Twitterverse

Indian Institute of Management, Indore

Post Graduate Programme in Management (2019-21)

Written Analysis and Communication Term II

Report Analysis: When the Twitterverse Turns on You

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Indian Institute of Management, Indore

Report Analysis: When the Twitterverse Turns on You

Date of Submission: 15th November, 2019

Submitted to: Professor Swatantra Bose

Submitted By: Ishita Sahu (2019PGP183)

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Letter of Transmittal

To Prof. Swatantra, IIM Indore November 15, 2019 Subject: Submission of WAC Assignment

Dear Madam, As a part of the subject, Written Analysis and Communication at Indian Institute of Management, Indore, I am hereby enclosing my report for the case: ‘When the Twitterverse turns on you’. The detailed report contains all the relevant facts and situational analysis of the twitter hashtag game that turned wrong for the ‘Canadian Jet’. Initially started as a part of marketing campaign over the twitter with an open-ended hashtag #CanJetLuxury, the twitterverse backfires with the bashing that the company receives as part of the campaign. Based on the problem statement, situation and relevant facts I have come up with a few alternatives which could be taken by the Canadian Jet to prevent its brand from dwindling in the global market and restore its image. Eagerly looking forward to your valuable feedback. Yours sincerely Ishita Sahu PGP-I 2019PGP183

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Executive Summary Canadian Jet in an attempt to improve its public relations, after recent issues in the operations of the organization launched its first Twitter contest with the help of the company’s PR firm, Wrigley and Walters. After around an hour and half, some negative tweets start getting posted which pointed to the recent glitches in the services and the operations of the company. Charlene, the PR head of the company now has to decide what should be done about the contest.

There are three alternatives that she might choose from, (i) let the contest continue and issue an apology after the contest to address the negative tweets, (ii) stop the contest altogether and issue an apology to address the negative tweets and (iii) change the hashtag of the competition and let the contest continue.

These options have been evaluated on the basis of three parameters, impact on the image of the company, impact on the loyal customers and the impact on the prospective customers. I finally recommend that the company should let the tweets continue and after the contest is over and the winner is declared an apology post addressing the negative tweets per say, should be put on so that the people who were genuinely interested in the contest are also not ignored and the complaints are also handled properly.

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Table of Contents

S. No.

Topic

Page No.

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Situation Analysis

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2

Problem Statement

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Alternate Solutions

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4

Criteria of Evaluation

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5

Evaluation of Alternate Solution

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Recommendations

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Implementation Plan

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Contingency Plan

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Situation Analysis Jerry Schneider was the CEO of Canadian Jet, Charlene headed the public relations department, Tim Powell was the director of social media department and Andrea Kemp was the company’s account manager from Wrigley and Walters. The case talks about a twitter campaign #CanJetLuxury by Canadian Jet that went wrong. Within the first two hours of the launch along with the genuine entries negative tweets start pouring in, highlighting the recent lapses in the operation of the company (engine failure and labor relation issues), owing to which the company was then trending. Although, negative tweets were very less in number by then but there was a high probability that they could increase in just a short period of time. Moreover, to make the situations worse an automated tweet goes off the next morning encouraging the tweets flowing in, which signaled the ignorance of the negative feedback. Andrea had warned Canadian Jet about this probable crisis beforehand and had informed them of the various other organizations who faced the same situation and how they dealt with it. Charlene had to decide on the further steps that had to be taken to bring the situation under control.

Problem Statement How should Charlene deal with the overall image building of the Canadian Jet after the twitterverse and the recent lapses in company’s operations?

Alternate solutions The alternatives that Charlene can take to tackle the situation are listed below: 

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Let the tweets continue and issue an apology on Twitter itself. The committee can acknowledge and apologize for the negative tweets coming along with the genuine ones as neglecting the negative feedback could be seen as ignorance on the company’s end. Also, recalling the competition would demotivate the participants who were participating genuinely and would demotivate them. Stop the competition and issue an apology on Twitter. The competition could be recalled altogether, foreseeing the huge number of negative tweets that could further harness the company’s image as a whole. Moreover, an apology could be tweeted globally stating the inefficiencies that have come up recently due to certain glitches in the company and the steps that they are taking to bring the operations back on track. Complete the contest by changing the hashtag and ignore the negative tweets. 6

The committee could decide on ignoring the negative tweets altogether as it is normally observed that people love to complain over the internet. They could simply encourage the genuine participants to show their love by participating in huge numbers and making the campaign a huge success.

Criteria for evaluation 1. The decision should not have a negative impact on the image of the company. Since the brand image of the company had already degraded a lot in the recent past due to the serious operational lapses, it could worsen due to one decision disaster. 2. The further steps should not discourage the genuine participants as they would feel demotivated if their efforts go for nothing. 3. The decision should not have any negative impact on the prospective customers. The future customer base of a company highly depends on the decisions taken by it in the past.

Evaluation of alternate solutions Alternate solution 1: Let the tweets continue and issue an apology on Twitter itself In this option although there is a risk that the number of negative tweets might increase but there is also a good chance that the positive ones outnumber the former. Also, the negative feedback received would not be ignored and an acknowledgement to these tweets would be done. Moreover, the company will come clear about the recent lapses in the operations and the steps it’s taking to bring the situation under the roof. The continuation of the contest will also help in maintaining the trust of the genuine customers as they will see that company cares about them and there are many other people who still believe that Canadian Jet offers good services hence strengthening their belief in the organization. Alternate solution 2: Stop the competition and issue an apology on Twitter. This decision would have a flip sided impact on the company’s image. Stopping the competition will portray that they couldn’t handle the negative comments/feedback and fled the scene. But on the other hand, issuing an apology will help in handling the negative comments and help in portraying them as an organization which takes responsibilities for their doings. Also, it would be a great deal of motivation for the participants who had put genuine efforts.

Alternate Solution 3: Complete the contest by changing the hashtag and ignore the negative tweets.

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Altering the hashtag will somewhat divert the attention away from the negative tweets but will again be seen bad on the company’s age as not being able to handle the negative feedback and lack of genuine explanations for the company’s decline. It may help in retaining the loyal customers as they will perceive this contest as an attempt by the company to rectify its mistakes. Also, the successful completion of the contest will help in attracting more customers to the airline and will help in building a better and stronger brand image.

Recommendation: Based on the evaluation of the options against the mentioned criteria, I would finally recommend Charlene to let the tweets continue and issue an apology on twitter itself.

Implementation Plan The company’s PR firm should roll out two tweets, one encouraging the active participation by the users and another to the users who had tweeted negative comments. The first tweet would invite more participation and spread positivity while the second tweet would acknowledge all the negative feedback that the company has received. Also, it would be seen as a corrective measure on the company’s front that they are aware about the lapses and the recent mis happenings in the operations of the company and are taking sincere steps in the direction to curb those.

Contingency Plan The contingency plan that I would suggest is to change the hashtag and continue the contest as it divert the negative comments flowing in and would cause comparatively less damage to the company’s image and would also not discourage the genuine participants who would have been discouraged by total recall.

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