United Airlines Loses Bag, Finds Branding Opportunity

Posted by Abe Sauer on October 30, 2009 12:50 PM

Sometimes a brand just can't catch a break, unless the break in question is one that it causes to one of its customer's goods. Such is the sad case with United Airlines.

When Dave Carroll was refused payment of $1,200 by United for his guitar, which turned up broken after a flight, the Canadian musician write a song, with an accompanying video, called "United Breaks Guitars." To date, nearly 6 million have watched it. The song led to Carroll becoming a speaker (i.e. stunt act) at customer service seminars. It was just such a customer service seminar that Carroll was on his way to when United lost his bag. For three days.

Of his experiences with United, Carroll told the New York Times, "“It crosses all income levels and languages and geographies. We all don’t like feeling disrespected or insignificant.”

But in the end, does this attention damage the United brand? Unlikely. Recent Forrester research shows that 75% of all air passengers "choose the airline they fly most often because of the airports it serves" and that nearly 70% hold convenient schedules to be of the most important criteria. Today, airline brand wars are fought almost solely over price, not branding.

United will take a few lumps; but ultimately, by doing the right thing and making nice with Carroll, the experience could even be a PR boon for the brand.

More about: United, Dave Carroll, Airlines, Customer Service

Dennis Van Staalduinen says:

I completely disagree with the gist of this article - that United (or any other brand) can simply shrug off massive negative publicity because people have to fly with them anyway or will vote with their wallets. The question a brand manager should be asking is: how do they FEEL about being forced into that choice? Because that's where the long term sustainable advantage will come from, not today's ticket sales.

This is the narrow-focus mentality among large carriers that has led to the rise of more nimble, friendlier discount carriers like SouthWest, Jetsgo, or here in Canada WestJet, and will open the door to future ersosion of United's position. Bean counters will say "oh, it's only because they're cheaper." No, it's because they're cheaper AND they're more human.

I expect deeper analysis from BrandChannel.

November 2, 2009 06:50 AM #

Peter Feld says:

That's why we have comments! I'm glad to see your analysis but it's certainly true that several major airline brands have survived decades of service complaints simply because they're too big or well-positioned (as to routes) to avoid. (And because there's a sense among consumers that it's equally bad across the board.) And, to give credit, because these airlines emphasize strong branding in their ads and logos.

November 2, 2009 07:25 AM #

Sorry, but survival through virtual monopoly is not brand equity - nor is "strong branding in ads and logos". If that's your definition of branding I'm afraid you're breaking your own guitars brandchannel.

Ads and logos can only reinforce brand perceptions that are already there, so if you consistently "break guitars", no ad or logo is going to turn your name from a joke to a strong brand.

I'll remind you of Interbrand's own three part valuation criteria for brand equity (condensed by me from your annual Top 100 Global Brand rankings):

1) Strong brands increase the perceived value of a product - leading to customer willingness to pay higher prices.

You say that "airline brand wars are fought almost solely over price, not branding." This is because airlines have been forgetting that CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS THEIR MOST IMPORTANT BRAND TOUCHPOINT, and their logos or ads are just a symbol of that. If United were actaully building a strong brand relationship with customers, they could insulate themselves far better from the downward pressure on prices - which you dismiss as inevitable.

2) Strong brands positively influence customer demand - leading to more people choosing a given brand (when they have a choice). So if they have no choice (as in your routing argument), you can't argue that the brand is still strong or doesn't matter: Brand equity is about what customers would do if they had a choice.

Dave Carroll - the man whose guitar was broken and you dismiss as a "stunt act" ( ! )- was once an indifferent United customer, but he admits that he won't fly United if he has a choice.

3) Strong brands build loyalty and can predictably secure ongoing customer demand - and they can do this in the face of competition.

Enough said. Read your own materials Interbrand, but more importantly, take them to heart!

November 2, 2009 08:17 AM #

Abes Sauer says:

Well, I certainly understand these points. But I noted that "But in the end, does this attention damage the United brand?" The key being "this attention." I may not have been clear enough on that.

Branding is very important in the airline industry even if most passengers have to make their decisions based on price because of a lack of choice in their particular markets. But brand erosion in the airline industry generally happens on an individual basis. That is to say, I have a terrible experience (which I just did with Northwest, er, I mean, DELTA), and I hold it against them and remember that. When another option becomes available in my market (hope hope) then I can make a decision on brand.

But this particular bit of exposure, for the most part, has people chuckling and shaking their heads as it makes its rounds to close out the last minute of nightly news or whatever. Months down the road, when it's time to but a ticket, few will remember "Oh yeah, that United Breaks Guitar guy!" What they probably will remember that their cousin overshot the Minnesota landing while the pilots played tetris (or whatever) or that they or somebody they know sat on the runway for 4 hours with no water etc etc.

November 2, 2009 12:03 PM #

Shame more people didn't weigh in on this one. I blogged about it myselfL: see "Brandchannel breaks guitars" on http://www.begtodiffer.com

Again, I think you're missing the bigger brand story. Stupid pet tricks on YouTube may be a "chuckle", but this is far more serious as an example of customers publicly holding a brand to account for bad behaviour.

The real damage from a viral sensation like this one is that it takes one individual bad experience and threads it together with thousands of other bad experiences into a narrative that really does stick to the brand, and really does influence both perceptions and behaviour.

The Twitter stream when this video was a trending topic said it all: thousands of people chirped up and said "yeah, this bad service happened to me too!" or "I hate United!".

November 3, 2009 09:41 AM #

I think that you (especially at your site) make some very good points. But, again, the only "publicly holding a brand to account for bad behaviour" by consumers here is to shake their heads in knowing agreement.

The way the airline industry brands could conceivably suffer is the same way Detroit did. After years of not minding their brands (because all their business is fought on price) they are faced with a public that considers their products sub-par. Detroit STILL suffers from the way its products were branded by the public as shoddy, even though many studies show the big three makes very reliable cars today. But this can only happen (as it did for Detroit) if there is a large amount of competition. And while that is happening in some well-hoofed markets, it isn't in all.

As a complete lark, I would LOVE to quiz some people a year from now and ask them if they remember that guy who had his guitar broken on a flight and then see ow many of those who say yes remember what brand airline it was.

November 3, 2009 01:53 PM #

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Hilarious! I don’t know about the branding opportunity in throwing bags around was all that positive for United... and I do think that it will hurt their image (especially with a 6 million view audience!). I would want my bags handled with care, and will deliberately look for info like this online before I make big purchases like airline tickets.

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