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.

1 Situation Analysis 6

2 Problem Statement 6

3 Alternate Solutions 6

4 Criteria of Evaluation 6

5 Evaluation of Alternate Solution 7

6 Recommendations 9

7 Implementation Plan 9

8 Contingency Plan 9

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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:

 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.

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 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.