...Assignment Case; United Breaks Guitar Q) Why do you think Dave Carroll's video spread so fast to so many people? Ans) Dave Carroll's video spread so fast to so many people because of the following reasons First, the video was containing a traveller as well a business storyline. The video simply used singing and irony and hence it was picked up very quickly on YouTube. Hundreds of media reports repeatedly published the story. CNN urged viewers, “Anyone who’s ever been frustrated with an airline needs to see this video” Many people who can connect to it or had the similar experience joined the cause and spread it. Music was catchy and was launched in proper way with already existing audience. It was something new so people found it entertaining and went viral. Q) How do you evaluate the airline's response? What would you have done different in this position? Ans) Airline’s response was poor as they reacted when things have gone out of their hand and it was too late and it was after seven months that they properly addressed the issue. The airlines company was at fault since beginning. Some such incidents are: Carroll’s Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago None of the crew members he reported to helped him with the issue The Guitar was found severely damaged The representative he could finally talk to, told him that she was sorry about the damage, but the standard airline policy held that claims be made within...
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...George Scott 11/07/14 United Breaks Guitars “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” – Warren Buffet (cite) Introduction David Carroll a musician and his band “Sons of Maxwell” were flying back from their hometown of Halifax, Canada from doing a week worth of shows in Omaha, Nebraska on March 31, 2008. On aboard a connector flight in Chicago at O’Hara international airport, David noticed a baggage claim handler mishandle his $3,500 guitar. David expressed to the flight agent about the incident but she responded by saying “Don’t talk to me. Talk to the lead agent outside.” Each person David tried to speak with about the incident passed him on to another person who couldn’t help him, David’s guitar ended up being broken and in need of repair. David request was for United Airlines to take the responsibility for the damages of the guitar by reimbursing the $1200 dollars that it cost to repair the guitar as well as $1200 worth of flight vouchers. After 7 months since the incident happen David was contacted by a rep from United Airline through email saying that she was sorry about what happened to the guitar, but that standard airline policy held that claims be made within 24 hours of damage and since he didn’t get his guitar inspected by United his claim was denied. David said “the system is designed to frustrate affected customers into giving up their claims and United is very good at it.” In...
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...evaluate the effectiveness of United Airlines’ response to Carroll’s viral video, we have to take into consideration what they were hoping to achieve with their responses. In this case, the messages that United issued contain indications that their focus was on damage control rather than process improvement. Although United did indeed actively reply to tweets and other social media communications, they made no real effort to amend the underlying issue that caused the PR debacle in the first place. United’s treatment of its customers has not improved, as evidenced by their continued inadequacy in customer service. This is shown by their poor standing on J.D. Power & Associates’ 2011 North American Airline Satisfaction Study. United’s response is also lacking in transparency and candor that a sincere admission of guilt would have displayed, and this is evidenced by their vague assurances such as that they would use Carroll’s video for “training purposes.” However, it is also possible that United’s management was aware of the fact that damage control by issuing apologies, however insincere, would be adequate. After all, although it is hyped that United’s shareholders lost $180 Million from Carroll’s video, data shows that they quickly regained this “loss” within a month. Thus, it is fair to say that United handled the incident well in a purely financial sense, but not in an ethical sense. In retrospect, it is not surprising that “United Breaks Guitars” became a viral video. According...
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...“United Breaks Guitars”—An Epic Social Media Failure On March 31, 2008, musician and lead singer Dave Carroll and his Canadian band, Sons of Maxwell, departed for a weeklong tour, flying on United Airlines (UAL) from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to Omaha, Nebraska via Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. As they waited to deplane at O’Hare, Carroll and his band observed UAL baggage handlers tossing their expensive instruments around the tarmac “without regard.” Carroll’s desperate pleas to multiple UAL employees to intervene and rescue the instruments from the careless baggage handlers went unheeded. In Omaha, Carroll discovered that his $3,500 Taylor guitar had been smashed and broken—and that it was no accident. According to Carroll, he attempted to resolve his claim for the broken guitar with countless UAL customer service representatives. For a year, the airline refused to accept responsibility. Ultimately, he was told that UAL would not compensate him for the damage they’d inflicted on his instrument. Convinced that UAL had created a claim system designed to simply wear down customers, he decided to share his frustration with others via social media and to do so in creative ways. Carroll wrote and produced three music videos detailing his experience with UAL, which he posted on YouTube. His videos created a huge base of millions of fans. His first song, “United Breaks Guitars,” became a viral Internet phenomenon shortly after it was uploaded to YouTube in July 2009. He sang: United...
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...United Breaks Guitars Even though this case seems to be a big crisis for United, I personally think that the United’s response was not bad, speaking from the marketing perspective. How United responded to this situation had a lot to do United’s positioning at the time. Cutting costs and experiencing bankruptcy made United price-sensitive. It is impossible to satisfy everyone. The response determined how United was going to be seen in consumers’ eyes. First of all, it was good that United responded with integrity. They did apologize and say that they were trying to make it right. However, I don’t think that any company has to drop to its knees to make up to its customers. United showed consumers that the first thing they did was to contact Carroll to confirm the situation. And it was also mentioned that United had received some fraudulent claims along the years. If United were to blindly state that they would compensate Carroll for his loss without any investigation, it would set a precedent for others who might not be as honest and want to benefit from false claims. United had also stand firmly by its policies, by saying, “no excuse, we are sorry”. Secondly, what happened in the past is sunk cost. The critical thing in the response should be letting customers know how they plan to change in the future. United showed customers that they’ve learned from this experience and were planning to improve, as they asked Carroll if they could use the video internally. Thirdly, United...
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... ABSTRACT Allison R. Soule: Fighting the Social Media Wildfire: How Crisis Communication Must Adapt to Prevent from Fanning the Flames (Under the direction of Dr. Lois Boynton) When a nine-month correspondence seeking reparations for musical instruments damaged by United Airlines employees stalemated, Canadian musician Dave Carroll took action online. Utilizing the video-sharing Web site YouTube, Carroll narrated his ordeal went viral generating a torrent of negative YouTube comments about United, commentary from the mainstream media, and more than 3 million views the first week of its launch. United Breaks Guitars embodies the new phenomenon of a social media wildfire in which the rapid proliferation of information through social media causes severe reputational damage to organizations whose crisis communication plans are ill equipped to handle online dilemmas. CO iii PY Using symbolic interactionist theory, this case analysis explores the phenomenon in detail and provides suggestions for how organizations must re-evaluate existing crisis communication plans to respond effectively to an online audience in the billions. RI G H through the lyrics of a music video entitled United Breaks Guitars. Within hours, the video TE D TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM...
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...Confirming Pages Case 3 United Breaks Guitars John Deighton Leora Kornfeld On July 8, 2009, United Airlines offered professional musician Dave Carroll $1,200 in cash and $1,200 in flight vouchers to ‘make right’ a situation in which his guitar had been damaged at Chicago’s O’Hare airport during transfer from one airplane to another, in full view of passengers seated in the plane. Carroll had spent 15 months seeking compensation, but the effort appeared to have reached an impasse when a United Airlines customer service representative told him that the airline had concluded that the damage was Carroll’s responsibility and that she considered the matter closed. He replied that in that case he would be composing three songs about his experience and posting them to the video-sharing site YouTube. The first song was posted on July 6, 2009. At the same time, he wrote a blog entry detailing the ordeal and posted the link to the YouTube video on his Twitter account. Within a week the video had been viewed three million times, and United Airlines had reached out to Carroll to offer the compensation. Online and offline media helped propagate the story. On July 22, 2009, The Times of London wrote that “the gathering thunderclouds of bad PR caused United Airlines’ stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall, and it plunged by 10 percent, costing shareholders $180 million.”1 Hundreds of news reports repeated the story of how a single poorly handled customer complaint had, thanks to the...
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...and use of social media on the internet absolutely provides businesses with new and different useful information. The key question is; are businesses ready to use social media, and the information exchange opportunity it provides, to their advantage? The internet and social media is a fast moving train; businesses can either get on that train, deliberately evolving in this frightening economy, or get run over by the train and die a sure death (Rodriguez, 2011). What Not To Do United Airlines Customer service is something all businesses know is important; however, not all businesses invest and prioritize customer service in their vision or strategic plans. If a business is a service or product provider with a well known name and brand, not paying attention to customers could be a big mistake. One such service provider, United Airlines, committed one of those big mistakes. This Fortune 500 multibillion dollar corporation underestimated the power of the consumer. More importantly, United Airlines underestimated the power of an unhappy customer with a public forum in the form of social media (Milliken, 2010). In July of 2006, a little known musician named Dave Carroll from Canada posted his music video on YouTube. The video was a parody of his experience while...
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...United Breaks Guitars In March 2008, 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 became the subject of outrage, embarrassment, amusement, and transformed Carroll from country singer to customer service guru. Carroll claimed that his guitar was severely damaged by United Airlines baggage handlers at O’Hare. His attempts to pursue a damage claim with United having been frustrated, he posted two amusing videos about the incident on YouTube. The overwhelming response raised questions about brands and the nature of marketing communications in the internet age. The Incident and Carroll’s Response 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...
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...Neil Peart. The band originated in Canada in the year 1974. They quickly moved to the United States where they became one of the most popular bands in their era. Alex plays the guitar, Geddy plays the keyboards and bass while singing, and Neil Peart plays his massive drum-set and writes the band’s lyrics. In 1976, Rush came out with their fourth album, 2112—this album is often referred to as “Rush’s break-through album”. This album might possibly feature Rush’s greatest song ever composed, 2112. This song is based in the year 2112, and takes place at “The Temples of Syrinx”, which is where many priests live their lives. These priests do not believe in individualism, they believe they are all equal. All the priests that live at this temple are banded together under the Red Star of the Solar Federation. One day, one of these priests finds a guitar. He learns to how to play this guitar and shows the other priests, even though guitars have been banished from the temple for decades. The high priest thinks the guitar is evil and that it had destroyed the older generations of mankind. The high priest destroys the guitar. The 2112 album cover is seen as a red pentagram with a naked man on it, but Neil interprets the red star being the evil red star of the Solar Federation and the naked man is the pure, abstract man against the mass. Rush’s tone color is filtered with a single guitar, a bass or keyboard, drum-set, and Geddy’s voice. Their style is very unique and hard to...
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...record ,come from more than, die of, lonely. Teaching procedure. Warm-up. (3 mins) 1. Teacher shows the title of the passage: Long Live the King. 2. Are you familiar with these“kings”？Students should ponit out who they are . The answer：Elevis Presley，The Beatles，Michael Jackson. * * Stage 1. Pre-reading. (15 mins) * 1. Teacher asks students one question：What do you know about Elvis Presley？Choosing 2 students to answer the question. Their answers：Nationality: the United States of America * Birthplace ＆Birthdate: Mississippi, 8 January 1935 * Nickname: The Hillbilly Ca * Occupation: rock singer, actor * Master works: 《Heartbreak Hotel》,《Jailhouse Rock》, 《Hound Dog》 2. Teacher teaches 4 new words and 3 new phrases. The 1st word is “guitar”. Teacher will let students imagine that what is the guitar？Show a picture to students. From the picture，students know that the littler girl is playing music with the instrument. Teacher tells students the instrument is guitar. The 2nd word is “secrertary”. Teacher should help students to memorize the word with simpler way. The 3rd word is “record”. Teacher should emphasizes the part of speech of this word and its pronounciation. The 4th word is “lonely”. Teacher show two different pictures: one is a dog, another is desert.lonely dog and lonely desert express different meanings. Three phrases: die of, come from, more than. Students should find these phrases...
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...Professor Lori Shipley Spirituals to Rock and Roll 23 April 2016 Joan Jett Pioneers Through Rock and Roll History America has been characterized by revolutionary people changing the aspects and perspectives of its citizens through innovative acts, movements, and even through word of mouth. Martin Luther King Jr. changed the outlook of millions of Americans on the racial division in the country by using peaceful protests and eloquently delivered speeches. Benjamin Franklin and the founding fathers pioneered an idea that a country could be run by the people, which was in direct opposition to the rule they were under in Britain. These two events have set forth a phenomenon in America that allows people to challenge prototypical roles and views. When it comes to music icons that have changed the normalcy of music during their time, one would have to be Joan Jett. She was faced with the overwhelming obstacle of battling sexism and gender inequality throughout her musical career, particularly in the Rock and Roll industry in the 1970s and 80s. The music industry was changing during the 1960s in part to what Americans were experiencing; the British Invasion, the assassination of President Kennedy, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement. Rock and Roll quickly made its way into the mainstream being a powerful voice for the cultural revolution. Rock and Roll was a man’s world during the 70s and 80s, and women rockers were unwelcomed by both the musicians and fans. Joan...
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...address the public relationship outfall of United Airline by considering the issues and causes and choosing a recommended solution on the base of decision criteria. Methods used in this report include empirical and theoretical analysis. In aviation industry, airlines experienced a cost pressure and that is the main reason that they cut cost wherever possible. Ethical issues and stakeholders’ benefit would be considered and play key roles in decision criteria to value the solution. United Airline would be suggested to establish a temporary team to solve the short-term crisis and invest in customer service departments to prevent similar issues in the future. The balance between cost and profit would be achieved to save the reputation and earn the profit, which would maximize the stakeholders’ value. Limitation of this report could be found in the scope of decision criteria. Some main points are covered and other attributes are not. Introduction The purpose of this report is to deal with the customer service issues facing United Airline. The causes would be discussed and the decision criteria would be considered to measure the alternatives which could be taken to address these issues. Moreover, recommended solution would be derived as the best of the alternatives with supported reasons. Finally, suggestions would be provided on how to implement the solution as well as the related implications. Issues United Airline suffered a public relationship...
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...the most popular male jazz guitarists in the United States. In his lifetime, he has received 20 Grammy nominations and has won 10 Grammy awards. George Benson is known for playing his Ibanez guitar and his method of playing, which uses a rest-stroke picking technique, is similar to players of gypsy jazz. His style of playing, tone and melody is incredible. He worked with many of the jazz greats, from Wes Montgomery, Jack McDuff, Miles David, Count Basie Orchestra, Lonnie Smith and Ronnie Cuber. He performed at top places all over the world, and packed them all. His audiences were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one factor in common – they all loved him. George Benson is truly one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time. George Benson was born on March 22, 1943, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was raised in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, the eldest son of a family of six children. His mother was an aid at the nearby hospital and the family was very poor. George lived in a house without electricity until he was seven. The Hill District of Pittsburg was filled with jazz talent at the time. There were numerous jazz clubs all over the city and little George was surrounded by the sound. He showed talent at an early age. His parents taught him to sing and at the age of 4, he won a singing contest at a local 4th of July concert. His step father knew how to play guitar and at the age of 7, his step-father found an...
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...Origin Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States around the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most common. The blue notes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the major scale, are also an important part of the sound. The origin of the term of was most likely derived from mysticism involving blue indigo, which was used by many West African cultures in death and mourning ceremonies where all the mourner's garments would have been dyed blue to indicate suffering. Blues has evolved from the unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves imported from West Africa and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States. The musical forms and styles that are now considered the "blues" as well as modern "country music" arose in the same regions during the 19th century in the southern United States. Recorded blues and country can be found from as far back as the 1920s, when the popular record industry developed and created marketing categories called...
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