Economic Times on 6th May carried the story of “Make my trip.com” (17th page). The fairytale beginning & stupendous journey of MakeMyTrip! As soon as I saw the story, it took me back to the story that I read few days back (may be 13th April) in almost all the newspapers (main lines) about ‘make my trip’. After analyzing the story, I admitted to myself “wow what a wonderful crises management and PR strategy of the company (makemytrip.com)”.
Story pitched on 13th April: Mangalore-based Vishal Rao was cheated by the online travel agency MakeMyTrip. Aggrieved by this treatment, Mr Rao created a blog, 'Ruined My Trip', to make people aware about his experience and the unfair business practice by the company. Being, an expert in the web business, Mr Rao used his skills in the search engine optimization (SEO) area to push his blog into the top ten Google search results for 'Make My Trip'!
Feeling cheated by a company, either because of unfair treatment or poor services, many of us would usually end up staying silent. Yes, in the head of the moment, we did get angry and some of us may even vent the anger on the company's staff. Still fewer would choose to take legal recourse through the consumer court, where the battle could be long. But here's an example of a person who chose to use his skills with the Internet to fight against injustice.
Story pitched on 6th May: The fairytale beginning & stupendous journey of MakeMyTrip! Deep Kalra says he was following a gut instinct when he set up online travel portal MakeMyTrip way back in 2000. But the fairytale beginning would soon run into some very rough weather as the global dotcom meltdown, the 9/11 attacks and the SARS outbreak led to a severe loss of business. In conversation with Radhika P Nair, Kalra tracks the many milestones that have since marked the company's journey, including a blockbuster IPO in the US, where on the first day of listing, the MakeMyTrip stock closed 89% up, the best listing in the US since the pre-recession year of 2007.
My analyses: The negative coverage in almost all the main lines spoilt the brand image in front of the consumer. ‘Makemytrip.com’ has recently invested a lot in the promotional activities (I mean TV ads etc). Mr.Rao is almost a nightmare for the company. It’s a thread to the company and in lieu to that the company has adopted a new PR policy. Their PR is basically talking about their brand which will now divert the audience. THIS IS A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE FOR ALL THE PR PROS AND HATS OFF TO MR.RAO! JAGO GRAHAK JAGO……
PS-For any further details on this story you can log on to www.runinedmytrip.com
