John Dutch

1006090
Professor Goodwin
March 14, 2014

Qantas Airlines: Twitter Nosedive

Executive Summary
Qantas Airlines is experiencing unfavorable publicity as the result of an
ineffective and poorly timed social media campaign. They are facing the risk of increased
damage to what is regarded as one of Australias strongest brands. To rebuild their image
and avert any additional harm, it is recommended that Qantas Airlines continue the
contest as planned in order to determine the most pressing customer issues. With this,
Qantas needs to implement a publicly advertised customer improvement program that
seeks to enhance the quality of service by resolving these issues. As well, Qantas is
advised to invest in social media training programs in order to mitigate the risk of a future
public relations failure. The intended outcome will help preserve Qantas customer
loyalty, repair their public image and ensure continued long-term profitability.
Situation
Qantas Airlines is in the midst of a communications issue that is negatively
affecting their public image. Over the last year, the company became inundated with
problems involving a number of engine troubles, controversial photographs, union
disputes and the stranding of more than 68,000 passengers after grounding their entire
fleet. Public discontent over these issues was brought to light after Qantas launched a
public contest through Twitter. Thousands of upset customers quickly turned the
competition into a tirade of harsh comments towards the airline service. Rather than
monitor these tweets, Qantas began thanking users encouraging them to continue to keep
contest entries coming. As public acrimony grew, a parody YouTube video was released
castigating Qantas and their executive counterparts for their poor communication with the

public. Evidently, Qantas is experiencing a situation that could ruin their reputation as the
worlds leading airline. Thus, the company must develop a plan of action in order to
avoid further brand value erosion and unfavorable public sentiment.
Analysis:
Immediate problem and underlying issues
The immediate problem of this incident is the negative media publicity that is
continuing to develop. The public has taken to Twitter to voice frustration and discontent
over the airlines recent setbacks. Qantas now faces the potential alienation of loyal
customers and the continued exposure of past problems with the airline service. More
importantly however, consequences of this PR disaster could evolve into a prolonged
erosion of sales and profitability, and ultimately a tarnished reputation for one of
Australias strongest brands. The entire incident has exposed several underlying
organizational issues at Qantas Airlines. Strategically, Olivia Wirth and her team are
ineffective in executing valuable social media campaigns. Prior to the campaign, Wirth
and her team could have examined the volume and general opinion of tweets about
Qantas in order to measure the overall sentiment about the airline. From an
administration perspective, Wirth and her team have demonstrated poor management of
Qantas social media outlets as evident by the fact that no one was left to monitor the
Twitter contest.
Objectives
Currently, the predominant objective for Qantas is to avoid any further abrasion to
their brand image. Next, they should seek to rebuild the trust lost from the contest and the
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previous incidents over the last year. In doing so, they will be able to salvage their
declining brand value and reestablish themselves as a reliable, full-service airline.
Alternatives
To quell the immediate problem and avoid any additional devaluation to the
Qantas brand there exist two distinct alternatives. The first is to end the campaign and
quietly select a winner amongst the genuine entries. This will avoid any additional
damage to the companys image. Qantas will then need to follow up with a media address
following the contest to demonstrate that they are in control of the situation. This address
needs to outline that Qantas is learning how to best communicate with the public and will
use this experience as a learning lesson. Although very practical, a major drawback to this
alternative is that it fails to directly address the negative feedback and public concerns.
The second alternative course of action is to continue the campaign despite the
surrounding negativity. There will always be critics with every successful company and
thus Qantas should not let this detract them from providing value to their customers. The
most significant downside present in this option is that the continued contest criticisms
may inflict additional damage to Qantas brand image. To fix this, Qantas could choose to
refocus the campaign away from their brand and more towards the actual contest. A
simple hashtag change from #QantasLuxury to #WinYourLuxuryTravelKit could help
remove any negative brand associations and possibly solicit more favorable comments.
Recommendation
The recommended course of action requires Qantas to continue the contest as
planned awarding the prize to the best entry. This is the ideal course of action because it

provides the company with a viable opportunity to improve their service. To do so,
Qantas will need to assess the negative feedback and confront the criticism head on. This
cannot be achieved by simply changing the hashtag. Rather, Qantas must compile and
rank a list of the most pressing concerns received during the campaign. Next, Qantas
needs to implement an improvement program focused on addressing these concerns in
order to enhance the quality of their service. As this develops, the program should
continue in the form of discount coupons coupled with surveys to be filled out on an
incremental basis. This will help rebuild customer loyalty and create long-term profitable
relationships. Qantas should then seek to make the necessary changes addressing the
feedback as it is received. These improvements should be publicly advertised via all
possible media channels and should outline that customer concerns have been heard and
have been effectively dealt with. Internally, Qantas needs to invest in social media
training programs for PR employees in order to mitigate the risk of a future PR disaster.
The public will respond positively to this plan as it shows Qantas taking responsibility
and directly engaging complaints in such a way that shows the company is genuinely
trying to solve customer concerns.
Action Plan
To be effective, the aforementioned plan must be executed immediately following
the Twitter campaign. A quick response evokes a sense of credibility with customers and
the media. Thus, Qantas PR team must construct a statement via all media channels
publicly acknowledging customers that their feedback has been heard and that they are
developing a program dedicated to improving the quality of their service. The
improvement program should be implemented within 2 weeks to allow ample time for
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Qantas to compile feedback and prepare necessary resources. It should be noted that
quality control improvements should be implemented over the next month and publicly
advertised via all media channels. The final step is to institute an 8-week training
program educating PR employees on the fundamentals of proper social media
management. The overarching risk associated with this plan is need for significant
monetary resources. To mitigate this, Qantas should consider leveraging their brand
strength to secure the necessary capital. The anticipated outcome is a restored brand
image and continued long-term profitability. Analyzing financial statements from 2010
through to 2012 as well as customer survey feedback will be used as metrics to measure
success. Ideally, financial success will be achieved if both revenue and income remain at
or above levels before the crisis. From a brand value standpoint, survey feedback will
need to convey an overall positive theme to verify that the desire outcome was attained.
Conclusion
With the recommendations set in motion, Qantas Airlines will be able to improve
the quality of their service by assessing negative feedback and customer concerns. As
well, the plan will help the airline better manage their social media channels to avoid a
similar PR failure. In turn, this will rebuild loyalty while also attracting potential
consumers. The net result is long-term profitability and an increased bottom line but more
importantly, the rehabilitated public image and restored brand value of the worlds leading
long-distance airline service.