Buzzscore: Consumers Turn on Tylenol

Buzzscore: Consumers Turn on Tylenol

Brandweek’s Todd Wasserman reporting on the sharp decline in Tylenol’s brand buzz following the FDA’s warning that acetaminophen, in particular, has been linked to liver damage:

The firm, whose BrandIndex polls 5,000 U.S. adults daily on brand perception, found Tylenol’s negative buzz grew in a very short amount of time.

On June 25, the brand’s buzz score — which is rated on a scale of 100 to -100 and calculated by subtracting negative feedback from positive — was 38.9 percent.

On July 9, that score was 18 percent an "incredibly sharp drop in a very short time," per a YouGov rep.

Tylenol_buzzscore

Two thoughts:

One, this is the second major brand strike against Tylenol.  The first was the 1982 incident in which an anonymous criminal laced Extra Strength Tylenol with potassium cyanide, killing seven.  The first brand recovery was a miracle of smart, measured PR. Not sure how this one is going to find legs, seeing how the FDA itself is the one dealing the blow.  Which leads me to…

How much of a role did social media play in spreading the word?  A pretty big one.  Which leads me to…

If there is going to be a brand recovery this time, Tylenol needs to embrace the social networks that spread the news about the FDA ruling and started the conversation about it.  If public trust is to be rebuilt, it will be through interaction and engagement, not the traditional PR playbook.

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