UNITED BREAKS GUITARSCase Study

- 5th July, 2014

Presented By – Ronak Mehta

The Incident• Time - March 2008

• Who - Dave Carroll, a musician from Halifax, NS and his band, the Sons of Maxwell , traveled from Halifax to Nebraska via O’Hare airport in Chicago.

• What happened on the journey?

Carroll claimed that his guitar was severely damaged by United Airlines baggage handlers at O’Hare.

In Carroll’s own words, what happened was as follows

“In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say ‘no’ to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world.”

And then, “United Breaks Guitars…”• Video 1 (July, 2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

• Video 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-UoERHaSQg

• Video 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P45E0uGVyeg

And it went viral…

After Effects….• The song hit number one on the iTunes Music Store in the week following its release. Its instant success and

United’s embarrassment were widely reported in the media.

• A company spokesman called the video “excellent” and Rob Bradford, United's Managing Director of Customer Solutions, telephoned Carroll to apologize and to ask if the carrier could use the video internally for training: the company claimed that it hoped to learn from the incident and change it customer service policy. United offered Carroll $1,200 in flight vouchers, which he declined, suggesting that the airline give the money to charity. Ultimately, United donated $3,000 to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz as a “gesture of goodwill”.

• The UK Daily(Mail claimed that United lost 10% of its share value, or $180 million, as a result of the adxi. The causality of this loss was hotly disputed on the web.

• Taylor Guitars issued a video response to the story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n12WFZq2__0. • Bob Taylor, owner of Taylor Guitars, immediately offered Carroll two guitars and other props for his second video.

• In December 2009, Time magazine named United Breaks Guitars #7 on their list of the Top 10 Viral Videos of 2009. Following the incident, Carroll was in great demand as a musician and a speaker on customer service. His website (http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/) offered for sale a “Dave Carroll Travellers Edition” hardshell guitar case by Calton.

• So a song cost United Airlines about $180 million. Which, incidentally, would have bought Carroll more than 51,000 replacement guitars.

Questions that arise..

1. Why did Carroll’s videos garner so much attention?

2. What options did United have once the videos had been launched? What were the advantages and disadvantages of each option? How well did United handle the situation?

3. Could United have anticipated this situation, and if so, what could it have done to minimize the damage to its brand?

4. What suggestions do you have for brands in a world in which customers may communicate about their brands? Are there opportunities for brands in this situation?

Their Mistake & What should they have done..

• Back in 2009, all posts were removed and their wall was wiped clean despite it being an unofficial page of United Airlines. The unofficial page in Facebook had around 9000 fans on it.

• If only had United Airlines taken 5 minutes to build an FB page, they could have interacted with their fans and reduced the impact of this crisis.

• This failure to interact with viewers, fans and flyers only aggravated the situation. Also note the online United Airlines press room was silent on the issue, thus losing another opportunity to appease the growing online anger.

Lets examine what these brands could have done to reduce the amount of flak they were exposed to.

• DO: A brand’s first step when faced with an online crisis should always be an immediate response. Diffusing the situation early can keep it from getting out of control and into mainstream media. Within nine months, United could have responded to Dave and addressed his complaint amicably.

• DO: After responding to the problem directly, the brand should have addressed it through all available channels.

• Do Not: Don’t assume that because the situation is happening due to an action on one network, that it isn’t being discussed elsewhere on the web. Negative content is prone to Virality.

• User generated content is going to be powerful. So, keep an eye on it. The consumer no longer thrives on press releases for information about brands.

• At least 88% of consumers rely on WOM, and marketers and agencies are not the only ones who can develop and execute effective messaging, as the example shown in this study.

What is this Case Study About?

So how do we tackle this online beast?• Somebody out there must be talking about your brand at

any given point of time..

• The point is - are they talking good or bad?

• Today, with the proliferation of networking sites, forums, blogs, chat rooms etc, opinions are easily shared the buzz builds and spreads rapidly.

• In such a scenario, where your brand is known to people who do not even use your products, and do not even belong to your Target Group, you need to ensure that your brand is well projected in terms of its reputation.

• So how can you actually protect your brand? Amidst all the noise online, how can you even know what people are saying about your brand?

What is ORM?

• Managing your reputation online helps you position your brand, which means ORM today is needed more than ever.

Benefits of ORM

Tools for ORM !

Tools for Monitoring..

Moral of the Story…

References…• http://www.bigbreaksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/201

1/05/United-Breaks-Guitars-Case-Jan-11-10-21.pdf

• Manipal Global – Digital Marketing Certification Course – ORM Module.