Your Name Brianna Stewart Date 10/24/19

Case # 6-1 Chevrolet Ditches the traditional for unprecedented campaign to attract new,
millennial buyers

SUMMARY
Chevrolet wanted to break its traditional sales method in attempt to gain millennials attention.

They created a new system to change the way that they market vehicles. Their strategy was to

implement a system that would link all of the companies together early in the process. The

public relations agency would also be heavily involved. They needed to gain awareness of the

brand and increase competition in the subcompact market. They started a campaign called

“Lets do this” that basically demonstrated how their car “sonic” would be good for millennials.

Sonic is a subcompact car , which is a market that they have a lot of attention in. They also

started a digital campaign every time four to five months of new vehicles. Since generation y is

heavily focused on technology and social media. They came up with a phrase “Getting Started”,

to capture the target audience sense of optimism. The final result was a 33 percent increase in

transactions and 90 percent less incentive speed.

REFLECTIONS

Overall , I feel like not only the public relations team , but the whole company did a great job.

They carefully and strategically planned their campaign so it would work the first time. I liked

how they got together many months before the launch and put it together in a timely manner.

They studied their target audience and provided advertisement catered to them. It’s important

that these things aren’t rushed, and their work definitely proved itself in the end .

pg. 1
Brianna Stewart 10/24/2019

Case 6-2 Firestone a recall revisited


SUMMARY
In the summer of 2000, Firestone’s tires were failing horribly and caused ford to suffer. This was

nothing new to Firestone because they had a similar situation happen in the 70s, when more

than 20 million Firestone 500 radials were recalled. Two years later, the director of firestone

claimed the tires were of inferior quality. The tires went through severe testing and half of the

them did not pass, but somehow were never reported. They kept the information to

themselves and kept selling faulty tires. Because of numerous complaints, NHTSA tested the

tires themselves. After testing many different brands of tires, they found that firestones tires

were failing the most. They were planning on releasing the information to the public, but

firestone put out a restraining order causing them to keep the information private. The test

results were eventually leaked to the center for auto safety. It became big in the media, and

the government forced firestone to recall all the 500s tires. They found out that a missing layer

of nylon was the reason for the tire failure. After many public complaints and crisis, Firestone’s

pr team quit on them. They sent out a public apology and their sales went down tremendously.

Many people continued to loose their lives because of these faulty tires. Ford used its website

for the recall but shut down because of the overload.
Years later, the AAA still doesn’t know

whether to blame ford or firestone. Neither company had a plan to properly deal with the

crisis.

pg. 2
REFLECTIONS

Overall both companies did a terrible job with representing themselves. Their public relations

team should have taken the time to find good manufacturers and thoroughly test and advertise

their products. They also should’ve had better customer relations and compensated the people

who received the failed tires. After apologizing to the public, nothing improved. Many people

lost their lives and suffered serious injuries with no remorse from the companies.

pg. 3
Brianna Stewart 10/24/19

Case 6-3 Johnson & Johnson Then and now : How handling a crisis can make or break you

reputation Summary

In 1982, Chicago area stores were experiencing tampering with their packages of Tylenol.

People were lacing them with cyanide. This killed about seven people and the drug was pulled

from stores. It was later put back in stores with a tamper resistant packaging. In 1986 a similar

crime happened in New York. They immediately stopped production and offered refunds and

exchanges. It cost about 180 million and included communication expenses to reassure

customer safety. They received positive light in the media because of this. There was a

competitive market for pain medications, but even with the recent recall Johnson and Johnson

was still on top. The company has a history of good customer service and crisis management.

Unfortunately, it started to go downhill in 2010 with many recalls and investigations about their

products. They were not that helpful with informing the public about it and it hurt their

reputation.

Reflection

I feel like their public relations team had a great start. They were timely in responding to
customer concerns and cared about their reputation. As time went on the cared less about
their products and were giving out faulty items. I think they should hire a new public relations
team and come up with a new strategic plan to rebuild their reputation and products. I think
that their company still has a bright future.

pg. 4
pg. 5