goop: Good or Bad

 I had selected the brand goop. I picked this brand because I have seen lots of weird items that goop sells on social media including memes. The goop brand is capturing many peoples attention for the good and the bad. They are either commenting on how off the wall and weird her products are, commenting on how her opinion and approaches to lifestyle aren't healthy or following along with her advice. What is interesting about this brand is how it is making waves for being so unique that even the critics are buying her products just to see what it is. 

They offer many different service from beauty, travel to cooking. They offer products that can't be found anywhere else. They also provide free articles about traveling and recipes. The company's focus in on being open-minded and that is a good example of a promise but also a benefit when it comes to ideas or comments. A benefit is also that you can find many items from different industries in one place. The competitive advantage is the owner/creator is a well known actress Gwyneth Paltrow so she already had a social media following and can be her own model. Another advantage is Paltrow talks about stuff that is considered taboo and makes it a conversation so it shocks and amazes people into wanting to hear more. She captures attention well. 

A good thing discussed about this product is how open she is in talking. A bad is how the things she says aren't backed by real science and that is misleading customers to make money. Another bad part is her products are harmful or just serve no purpose. She gotten lots of backlash for her comments and encouragement for procedures or products that aren't safe. This website touches on her false claims and how even with the critics goop is growing faster then ever.

In this post she was trying to sell a fashion line

Goop is using social media and the negative comments to get the word out about their product. They continue to grow without hesitant or apologizing to the critics. Within each social media they have parts of the company they focus on. Pinterest is "inspiration for your home, your beauty cabinet and your next meal." YouTube focuses on wellness talks and meditation. It shows that they don't copy and paste in ad to everything they have. They adapt their ads to the social media they are using. They also focus on story telling within their site goop.com. They share many stories about travel, health and wellness to plant the seed that the customers need a product to maybe freshen their skin or wake up more energized and what would you know; they have a product to achieve whatever the article says you need too. 

The challenges for this ad is that the publicity of the critics is starting to turn sour. Goop has already received a fine from California about a product that they claim heals hormonal balance to bladder control has been found to actually be harmful. The critics are gonna take these legal consequences far and wide to spread the news of their lying and misleading. They need to find ways to overcome the current harmful publicity. They also need to focus on testing and proving the products they sell are safe and effective. 

They try to communicate with the loyal and supportive customers but, not  listening much to the could be customers, but aren't yet. They never directly communicate with the critics however. Ignoring the bad has been good for the company but lawsuits can cause a business to go down quickly and that's where the company is at and continuing to go towards. They need to respond to the fines and the legal trouble they are getting into. They don't need to confront all the allegations but the ones that could bring the business down need to be recognized because the customers already have. 

My advice would be about responding to critics. I wouldn't directly engaging but taking their advice and doing the opposite. Critics help give the company exposure sometimes it's not good but most of the time it's harmless complaining and it gets the brand more out there so the more irritated they are, the more they comment. More comments spreads the ad to more phones. Focus on the real customers and do what they want and need and keep a conversation going that causes critics to feel obligated to answer. 

I discovered how horrible goop is because of the safety and advice that is inaccurate. They also have a wide variety of topics the company focuses on and it's too wide. Their is too many directional issues with the company but the company continues to grow not matter how bad the products are and how badly managed it is. It really shows it's hard to get a purple cow down.