A couple of months ago, we featured a song by Canadian singer/songwriter Dave Carroll which he wrote out of frustration with United Airlines after he tried for 12 months to be compensated for the damage done to his guitar by United baggage handlers.
The song was an internet sensation. As of October 3, 2009, it has received over 5½ million hits on You Tube, and received wide media coverage.
But what impact does a song like this have on a corporate bottom line? According to the “Daily Mail”, the cost to United of Dave’s first song was $180M – a 10% drop in share price. This figure was arrived at by calculating the change in share price over the 5 days since Dave’s song hit the internet. A response on the Mail web-site points out that this is a rather naive and simplistic method of calculation, and the share price change could not be fully attributed solely to Dave’s song.
But, perception is reality, and what can happen as stories travel is that the figure – $180 million – becomes the point, not the method of calculation.
Evidence for this is that “The Economist” picked up the $180M figure and in reporting this cited the “Daily Mail”, but commented “that’s right, folks. United’s share-price plunge is all attributable to Dave Carroll”.
So, in a matter of days, a “credible” financial source had stated that the knocking back of a $1200 baggage claim had resulted in a $180 million loss to a listed company.
The lesson? There are many, but one is beware the impact of negative press. Bad news can only compound – and, in today’s digital world – the messages hang around a long, long time.
Here’s the original “Daily Mail” post:
And here’s how “The Economist” reported this:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2009/07/did_dave_carroll_cost_united_1.cfm
And the saga continues.
Dave promised 2 more songs – and here’s the second. After one month it has received nearly 500,000 hits on YouTube, and, like the first, enormous popular support.
Have a look – the statistics speak for themselves. The internet has changed forever how customers can respond to their interactions with corporations. So the question we all need to ask is – does our sales rhetoric match the experience of our customers?
Enjoy song 2. We’ll keep our eye on Dave and revisit the story soon – probably when song 3 appears.
And if you’ve not already seen it – check out Dave’s first song here:
If you’d like to read the full story about Dave’s failed attempts to receive compensation – or find out more about Dave Carroll – check out his web-site:
The United web-site still contains no mention of the song – and a search of their web-site gives no matches to either “united breaks guitars” or “dave carroll”. But, maybe one day it will:
Thanks for reading this post – Paul Sparks, Sales Effectiveness Australasia.
“Taking you beyond sales training and keeping you informed about the latest ideas, trends, innovation, research & best practice in professional selling and sales management”
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