“ Communication Blunders and Their Solutions”

Communication is two-way process in which the participants not only encode and decode the message
but also grasp the main idea of the message, information or news. Communication becomes effective
only when the sender and receiver obtain the similar idea from the information shared. If the sender is
trying to imply one thing and the receiver understands the other, then it can cause conflict among the
two. Therefore, regarding the Business World, communication is a game changer. A simple error in
communication among the parties, or a company with its public can result into demise in company’s
existence.

Therefore, for any big corporation or a start-up company, effective communication is a key to success.
Effective communication is more than just exchanging information rather it is more about sharing a
concise and effective general idea among the participants. Normally, what happens is people
understand what they want to understand. People come from different background, follow their own
sets of value, language and have their own perception. Hence, considering their situation, sender needs
to send message, email, or news and other information in accordance to receiver’s way and ability of
understanding things.

Effective Communication in workplace and communication of companies with its clients, customers and
public can yield the following advantages.

1. Helps with Diversity: For companies with diversified workforce, effective communication helps
to deduct the barriers emerged by difference in language and cultural backgrounds. Providing
language and communication trainings especially to International employees at an early stage
can increase productivity, decrease errors and enhance smooth operations.
(Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017)

2. Global Business: The world is becoming globalized. And due to globalization, it has become a
small world today. For a company to maintain good relation with its counterparts around the
world, managers and employees should know how to communicate effectively. Diversity in
culture and language changes the way how people perceive things. One gesture or word in
America can be offensive in another country. Hence, these things need to be considered which
is enhanced by effective communication. (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017)

3. Low Employee Turnover: Employee Turnover refers to the durability of an employee working
for the organization. If a company practices effective communication then it becomes able to
deduct the employee turnover rate up to minimum and vice versa.

4. Team Building: A good and effective team can be formed only when there is peace and harmony
among the employees. Communicating effectively helps to foster and maintain these
relationships among the workers and helps form a strong team who are more productive, have a
sense of responsibility and integrity. With this on hand, a manager becomes able to point out
the mistake without having to create a hostile environment and encouraging positive
relationships. (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017)

5. Client Relations: Company’s major strength is its communication skill. Effective communication
helps to maintain good relationship with the existing clients and can attract the potential clients
 as well. People trust a company only because of its approach of conveying the message and
doing things accordingly. For all big corporations, if they make even a single simple error in
communication, it can result into the demise of the company.

6. Employee Morale: Most of the employees become satisfied when their pay gets raised.
However, a manager can increase their morale just by going and appreciating their work. A good
word from the mouth of manager can increase employee’s morale. Hence, effective
communication seems to be most important in all level. (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017)

In 2014, Malaysian Airlines one airplane mysteriously disappeared and another was horribly blown up.
In order to re-establish trust among public, the airline company came up with a marketing campaign.
There slogan read as, “Want to go somewhere but don’t know where?” Although the company tried to
focus on the bright side, this campaign totally held double meaning due to lack of proper thought given
by the marketers and when this verse was tweeted, it quickly started receiving criticisms from people.
(Tuck.dartmouth.edu, 2017)

The next case is; the Lumbering Giant General Motors (GM) was riding high until it appointed a female
engineer as CEO in January 2014. Mary Barra (CEO of General Motors) only after working for a few
weeks learnt that the company had been hiding a product defect for over a decade which had already
taken lives of 13 people. The worst thing is that this issue could have been fixed with just a little more
expense of 56 cents per unit. The problem became worst when Barra tried to take a public relations
approach before Congress and the world that even Saturday Night Live could not chime in on. With
Barra’s and GM reputation on the line, GM is now liable to pay a several billion dollars liability.
(Tuck.dartmouth.edu, 2017)

And for the last one; Toyota Motors, one of the largest corporations in the world, decided to recall
millions of cars due to faulty brakes. However, it was too late and as much as they tried to downplay the
problem, they were forced when Consumer Reports withdrew their recommendations of 8 Toyota
Vehicles. The situation was eventually handled however failing to accept responsibility affected in
people’s perception of Toyota’s brand. (Team and Team, 2017)

The above three cases reflects the communication blunder made by three different companies. For the
Malaysian Airlines, they were at a survival stage. Therefore, they did not think it through and came up
with the campaign. Had the marketers worked properly with those in corporate communication, they
would not have stepped in each other’s toes. Moreover, companies need to try at least to speak in
harmony if not with one voice.

As for the General Motors, it would have been appropriate and effective if the CEO had taken a step
forward and admitted her mistake rather than prolonging it. She should have told what happened and
explain why it would never happen again rather than authentic public relations approach when she had
larger cultural and operational issues to deal with (Tuck.dartmouth.edu, 2017).

Finally for the Toyota Motors, timing wasn’t perfect. They knew they had installed faulty brakes but they
took too much time to recall all the cars. Moreover, they tried to downplay and keep things as it were
normal, which created negative mindset among the customers. Toyota Motors should have effectively
communicated and told their customers what’s wrong, should have fixed it and told the customers why
it would never happen again. This would create loyal fan-base and increased goodwill.
John F. Kennedy famously stated in a 1959 speech that the word crisis in Chinese is comprised of two
brush strokes.  One represents the word “danger” the other “opportunity (Harvard Business Review,
2017).” There are many other big corporations like Coca Cola, Cartoon Network and so on who make
communication blunder. Communication blunder is a common practice either it’s for the start-up
company or a big corporation. It is almost impossible to not commit communication blunder at all.
However, the frequency of these blunders can be reduced to minimum by following ways:

1. Planning: For any big corporation or a start up business, they need to plan, plan, plan, plan and
keep on planning before reaching to certain conclusion for the marketing campaign. As seen in
the Malaysian Airlines case, they did not plan enough and the campaign backfired. For planning
a company needs to analyze the market demand, the situation they are facing inside the country
and consider whether the slogan for the campaign holds double meaning or not. A company
must prevent the double meaning cheesy slogans and should approach people with more
creative and effective campaigns. For all of this, planning is required. (Team and Team, 2017)

2. Writing: Now after planning, writing skill is put into test. Looking at the target market and
analyzing the surrounding around them, a marketing manager or any other responsible person
needs to write a sensitive slogan or message which appeals to people out there. From planning,
it is determined what is required in the market and writing brings those into words. Effective
writing attracts trust, reputation and customers for the business.

Planning and Writing are basically the two factors how a corporation can prevent communication
blunder. However, a company is not 100% immune even if it conducts the above two procedures before
any campaign. If by chance, an error occurs even after following these steps, then it would be best if the
company addresses this problem to public at an early stage. Rather than prolonging to accept faults, and
denying from accepting it, a company should try to fix the problem and assure public that such problems
will never hinder them again. If this is done in an effective manner, a company can at least withhold its
existing customers and slowly turn into more reliable company.

This is the digital age. From young ones to old, they now own a mobile phone and a social media. It has
become easy for the companies to promote their brand and products by communicating through these
social media. However, it can be seen that because of lack of proper thinking, companies get largely
criticized even in these virtual world. Malaysian Airlines tweet was largely opposed by the Twitter users.
Therefore, no matter what field it is, communication must be thought through before done.

To conclude, Effective communication means conveyance of message in such a way that the meaning
which the sender is trying to impose can be easily understood by the receiver. Normally, communication
blunder occur when companies don’t think properly about how their customers will perceive a
marketing message or new product and when a company denies to accept their flaws. However, every
problem has a solution. Planning and Writing effectively can help to deduct the chance of
communication blunder but if any error occur, then the company should address it and solve and never
repeat it again. No matter what platform a company uses, a blunder is a blunder and it must be
addressed and solved to retain goodwill of the company. With this, a company can maintain good
relations with its clients, customers and employees.
References:

1. Team, G. and Team, G. (2017). 8 Epic Communication Failures. [online] The Grasshopper
Blog. Available at: http://grasshopper.com/blog/8-epic-failures-of-communication/

2. Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2017). What Are the Benefits of Effective Communication in

the Workplace?. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-
effective-communication-workplace-20198.html [Accessed 28 Aug. 2017].

3. Harvard Business Review. (2017). The Crisis Communications Playbook: What GM’s
Mary Barra (and Every Leader) Needs to Know. [online] Available at:
https://hbr.org/2014/03/the-crisis-communications-playbook-what-gms-mary-barra-
and-every-leader-needs-to-know [Accessed 28 Aug. 2017].

4. Tuck.dartmouth.edu. (2017). Top Five Communication Blunders of 2014. [online]

Available at: http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/news/articles/top-five-communication-
blunders-of-2014 [Accessed 28 Aug. 2017].

BY: Kushal Khatiwada

BBA L3