Survey: Assessing the long-term damage of PR crises
How a company responds to a firestorm can have a profound, enduring impact on its reputation and brand perception, but time and consumers’ wallets are the great equalizers.
Consumers might be willing to forgive, but they never forget.
New research from Clutch reveals that not all gaffes, scandals, dopey commercials or shocking incidents cause lasting damage, but some certainly do.
Exhibit A is United Airlines. Clutch found that 30 percent of the 500 consumers they surveyed would still feel “unsafe” flying United—more than seven months after that infamous passenger dragging incident.
Pepsi, on the other hand, seems to have escaped lasting repercussions for its embarrassing 2017 commercial fiasco. Just 1 percent of respondents reported any change in their fizzy beverage purchasing habits.
The soda-swilling public might have forgiven Pepsi, but Uber has not fared as well. Sixty-five percent of respondents said they’d never even used the ride-booking service but had still heard about the company’s potholed reputation. The survey also found:
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