Analyzing United Breaks Guitars: A Marketing and PR Case Study

This case study delves into the 'United Breaks Guitars' incident, where musician Dave Carroll's experience with damaged baggage and United Airlines' poor customer service became a viral sensation. The case explores why Carroll's videos garnered significant attention, analyzing the factors that contributed to their virality, such as relatability and creative execution. It examines the options available to United Airlines after the videos' launch, including offering compensation, creating a response video, and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. The analysis critiques United's handling of the situation, highlighting their failure to anticipate the crisis and respond effectively. The study offers suggestions for brands navigating the social media landscape, emphasizing the importance of active engagement, responsive customer service, and proactive monitoring. It concludes by identifying opportunities for brands to learn from this incident, emphasizing the importance of customer loyalty, satisfaction, and retention in the digital age. The case study uses APA format for citations and references.

Running Head: CASE STUDY 0
United Breaks Guitars
Student Details
1/29/2019

Case Study 1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Dave Carroll’s Video.................................................................................................................2
Issue........................................................................................................................................2
Decision Criteria....................................................................................................................2
Customer Service...................................................................................................................4
Suggestions............................................................................................................................4
Opportunities..........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5

Case Study 2
Introduction
In July 2009, a Canadian musician Dave Carroll uploaded a video naming United
Breaks Guitars, which is a song written and sung by Dave himself. In the video he described
his experience on the flight of United Airlines and the response back from the United. Just
after its release on the internet, it captured the attention of million people and became a hit in
very short period. This incident resulted in declination of United’s stock by 10% and caused
huge losses (Huffpost, 2017). This incident is a perfect example of influence of social media
on customers and makes brands to rethink about their customer service strategies.
Dave Carroll’s Video
Issue
Video uploaded by Dave Carroll garnered the attention of million people because the
number of people or like everyone has faced the similar situation even once and people found
it more relatable. There are six success factors described that makes a viral video successful,
these are be relevant, entertaining, concise, progressive, searchable, and clear (TaylorGuitars,
2009). And the uploaded video of Dave Carroll consists of all these six factors. Although it
might be possible that United Airlines have not broken the guitar of everyone but somewhere
everyone has had a problem with customer service and also had issues while dealing with
company in order to resolve those issues. Carroll composed this song very creatively and
people found it very catch and it is fun and enjoying for everyone to share funny videos
(Russian, 2017).

Case Study 3
Decision Criteria
The main question arises that why all this happened. United Airlines should have
dealt this with this issue in a different way while keeping the public relations in view that
would provide the company more benefits in future. But this matter can also be rectified in a
better way even after the launch of video (CBC, 2017). Once the video has launched, United
Airlines have many options that could harm less to the brand value.
One of the options that United should have considered was to ask Dave Carroll to
remove the video from the website. Although this option did not have any kind of advantage
with exception of removal of video, however this option had a million disadvantages which
includes counterblast from Dave Carroll and video viewers.
Second option for United would be offer money to Dave Carroll and issue of an
apology to him. This option has three main advantages which include it shows a sincere
gesture of United; it makes an impression of United of admitting their mistake and learning
from them, and this help United in keeping its good image among people (Sonsofmaxwell,
2009). However, this option has disadvantage too including the fact that the damage has
already done to the United and it can also encourage other people to do the same.
Third option would be offer a new guitar to Dave Carroll. This option has the
advantage of resolving the key problem. However, this option shows immaturity of United
and less seriousness regarding the issue. It also has the chances of increasing the problem and
goes further elsewhere from guitar only.
Fourth and last option for United would be creating a response video. This option
would provide a response not only to Dave but also to the people who ever had problem with
United. This way of providing response is less formal and shows friendly gesture of United.
A disadvantage of this option is the fact that it raises credibility problems for United.

Case Study 4
However, if the behaviour of United is analysed then it can be summarized that they
completely failed in handling the issue. This incident shows irresponsiveness of United as
they completely ignored and never responded effectively to the incident. Dave Carroll
mentioned in his experience that he communicated with United for around nine months, and
they keep passing him from one person to another and did not provide any kind of assistance
to resolve his issue (Sentium, 2011).
Customer Service
The whole incident shows that United did not anticipated the whole situation. Carroll
already gave warning to United about what he is going to do that is making of video, but the
company did not take it seriously. If United have shown bit responsiveness then video have
not gone viral (Sawhney, 2009). If United has anticipated it properly, they corporate with
Carroll a bit more and should be known about the consequences resulting in this kind of
social media post or video. To minimize the damage to its brand, United could have a
conversation with employees and shows a sincere apology to Carroll (Theguardian, 2009).
Suggestions
In today’s world where people have different social media platforms to communicate
their views, and also the way of communication about brands, there are some
recommendations for brands to sustain their credibility as given below:
 Brands should be active on all social media platforms in order to get connected with
their customers. It is also easy for them to respond, get knowledge, and have track of
all information linked with their brand;
 It is a better option to use the same kind of media for responding the review. Social
media also allows a platform for giving faster responses;

Case Study 5
 Brands should provide an easy access to customers to raise their issues and feedbacks
and also provide them with a better, clear, and structured customer services.
Opportunities
This incident is a wakeup call for other brands too. This problem is not just related
with United only or this problem not just happens in United alone. It is an opportunity for
other brands too to learn from this incident (Russian, 2017).
Conclusion
Case study of United Breaks Guitars is a perfect example of how a spectrum of media
is utilized to make grassroots campaigns viral and how each media affects one another. The
whole incident reflects the poor customer services by United Airlines. This incident provides
suggestions for other brands to take care of their image as customers are more aware about
the social media usage. This incident has brought success in business performance and
improvement in the public image of brands. This resulted in enhanced customer loyalty and
satisfaction and retention.

Case Study 6
References
CBC. (2017). United Breaks Guitars guy says airline shows 'lack of compassion' in wake of
latest PR disaster. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-
happens-tuesday-edition-1.4065793/united-breaks-guitars-guy-says-airline-shows-
lack-of-compassion-in-wake-of-latest-pr-disaster-1.4065795
Huffpost. (2017). ‘United Breaks Guitars’: Did It Really Cost The Airline $180 Million?
Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/24/united-breaks-guitars-
did_n_244357.html
Russian, P. (2017). United Breaks Guitars and People. Retrieved from
https://thisisremarkable.com/blog/united-breaks-guitars-and-people/
Sawhney, R. (2009). Broken Guitar Has United Playing the Blues to the Tune of $180
Million. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/1320152/broken-guitar-has-
united-playing-blues-tune-180-million
Sentium. (2011). A Public Relations Disaster. Retrieved from http://sentium.com/a-public-
relations-disaster-how-saving-1200-cost-united-airlines-10772839-negative-views-on-
youtube/
Sonsofmaxwell. (2009). United Breaks Guitar. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
TaylorGuitars. (2009). Taylor Guitars Responds to "United Breaks Guitars". Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n12WFZq2__0
Theguardian. (2009). Singer gets his revenge on United Airlines and soars to fame. Retrieved
from https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2009/jul/23/youtube-united-breaks-

Case Study 7
guitars-video