Samsung has had a very challenging week. Amid stories of their flagship phone exploding, the company has been forced to permanently halt production of the Galaxy Note 7 in a move that is expected to cost the company $2.3 billion. The PR fallout reaches further than just their cell phone business; trust in the entire brand has plummeted since the company announced the manufacturing shutdown. In this post we will take a look at how the crisis evolved in the news and how the public reacted to it over social media. Most importantly, we can draw some lessons that PR, communications and public affairs professionals can use when faced with a similar crisis.

total-mentions-by-issue-10-4-to-10-11

Using Zignal Labs historical mentions graph, we can identify when the crisis actually started and see how it evolved over time. We can then see what news stories about Samsung triggered the spikes in mentions and associate different events with the increase in social chatter.

 

  • Point 1: a replacement phone for one that was recalled burst into smoke on a Southwest flight
  • Point 2: Samsung released their 3rd quarter earnings
  • Point 3: Rumors that AT&T would stop selling the Galaxy Note 7 started spreading
  • Point 4: AT&T formally announced they would cease offering the Samsung device
  • Point 5: Samsung permanently halted production of the Galaxy Note 7

samsung-negative-sentiment-comparison

Samsung has received over 50 times more negative sentiment than any other company within the telecommunications industry between October 4-10. This number could actually be even worse as the majority of the negative sentiment associated with AT&T is related to their announcement that they would stop offering the Galaxy Note 7.

samsung-historical-sentiment

When we look at historical mentions in conjunction with historical sentiment, we can see that the two are linked. If Samsung had reacted more decisively to the sentiment of the public and announced a halt in production after the discovery of the smoking phone on the plane, they may have been able to minimize the damage to the brand. By waiting, they allowed the negative chatter to grow on multiple occasions before they finally shut down the factories.

samsung-sentiment-october-9th

Customers put huge stock in a brand’s reputation and perception when they consider buying their products. It is how Apple manages to sell iPhones with such high margins. Perhaps if Samsung had acted sooner, the negative sentiment towards the brand would have been lower than the 95% that was recorded on October 9th.

Although no company ever expects to have a disaster on the scale that Samsung has suffered, every enterprise should be monitoring social media channels and traditional news outlets for any instances of brand mentions. What’s more, they need to be able to quickly see where the content originated from, who published it and what the sentiment around it is so they can take the appropriate actions in a timely manner.

If you would like to learn more about Zignal Labs and how media intelligence can modernize your crisis management strategy, download our ebook.