Public Relations as an Effective Tool in Restoring Consumers Trust After Product Recalls: A Case Study of Samsung Note 7 2016 Recall

Abstract

Effective public relations strategies have a tremendous role to play in the event of a product recall. Public relations strategies such as addressing of press conferences, issuing of press statements, social media engagements, recall of the affected product(s) as well as replacement, and apologies, can determine if the confidence of the consumers will be restored or not. The focus of this dissertation was an evaluation of public relations as an effective tool in restoring consumers’ trust after product recalls, using the 2016 Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall incident as a case study. In specific terms, the research objectives were to: determine the extent to which Samsung used public relations strategies in the Note 7 recall in 2016; ascertain the types of public relations strategies used by Samsung in the Note 7 recall in 2016; and to find out the extent of social media engagements which Samsung had with consumers in the Note 7 recall in 2016, amongst others. The research designs were qualitative and quantitative content analyses and in-depth interview.

The instruments for collecting data from the social media were Octoparse and Twython, while a questionnaire was used as an interview guide for the in-depth interview. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used. Among the key findings of the research were that Samsung deployed several public relations strategies such as addressing of press conferences, issuing of press statements, engaging the consumers through the social media, and recalling the affected product and replacing it, amongst others. On the types of public relations strategies used by Samsung, the findings indicated that the company used media relations, crisis management, strategic communication, and consumer relations, among others.

In terms of the sentimental framing of social media comments and posts during the crisis, findings showed that a majority of the consumers’ responses were negative. The researcher made the following recommendation for practice, amongst others, that: apart from using in-house public relations personnel, Samsung, just like other conglomerates should have internationally-reputable public relations firms such as Edelman, Hill & Knowlton, Ogilvy & Mather, Brunswick, BCW, and Dentsu, among others, that can dispassionately look at the issues involved and tell the organisation where it went wrong. In-house personnel are usually the staff of an organisation, perhaps, may be a bit bias in their approach. These global PR firms have the capacity to handle global brands like Samsung.