advertising and other stuff. no, really.



Thursday, July 9, 2009

Axe to grind? YouTube that thang!



UPDATE: Oh no they didn’t. Yes, they did: “It struck a chord with us,” via MiaCucina, United responds to original story below.

“My wife left me and took my pick-up, my best friend, and my dog—and United breaks guitars.”

My career as a country songwriter now officially over, this clip is racin’ up them there consumer generated charts. It’s Dave Carrol’s response after getting nowhere with United Airlines after he claims they broke his guitar. (Check out the rest of this sad tale at Live and Uncensored.) Only thing I’d suggest is to trim that thang. Cute song, but whenever the Beatles wrote about customer service, they kept them to 3:00 minutes or less.

Taking advantage of the negative space and capitalizing on the PR...

First, if I’m another airline, I’m offering Dave and his new guitar a free trip anywhere they fly so they can get over the “heartbreak.”

Second, Taylor guitars could offer to fly him on a different carrier to pick up his new free axe.

United? Your turn.

4 comments:

phillybikeboy said...

Very funny. In the context of your Big Idea vs. Social Media post, it does make the point that while you might not want to jump into social media, you ignore it at your own peril.

Anonymous said...

Now it will be about sm, but initially, it was that they ignored basic customer service.

Ben Kunz said...

I left a comment over at Brian Morrissey's blog and won't replay it entirely ... but the truth is customer service doesn't matter much for some business. Airlines are operationally focused. Most customers travel once a year, and shop for price. So really, serving them well doesn't really matter -- since they are commodities to be pushed through the pipe as quickly as possible.

No knock on airlines. But they are operational companies, focused on managing crazy fuel costs with declining passenger volumes.

Sorry, guitars.

Anonymous said...

@BK - I should’ve mentioned Ryanair now that you made that point. They’re considering making passengers stand up during flights.