Professional Documents
Culture Documents
As a young boy, I remember ordering a stamp col many people can that one dissatisfied customer
lection that looked wonderful in a full-page adver tell today? Ten? One hundred? One thousand? One
tisement in what we now would call a "graphic hundred thousand? Millions?
novel," but back then we called it a comic book. Every marketer has heard of the incident that
With considerable anticipation, I waited for the happened to my friend, Dave Carroll.
package to arrive only to find that the "stamp col Disappointed with the lack of response of United
lection" consisted of pieces of old envelopes with Airlines over nine months, he recorded and posted
cancelled stamps still attached. It was a huge dis a song of complaint on YouTubewhich received
appointment, but there seemed to be no way to 5 million hits in just one month.2Six years later, the
complain and no way to get my money back. But count is >15 million, and continues to mount.
it did provide a powerful lesson that stays with me Every marketer should have learned from that
decades later. iconic episode. But recent studiesand even more
Conventional marketing wisdom used to be that real-life examplessuggest that lack of response to
one dissatisfied customer mightmighttell 10 customers continues to make many organizations
people about his or her experience. Currently, there vulnerable to social media crises. Two major points
are more than 1.6 billion people on social media, from the "United Breaks Guitars" experience and
projected to exceed 2.3 billion by 2017. And, by and others that followed:
large, each one of them actively is looking for infor
mation. On Facebook alone, in the United States Customers have more opportunities than ever
and Canada, there are more than 161 million daily to communicate the good, the bad, and the ugly
active users of this social network.1 about products and services to huge numbers
The engagement numbers change the dynam of other customers. And they can do so very
ics of a single consumer's dissatisfaction. How quickly. And they can count on an effective mes
sage to be repeated year after year.
1 "By the Numbers: 200+ Am azing Facebook User Statistics
(June 2015)" D M R (curated content site), June 2015. Retrieved 2 "A man and his guitar." National Financial Post, A ugust 2, 2009.
June 22, 2015, from http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/ Retrieved June 22, 2015, from http://www.financialpost.com/scripts/
by-the-numbers-17-amazing-facebook-stats/2/ Story.html?id=f9065720-c55a-4612-84eb-el68fd37edlf&k=15437
such as the Harvard Business Review, Journal of so cial-m edia-driving-increased-com plaints- L enhart , A. (2015, A pril 9). "Teens, Social
Marketing Research, and Management Science. Sexton companies-deaf-customer-questions M edia & Technology: O verview 2015."
is th e author of Value Above Cost (Pearson Education, Retrieved from PewResearchCenter website:
20 09), which explains how marketing drives the financial E volve24. (2011, September). "Maritz Research h ttp ://w w w .p e w in te rn e t.o rg /2 0 1 5 /0 4 /0 9 /
performance of companies. Sexton is a recipient of and evolve24-Twitter Study." Retrieved June 22, teens-social-media-technology-2015/
the 2 0 1 1 Marketing Trends Award for his work on 2015, from h ttp://w w w .m aritzresearch.com /-/
branding and is past-president of the New York American media / Files / M aritzR esearch/ e24 / Executi ve- L ithium T echnologies . (2013, O ctober 29).
Marketing Association. SummaryTwitterPoll.ashx "Consum ers Will Punish Brands That Fail to
Respond to Twitter Quickly." Retrieved June
G artner. (2012, A ugust 1). "G artner Predicts 22, 2015, from Lithium website: h ttp ://w w w .
J ain , R., V. G orti, K. S en, and D. E. Sexton. TARP W orldwide, Inc . "Service Industry Data."
Buzzell, R., and B. T. G ale. The PIMS* Princi "Brand Equity & Optimal Pricing," Paper pre Arlington, Virginia, 2007.
ples. New York, NY: Free Press, 1987. sented at ReThink Conference, A dvertising
Research Foundation, New York, NY, March U.S. N ational L ibrary of M edicine. (2015, April
E picta . (2012, June 13). "Social M edia D riv 2015. 26). "Very Young Kids Often Use Tablets, Smart
ing Increased C om plaints, But C om panies phones, Study Finds." Retrieved June 22, 2015,
D eaf to C onsum er Q uestions." Retrieved K eller, K. Branding and Brand Equity. C am from h ttp ://w w w .n lm .n ih .g o v /m ed lin ep lu s/
June 22, 2015, from h ttp ://w w w .ep tica.co m / bridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute, 2002. new s/fulls tory_152227.html