BacklashWhen Former Fans Fight Back

The Original Backlash

Soft drink market stagnated and Pepsi was gaining market share

Coca Cola Co. launched “New Coke” on April 23, 1985

Backlash – 400,000 calls and letters

It (Only) Took 79 Days

Brought back original formula as “Coca-Cola Classic” on July 11, 1985

New Coke Rebranded “Coca-Cola II” in 1992

Coca-Cola II discontinued in 2002

What has Changed

What Hasn’t Changed Organizations still aren’t

that smart People still have strong

affinity for their favorites Taking people by surprise

remains risky

What Has Changed Ease of feedback –

Tweets, posts and e-mails

Ease of sharing feedback from others

Speed – What used to take months now takes days

Recent Examples of Backlash

Netflix restructuring hikes pricesBank of America plans $5 ATM feeCongress considers Stop Online Piracy

ActVerizon plans $2 convenience feeSusan G. Komen for the Cure

announces new funding criteria

Common Reaction:

They had to know this wasn’t going to go well.

Unknowns Can Be Tricky

Typical Backlash Lifecycle

Step 1: ActionStep 2: DiscoveryStep 3: Early media involvementStep 4: Outrage and disbeliefStep 5: DemandsStep 6: Acquiescence/ApologyStep 7: Lingering disgust

Typical Backlash LifecycleIn

tens

ity

Step 1: Action

Step 2: Discovery

Step 3: Early media involvement

Step 4: Outrage and disbelief

Step 5: Demands

Step 6: Acquiescence/Apology

Step 7: Lingering disgust

1 23

4

56

7

Time

Bank of America Situation

A DigitalMR analysis found that Bank of America receives 1/3 of all the negative comments online about US banks

A change.org petition gathered 300,000 signatures

An estimated 846,000 consumers switched banks in reaction to the bank fee controversy

Nonetheless, Bank of America announced fee increases for new accounts in March 2012

Komen Situation

More than 100,000 tweets were sent in regard to Komen during the controversy

They were dominated by critics of the move.

Just three of the top 28 hashtags support Komen's move.

Source: The Signal using a new tool called "influencers" created by the Yahoo! Labs Content Science team

Source: The Signal using a new tool called "influencers" created by the Yahoo! Labs Content Science team

Analysis of Twitter Impact

Influencers are Twitter users who tweet a lot on a particular topic, are retweeted and have a big following

In this controversy, influencers were a combination of official organization Twitter accounts, journalists and unaffiliated tweeters

This was initially top-down, then became a broad-based push in last two days

Pro-life groups never gained traction, with just one influencer on the list

Source: The Signal using a new tool called "influencers" created by the Yahoo! Labs Content Science team

Influencers During Controversy

Feb 01, 2012: Ppact Planned Parenthood IPPF_WHR Planned Parenthood Rtraister New York Times journalist NPRHealth NPR Health HuffingtonPost Huffington Post David_Feldman Comedian Nancyfranklin New Yorker journalist Marikatogo Moveon.org

Feb 02, 2012:• US_JUST Activist group• JessGrose Slate journalist• Dcdebbie Unaffiliated• Shannynmoore Unaffiliated• Ezraklein Washington Post journalist• Slate Slate• edstetzer President of Lifeway• taradublinrocks Unaffiliated• JessicaPhD08 Washington Post journalist

Feb 03, 2012:• Dailykos Daily Kos• HuffingtonPost Huffington Post• Ppact Planned Parenthood• BreakingNews BreakingNews.com• ProducerMatthew Reuters journalist• Iowahawkblog Unaffiliated• Someecards Some E Card (

card mocking Komen)• jayrosen_nyu Unaffiliated• Julieklausner Unaffiliated

Source: The Signal using a new tool called "influencers" created by the Yahoo! Labs Content Science team

Results of Backlash

Before After

Netflix restructuring hikes price DVD spinoff killed

Bank of America plans $5 ATM fee Fee pulled

Congress considers Stop Online Piracy Act

Legislation pulled

Verizon plans $2 convenience fee Fee pulled

Susan G. Komen for the Cure severs ties with Planned Parenthood

Funding restored

Fact Check:

The vast majority pays little attention

About 40% Tuned In

Pew Weekly News Interest Index Poll, Feb 5, 2012:

As I read a list of some stories covered by news organizations this past week, please tell me if you happened to follow each news story...A controversy over whether the Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity would cut funding to Planned Parenthood. 20% Very closely 20% Fairly closely 22% Not too closely 36% Not at all closely 2% Don't know/Refused

http://www.people-press.org/question-search/?qid=1804572&pid=51&ccid=51#top

9 in 10 Said Other Stories Bigger

Elections; 23%

Economy; 18%

Komen; 11%

Super Bowl;

15%

Afghanistan; 6%Facebook; 2%

Other; 8%

Refused;

17%

Very Similar Data for Netflix

Pew Weekly News Interest Index Poll, Sept. 25, 2011 - How much if anything, have you heard about Netflix announcing that it will divide into separate businesses for DVD rentals and streaming video… 20% A lot 32% A little 47% Nothing at all 1% Don't know/Refused

Younger, Affluent More Aware

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

30%

14%

28%

9% Age 50+

< Age 50

HHI < $50K

HHI $50K+

Similar Moves Without Backlash

Hotels raked in $1.8 billion in fees in 2011

Airlines assess fees totaling $5.7 billion annually

Ticketmaster assesses fees of up to 25% on tickets

TSA steps up security searcheseBay introduced a 9% fee on shipping

DNA of a Backlash

Prior sense of ownershipSurpriseLack of understood/accepted rationaleShared outrageSlow and/or ineffective response

BacklashDaniel Keeney, APR

DPK Public Relations

www.dpkpr.com

@dpkpr