United Airlines Just Can't Get it Right

Physically removing a paying passenger from an overbooked flight is not good for the United brand, especially given that other passengers were capturing the whole incident on video, which can now be seen on YouTube. The correct response was not for the airline to claim it was right but instead to make things right. 

It would have been much better policy and far cheaper to continue to offer higher value flight vouchers until someone voluntarily gave up the last overbooked seat. And clearly it would have been better to do this before all of the passengers were assigned seats and comfortably boarded on the plane. There are so many better ways to have handled this situation that it is surprising that physically removing a boarded passenger against his will was the chosen course of action. 

This seems to me to be a policy, customer service and PR issue. 

And this from the same airline that encountered a PR SNAFU a few weeks ago when it barred two girls from boarding a plane for wearing leggings. 

And of course, it is the same airline whose callous approach to a musician passenger whose guitar they broke led to the famous "United Breaks Guitars" video, viewed by almost seventeen million people. 

And, while almost ancient history now, it is the same airline whose flight attendants threatened a labor action labeled CHAOS (an acronym for "creating havoc in our system") during the airline's "United Rising" advertising campaign, which was intended to indicate a reemergence from an extended customer service slump. 

All I can say is, "United, you are not managing your brand well." People remember these things, and given options, will choose other airlines if they are able. Hire and train for legendary service, focus on employee satisfaction and up your crisis management game.

Delivering on Your Brand's Promise

In March of 2000, The Journal of Brand Management published an article I wrote entitled "Developing the brand building organization." Around that same time, I helped create and chaired the one of the first conferences dedicated to inside out branding. It has been said many times that more important than making a unique and compelling brand promise is keeping that promise. United Airlines found that out with their United Airlines Rising advertising campaign as their flight attendants were threatening a labor action labeled CHAOS (an acronym for "creating havoc around our system") and chanting, "No raises, no rising." Later, they found out again with the "United Breaks Guitars" YouTube video. BP found out when its environmental/green energy company brand repositioning was shown to be false during its catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter teaches the concept of value chain analysis. If you have created a brand that has a strategy and positioning that you are certain will cause consumers to insist upon your brand, then you must tangibly deliver against that strategy and positioning. This means you invest in people, processes, activities and systems that support the brand position and do not waste time, money or energy on those that do not. You invest in the value chain that supports the brand position.

Inside Out branding requires organization design and organization development support among other activities. To transform employees and the organization itself into a strong brand advocate requires more than a brand rally or internal education and communication (which are a part of what needs to happen), but it also requires internal alignment and incentives.

We have worked with more than one brand whose intentions were good but whose systems or processes worked against delivery on their promises. Inside out branding is a critical part of any brand management function. It is for this reason that the brand manager needs to be the consummate influencer and preferably at a very high level in the organization, because he or she certainly does not have control over everything that will insure delivery against the brand promise.

Here is a chart that I have taken from the second edition of my Brand Aid book. It illustrates the types of organizational activities that need to be aligned with the brand strategy and positioning if they are to be effective.