Whirlpool, a leading global manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances (many of which havent gone up in flames), has appointed digital agency Lab to help develop and promote the company’s Maytag brand online.
Already well-known in the USA, Whirlpool is now introducing the Maytag brand to a growing UK audience of quality-conscious home appliance buyers. Lab’s brief covers cover website re-design and development, ongoing consultancy and involvement in all digital marketing channels.
Jennifer Spragg, brand and digital marketing manager at Whirlpool, said, “Maytag has such an amazing heritage to draw upon. We’re really looking forward to introducing the brand to new customers and moving to a digital first strategy will really help us to do that.”
According to the brands marketing material is the following:
"For over 100 years, the Maytag name has embodied everything that’s best in high-quality, hi-tech and impeccably stylish design in the arena of domestic appliances.
Heritage and innovation are both so beautifully bound into creating durable, innovative and intelligent washing machines, dishwashers, tumble dryers, and fridge freezers, with components built to the highest standards inside every one, each and every time.
These sturdy, smartly designed parts, make Maytag appliances the most reliable and stylish you can find in the UK.
That’s the Maytag credo, and it’s never going to change. But it’s not just the parts we put inside our washers, dryers, dishwashers and fridges which makes Maytag a brand you can depend on. It’s what you put inside them, too. The jumper that comes out as soft as new, with every wash. The salad leaves that are as crisp and crunchy as the day they were picked. The glasses that glitter and gleam at every dinner party."
Whirlpool, which also sells appliances under the Indesit, Creda and Hotpoint brands has issued a series of safety warnings on its tumble dryers and has come under intense criticism from consumer action group Which? and trading standards officers for failing to recall potentially faulty machines - despite them being linked to fires at some 750 homes, according to numerous press reports.
As with any major corporation with deep pockets and plentiful opportunities to acquire press attention it is news stories such as launching new brands and product lines that can drown out the far more important (and very much ongoing) issues that affect consumers more yet any despite efforts from Whirlpool to drown out negative press a (google news) search of Whirlpool reveals the plentiful stories on product recall, fire and related criticism of ineffective action.
Rather than own up, rectify the issue, apologize and allow the company to move on, many criticisms of Whirlpool accuse the global brand of dodging its responsibilities and making repeated attempts to sweep it all under the rug. However, as with sweeping anything under the proverbial rug, you never know when you might need said rug to put out a fire! (pun very much intended)
Fire Safety Scandal
Until Whirlpool are seen to act against this growing fire safety scandal every news item about Whirlpool on this site will have the tag #whirlpool-hotpoint-creda-indesit-fire to inform consumers that despite all the awards and achievements Whirlpool boast about, at heart your safety isn’t something it appears to put first.
