...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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...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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...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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... 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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...The 21st Century Jet The Boeing 777 Multimedia Case Study Shad H Shokralla Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley December 18, 1995 Research Advisor: Professor Alice M. Agogino Berkeley Expert Systems Technology Laboratory On-line Version URL: main.html Abstract Multimedia case studies have been shown to be an effective way of documenting and teaching best design practices. This is a case study of the changes that the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company made in the way they design and build airplanes. The 777 is the first jet that Boeing has created using this methodology. The changes were very dramatic and encompassed many areas, including technical, organizational and administrative changes. Boeing is touting the 777 as more than just a product, but as a new process. Although the technical innovations were numerous, what made the 777 project unique were the other changes Boeing instituted for this design/build effort. It was the first 100% digitally designed and pre-assembled airplane made by Boeing. Concurrent engineering, the concept of “Working Together”, was an integral part of the new philosophy and nearly 240 Design/Build teams were used through-out the process. The teams included design, manufacturing, customer and supplier personnel from the start. Designing and building a new...
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...society in which it is operating especially when the business is growing and thinking about globalization. Organization’s performance and production is linked with enviourment, social, cultural and governmental variables. When an organization operates its operations in a particular community, due to the business processes there are some responsibilities to the organization. 1.1 Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility In general term CSR refers to: ‘The comprehensive approach which organization takes to meet the expectation of stakeholders by putting away such measures as revenues, profit and legal obligations. Community development, welfare, human rights and ethical conduct are key factors which come under the CSR umbrella’ (Laurie J. Mullins). I would like to discuss the CSR issues in Aviation Industry that’s why I have chosen Air France-KLM and Ryanair. 1.2 Air France-KLM Overview: Air France and KLM merged together in 2004 to form Air France-KLM Group while both airlines operate individually to retain their brands and identity (Air France-KLM CSR Report 2010). Air France was elected best airline of the year 2010 in Business Travel Awards (The Financial). Air France-KLM is the only airline which is selected in Dow Jones Sustainability Index in 2008.This group is the biggest in the whole world according to their profit growth which is €24.7 billion in 2008-2009 and €21.0 billion in 2009-2010.The passenger business, with €16.28 billion of revenues, makes the Group the...
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...21715 - Strategic Management (Summer Session 2012) Individual Written Case Analysis Case 32 – JetBlue Airlines: Getting “Blue” Again? Sam Lui (00039469) 21715 – Individual Case Analysis Table of Contents Executive Summary................................................................................................................................. 3 1. General and Industry Environment................................................................................................. 4 1.1 The General Environment ....................................................................................................... 4 1.2 The Industry Environment ...................................................................................................... 5 2. Internal Resources and Assets (JetBlue) ......................................................................................... 7 3. Competitive Advantage (JetBlue) ................................................................................................... 9 4. Recommendation for JetBlue ....................................................................................................... 11 5. Lessons and Insights for Tiger Airways ......................................................................................... 12 6. References ..................................................................................................................................
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...INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT Semester 2, AY2011/2012 Individual Report A Report on Southwest Airlines Prepared for: Mr. Balasubramanian Shankar Due date: Monday, 5th October 2015 Submitted by: Jiyeon | CT00000000 | TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2 2. COMPANY BACKGROUND 3 3. PESTEL ANALYSIS 4 3.1 Political 4 3.2 Economic 4 3.3 Social 5 3.4 Technological 5 3.5 Environment 5 3.6 Legal 6 4. PORTER’S FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS 7 4.1 Threat of New Entry 7 4.2 Threat of Substitution 7 4.3 Buyer Power 7 4.4 Supplier Power 8 4.5 Competitive Rivalry 9 5. STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS 10 5.1 Managing Technology Advancements 10 5.2 Maintain Cost Advantage 10 5.3 Geographical Expansion 10 5.4 Product Diversification 11 6. CONCLUSION 12 7. REFERENCES 14 1. INTRODUCTION The focus company in this report is Southwest Airlines (SA), a major low cost carrier in the United States (US). The aim of this report is to examine the current market environment and competitive power of Southwest Airlines. In order to have a substantial overview of its environment, two analyses, the PESTEL analysis and Porter’s Five Forces analysis, will be used to evaluate SA. With the findings, strategic recommendations will be made for the problems that the airline is facing or may encounter in the near future. 2. COMPANY BACKGROUND Southwest Airlines is a budget airline established in 1967 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher and had its...
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...Marketing Communications | Syndicate assignment Case 1 Prius Launch: Harmony Installations 2011 Bronze | Media Innovation Case 2 Canon Eos Cameras: Photography beyond the still 2011 Silver | Consumer Electronics Case 3 Southwest Airlines: Grab your bag it’s on/ Bags fly free 2011 Gold | Transportation Case 4 Ocean Spray Cranberries: Straight from the Bog 2008 Gold | Renaissance 2011 Silver | Sustained Success Case 5 Sears: Don’t just go back. Arrive 2010 Gold | Retail¬ Case 1 Prius Launch: Harmony Installations 2011 Bronze | Media Innovation GET: Echo/Tech friendly minded people WHO: Are environmentally and technologically aware and enjoy innovation. TO: Think Prius is the car they should buy versus the car they want to own. See Prius as an Icon of progress. Encourage consumers to put a Prius in the mainstream consideration set. BY: Outlining that hybrid motoring is good for the environment, endorsing the idea of being proud to own a Prius. LIKE THIS: By highlighting the “harmony between man, nature and machine”. Happiness, Optimism, Pride, Imagination SUCCESS: Desired 20% increase in sales of Prius. Increase hybrid vehicle market share. Engage social media metrics. $4.5m in earned media desired through Solar flower installations/social media. Market/Commercial insight The reported market decline in the Automotive Industry for passenger cars has declined by 37% in FY2011. Financial modelling of passenger...
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...Human Resource Management Delta Case Study: Improving Delta’s Profit Margin Written by Filiz McNamara, Ogochukwu Udekwe and Vicki Troftgruben February 21, 2011 Table of Contents Page Introduction 3 External Environment 3 Internal Environment 18 Systems and Stakeholder Analysis 32 Conclusion 34 Problem Identification 36 Generation and Evaluation of Alternatives 37 Recommendation 38 Decision Implementation 39 References 40 Introduction Delta Airlines was founded by C.E. Woolman, an agriculture extension agent (Anthony, Kacmar, & Perrewe, 2010). C.E Woolman was not a banker, venture capitalist or war pilot, as many of the competing airlines were. He didn’t have the aggressive military style that many of the other airline founders had. What C.E. Woolman instilled within the employees at all levels of the organization is that people matter and should be treated fairly and equitably. This philosophy led Delta Airlines to be the leader in customer service from the company’s inception through the many mergers over the years. Through the difficult financial times when other airlines were laying off employees and filing for bankruptcy, Delta continued to pay their people well and keep them employed. There was an exception during the Ronald Allen CEO era of 1987 thru 1997. Human relations took a significant down turn during his tenure as CEO, especially during 1993 and 1994, but Delta decided to part ways with Allen and began repairing...
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...CASES IN MANAGEMENT 115 Singapore Airlines : Gliding with People Excellence Nilanjan Sengupta and Mousumi Sengupta Introduction The aviation industry has been constantly facing several challenges, such as, overcapacity, commoditization of offerings, cut throat rivalry exacerbated by the entry of low cost carriers, and intermittent periods of disastrous under-performance (Costa et al., 2002). Several macro-level socio-economic factors such as rising oil prices, the SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) crisis, frequent concerns about the eruption of bird flu, the Asian tsunami, and rising terrorism concerns have further impacted profitability, adversely. In 2006, the global airlines industry suffered a net loss of $500m, or 0.1% of revenues, accumulating net losses of $42bn between 2001 and 2006 (International Air Transport Association, 2007). In 2007, the airline industry made a modest net profit of $5.6bn on revenues of $490bn, equivalent to less than 2% margin (International Air Transport Association, 2008). The outlook from 2008 onwards remains bleak. Not surprisingly, the industry is regularly rated as one of the worst performing industries in the Fortune Global 500 rankings. In this industry environment, Singapore Airlines (SIA) has consistently outperformed its competitors (Heracleous & Wirtz, 2009). Copyright ‚ 2014 Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Research Centre for Management Studies (SDMRCMS), SDMIMD, Mysore The case writer(s) Nilanjan Sengupta, Professor –HRM...
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...RECOMMENDATIONS REPORT: DELTA AIR LINE, INC. Prepared for: Delta Air Line Executives Prepared by: Olivia Wan April 16, 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 STRENGTHS 1 Frequent Flier Program 1 Baggage System 2 SkyTeam 3 WEAKNESSES 3 Treatment of Delayed Passengers 3 Ticket Over-Sales 4 OPPORTUNITY 5 Entertainment 5 THREATS 5 Competition 5 Unexpected Weather 6 RECOMMENDATIONS 6 Customer Survey 7 Increase Promotions 8 Customer Service Training Program 9 CONCLUTION 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 11 ILLUSTRATIONS 4,5 Figure 1 …4 Figure 2 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY DELTA AIR LINE, INC. PREPARED BY OLIVIA WAN Delta has a very strong frequent flyer program that serves and benefits customers. Also, Delta has made an improvement into baggage system to limit miss handle baggage. Such improvement strengthens the company and allows gaining more trust in customer services. Within the last several years, Delta joined in the SkyTeam program, which provides more destinations that customers can choose from, at the same time they will also get the benefit from the frequent flyer program by traveling other airlines within the SkyTeam program. Airline industry is the kind of industry that provides service to customer. However, Delta have not yet meet their goal to better service it customers. Customers have complaint about their treatment toward the delayed due to the aircraft problem. Also, the over sales ticket have brought down Delta customer service image...
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...Quality Management at United Airlines Brandon L. Smith Keller Graduate School of Management GM 588 6/20/2012 Dr. Kim Hunley INTRODUCTION United Airlines is a major airline based in the United States and one of the world’s largest airlines. It was formed in 1934. It is a subsidiary of United Continental Holdings Inc. Its headquarters are located in Chicago, IL. United is a founding member of the Star Alliance, the largest alliance in the world. On October 1, 2010 United and Continental airlines merged together forming the world’s largest airline in revenue passenger miles and second largest in fleet size and destinations. “The new United will offer customers an enhanced travel experience, combining the best products and services each carrier has to offer,” (The World's Leading Airline, 2012). The airline is supposed to be the airline that customers want to fly, the airline employees want to work for and the airline shareholders want to invest in. The key highlights of the merger are the following: * World’s most comprehensive global network, including world class international gateways to Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Middle East with non-stop or one stop service from virtually anywhere in the United States * Most modern and fuel-efficient fleet and the best new aircraft order book, among U.S. network carriers * Industry-leading frequent flyer program that will provide more opportunities to earn and redeem miles worldwide *...
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... 6/15/2011 | INTRODUCTION United Airlines is a major airline based in the United States and one of the world’s largest airlines. It was formed in 1934. It is a subsidiary of United Continental Holdings Inc. Its headquarters are located in Chicago, IL. United is a founding member of the Star Alliance, the largest alliance in the world. On October 1, 2010 United and Continental airlines merged together forming the world’s largest airline in revenue passenger miles and second largest in fleet size and destinations. “The new United will offer customers an enhanced travel experience, combining the best products and services each carrier has to offer,” (The World's Leading Airline, 2011). The airline is suppose to be the airline that customers want to fly, the airline employees want to work for and the airline shareholders want to invest in. The key highlights of the merger are the following: * World’s most comprehensive global network, including world class international gateways to Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Middle East with non-stop or one stop service from virtually anywhere in the United States * Most modern and fuel-efficient fleet and the best new aircraft order book, among U.S. network carriers * Industry-leading frequent flyer program that will provide more opportunities to earn and redeem miles worldwide * Optimal hub locations in 10 cities, including hubs in the four largest cities in the United States As of right now the two...
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...EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report aims to determine whether Qantas is suitable to be included in a diversified share portfolio aiming to maximise investor returns over the long term. Analysis began with a broad view of the airline industry, both international and domestic. Porter’s Five Forces framework is utilised to determine the strengths of buyers, sellers, potential entrants, competitors and substitutes. Overall the airline industry is characterised by high barriers to entry however these barriers are reducing and competition is increasing, particularly in the low-cost segment. Qantas was then examined utilising SWOT analysis to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats particular to the airline. Qantas has a strong competitive position with a recognisable brand and loyal customer base through the use of the Frequent Flyer program. However, expansion into the Japanese domestic market could jeopardise future profitability. Other threats could arise from further technology failures, natural disasters and labour disputes. Accounting analysis of Qantas focused on the treatment of the Frequent Flyer program, hedging accounting and the adjustment of estimates relating to aircraft. It appears that management has applied prudent estimates which accurately reflect the financial position whilst allowing some flexibility. Discounted cash flow analysis was utilised to determine intrinsic equity and firm value. Key assumptions included the cost of equity, market...
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