An opportunity for Land Rover

neville

It looks like all’s well for Adrian Melrose that ends well. Adrian’s the blogger who’s been waging war on Land Rover.

In a post this morning on his war blog, Adrian says that he struck a deal with Land Rover yesterday on a replacement Discovery.

While the main point in all this – Adrian’s desire for a working vehicle – has now been resolved, it does leave open a number of extremely interesting issues from the overall communication and customer relationship points of view.

For instance, the role blogs can play in forcing a poor customer service issue into the public eye. How some others see what you’re doing and raise an equally-interesting argument that this is nothing more than citizen journalism blackmail. Or what if an individual or group uses blogs as part of a non-legitimate campaign of attack on an organization’s reputation.

Then there’s the very interesting point in Adrian’s post today that raises the idea of converting his anti-Land Rover blog into a platform for open discussion about Land Rover products, and involving Land Rover the company.

Now there’s a great opportunity for Land Rover to enter into a direct and open conversation with their customers. It could be a rocky ride to start with, but what an opportunity if they grasp it. If Adrian falls totally in love with his replacement Discovery, you have the beginnings of a true customer evangelist who has a blog.

Great discussion points.

10 thoughts on “An opportunity for Land Rover”

  1. Land Rover’s Opportunity

    Thanks to Neville for picking up my campaign : he has articulated Land Rover’s opportunity so well… Have a read…..

  2. Adrian v Landrover – post match result

    So Adrian got his story. Well done. Several points spring to mind. 1. Although not explicitly stated, it seems Landrover shares a problem common to many brands. How do we respond to a firestorm without making it worse? They knew…

  3. Adrian v Landrover – post match result

    So Adrian got his story. Well done. Several points spring to mind. 1. Although not explicitly stated, it seems Landrover shares a problem common to many brands. How do we respond to a firestorm without making it worse? They knew…

  4. Adrian v Landrover – post match result

    So Adrian got his story. Well done. Several points spring to mind. 1. Although not explicitly stated, it seems Landrover shares a problem common to many brands. How do we respond to a firestorm without making it worse? They knew…

  5. Adrian v Landrover – post match result

    So Adrian got his story. Well done. Several points spring to mind. 1. Although not explicitly stated, it seems Landrover shares a problem common to many brands. How do we respond to a firestorm without making it worse? They knew…

  6. Adrian v Landrover – post match analysis

    So Adrian got his story. Well done. Several points spring to mind. 1. Although not explicitly stated, it seems Landrover shares a problem common to many brands. How do we respond to a firestorm without making it worse? They knew…

  7. Land Rover’s Opp

    Michael Schrage wrote an excellent article some years back in Fortune on what really moved customers to rave about an experience…it wasn’t a no hassle stay, it was a stay that had a minor inconvenience that was resolved promptly and beyond the custom…

  8. Land Rover’s Opp

    Michael Schrage wrote an excellent article some years back in Fortune on what really moved customers to rave about an experience…it wasn’t a no hassle stay, it was a stay that had a minor inconvenience that was resolved promptly and beyond the custom…

  9. Neville,
    I am now starting to get the hang of cyberspace and I have had three emails from Adrian re Landrover
    If a Dell (or any other computer) fails, about the worse case scenario is a few thousand Dollars or Pounds and frustration of personal or business process.
    If a motor vehicle fails due to design fault, incompetant repair or a corporate culture based on “just get it out of the workshop quick”, then not only is the cost huge (in my case $120,000 plus)and the need to purchase alternate transport) but the potential death or serious injury of one or more people – as in my case.
    I acknowledge your point re ‘blackmail’ and unjustified attacks on corporate behaviour and I avoided even threatening such action, until I had exhausted every effort to communicate with the CEO of Landrover Australia (including Ford Corporation – current owners) and correspondence from solicitors.
    The CEO still refuses to deal with the issue.
    I agree that in the ‘world economy’ and the availability of mass publication, there needs to be some ethics but big corporations have abused their might with dubious ethics, for a long time and some backlash in the other direction may take some time to balance the equation.
    Appreciate your thoughts.
    Richard

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