304MKT
Trust Repair:
Critical Analysis of Dove’s and United Express’s Methods to Rebuild Trust
Coventry, United Kingdom
15/11/2018
Introduction
This coursework aims to examine two cases of trust violation issues concerning two major companies and how they tried to repair trust:
· Dove – a company that normally position itself as a brand that supports the diversity and it is popular throughout the customers with its “beauty” campaigns which are against the racial/body separation of the people. Recently, Dove launched a new advert in which women are changing their t-shirts and an African-American girl is taking off her brown t-shirt which makes her to appear with white skin afterwards. (Astor, M. 2017)
· United Express – an airline that gain negative publicity and lost many of their clients in 2017. An accent occurred on the board of an overbooked flight where the staff had to take “re-accommodate” a passenger using power – dragging the customer on the floor. The company lost 4% of the market share for less than 2 days after the incident and the value dropped with $ 1 billion. (Samson, A. 2017)
The cases of violation will be further investigated in the report. In order to provide understanding of the issues and the theoretical literature, a final part adding recommendations is included which concerns the actions of the companies. The recommendations are only based on the theories provided.
Trust Repair
Definition and Importance
Bozic 2017 states that the commitment and loyalty of a customer is based on their trust. Therefore, when the trust is broken it is important that a company performs an action identified as “trust repair”. The term “trust repair” can be best referred to an action undertaken by the company after a scandal or an issue that went public and affected the stakeholders (Lewicki, Brinsfield, 2017). On the other hand, Kim et al. 2004 qualifies “trust repair” as an action which aims to improve the trusting believe of the customer. Furthermore, rebuilding trust is an action taken by companies to re-establish lost relationship and loyalty. (Kim et al. 2009)
Therefore, observing those three definition we can claim that the action defined as “trust repair” is a “restoration” in the customer’s trust after a significant violation. (Bozic, 2017)
Furthermore, in his journal article Bozic B. 2017 provides significant evidence regarding the importance of Trust Recovery. The author states that a loss of trust in the brand may result in negative consequences such as loss of competitive advantage, profit and even “Unique Selling Point”. (Bozic 2017) On the other hand, Liu et al. 2017 adds that there are short-term and long-term consequences such as loss of customer base. (Liu et al. 2017) The authors add that trust repair is important because it can restore customer’s relationship with a brand and prevent long-term loss. (Bozic 2017; Liu et al. 2017)
How to repair trust
1. Introduction of Theories
1.1. Bozic, B. 2017
The article explains t...
