Last week i posted about how H&M in South Africa landed in hot soup over diversity tweets. The focus on that post, was about how communication in a foreign country can be problematic and if not dealt with immediately, it can  be costly!

Still on that issue of foreign cultures and communications, this week since Monday Nov/ 16/2015, Woolworths, South Africa has been facing  criticism because of their (bad) product image display in one of their stores, which has left a lot of customers quite irritated. It all started when a facebook user Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, expressed his views and concerns on Woolworths’ Facebook page about  black mannequins which were tied together with rope. Many customers accused Woolworths of mimicking Slavery. Here is how the conversation started:

Photo Credit: Facebook

The discussion didn’t end there. It went further on  and from the responses, it shows that those images really sparked anger among many customers. It’s no doubt that a product image is powerful! And a good product image and can take your business to another level. Whether it’s a photo, a video, live model or just a mannequin, people are very keen on details when it comes to a product they’re interested in. So images are a huge deal when it comes to business.

Well, Woolworths South Africa apologised on their Facebook wall as well and said it was not intentional-

Credit: Facebook

You can read all about the responses and the mixed reactions here: