It’s October 2016 and I am finally getting a drone. It has taken some time to make that decision, but who would have known that it would be such a hard one. Reason? Well – I was dead set on my DJI drone of choice, but then Karma happened. Just look at this amazing video – the launch in 4k and tell me you do NOT want this thing…
It was amazing. I already had my GoPro Hero 4 and I loved the idea of a complete system (instead of just a drone). The Karma was the ultimate proposal: get a new GoPro Hero 5 Black and the stabilization with the Karma Grip – and off I would be on my adventures…
‘More than a drone. Capture amazingly smooth footage in the air, handheld or body mounted.’
The initial launch by GoPro was executed well – especially to reach out to people like me – the consumers who did not yet have a drone, but have already been investing in video equipment – like their signature action cams. I was after all spending some time on my videos already (see below).
So when GoPro released their drone – they did all the right things as far as marketing goes. At least I believe so. Just take a look at the review that Casey Neistat did right after the launch – free advertisement at it’s best:
After all the reviews and looking at the complete set, I was almost ready to buy. I have gone through a usual customer journey and ready to pick my drone. And then this happened:
Karma drones were falling out of the sky. The worst possible scenario. The news of issues with the drone hit GoPro right after their release of disastrous financial quarter results on the 3rd of November:
GoPro needs a very good holiday season after a disastrous third quarter
On the 8th and 10th of November, the following news then followed:
GoPro is recalling its Karma drone
The interesting bit about all of this was the communication strategy on when to announce the recall of their drone: with an epic news dump on the US election night.
At least the CEO and founder of GoPro, Nick Woodman has admitted that the whole recall was ‘embarrassing‘.
Fast forward to 2017.
I have not bought a GoPro drone and not upgraded to the GoPro Hero 5. I went with a DJI Phantom 4 Pro and I am absolutely happy with it (again – see below):
However, GoPro is now looking at releasing a 2017 version of the Karma. So is the new Karma better? Has GoPro learnt from it’s lessons? Have a look:
99 problems? Not a good sign. We will have to see how GoPro returns from this product launch and what learnings the company has taken from this approach.
As mildly put in one of the articles: “The Karma recall was a rotten cherry on top of an already bad 2016 for GoPro, the stock price of which dropped throughout the year. The company laid off 15 percent of its staff three weeks after issuing the Karma recall — the second round of layoffs in 2016.”
So what can we learn from this story? Let me try to summarise my own findings:
1) Be honest
When things go wrong – be honest and open about it. Hiding press releases and sugarcoating the mess in front of your core customers – never works. Some other examples in this area call for being candid, contrite, concise and compassionate. I could not agree more…
2) Correct your errors
Looking at the above review on the 2017 version of the Karma does not look good. Despite CES talk of new features and Nick Woodman assuring journalists of great things to come – reviews have not shown this to be the case (yet?). You often only have 1 chance to fix an error. Consumers will not forgive errors twice.
3) Learn from others
There are numerous very public examples of companies doing product recalls very very wrong. Take Toyota in 2010. Jonathan Bernstein summarised it in a nice phrase: “We’ll wing it’ is not a product recall plan.” In 2017 alone the list of the Consumer Product Safety Commission lists recall after recall. Very public was the Samsung recall of their Galaxy Note 7. If you want to know more about that and missed it (not sure how that would be possible) have a look here…
4) Deliver a great customer experience – always
Taking me back to the first video. I would have bought the Karma just because of that advertisement campaign. Marketing is one of the things that GoPro is great in. Delivering a customer experience is key and if you have ever used one of their cameras before – you know that they can excel. I hope that the company can turn things around and return to the basics.
GoPro’s mission statement could not be easier: “GoPro makes the world’s most versatile cameras.”
And me? I am still thinking about upgrading to the GoPro Hero 5…
