Monday, December 12, 2011

Twitter battle: Alec versus American Airlines

This recent event highlights the need for someone to be the eyes and ears for your brand.

In one corner...irritable, belligerent, narcissist actor Alec Baldwin. In the other corner, American Airlines.

This is a story where one of two brands has something to salvage...the one being American Airlines. Alec Baldwin, of the famous Baldwin brothers has a long track record of embarrassing behavior. Please Google "voice mail rant intended for his daughter" if you are not familiar with his temper. The episode last week that lead to him being thrown off of an American Airlines jet at Los Angeles International on a flight to JFK is another chapter in his turbulent (pardon the pun) life. He had refused to turn off his electronic device and after a spat with flight attendants, was tossed from the flight.

Alec's brand leaves a lot to be desired, but TV producers and advertisers continue to look beyond his transgressions and hire him.

On the other hand American Airlines has a need to protect its brand when under attack. Once Alec let loose on Twitter with invective that would make you think he had been beaten by flight attendants, American responded with "tweets" that explained the situation and that their crew was following federal safety regulations. American Airlines deals with Baldwin-types a thousand times a day. They knew how to react to this hostile situation and made certain the flying public heard another version of the story. Great job...you will get my business!

Your business can learn a lot from this story. If I ran American Airlines I would add Alec to the "no-fly" list.

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