5 NEGATIVE B2C

CASE STUDIES

The world is talking. Are you listening?

www.taurusmarketing.com.au

United AirlinesWHAT? Customer management Airlines travel

WHERE? YouTube

BUT HOW?

C A S E S T U D Y – U n i t e d A i r l i n e s

The video has over 9 million views with supporting negative comments towards the airline

United stock fell 10% which cost investors $180 million

After Dave Carroll’s guitar was damaged in-flight, he took this up with United Airlines. The airline refused to replace or fix his guitar. He then wrote a song titled ‘United Breaks Guitars’ and posted it on YouTube.

After impressive social media reaction on Dave’s concern United decided to provide Dave with appropriate financial compensation, which he politely refused but asked to donate it to the charity of their choice.

NestleWHAT? Customer management Confectionary

WHERE? Facebook, Twitter

WHY? Old Spice wanted to revitalise itself to a younger market.

BUT HOW? Greenpeace ran a video campaign targeting Nestle and its suppliers for damaging endangered species habitats in their search for palm oil ingredients. Greenpeace then claimed that Nestle tried to have the video removed

Many users stated that they would never use Nestle products again

C A S E S T U D Y – N E S T L E

One thousand negative comments on Twitter and Facebook

Domino’s WHAT? Employee risk Fast food

WHERE? Blogs, Twitter, YouTube

BUT HOW? Two Domino’s employees posted a video on YouTube of them tampering and contaminating food about to be served to customers. The video outraged the public and severely damaged Domino’s reputation

C A S E S T U D Y – D o m i n o ’ s P i z z a

Over 600,000 views in just two days

Domino’s stock dropped 10% in one week

Domino’s issued an apology video in their response to the scandalous social media prank.

ToyotaWHAT? Brand integrity Automobiles l

WHERE? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blog

BUT HOW?

C A S E S T U D Y – T o y o t a Y a r i s

“JetBlue has long been a forerunner in the social media sphere.”

Toyota endorsed a short film competition called the “Clever Film Comp”. The Facebook page was bombarded with negative comments claiming that the ad was both sexist and incestuous

In the end the ad was pulled and a massive amount of negative publicity was generated for the Toyota brand

Toyota received negative publicity worldwide, with publications from the US and the UK featuring the ad that allegedly “besmirched” the brand

VegemiteWHAT? Brand integrity Spreads

WHERE? Blogs

BUT HOW?Kraft ran a competition to name a new product in its iconic Vegemite brand. The chosen name, iSnack 2.0 was despised by the public and within days of releasing the new name it was dumped

C A S E S T U D Y – V e g e m i t e

Kraft had released 3 million ‘name me’ jars to promote the campaign

Websites like ‘Names that are better than iSnack 2.0’ also began appearing

Thousands of negative comments on Twitter

Vegemite representatives dropped the new name without further comments and encouraged Australian public to vote again.

C A S E S T U D Y – O f f i c e w o r k

OfficeworksWHERE?Facebook

WHAT ?Social media avoidance

How?User comments on why Officeworks continue to supply and sell Reflex paper after they had lost their FSC have been passively avoided. For 6 months. Finally they responded with a post stating that they are aware of the change, but it’s too little too late. They haven’t kept on top of user comments and as a result are suffering abuse with little ground to stand on. Users are insisting they will boycott Officeworks until they remove Reflex from their shelves.

C A S E S T U D Y – P e p s i

PepsiWHAT? Brand Integrity

WHERE? Facebook, Twitter

BUT HOW? Pepsi produced an iPhone application to promote its new product line AMP energy drinks. The app allowed users to view 24 different types of stereotyped women

The app created a huge amount of public backlash as consumers viewed it as extremely sexist. Pepsi issued an apology on Twitter through all their different brand accounts

“Our app tried 2 show the humorous lengths guys go 2 pick up women. We

apologize if it’s in bad taste & appreciate your feedback. #pepsifail”

C A S E S T U D Y – B P

BPWHAT? Crisis management Petrol

WHERE? Facebook, Twitter

BUT HOW? Everyone has heard of the oil spill that BP had to face in the gulf of Mexico. Social media has played a significant role in amplifying and consolidating community outrage at the handling of the Gulf of Mexico crisis by BP.

BP has lost over $1 Billion in brand value

The words ‘BP’ have appeared in over 9,000 blogs, over 23,000 tweets and 49.5 million Twitter impressions

Over 750,000 people have joined the Facebook page ‘Boycott BP’