MNG81001 Case Study: Qantas Airlines Social Media Crisis & Solutions

This case study examines the communication challenges faced by Qantas Airlines, particularly in the context of a social media crisis stemming from a Twitter campaign. The analysis focuses on issues such as negative public perception, engine troubles, and union disputes, emphasizing the need for Qantas to regain customer trust. The proposed solutions include a public apology, a problem reflection program, and compensatory actions for affected customers. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of internal communication, social media training, and dedicated staffing to address labor conflicts and improve overall communication effectiveness. The communication plan incorporates elements such as timing, audience targeting, key messaging, desired outcomes, appropriate communication mediums, and consistent follow-up to ensure effective management of the crisis and restoration of Qantas's brand reputation. The document emphasizes the importance of understanding the target customers, avoiding sensitive topics, and maintaining a professional online presence. The case study also stresses the need for prompt feedback and active stakeholder engagement to foster better customer and employee relations.

case study
Qantas

To: Olivia Worth, Qantas
From: Qantas
Date: 11th May 2018
Subject: To focus on the issues related to handling the problems in Qantas Airlines case of social
media.
The major focus of the discussion is on the different problems that the company is facing about
the problems related to the communication mainly held in the social media with certain racism
on twitter as well. There are issues related to the engine troubles and the other union disputes
which needs to be taken care of.
It has become important for Qantas to focus on how they can regain the trust of the clients. For
this, they need to make an apology to the public with establishing the problem reflection
program. This will help the customers understand about the problems of the company and help in
making some commitments with taking the compensatory actions for the customers who are
affected from the entire scenario. It is also important to deal with the competitors. An internal
effective message is the efficient technique with the investments in social media training
program and then hiring the full-time staff for the different positions. This will help Qantas to
make the efforts for solving the conflicts of the labor.
According to the analysis from the case study, the factors which are important to be considered
at the time of using social media are the understanding of the target customers, where the
psychology is to avoid any type of the sensitive topics that might lead to the triggering and the
guidance of the public opinion in effective manner (Nitins et al., 2014). The though is also about
the brand and the values with mission statements which needs attention to the profiles are

considered to be consistent with professional outlook. The specification of the marketing goals is
to determine about the social media and the need for the beneficial targets reaching the
marketing goals. The investment of the funds is also related to the effects which are related to
social media. The company needs to take a proper follow up to the effectiveness, in the timely
manner. Here, the social media broadcast tends to affect the customers with the focus on dealing
with the same at the right time. The example is the Twitter accident of Qantas. The user
generated content is properly used where the consumers are able to capture the moment which
features the brand or the business. Hence, one is able to give the customers a little nod along with
thanking them (Seijts et al., 2012). The results and the feedback are important to be handled with
the positive influence and the negative effect that tends to prepare the plans and solutions.
Communication Plan (Ivey Business School Qantas Case)
1.Timing A proper planning with the use of the Twitter
campaigning is important to be executed in an effective
manner.
There is a need to plan and implement the improvement
program which has a time of 2 weeks.
The controlling of the quality with the improvement
could easily be executed over the time of the next month.
Here, the 8-week training program is done for the PR
employees mainly.
2.Audience Here, the audiences and the receiver are the ones. The
person with whom it is easy to share the thoughts and the

other relevant information.
The case is also related to how the passengers are able to
handle the situations which could lead to major suffering.
3.Sender For the communication, the sender is the person or the
organization who tends to spread the information as and
when needed. Here, the classifications are elaborated with
the CEO and the proper team of communication in
company.
4.Key Message The outcomes are the increased satisfaction of the
customer with focusing on their comfort as well.
The emotions of the candidate should also be taken care
of and rebuilding the reputation of Qantas.
5.Desired Outcome The message is about the intermediary passing of the
messages for the populations with the proper explanation
of the situations (Arcondara et al., 2017).
Apology is the other effective method which can help in
calming down the situation.
6.Medium Here, the medium is the personal channel like the friends,
family and the other people who are connected to us. The
non-personal channels are the TV commercialized
broadcasts which spread the different worldwide new, the

printing media like the newspapers, travel or the airlines.
The online news websites like the BBC etc. help in
spreading the information immediately about the reports
of Qantas with Twitter campaigning news or the news
related to the failure of the engine (Watson et al., 2013).
The social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram etc.
7.Materials There is a need of the prompt feedback to the customers
and the employees.
The external messages are effective with the apology for
the social media and the video
There are other compensatory actions as well with
Process recovery communication methods which are
effectively able to help in maintaining a better
communication between the customers and the
employees.
The internal issue management is to handle the active
engagement of the stakeholders with maintaining the
relations in community (Stieglitz et al., 2015). It also
includes the increased satisfaction of the employee with
their motivations and commitment to job.
8.Frequency The frequency which is the rule number 7 highlights on

apologizing video for at least 7 times in a week. Here, the
follow up is done on the articles and the announcements
with 4 times in a month for considering the different
possible actions (Watson et al., 2013).
I believe that there is a need to handle the changes which helps in a better understanding of the
Qantas brand with the ability to work on cooperating with the customers (Hussain et al., 2017).
The market and the communication are important for the Qantas consumers to help in
strengthening the government partnership with success.
References
Arcondara, J., Himmi, K., Guan, P. and Zhou, W., 2017, January. Value oriented big data strategy:
analysis & case study. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
Hussain, S.R., Syed, S.S. and Nadeem, S., 2017, October. " Role of Digital Media in Airport
Brand Management": Conceptual Model Based on Integrated Literature Review. In Global
Conference on Services Management (GLOSERV 2017) (p. 125).
Nitins, T. and Burgess, J., 2014. Twitter, brands, and user engagement. In Twitter and
society (Vol. 89, pp. 293-304). Peter Lang.
Seijts J., Bigus P., 2012. “Qantas Airlines: Twitter Nosedive”, Available at:
<https://hbr.org/product/qantas-airlines-twitter-nosedive/W12338-PDF-ENG>

Stieglitz, S., Bruns, A. and Krüger, N., 2015. Enterprise-related crisis communication on
Twitter. Proceedings der 12. Internationalen Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI 2015), pp.917-
932.
Watson, H. and Finn, R.L., 2013, May. Privacy and ethical implications of the use of social
media during a volcanic eruption: Some initial thoughts. In ISCRAM.