"Fat Girl Costumes" Available Only at Walmart!

For me, the week before Halloween is usually the time where I begin brainstorming what I should dress up as.  This years ideas consist either a witch or Dexter's victim. The decision has yet to be made, so I'll get back to you on that one.  On October 21, Walmart had a social media/website hiccup when they described their plus-size women's halloween costumes as "Fat Girl Costumes."

Once this was pointed out on Twitter by a customer, it went viral.  People took to social media, more specifically, Twitter in order to relive their thoughts on the sticky situation.  The insulting title was taken down by 10:30 am.  However, Walmart failed to completely take down and fix the issue on their website until about 1:30 pm.  The title was changed to "Women's Plus-Size Halloween Costumes" but the page was blank when customers went to visit it.

In the past, we've seen companies make mistakes on their websites or via social media.  Whether it was a disgruntled employee or an honest mistake (not sure how this would be an 'honest mistake') the most important step for Wal-mart to take would be resolve the problem as fast as possible and then apologize.  For example, I previously posted about Urban Outfitters 'blood-stained' sweatshirt, or Zara's striped 'holocaust' children's sweatshirt.  Time and time again we've learned that a companies best approach to damage control is to fix the situation immediately, and to RESPOND to consumers with an apology of some sort.  In this specific case, Wal-mart did just that by issuing an apology via twitter which can be seen below.

So, the issue was cleared up by Monday around 1:30, but Wal-mart was far from in the clear.  They spent the rest of the day, and probably the rest of the week replying to angry tweets from customers.  The moments after a company faces a conflict will define how successful they will be in the future, to an extent.  Keeping customers satisfied, loyal, and happy will keep your brand in the forefront of their mind at all times.  Customers are the root of the business, or they should be.  Social media is where consumers are, it is IMPERATIVE that companies recognize this, attempt to genuinely connect with their consumers on a one-to-one basis, and social media is the key to doing so.