Autoblog: Honda tries to get hype through Facebook with negative consequences

Half of me wants to be able to see the stuff on the crosstour forums without using two browsers, but the other part of me doesn't feel like deleting cookies. sticking with 2 browsers i guess.
 
http://img4.imageshack.**/img4/2917/crosstourlol.jpg


Many moons ago, when the internet was newish and Netscape ruled the land, we took a class called, "Anatomy of a Virtual Community." The idea was to explore and study how online communities functioned, if they were good or bad and if you really could achieve something akin to the mid-Nineties liberal arts school conception of "community." You have to understand this was back when chat rooms were as exotic as Tahiti and there wasn't anything on the internet but porn. The class itself didn't go so well, because most of the students wouldn't participate in the group chat the way the professor envisioned. Point being, it's quite difficult to control behavior in an online environment.

Honda just got hit upside the head with this particular lesson. Yesterday, we posted that the Crosstour Facebook page was overflowing with negative comments regarding the look of Honda's new CUV. Seems that the public at large isn't too thrilled with the design. We went ahead and ran our own poll and looks as if Autoblog readers agree with the Facebookians ? 81.7% of you feel the Crosstour should be killed with fire, and just 3.1% of you think it is good looking. And we'd guesstimate that well over 81.7% of the ensuing comments are negative. Many rabidly so. Difference is, we left the comments alone, while Honda was purging 'em on Facebook. To be fair to Honda, they say they have removed a total 28 comments (out of thousands) because of "profanity or inappropriate content." Further, they note that they "...did not remove any comments that simply expressed a negative opinion about the Crosstour." They did, however, remove one that expressed a positive opinion.

Our pal Alex had the presence of mind to grab a screen shot of the above exchange which has since been removed from the Crosstour page. Obviously, this type of thing is embarrassing for Honda. And it illustrates what a sticky pickle modern day PR folks find themselves in. Regarding Eddie Okubo's comments, here's what Honda has to say:

Eddie Okubo is a manager in Honda Product Planning. His post was removed for two reasons: 1) He did not first state that he is a Honda employee and that his posting is his personal -- not Honda's -- opinion. 2) He is not a spokesperson for Honda.

Did Eddie really do anything wrong? He's an employee defending not only his company and that company's product, but his livelihood. Yet his comments and other similar non-sanctioned corporate communique will one day wind up in business textbooks as examples of how social media marketing can go very, very wrong. Also, isn't every employee with a Facebook/Twitter account suddenly a spokesperson if their company decides to use social media? It could be that multinational corporations just aren't ready for Facebook and it's ilk. It's definitely an issue that deserves further study.
 
I don't think they should have removed that post. He may work for Honda, but like the article said it's his own personal opinion, and he's not part of the guerrilla marketing juggernaut.
 
Now that the s2k is out of production and they're out of F1, is there any reason to give Honda any attention? They've become Toyota: complete snoozefest. :zzz:
 
Now that the s2k is out of production and they're out of F1, is there any reason to give Honda any attention?

I'm going to take a bit of work off Spectre's hand and say: the motorcycle division.
On four wheels though, not so much...


... although I personally quite like the european Civic, and the Jazz is a really nice small car.
 
I'm going to take a bit of work off Spectre's hand and say: the motorcycle division.
On four wheels though, not so much...


... although I personally quite like the european Civic, and the Jazz is a really nice small car.

Bingo. These days, it's getting easier and easier to see that Honda's car division exists solely to fund the racing, R&D, and motorcycle/powersports divisions. Especially when they come out with cynical marketing exercises like this Cross(dresser)tour thing.
 
I'm going to take a bit of work off Spectre's hand and say: the motorcycle division.
On four wheels though, not so much...


... although I personally quite like the european Civic, and the Jazz is a really nice small car.

Yup, the Civic and the Jizz are the only 2 interesting cars that Honda makes anymore, although they aren't exactly exciting.
 
Yeah, yeah. Get back to me when Honda builds the CB1100F concept.

cb1100f.jpg
 
yeah i'm seeing Edges all over the place these days... but i've yet to see a Venza in the wild

that Volvo is ugly in a cool and funky way, therefore, styling sucess.

the Crossturd, on the other hand, is just ugly in an ugly way. styling fail.
 
Can anyone find a pre-ban version of the forum...I want to see the trolling that was going on there.
 
From Autoblog:

Honda releases more pics of Accord Crosstour in red. Does it help?

Honda is now in full-on damage control mode over the Accord Crosstour Facebook fiasco, a PR catastrophe that will likely be discussed in college marketing courses for years to come. As you probably know by now, the 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour quickly became a bubble-butted pi?ata after its global unveiling via Facebook, where social media users get to vent their spleens have their say, and what they had to say, in a nutshell, was "Ugly!"

The situation became more embarrassing when Honda got snagged deleting select comments from the stream, including one from a pro-Crosstour individual who wound up actually being a Honda product planner. Unfortunately, he neglected to identify himself as such before posting. Honda finally saw fit to respond to the awkwardness with several paragraphs of PR boilerplate that included, among other things, an explanation that the car's really not all that ugly, you see. It simply doesn't look good in the pictures that were posted initially, and new shots would be forthcoming to "clear things up" on the matter of the car's apparently regrettable styling.

Well, those new Honda Accord Crosstour shots are up on Facebook now. Do they help? Frankly, we don't think so. Sure, the car's more red, but it's no less the homely hatchwagon. We've added a new poll after the jump, so let us know if your minds have changed as a result of the new images.

As expected, people still aren't convinced with the new color that this car is styled "aggressively".

"I sell Honda's for a living, and nobody has ever asked for a more expensive Accord hatchback with lousy rear visibility, which is all this is. People want an Accord wagon, not this useless design exercise."

- Chaplin A Tarshis


"I thought the new Accord sedan and Acura TL were ugly until I saw this. This will probably the ugliest thing that Honda has ever produced. It looks like it's 1/4 too big, and reminds me of a more contemporary Pontiac Aztek. This is what a Citr...oen would look like if it was designed by someone with no imagination or talent. Honda used to be one of my favorite car companies throughout the 80's and 90's, but they have seriously lost direction. They are trying to be everything to everyone instead of focusing on what they did best. Good, reliable, attractive (if somewhat derivative), fun-to-drive CARS. The latest Honda/Acura's models have become just atrocious. It is as if Honda is just throwing in new design elements with common themes, hoping that they will , eventually, make something that doesn't assault the aesthetic senses. So far it is DEFINITELY NOT WORKING. Looking at what Hyundai has coming in the next couple of years, Honda should be very worried."

-Brian Bullock

Ouch, that's gotta be one harsh, if true piece of criticism. BMW can sell something as stupid as this because it has BMW badge. This doesn't.
 
Last edited:
yeah i'm seeing Edges all over the place these days... but i've yet to see a Venza in the wild

that Volvo is ugly in a cool and funky way, therefore, styling sucess.

the Crossturd, on the other hand, is just ugly in an ugly way. styling fail.
I guess the Greater Toronto Area is Venza town...the Ford Edge is more rare than the Venza here. Sadly I'm certain this Crosstour will sell very well here because so many bought the ugly Accord sedan.
 
This was fun, I called it a Manatee. Feel sorry for the two PR lackies they got on there though. I think they're just really making it worse.
 
I guess the Greater Toronto Area is Venza town...the Ford Edge is more rare than the Venza here. Sadly I'm certain this Crosstour will sell very well here because so many bought the ugly Accord sedan.

Venzas sell here too! I think that might be because the local Toyota dealer is run by the guy who used to run the local Chevy dealer, and old people like him.
 
It may be ugly, but so are most of the cars people tend to buy. For some reason people bought a lot of Aztecs... figure that out. If people will buy Aztecs, they'll buy this abomination.
 
I don't see many Aztecs on the road, in fact they are so rare here that I tend to point and stare with my jaw hanging open.

"Holy shit, someone bought one! And he's driving it in public!"

That car was one of the biggest failures in automotive history. It's entry 2 in the chapter on "What Not To Do."
 
The Aztek failed hard. It had enough facelifts in its brief run to make Joan Rivers jealous, and was cut from the lineup relatively early. The only people who bought one might have had some sort of cognitive disorder, there should be studies.
 
The Aztek failed hard. It had enough facelifts in its brief run to make Joan Rivers jealous, and was cut from the lineup relatively early. The only people who bought one might have had some sort of cognitive disorder, there should be studies.

Hey, I just got a great idea for a dissertation.
 
I became a fan just so I could extract this:

Hi, Facebook fans. We?re listening, and we want to address a few things you?ve been talking about over the past few days.

1. The photos: Arguably, the two studio photos we posted didn?t give you enough detail, nor were they the best to showcase the vehicle. There are more photos on the way. Maybe it?s like a bad yearbook photo or something, and we think the new photos will clear things up.

2. It?s not the European wagon: We've seen a lot of comments about the desire for a wagon, but this is neither a wagon nor designed for wagon buyers. We think the Euro wagon is a cool vehicle, too, and we appreciate the feedback? but a version of that wasn?t our intention here. That's another segment worthy of our consideration, but the Accord Crosstour, built on the larger, Accord platform, is meant to give you the best of two worlds ? the versatility of an SUV with the sportiness of a car.

3. Many of you don?t like the styling: It may not be for everyone. Our research suggests that the styling does test well among people shopping for a crossover.

4. You want further details about the Accord Crosstour: We typically can?t give you details so far out from when the vehicle goes on sale for a number of reasons, including competitive intelligence and pure availability. However... we hear your frustrations, and while specs on the vehicle aren?t finalized, we?re trying to get some stuff together that we hope will satiate some of your curiosity and give you more to think about.

5. Honda associates participating in the wall comments: We didn?t remove comments out of embarrassment. We removed comments that were posted contrary to American Honda's consumer-generated media policy for associates: We must first clearly state that we are Honda employees and that a posting is a personal ? not Honda?s ? opinion. Eddie forgot to add that, so his comments were removed.


Thank you for all of the interest, and we?ll be in touch again soon...

Hey, Newhouse PR kids! Here's your crash course on crisis management. :rolleyes:
 
Top