Last year, Samsung Canada received a Facebook message from a loyal fan of theirs, a man named Shane Bennett. Shane listed all the products he already had of Samsung, namely a TV, a Galaxy S, and a laptop. However, he was hungry for more, and asked Samsung for a free Samsung Galaxy S3 because he was such a loyal fan. But that was not the only thing that Shane did for them – no, he included a picture of a dragon that he drew all by himself.
Of course, Samsung was not very eager to start giving out free phones, and explained to Shane that they would very likely go bankrupt if they would do so. However, the employee handling the Facebook account decided that the drawing of the dragon was “epic”, and returned the favour by drawing a kangaroo on a unicycle.
Shane was amused and decided to post the conversation on Reddit, and the case soon became viral.
Samsung received a lot of positive attention, replying to a customer in such a playful and creative manner. Because of the enormous amount of publicity they had received thanks to Shane, they decided to grant his request and send him a free Samsung Galaxy S3 – but then customized with the drawing of the dragon.
Personally, I like this case a lot, since Samsung is showing a whole other, more personal side of them. Instead of being a big corporation that sends out standardized responses, or no response at all, this employee really made an effort to provide a creative and amusing answer to Shane’s nearly ridiculous request.
However, we were talking in class about the issue of keeping up the professional appearance as a company. Some thought that a more serious, large corporation should not be all too neighbourly with its customers on social media. However, in the case of Samsung, do you think they were letting go of their professional image or is it ok to be so personal in their responses? I am curious to hear what you think about this case!
