Why do/don’t you trust companies?
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
Ran into a quick, interesting read from blogger Jake McKee titled Reason #234593 People Don’t Trust Companies (via a tweet from @meat99). It’s a quick, interesting read about the recent fumble by Beanie Baby maker Ty and their newest addition to their doll lineup: Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia. (If the significance of the names doesn’t hit you immediately, don’t worry - it took me a minute too. Perhaps it’ll be more clear if you consider the names of the newly annointed first-daughters of the Obama family…)
It didn’t take long for the action to make waves - CNN has good coverage of the issue, which resulted in an official statement by White House representatives, here. When pressed on the matter, Ty’s initial statement was full of legalese and “cover our collective asses” language:
A Ty representative told CNN the company generally avoids naming dolls for “any particular living individual,” because doing so might interfere with how kids use their imaginations to play with them. But they wouldn’t reveal the source of their inspiration for the new figures, telling CNN that information relating to the development of the company’s merchandise — including how it comes up with products, product names, and trademarks – is proprietary.
However, it appears that this tone didn’t fly in the slightest. A quick look at the Ty website reveals that just ten days since the CNN article was published, the manufacturer has already added both dolls to its “retired” list and renamed them:
“In deference to the wishes of the First Family, Ty Inc. has officially retired the Ty Girlz names Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha. We have renamed the dolls Marvelous Mariah and Sweet Sydney.
While the names Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha were inspired by this historic time in our nation’s history, the dolls were not intended to bear the likeness of the First Daughters.
Of course, the note, presented by Ty Warner (founder and CEO of Ty), still smacks of that “I’m sorry you feel that way” type of language. Rather than a genuine apology, it seems to have an underhanded feel of “I’m sorry we won’t be able to make money off you…” I think Jake put it well in his original post; Ty has succeeded nicely in presenting consumers a reason to purchase from someone else.
