GASP – A Don Draper Moment Missed

GASP have missed a valuable opportunity. Dumb luck gave them a chance for growth but being dumb, they blew it.

For those who haven’t followed, here’s the story. ‘Fattish’ girl is abused in shop, sends letter of complaint, management sides with clerk, abuses further, the abused posts the abuse to the internet, the crowd goes wild!

At first I wondered whether it was a PR stunt, then I watched the 7PM project.

This was their Don Draper moment. Their moment to announce why they’re “firing clients.”  Their moment to make their ostentatious, trashbag customers salivate at the chops.  But unfortunately, this was the moment we all realised this was no stunt.

What the company delivered was Matt Chidgey, an inarticulate Operations Manager with no clear message nor passion. He had been told to side with the store but hadn’t really worked out a good reason why he should. The result: an embarrassment for him (poor bugger was obviously out of his depth) and a tremendous wasted opportunity for GASP.  

Of course there’s no love lost with their current customers. But what they missed was a golden opportunity to grow and position.  An opportunity to be the store that has attitude.  That rejects customer service clichés and says you’re not welcome to the “undesireables” (a position loved by undesirables.) They didn’t. They still haven’t. And every day they don’t, they’re making it harder to turn around.