Little Debbie, You’ve Totally Redeemed Yourself!

November 23, 2009 in Advertising, Lessing-Flynn, Online Marketing, Social Media, The Lessing-Flynn Intern
Tags: intern hero, Lessing-Flynn, little debbie, little debbie muffins, McKee Foods, spencer anderson

When I was walking home from my noon class on Wednesday I checked Twitter and saw several @AdMavericks tweets about the arrival of Little Debbie muffins.  I don’t need to give you the complete run-down of this story, we’ve written and Tweeted about this before.  But what we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived!  The “Intern Hero Muffin Mystery” has been solved.  Yes, the ten boxes of muffins were delicious (supplies are dwindling), but what impressed us more was how Little Debbie handled the situation.

Two minutes might be a stretch in describing the response-time to the “Worst of the Week” post written about Little Debbie.  A major hat-tip is in order to their Social Media Coordinator for being on the ball and beginning to rectify the problem in mere moments.  Once again this has shown us the effectiveness of social media in real-time.  I’m sure Little Debbie could say the same.

How many companies have you had a gripe with and it unfortunately goes unnoticed?  Consumers are talking about your product or service through social media.  Of course there will be those that have nothing good to say, but over time, brand-advocates will drown them out.  Clearly, close-minded marketers who won’t accept social media don’t work at Little Debbie and McKee Foods.

We’ll probably never know what caused the delay in the delivery of the muffins, and quite honestly it doesn’t matter to us.  The point I’m trying to make is that Little Debbie saw a problem, addressed it, and went above and beyond to make up for the mistake.  Granted I’m just a little intern in Des Moines, but Little Debbie treated me as far more than that.  So thanks again, and to quote the Dumb and Dumber scooter scene,  you’ve “totally redeemed yourself!” High-five!

Author: Spencer Anderson