Brands like to talk about authenticity and creating content, but the line might be drawn when they start writing reviews of their own products.
Yesterday Nokia published a review of its new Lumia 620 smartphone on its Conversations by Nokia blog. The product review wasn’t written by a consumer tech expert or a writer from a tech/product design publication. The review was written by a Nokia staff blogger. Guess what? It was extremely positive.
The author of the post, Adam Fraser, notes how the phone feels lighter than the previous model “but not in a cheap way” – the Lumia 620 is Nokia’s cheapest Windows Phone 8 handset. Fraser also calls the phone fun and almost-youthful thanks to its new colors and notes that it plays music loud, which is “Perfect for listening to you favorite bands using Nokia Music.”
While these observations and opinions of his might very well be true, it’s hard not to feel grossed out and offended that Nokia thinks people will want to read a review written by one of its employees.
Thanks to the Internet backlash, Nokia edited the title of the post, removing the word “review” from it. Nokia added a note at the bottom of the post: “Note: This article was first headlined as a ‘review’, obviously, it’s more of a hands-on account of Adam’s experiences and the headline has been changed to reflect that.“ The title is now “Compact, vibrant, and lots of fun: our Nokia Lumia 620 hands-on.”
Brands, if you need to give yourself positive reviews of your own products, you’re probably doing it wrong. If you really have to praise yourself and promote your products, at least be up front about it. People like honesty.
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