Did Alton Towers use crisis management successfully?

We've all heard about the devastating crash on the 2nd June in which an Alton Towers rollercoaster crashed, causing 4 people to be seriously injured, with one even having to have her legs amputated. There has been incalculable media coverage and the Merlin brand is in absolute tatters. This of course is a crisis that not many brands ever have to deal with, however can Alton Towers ever recover from this tragedy and operate as the brand they used to be?

I think, from a branding perspective, due to what the Alton Towers brand used to stand for- fun, happiness, family-friendly and exhilarating. It is going to be phenomenally difficult for Alton Towers to ever build this image back in people's minds due to the instant association to the crash that the brand will acquire.

However, it's not as though we haven't seen brands cause tragedies previously and recover their brand successfully and with the right crisis management strategy in place- it can be done.

Quick reaction

Public relations absolutely is the key to any brand reform or crisis and other brands like Tesco and BP have made huge errors in the past by not reacting publicly to situations soon enough. However, Alton Towers were very efficient in releasing statements and keeping the public informed.

The park updated their Facebook and Twitter pages soon after the event and gave information and messages consistent with those they gave to the press, this meant messages across all channels were clear and not conflicting one another. They were quick with announcing that the park would be closed and then being open and honest about their investigations in to the accident etc.

Senior executives at the heart of the issues

Nick Varney, CEO of Merlin, headed to Alton Towers soon after the event and gave live television interviews and was at the heart of any decisions being made. This demonstrated the severity of the incident and how serious Alton Towers were taking it. He was able to give accurate and well prepared statements and take hold of the situation.

He also demonstrated his compassion, understanding and concern for those involved as well as outlining the immediate steps the business was taking which made him come across a lot more positive.

Accepting fault

In crisis management, accepting responsibility can make the difference between gaining the publics' trust and losing it. Alton Towers never tried to shift the blame or deny wrongdoing, which is where many brands have gone wrong when dealing with crises in the past (e.g. Thomas Cook).

Alton Towers must now reassure the public of their commitment to safety and work to improve on whatever they find to be the fault of their mistakes that clearly caused this disaster. I would also work to consider taking legal action/ investigation to the designers/ engineers of the ride.



All in all, I believe that Alton Towers initial management of the crisis was good and they built the foundations to restore their brand image, regain customer trust and convey their safety and integrity. However, the Merlin share price is dramatically low and therefore they must continue to work hard to make sure they stay on track.

Steph

PR Comedy!

Usually, I blog about huge brands with vast marketing and PR budgets and some of the industry's most talented and experienced talent! However, marketing isn't about who can spend the biggest budget or who can create a viral campaign with no reasonable purpose or intention. Sometimes, marketing can be about thinking on your feet and reacting in real-time with wit and initiative.

Check out this customer complaint from Baluga Bar & Club, local to my hometown of Preston:

Of course, this complaint was sent to the completely wrong Facebook account- the bar in question doesn't even serve food!! 

Now, the managers at Baluga, Preston had two options in this situation, reply to the message apologising for the mistake in the confusion and suggest that Bianca seek the correct restaurant OR, to use this opportunity to create some great PR and to reply to the comment with humour..... which is exactly what they did:

I think Baluga did a great job- they then shared this great response with their social media. As it was a lighthearted joke I'm sure Bianca and Baluga's REAL clientele found it funny! 

The great thing that Baluga managed was crisis aversion, by producing a humorous response to something unexpected, they managed to produce a great piece of PR!

Awesome work! :-)

Shock tactics

Sorry I haven't written in such a long time!! I've been so busy with exams, moving out of Bristol and then I went on holiday to Spain! Finally starting at IBM next week so lots of new posts coming up regarding my placement!!

I recently saw this post by The Sun newspaper: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4964319/pregnant-boys-teen-adverts-chicago.html
I have to say, I'm not usually over interested in marketing in the non-profit world, but social marketing does provide some of the most effective and memorable campaigns in the marketing world.
I think this campaign is absolutely brilliant, and clearly the press coverage that has come with it has made the images stick in consumers' minds (hopefully the target audience).

Just a quick one as I thought it was a very interesting piece of marketing!

Steph

Internet Explorer come back and my grazing addiction

Hey!
Just wanted to share this amazing advert with you!
Think I've finally learned how to embed youtube videos properly!!!

I love it! Brings back so many 90's memories and is so well put together! I've noticed how many people are using chrome or safari recently, especially noticable on my blog stats. I love the way internet explorer play on the fact they were the original browser and are targeting their initial market- us 90's kids, who grew up using internet explorer. They are using their history (however short) as marketing and I think it's very clever and reinforces the idea that internet explorer have "grown up" and aren't the same old boring, slow browser you used to use back in the day which also demonstrates that the 90's kids who have also grown up can use the rebranded, fresher browser to suit their needs now!
Such a cool video!

Ok, now I'm sure if you live in the UK you will have seen some sort of marketing for graze boxes, if not you must have been living in a hole as it is one of the most heavily advertised products at the moment! Well as I see their free/discounted box offers everywhere, I wanted to see what all the hype was about, so I decided to order one. I spend so much money on snacks in the uni shop which is ridiculously over priced (why it is placed in a university I do not know) and wanted to see if a graze box would be a healthier option and cheaper!
I found the first free box a bit scary as I was entering my card details for a free sample, something that I actually now thinks makes sense- graze ask for your credit card details in order to ensure you are a geniunely interested potential customer, or else they would have thousands of free boxes to send! Then you can rate your favourite foods based on sooo many different options.
This was quite an exciting process and I found the rating exciting as I could have a nosey at everything they have! Clearly captivating as an interaction with the customer means they can gain their attention and the rating process is quite time consuming meaning the customer has to spend extra time on the website!
Then once I had rated my products I chose my date to have the box delivered and I got an email the night before to tell me my box was on the way! My box was late because it was snowing so heavily but I emailed them and they discounted my next box immediately! Amazing customer service I was so impressed!
Then when my box arrived I took it to uni and everyone wanted to try!! Clearly a talking point and I think as the box looks different, especially when people take them to work/uni etc. their peers are going to be interested and want to try the boxes themselves.
I was very impressed and am going to be continuing my subscription!
I think the concept of "graze" is successful because;

• They deliver exceptional customer service.
• There is a high level of interaction between organisation and consumer. It's fun!
• The product is customisable and part of the experience is this element.
• They play on the desire to be healthy and a quick pick up snack.
• Everyone likes getting things through the post!
• It's a talking point and you get a token with each box where a friend can try a free box!
• Very responsible and ethical brand

Just my reccomendation anyway! think they will go far!!!
Steph

Public Relations disaster and success

So the big news this week was the Tesco story that horsemeat has been found in their burgers! I'm a vegetarian so this doesn't really affect me THANK GOD but I was really interested to see how Tesco's public relations department handled the crisis. Frankly, it's good news for sainsbury's, asda and morrisons who are now making claims such as 100% British beef and can use their farming as an advantage over the market dominator. Tesco deserves such revelation after cutting corners in order to stay on top.

I noticed how the Tesco twitter and facebook pages hadn't released a statement even 24 hours after the news had been released even though Tesco had been trending on twitter for hours. Eventually they did release a statement which I felt was to a certain degree reassuring however I feel the twitter page could have been used to better effect whilst the scandal was occurring, there was no posts even declaring that a statement was going to be released later on and I think that whilst Tesco's shoppers where questioning their loyalty to the company, Tesco could have been a reassuring force whilst monitoring their social media.

However last night Tesco posted this tweet:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>It's sleepy time so we're off to hit the hay! See you at 8am for more <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23TescoTweets">#TescoTweets</a></p>&mdash; Tesco Customer Care (@UKTesco) <a href="https://twitter.com/UKTesco/status/292043677897994240" data-datetime="2013-01-17T23:00:13+00:00">January 17, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I think the humour works well on a tweet that could have backfired and it's British "laughing at ourselves" humour and gave Tesco a moment on twitter as it has thousands of retweets, rather than entirely negative publicity.

However the daily mail doesn't seem to think so: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264394/Horse-meat-scandal-hit-Tesco-centre-Twitter-backlash-customer-care-message-told-followers-staff-hit-hay.html#ixzz2IK0VApdY interesting article!!

So in my opinion Tesco did a half hearted job and need to improve their crisis management for the future, but hit back well.

A company that handled social media crisis management extremely well were Bodyform, this happened a while back and I was going to blog about it when I heard about it but now I think is a perfect time to;

In response to the bodyform adverts this was posted on the bodyform facebook page:

 

Richard Neillposted toBodyform

8 October 2012 via Mobile

Hi , as a man I must ask why you have lied to us for all these years . As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things ,I felt a little jealous. I mean bike riding , rollercoasters, dancing, parachuting, why couldn't I get to enjoy this time of joy and 'blue water' and wings !! Dam my penis!! Then I... got a girlfriend, was so happy and couldn't wait for this joyous adventurous time of the month to happen .....you lied !! There was no joy , no extreme sports , no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack oh no no no. Instead I had to fight against every male urge I had to resist screaming wooaaahhhhh bodddyyyyyyfooorrrmmm bodyformed for youuuuuuu as my lady changed from the loving , gentle, normal skin coloured lady to the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin. Thanks for setting me up for a fall bodyform , you crafty bugger

 

The post recieved over 100,000 likes and despite his humour and attempt at hitting back at the organisation, I believe Bodyform RINSED him with this video:
 

 <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Bpy75q2DDow" width="480"></iframe>

 

I think it's genius and works because it gets people talking, displays Bodyform as a humourous, light-hearted organisation who don't take themselves to seriously and targets the individual comment which gets consumers reading more and more into the story via their facebook- in turn looking more into Bodyform, a company which usually social media users might avoid. Overall I think the Bodyform PR department handled it perfectly and provided an example to other organisations!

 

-Steph