John Dutch

1006090
Professor Goodwin
March 14, 2014

Qantas Airlines: Twitter Nosedive

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Executive Summary

Qantas Airlines is experiencing unfavorable publicity as the result of an

ineffective and poorly timed social media campaign. They are facing the risk of increased

damage to what is regarded as one of Australia’s strongest brands. To rebuild their image

and avert any additional harm, it is recommended that Qantas Airlines continue the

contest as planned in order to determine the most pressing customer issues. With this,

Qantas needs to implement a publicly advertised customer improvement program that

seeks to enhance the quality of service by resolving these issues. As well, Qantas is

advised to invest in social media training programs in order to mitigate the risk of a future

public relations failure. The intended outcome will help preserve Qantas’ customer

loyalty, repair their public image and ensure continued long-term profitability.

Situation

Qantas Airlines is in the midst of a communications issue that is negatively

affecting their public image. Over the last year, the company became inundated with

problems involving a number of engine troubles, controversial photographs, union

disputes and the stranding of more than 68,000 passengers after grounding their entire

fleet. Public discontent over these issues was brought to light after Qantas launched a

public contest through Twitter. Thousands of upset customers quickly turned the

competition into a tirade of harsh comments towards the airline service. Rather than

monitor these tweets, Qantas began thanking users encouraging them to continue to keep

contest entries coming. As public acrimony grew, a parody YouTube video was released

castigating Qantas and their executive counterparts for their poor communication with the

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public. Evidently, Qantas is experiencing a situation that could ruin their reputation as the

world’s leading airline. Thus, the company must develop a plan of action in order to

avoid further brand value erosion and unfavorable public sentiment.

Analysis:

Immediate problem and underlying issues

The immediate problem of this incident is the negative media publicity that is

continuing to develop. The public has taken to Twitter to voice frustration and discontent

over the airline’s recent setbacks. Qantas now faces the potential alienation of loyal

customers and the continued exposure of past problems with the airline service. More

importantly however, consequences of this PR disaster could evolve into a prolonged

erosion of sales and profitability, and ultimately a tarnished reputation for one of

Australia’s strongest brands. The entire incident has exposed several underlying

organizational issues at Qantas Airlines. Strategically, Olivia Wirth and her team are

ineffective in executing valuable social media campaigns. Prior to the campaign, Wirth

and her team could have examined the volume and general opinion of tweets about

Qantas in order to measure the overall sentiment about the airline. From an

administration perspective, Wirth and her team have demonstrated poor management of

Qantas’ social media outlets as evident by the fact that no one was left to monitor the

Twitter contest.

Objectives

Currently, the predominant objective for Qantas is to avoid any further abrasion to

their brand image. Next, they should seek to rebuild the trust lost from the contest and the

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previous incidents over the last year. In doing so, they will be able to salvage their

declining brand value and reestablish themselves as a reliable, full-service airline.

Alternatives

To quell the immediate problem and avoid any additional devaluation to the

Qantas brand there exist two distinct alternatives. The first is to end the campaign and

quietly select a winner amongst the genuine entries. This will avoid any additional

damage to the company’s image. Qantas will then need to follow up with a media address

following the contest to demonstrate that they are in control of the situation. This address

needs to outline that Qantas is learning how to best communicate with the public and will

use this experience as a learning lesson. Although very practical, a major drawback to this

alternative is that it fails to directly address the negative feedback and public concerns.

The second alternative course of action is to continue the campaign despite the

surrounding negativity. There will always be critics with every successful company and

thus Qantas should not let this detract them from providing value to their customers. The

most significant downside present in this option is that the continued contest criticisms

may inflict additional damage to Qantas’ brand image. To fix this, Qantas could choose to

refocus the campaign away from their brand and more towards the actual contest. A

simple hashtag change from #QantasLuxury to #WinYourLuxuryTravelKit could help

remove any negative brand associations and possibly solicit more favorable comments.

Recommendation

The recommended course of action requires Qantas to continue the contest as

planned awarding the prize to the best entry. This is the ideal course of action because it

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provides the company with a viable opportunity to improve their service. To do so,

Qantas will need to assess the negative feedback and confront the criticism head on. This

cannot be achieved by simply changing the hashtag. Rather, Qantas must compile and

rank a list of the most pressing concerns received during the campaign. Next, Qantas

needs to implement an improvement program focused on addressing these concerns in

order to enhance the quality of their service. As this develops, the program should

continue in the form of discount coupons coupled with surveys to be filled out on an

incremental basis. This will help rebuild customer loyalty and create long-term profitable

relationships. Qantas should then seek to make the necessary changes addressing the

feedback as it is received. These improvements should be publicly advertised via all

possible media channels and should outline that customer concerns have been heard and

have been effectively dealt with. Internally, Qantas needs to invest in social media

training programs for PR employees in order to mitigate the risk of a future PR disaster.

The public will respond positively to this plan as it shows Qantas taking responsibility

and directly engaging complaints in such a way that shows the company is genuinely

trying to solve customer concerns.

Action Plan

To be effective, the aforementioned plan must be executed immediately following

the Twitter campaign. A quick response evokes a sense of credibility with customers and

the media. Thus, Qantas’ PR team must construct a statement via all media channels

publicly acknowledging customers that their feedback has been heard and that they are

developing a program dedicated to improving the quality of their service. The

improvement program should be implemented within 2 weeks to allow ample time for

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Qantas to compile feedback and prepare necessary resources. It should be noted that

quality control improvements should be implemented over the next month and publicly

advertised via all media channels. The final step is to institute an 8-week training

program educating PR employees on the fundamentals of proper social media

management. The overarching risk associated with this plan is need for significant

monetary resources. To mitigate this, Qantas should consider leveraging their brand

strength to secure the necessary capital. The anticipated outcome is a restored brand

image and continued long-term profitability. Analyzing financial statements from 2010

through to 2012 as well as customer survey feedback will be used as metrics to measure

success. Ideally, financial success will be achieved if both revenue and income remain at

or above levels before the crisis. From a brand value standpoint, survey feedback will

need to convey an overall positive theme to verify that the desire outcome was attained.

Conclusion

With the recommendations set in motion, Qantas Airlines will be able to improve

the quality of their service by assessing negative feedback and customer concerns. As

well, the plan will help the airline better manage their social media channels to avoid a

similar PR failure. In turn, this will rebuild loyalty while also attracting potential

consumers. The net result is long-term profitability and an increased bottom line but more

importantly, the rehabilitated public image and restored brand value of the worlds leading

long-distance airline service.