Nestle doesn’t need to please everyone

Pinpoint who your audience is, and do your best to reach them

A long time ago, a political pollster taught me some important lessons about an audience. Most importantly, not everyone is your audience.

I was reminded of this lesson watching the Nestle Facebook controversy spin out of control. Nestle’s Facebook fan page was taken over by Greenpeace supporters. The charge is that the food giant’s use of Indonesian palm oil is destroying forests and killing Orangutans.

A huge number of people have posted mostly negative comments on Nestle’s page. The Nestle person responsible for replying angered “fans” by asking them to stop altering the Nestle logo on the fan page. The Nestle rep continued with sarcastic comments.

The negative publicity coupled with relative silence from the company has resulted in a giant PR mess. But with what audience should Nestle be most concerned?

Let’s break down audience opinions from zero to 10.

A “0” or “1” will never side with you no matter what you say. Nestle could announce today its elimination of palm oil from all products and this group would still hate Nestle.