United Breaks Guitar Case Study

UNITED BREAKS GUITAR CASE STUDY

1. The internet and the social media channels that sit on top have set the conditions for our messages to be propagated in real time and to an audience of billions. This is a seismic shift away from the communication and propagation of ideas by governments, big business and advertising firms. Instead it’s never been easier to create and share an idea online with our peers. To broadcast as well as consume online content.

Given the framework the internet has provided in enabling us to reach a mass audience, the propagation of those ideas is influenced by two factors: reach and influence.

• A Viral coefficient (K) > 1, i.e the product of-

i: no. of invitations sent out by each new costumer, and

conv%: the conversion rate

• A more important factor is the Viral Cycle time (ct), which has a dramatic effect on growth. Youtube (and various other platforms on which the mentions of United Breaks Guitar was mentioned) enables extremely short cycle time. This guarantees that the customer can immediately share the link to the video with their friends/ colleagues, with minimal hassle. This low ct will increase ‘Custs(t)’ dramatically. Also there was an organically growing ‘Custs(0)’ in every phase of ct, every day since 6th July 2009.\

• There has to be virality in the product itself. In the case, the unique audacious way a complaint against a brand was ever filed, along with the catchy melody that stuck in people’s minds gave a viral quality to the content.

• It was supported by a whole fleet of air travelers, frustrated in United (and various other Airlines’) lousy costumer service. The message had power because it was relatable, more so because its source, Dave Carroll, was a common man just like them.

• There was ‘Collaborative Virality’ because people knew it was necessary for the message to gain a snowball effect to grab eyeballs and get noticed. Only this would serve the value proposition of better customer service by airlines in the future.

• It helps if the message has presence on many social media sites, and other platforms like blogs, website, email etc., where addresses of friends can be easily appended in case a message needs to be shared. Also, sharing across platforms increases the chances of a high conversion rate (hence the Viral Coefficient).

• Strong content/ Value Proposition in the message almost always gains a lot of earned media (e.g shares on FB wall of people), making it visible to hundreds of friends of the customer.

• Another important factor that also comes across in the “Hitler Meme” is the importance of viral content’s ability to be personalized and modified as per the creator’s needs. This allows users to adapt the base content and work with it by adding their own flair to it and thereby enhance its relevance.

• This also allows the same message to reach multiple audiences. The same Hitler Meme could be used to vent about Hilary & Obama, give stinging insight on Malaysian Politics as well as cry about two characters in your favourite television series breaking up. Same content, different uses, shared by different pockets of people on social media

2. Through Social Listening, one of the United Airlines staff came across a tweet from one of Dave's friends. Rob Bradford, MD of customer solutions tried calling Caroll, but there was no reply.

• The first mistake by United was tweeting fake progress, which was caught by Dave's friends putting United in a spot. According to us, the tweet was a nice word play and would have got positive response had it been for real.

• United then got in touch with Carroll and offered him the compensation he had been asking in addition to reimbursing the repair costs. On his request, they donated the money to charity and made a public statement about it.

• In the subsequent tweets, United closely monitored refrences to the video and had quirky replies. They accepted their fault and tried striking the right chord with assuring improvement in service.

• United, However, stuck to only one platform and did not think about the fast growing engagement on other social media platforms.

• In our opinion, the reaction of United Airlines to the video was much better than their customer service. They quickly realised the problem (the tweet), escalated the issue and provided resolution. they publicily accepted their fault and offered resolution for other passengers who were in a similar state. They even used quirky messages to assure improvement in their service.

• There are certain things that could have been done better. No tweeting fake stuff, covering more platforms, and a testimony or proof of their improvements on social media are some things that could have helped their cause.

3. This video was seen by so many people so quickly because of the following reasons:

• Carroll’s friends began sharing it with their followers, aggrieved flyers and media personalities like Fallon & Leno

• The story then began to be