Notesale: Turn your study into money

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When Apple released their new iCommunicator, 1000s rushed to buy Apple’s new product
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However, customers started to report connectivity problems –
stating that if they touched the antenna on the outside of the phone, they would lose
reception and their calls would drop
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In this essay, I will be analysing and evaluating external communication in relation to Apple
and its release of the iCommunicator
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” (Hartley, P and Bruckmann, C
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2001) External audiences are people outside the organisation: customers, suppliers, unions,
stockholders, potential employees, government agencies, the press and the general public
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An organization's primary public are its customers and employees, but other
stakeholders are crucial to the functioning of an organization
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One poorly worded newsletter or, in the case of Apple, a press
release and customer service, has the potential to ruin a company’s expensive
communication plan and can also affect the company’s revenue as a result
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In the case study, David and Mary experienced problems with their iCommunicator’s
reception and so contacted their service provider AT&T who apologised for the
inconvenience and instructed him to call Apple as it was not a problem with the provider
but the iCommunicator itself
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Communication is the responsibility of all employees in an organization, but several
operational departments have primary responsibility
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But the solutions which they came up with were not to the satisfaction of the customers
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Apple failed to fix the problem immediately even
though customers were complaining in the first week
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Apple then issued a press release, in which they compared themselves to other competing
smart phone devices, including RIM’s Blackberry, and said how connectivity problems were
simply a “fact of life
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” According to Coombs, diminishing posture is “the
communication strategy that tries to picture the organisation is having little control over the
crisis
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Excusing

seeks to frame the organisation as having little to no control of the crisis of the events
leading up to it
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" (Coombs, 2006) Apple essentially dodged the problem entirely and blamed
technology in general, not their own technology or design
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It sets the stage for how
those individuals outside the organisation are likely to make sense of the crisis event
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The main problem with Apple wasn’t the technical malfunction, but the poor attempt Apple
took in tackling the issue
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Rather than taking the blame for the design of the phone, they ignored the problem
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Apple’s poor press release risked losing its brand name
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" (Stuart, Stuart, and Sarow, 2007)
Apple’s mission statement did not say that they would do their best to find a resolution to
the iCommunicator’s antenna problem or replace the phones that the customers had spent
$5,000 on
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We all know that
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” According to Stuart,
Stuart, and Sarow, “a mission statement articulates the goals and objectives of the company
and concisely states why the company exists
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To prevent Apple spoiling their brand image, they
should have done the following things:
1
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Instead of saying “antenna problems are simply a fact of life”, Apple should have made an
apology to the users: for example “We are sorry for the problems that your new
iCommunicator may be causing you” would have been the correct way to address the
situation
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2
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By not tackling their plan of action straight away, the public are more likely to switch over to
a competing smart phone device and lose confidence in Apple as a brand which would affect
the company in the long run
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3
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“When the facts around a crisis are properly explained, customers tend to understand and
are more likely to continue their relationship with the organisation
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“Customers are the lifeblood of any business or organisation
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All of these forms of solution show
the customer that Apple is willing to go above and beyond to satisfy the customers’ needs
and therefore keeps the company’s well-earned brand name
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This would therefore give the company brand loyalty and a
positive long-term gain: their credibility, revenue and market share
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If Apple lost its credibility, it would
therefore lose a part of its market share because of the poor attempt to communicate
externally
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Unsurprisingly, if
Apple lost customers, the company would lose revenue and consequently market share and
Apple’s shareholders would lose value in their stock
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Apple intensified their customers’ discontent with their faulty iCommunicator by
addressing the issue with the public the way they did
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It could
also have a have a negative effect on the employees in the long-run: with the amount of
complaints, customers are very likely to lose their loyalty to the brand and buy their
competitor’s product
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Finally, the
customers: their biggest loss is the $5,000 which they paid for the phone
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If the customer tried to return the defective iCommunicator, they would still be
at a loss because of the restocking fee Apple was charging customers
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Apple made a poor decision in
releasing a defective product, but an even poorer decision in not providing customers with
an immediate solution which satisfied the customers’ needs and not responding proactively
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Many companies suffer from poor communication
skills, which lead them to poor communication decisions
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Good communication skills
lead to a good corporate image, which results in happy stakeholders all round
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(2007) Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing and Responding (2nd ed) Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage
“Diminishing posture: the communication strategy that tries to picture the organisation is having little control
over the crisis
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Excusing seeks to
frame the organisation as having little to no control of the crisis of the events leading up to it
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"
Crandall, W
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A
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E
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(2009) Crisis management in the new strategy landscape
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“When the facts around a crisis are properly explained, customers tend to understand and are more likely to
continue their relationship with the organisation
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, Parnell, J
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, Spillan, J
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and all, W
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Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications
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”
Hartley, P
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G
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London: Taylor & Francis
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”
Kitty, Kaczmarek, S
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and Locker, K
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(2013) Business communication building critical skills 6th edition
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London: McGraw Hill Higher Education
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”
Seeger, M
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, Sellnow, T
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& Ulmer, R
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(1998) Communication, organisation and crisis
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E
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D
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), Communication yearbook (Vol 21) Beverly Hills, CA, Sage
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It sets the
stage for how those individuals outside the organisation are likely to make sense of the crisis event
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P
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E
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S
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1st edn
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"An organization's primary public are its customers and employees, but other stakeholders are crucial to the
functioning of an organization
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P
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E
...
S
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1st edn
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"Communication is the responsibility of all employees in an organization, but several operational departments
have primary responsibility
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P
...
E
...
S
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1st edn
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"Public relations: addresses for primary functions in the business organisation: anticipation of social change,
monitoring of institutional policy, evaluation of organisational performance and acting as the primary
communication agent
Stuart, L
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, Stuart, B
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and Sarow, M
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(2007) Integrated business communication: In a global marketplace
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United Kingdom: Wiley, John & Sons
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P
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E
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S
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1st edn
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“a mission statement articulates the goals and objectives of the company and concisely states why the
company exists

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