PR Disaster: United Breaks Guitars
July 17th, 2009 // 3:02 pm @ Fox
A classic case of why ‘online reputation management’ is so important is the recent YouTube success of Dave Carroll’s song, United Breaks Guitars.
Band members watched in horror from a United plane as baggage handlers played catch with their guitars. From this rough handling, a Taylor guitar was broken. After 12 months of frustration in trying to get United to reimburse them for the guitar, the band got together and wrote a ‘catchy’ tune (pun intended) called United Breaks Guitars.
This video clip has now been viewed millions of times and the tale has been retold in newspapers all over the world.
According to Social media lessons: United Airlines breaks guitars, John Dodge reports that United have since offered compensation for the guitar. It is a case of too little, too late, or closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
This PR disaster for United could have been avoided had they offered better customer service in the 12 months prior to the song being released.
I love the homepage of Taylor Guitars at the moment. Quick to jump on the PR bandwagon, the main image is a guitar with a Fragile sticker and an airline claim ticket, and the heading ‘Bumpy flight?’ Brilliant!
Category : Reputation &blog