Bata Malaysia next to take a jab at Neelofa with 'wallet-friendly' slippers

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Bata Malaysia is next to troll Neelofa for her latest "Muslim-friendly" Fipper X The Noor slippers range, which retails for RM79.90 each, shortly after myBurgerLab and political graphic designer Fahmi Reza. The brand featured its "wallet-friendly" Power slip-on sandals on Facebook and Instagram with the caption: "Try the Power slip-on sandals that's friendly to everyone. Retail price RM39.99 at Bata Retail stores.", along with the hashtags #slippers #selipar and #sandals. It also tagged myBurgerLab and Fahmi on Facebook.

Besides being wallet-friendly, Bata also touted its slip-on sandals to be lightweight with a soft insole. The Facebook post had 7,733 shares and 1.3k comments at the time of writing, while its Instagram post had 3,415 likes.

https://www.facebook.com/BataHome/photos/a.197795713614928/3909281579132971

The Facebook post was first published at 4.30pm yesterday and by 7.30pm, it reached 247k Facebook users and garnered an engagement rate of 51k, head of marketing Diana Wong told A+M. It also amassed 2.9k shares, 3k likes and 799 comments within the first three hours. Similarly, Wong said its Instagram post also garnered 1,000 likes by 6pm.

"We wanted to seize the moment and be involved in the conversation. Being able to do so plays a major role in brand visibility on social media. There are no expectations of ROI but we know for a fact that slippers are one of the biggest footwear product in demand among Malaysians. We hope that by joining the conversation, consumers remember they can purchase affordable slippers from Bata," Wong explained.

According to Wong, the posts were organic and it has no intention of boosting it. To ensure consumers would see the posts, it made sure to include the trending hashtag #slipper. However, it refrained from including #Neelofa or #Fipper out of respect, she said.

"We wanted to let it roll and see how it goes. For us, it was about joining the conversation and the fun. Another way to grow the visibility of an organic post is to constantly respond to comments and keep the momentum going. That was how it went viral from 4.30pm until now," Wong explained.

Majority of the comments were positive, with several netizens appreciating Bata's sense of humour. Some of them even expressed their love for Bata's products and shared how its sandals have taken them through different periods in life.

Neelofa was recently criticised for exploiting religion for commercial gains, ever since the launch of her slippers on 5 April. Neelofa's Instagram Stories previously showed one of the slippers' USPs to be Muslim-friendly. Fipper later clarified that the new range is suitable for Muslim women who wear socks unlike its previous products and apologised for the confusion caused.

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