods and services, blogs provided yet another channel for promoting a product. Some, such as Sun Microsystems, General Motors, and Stonyfield Farms, have successfully managed to integrate their blogs into their website offerings. Others, such as Wal-Mart, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), and McDonald’s, have made major blunders. The main difference in their handling may be rooted to opposing attitudes about the nature of blogs. Successful corporate blogs recognize a savvy community with a recognized code of ethics and etiquette. Offending corporate blogs overlooked this aspect, choosing instead to treat their blogs as blunt marketing efforts, little more than interactive commercials.

In September 2006, a blog titled “Wal-Marting Across America” appeared, which followed Laura and Jim as they drove across country in their RV, interviewing happy Wal-Mart employees and customers along the way. A month later, site’s posts were removed, save for one goodbye and one explanation post (neither of them an apology). In what turned out to be the leading blog scandal of 2006, Wal-Mart, Edelman, and numerous others learned first-hand about the repercussions of a bad corporate blog.

Edelman, one of the premier firms in the PR industry, is actually a governing member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). As a governing member, they evaluate and help craft the ethical word-of-mouth marketing guidelines across a range of mediums, blogging being one of them. The objectives of their “Ethical Blogger Contact Guidelines” are listed as follows:

--Help marketers work honestly and ethically within the blogosphere.
--Promote disclosure by marketers within blogs.
--Protect consumers by establishing ethical standards for marketing to and within blogs.
--Protect marketers' reputations from the damage that unethical behavior will cause.

While this is still a draft (see link item #6), the core components of the guidelines are there. The question is, how could Edelman, a leader in interactive marketing, have so blatantly disregarded them? From the explanation provided by Laura, the intent of her blog was not meant to be another insidious marketing effort. A fan of RVing, she and her partner had discovered that Wal-Marts allowed RVs to park overnight for free. Already planning a major trip, she thought:

We would take vacation from our full-time jobs and drive across the country in a rented RV, from city to city, spending the night in a different Wal-Mart parking lot every night. And, of course, I’d write an article about it and may be able to sell a story to an RV magazine, with photos, of RVing in America and only staying at Wal-Marts.

Utilizing her connections to Edelman, whom she knew handled Wal-Mart’s PR, she attempted to obtain permission to write such a story rather than risk litigation afterwards. To her surprise, Edelman quickly pitched her idea to Working Families for Wal-Mart, and they agreed to underwrite the trip. (Wal-Mart, in its own defense, has distanced itself from this decision by Working Families as it is an independent organization, though it receives funding from them.)

So far, all is well and good by the guidelines. But the problems began when the bloggers failed to disclose that the blog was now technically a commercial entity, no longer representing the sole interests of Laura and Jim. The scope of their original project was altered by the contract with Working Families, even though it was a direction the bloggers enjoyed taking. Telling the (mostly positive) stories of people encountered in Wal-Marts is not a sin in the blogging community, but failing to make your affiliation apparent is considered deceptive. Edelman, in charge of the site, is responsible for failing to apply its own WOMMA guidelines of transparency.

It was anti-Wal-Mart watchdog bloggers who first discovered the connection, which was then massively exposed by BusinessWeek.com. The unveiling of the blogger’s identities made the situation seem more deceptive. Laura St. Claire was a freelance writer and employee at the U.S. treasury, and her partner, Jim Thresher, was a staff photographer for The Washington Post. Professional journalists, writing on behalf of Wal-Mart, ought to have realized that they represent more than ‘Laura and Jim, average Americans.’