Mia Fileman: 0:05
Are you tired of marketing jargon and empty promises? Me too. I'm Mia Fileman, and this is Got-Marketing. On the show, I deep dive with marketing insiders to unpack successful campaigns. I didn't earn the nickname the Campaign Lady for nothing. Get actionable tips, learn from winning strategies and avoid falling victim to marketing fads and fakery.
Mia: 0:30
Hello friend and welcome to today's Marketing Moment. Joining me on the show today is one of my favorite Got Marketing guests, Nell Casey from Fete Creative, and she's joining me to talk about the Palava that is in Incy Interiors. Welcome back to the show, Nell.
Nell Casey: 0:51
Thank you for having me, Mia, and for bringing me on to talk about this topic that I am very passionate about.
Mia: 0:58
Okay, so why has this boiled your berries?
Nell: 1:01
Well, first up disclaimer: I am an aggrieved customer of Incy interiors, so I do have some personal experience. And from both a customer and a marketing perspective, I have done a deep dive into what is going on with Incy interiors, and I wanted to come on and talk about this from that marketing and small business perspective, but also obviously my own personal experience with it as well. But it is yes, as you say, a bit of a Palava. So the succinct short version of the story is, NC interiors started 10 plus years ago, great reputation in the Australian kids furniture space throughout that time, but what has seemed to have happened in the last two or three years is they have had some snafus behind the scenes that have left quite a number of customers aggrieved. What's really interesting about this is that it hasn't surfaced so much that even myself, I bought product from them in February, and I wasn't aware of the issues going on, because at the top level, the marketing was very clean, and it seemed like they were still running based on that really great reputation they had. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening behind the scenes. So I came across this when I bought a product in February. Was told it would be a march delivery. There were delays, there were emails sent, there are excuses. And I was really patient about it, but it came to about May, when I got, you know, another excuse why my order wouldn't be delivered, quite an expensive order, and I started digging into it. And while there's five star reviews on the website, and the social media on their accounts is clean, when you do a little bit of a search, you do find quite a number of one star reviews on productreview.com, which is an independent review site, as well as a couple of Facebook groups solely containing people who are aggrieved customers of Incy interiors. Now there's another part to this story, which throws even more confusion into the mix for customers, and from that marketing perspective, is that in January of this year, the original founder of Incy interiors sold business to their brother, who was also a long time employee of the business, and that original founder wound up or went into voluntary liquidation. Their side of the company, and it's no secret that that company was wound up with quite a large amount of debt. The liquidation report is public, and you can go and find it. It's really interesting read if you are a business owner.
Mia: 3:55
Which you did, obviously..
Nell: 3:57
I did, obviously read it. And so anyone that purchased pre January is part of that old sort of liquidation wind up and are being told completely different things in order to resolve their issues than those customers like myself that bought post January, who are, you know, actually dealing with a company that is active and should be delivering product, but it is basically under the surface a complete show.
Mia: 4:24
I can't believe that they are still running Facebook ads. The former founder is speaking at events. She's been touted as this e-commerce mastermind and someone to inspire other small businesses when there is a Facebook page dedicated to just not delivering product to customers and just yeah, spectacularly failing when it comes to the customer experience.
Nell: 4:53
And it is really interesting that customer experience, that side of things, like I am a person, the marketer and someone in e-commerce, I read the website before I buy a product, like, I'm like, I want a deep dive. I read the About-page. And on there, it talks about customer service being a key value pillar of the brand, and that is something that that previous founder has recently like as of in, you know, last few months, been on podcasts and been on stages talking about how important that customer experience is from that brand perspective, but it's not being delivered at the bottom end, and that is a real miss when it comes to a brand. And it's you know, obviously anyone who has purchased from them knows that that experience is going on, but bad experiences with a brand spread much faster than a great experience with a brand. And so long term, I'm not even sure what the objective is from Incy interiors‘ point of view, like is this current suppression of bad press, bad reviews, an attempt to climb themselves out of a situation where, you know they can't deliver, or they're unable to deliver in that time frame, and that they're hoping that they can ride this out, or is this just really bad management, and at the end of the day, they don't really care about the customers, even though that's what they state.
Mia: 6:18
So it's July, it's actually nearly August, and you still don't have your order. So there's a huge problem behind the scenes, when the website is saying that it's going to be a month later, and it's now been seven months later.
Nell: 6:32
Yeah, it's absolutely wild.
Mia: 6:35
So what do you think is happening? They've run out of money, but there's still a lot of pressure to keep making sales, to try to replenish the coffers, but they just, they just don't have the money in order to order the goods from the factory. Is that what's happening?
Nell: 6:51
That really what it seems is, what it appears like. So, this is part, you know, things that I've found, and part things that people have said, but there seems that there was a large contract with a large baby retailer in Australia that fell through, or the incendiaries tried to get out of you have to kind of work out which side of that you want, like you believe. But basically they left the whole lot of stock of a particular sort of product range of cots, but they are unable to deliver, or perhaps pay off their suppliers for the new product. And remember when the original Incy interiors company went into liquidation with the founder, they left quite a number of businesses in debt, and those were businesses like freight companies, like storage companies. So, these are companies that previously were dealing with Incy Interiors, that would have no intention of wanting to hand over product that's perhaps sitting in a warehouse that hasn't been paid for, because on paper, the brand hasn't changed, even though maybe it's changed, you know, structural hands. So there is perhaps, and I've heard the rumour, that there is perhaps products sitting out there in warehouses that some freight companies are just unwilling to hand over. I've heard that, you know, perhaps it's just a matter of getting new product made, and it really depends on who you listen to. The founders have said it's just purely an administrative issue with the handing over of old stock from belonging to the old company to the new company, and it's purely admin. I don't believe that, and I think that it's much more a financial issue. It is unable to pay for the stock that's been ordered, and particularly at the prices that they have been selling that product for. So when I purchased the product, it was pitched as an end of summer sale, and it was sort of half off. And at that price, I was like, that's actually pretty good price for a bed, you know, it was like, $500 like that. That is quite cheap for a hand, you know, it's wooden product, so it's manufactured. It's a handmade process to that, and it's got to come from overseas. Like, there's not a lot of profit in that. I kind of know that, and they are selling product at pretty cheap prices, and so I just don't think that there's a lot of wiggle room in that, in order to fund future purchases and to get these products out.
Mia: 9:17
I just they need to stop running Facebook ads. They need to stop promoting their brands on Instagram and social media until they can deliver product to customers. It's that's the lesson today, is you can't just keep sending out marketing messages and refilling your funnel when you're not delivering customers like that is just wrong town, and it's now there's, you know, media interested in this story, because it's deceptive and it's misleading.
Nell: 9:45
Yeah, it is deceptive and it is misleading. And that is something that I have, I guess, wanted to get out there as well from that, that idea of like, you cannot market your way out of a business problem, and if there is a business problem, the only way to get through it is some transparency and some real sincerity behind that, and I just haven't seen that from the brand, a real acknowledgement of the stuff ups and what they're doing to make it right. And you know, what I've been said is a solution, and I have stated on like LinkedIn, I published a post. I got a response from the brand. I don't know who it was, but I got a response from the brand, and they said, Oh, we they said, Oh, we, you know, reach out to us for a solution. The only solution I have been offered is to continue waiting for a bed for a toddler who was growing out of her cot, or to have a store credit for a business that I have no confidence, you know, buying from. So that is not a solution, and if they were really transparent around what is going on, then it's much more likely that people will be able to kind of work through that. But selling product, running Facebook ads, hiding negative reviews, and trying to suppress people having a negative experience with your brand is not a long term solution.
Mia: 11:03
I couldn't agree more. Thank you so much. Nell, thank you for shining a light on this and sticking your head out on LinkedIn and poking the bear, if you will. I think that it's a huge service, because there are people out there that are clicking and buying these beds and expecting that they're going to be delivered in four weeks, and they are not.
Nell: 11:19
No, that's right. Thank you, Mia.
Mia: 11:21
See you next time.
Mia: 11:23
Thank you. You listened right up until the end. So why not hit that subscribe button and keep the good marketing rolling. Podcast reviews are like warm hugs, and they're also the best way to support a small business. You can connect with me, Mia Fileman on Instagram or LinkedIn, and feel free to send me a message. I'm super friendly.
