Setback? Or Opportunity!
What do you think of when you think of luxury watches? Craftsmanship, beautiful design, superior quality and high prices. Prices so high that they range anywhere between the cost of a small holiday to that of a car; but in 2015, brothers, Danielius and Matas Jakutis, sought to change all that. They went on Kickstarter and started a campaign to bring high-quality, luxury timepieces at affordable prices by eliminating middlemen and retailers that mark up prices exponentially.
Almost 18,000 backers gave support to the campaign and they raised some 5.7 million euros to bring their ‘luxury-watches-at-less-than-luxury-price’ dream to life. And that is how Filippo Loreti was born! According to the company, this was the most-funded watch campaign in the world.
But there was a slight snag, a delay in delivery. The initial backers received the product anywhere between two to five months late as the company faced production and customisation challenges. And in an amazing move Filippo Loreti has turned this snag into a great PR opportunity. They are individually calling each of the 17,819 initial backers and personally apologising to each of them.
This honest approach and their genuine effort to address the issue coupled with their efficient customer service (all this is being done over two days) is winning hearts all over. But how would any non-stakeholder be aware of this effort? Therein lies their masterstroke! Filippo Loreti is livestreaming this entire thing on Facebook, therefore, giving them this insane publicity.
The lesson here is simple, even a disaster can be an opportunity for positive PR. And in this day and age of social media, at almost nil cost!
