Dive Brief:

• A 12-year-old girl’s letter to Dick’s Sporting Goods about the lack of women in their catalog went viral last week and got the attention of CEO Ed Stack.

• The girl, who said in the letter that she enjoyed shopping at the retailer for her own sports gear and that the retailer’s staff was friendly, noted that the retailer’s basketball catalog featured only one woman, sitting in the stands as a spectator.

• The girl initially received a form letter, but the retailer got in touch by phone once her father tweeted out her letter and caused a bit of a firestorm. Eventually CEO Ed Stack apologized and said he guaranteed that next year’s catalog would include female athletes.

Dive Insight:

There are a lot of lessons here. First, social media is an excellent conduit for this kind of public relations trouble for a retailer. It’s a shame that it took this girl’s letter going viral on Twitter for the retailer to respond, but at least CEO Stack did so fairly promptly once it did.

A bit more puzzling is this oversight by Dick’s Sporting Goods in the first place. By the retailer’s own report, the company is losing money on old-fashioned male-dominated areas like hunting and golf and seeing greater returns on women’s and youth sports. It has taken a 12-year-old girl to remind them of that, apparently.

"It's hard enough for girls to break through in this sport as it is, without you guys excluding us from your catalog," she wrote in part. "Girls buy stuff from your store. In fact, my last two pairs of basketball shoes were purchased at Dicks, as well as my hoop and practice equipment. Maybe my dad will take me to some other store that supports girls to actually PLAY basketball and follow their dreams and not sit on the sidelines and watch the game to get my next pair of shoes and equipment."