A couple of weeks ago, I asked had an interesting conversation with a senior airline executive in Asia. Here’s how it went:
SN: What’s the emotional motivation (not $) for your customers to fly your airline?
Airline exec: Erm…I’m not sure.
SN: Hmm…is there someone front-line I can speak with who’d know, like the check-in staff, or flight crew?
Airline exec: Actually, the airport crew is outsourced, so we have little inputs, and it’s logistically tough to reach out to the crew.
What fascinated me the most were two things. One – I was talking to a (very) senior executive who didn’t know what, beyond price, attracts his customers. And secondly, the fact that the airport crew is outsourced may be a short term gain ($$ savings) but a long term loss due to the lack of front line inputs.


Twitter to the rescue! Tweet. Tweet.
But market research need not be that difficult. Especially when tools like Twitter exist these days, which allow you to connect with anyone – inside or outside your company – to seek opinions, cheaply and in real-time. Twitter is the in-thing these days. An …

In my recent brand review of Qatar Airways’ Business and First Class, I mentioned that the X-Factor in the whole experience was actually on the ground – their exclusive terminal for premium passengers in transit.

I experienced similar feelings last Friday, as I was given a private tour of JetBlue Airways’ swanky new Terminal 5 (old TWA terminal) at JFK airport in New York. Given the large proportion of time travelers spend in terminals these days, especially for short-haul flights, what JetBlue has created at JFK can be a game-changer. And here are three reasons why I feel it can do wonders for the already well-loved airline brand that is JetBlue.

1. It didn’t feel like a traditional US airport (at all!)
As  you walk in to T5, the first thing that strikes you the feeling of space – lots of it. That’s created by the high ceilings and tons of natural light coming through the glass panes. Moreover, there’s soft music playing at T5 (reminded my of Singapore …

Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about how airlines can use Web 2.0 tools to connect with their customers. This is a re-post of an article first published on the NewMediaChatter website, where the author re-counted his experience with JetBlue and Southwest Airlines’ Twitter “agents” – and both of these airlines are at the forefront of using this technology. It’s a very interesting story, and offers many lessons to not just airlines, but also other companies looking to tap on this medium. Let’s discuss what you think JetBlue did wrong or Southwest did right.

Special thanks to David Peck, for the permission to re-post this article on SimpliFlying.

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Jet Blue, Swing and a Miss.. Southwest Airlines Hits A Twitter Homerun

I am back from SXSW. I had a blast. It was one of the best events I have ever been to. So many familiar faces, so many new faces. Im already looking forward to next year. So, let me tell you about my flight back  from Austin last night.

I arrived at the airport 90 minutes early to bard my Jet Blue flight …

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Recently, the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation (CAPA) published a report which concluded that the “full-service airline model break down in the new-world order“.

“Worldwide, the number of passengers travelling on First or Business class tickets fell by 16.7% in Jan-2009, a further substantial fall from Dec-2008 levels, which were 13.3% down on the year.â€

That means that legacy airlines, which made a majority of their money from premium passengers, are struggling, even as low-cost carriers see greater traffic from people downgrading and new people taking to the skies.
What does the future full service airline model look like?
Here’s my prediction.
It will consist of airlines charging for providing value added services, rather than those un-bundling their products. Moreover, customer service will become a key brand distinction for the full-service airline, as prices would generally be competitive and so would most of the in-flight products too. The savvy traveler of the future will not only hunt the lowest prices, but be loyal to the airline that treats him well. Lastly and most importantly, employees of the full service airline will be part of the family, and share the love with customers at every touch point too (up to 16 …

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In my recent webinar on airline branding, I used the examples of JetBlue Airways to demonstrate how an airline can successfully adopt a holistic Web 2.0 branding strategy. A number of webinar participants wanted to learn more about it, so I got to the heart of the matter.

So that you could hear it from the horse’s mouth, I got in touch with Morgan Johnston, who leads the Twitter initiative at JetBlue Corporate Communications. This is the same Morgan who famously started “following” the popular blogger Jonathan Fields, who got freaked out and wrote a story about it.

Here is an email interview with Morgan, regarding JetBlue’s digital branding strategy and a good behind-the-scenes look at how JetBlue does it.

SimpliFlying: Who’s the driving force behind the technology initiatives at JetBlue, and how big is the team?

Morgan: Responsibility for our online initiatives span many groups, from our brand, sales, or web teams, to corporate communications, or customer service.  We each have different requirements and ideas that we bring forward to create an …

Image by satosphere via Flickr

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In the last part of his three-part interview, Joe Crump,  the VP of Strategic Planning at Razorfish, reveals that instead of fearing the recession, airlines around the world can use it as a catalyst to build strong brands. Joe believes that “incredibly narrow constraints usually present the biggest opportunity for innovation”. I couldn’t agree with him more.

Companies like Apple, GE and Toyota have emerged stronger by just doing that in the past. In fact, the airline industry is full of success stories from the recession as well, like AirAsia and JetBlue. Right now, Virgin America in the US is doing a fabulous job at building a strong brand by offering great value in the recession.
Digital investments = greater ROI
Joe makes a startling revelation in his interview below. He shares that contrary to popular belief, investments in product upgrades on-board an aircraft, as well as other “hard” invesments like frequent flier lounges seldom match the …

Continuing the series of interviews with Joe Crump, the Vp of Strategic Planning at Razorfish, I’m pleased to share with you the second of his three part interview. Joe continues to amaze with his in-depth knowledge of not just the branding world, but also of the airline industry, since he’s a frequent flier himself.
Target the niche and appeal to the masses
When asked whether airlines should carve out a niche or target everyone, Joe responded with an intriguing answer – do both at the same time. He shares the example of Virgin America, which stongly markets itself to “the connected class”  but the budget conscious traveler often boards the airline too, since they offer such a great value product and service.
Do digital branding efforts need new measurement rules?
At the recent Interact 2008 conference in Washington DC, Joe had mentioned that the “Interbrand brand rankings are dead”. I dug in on his comment to find out what he really meant. Joe explained that the old rules of brand engagement have changed, since a brand’s digital presence now needs to be taken into account too. Hence the methods to measure them also need to be adapted to the current …

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I’ve had the opportunity in the past few months of interviewing a number of distinguished thought leaders in the aviation and branding industry over the past few months on SimpliFlying. But a recent encounter in New York has left a deep impression on me, since this brand leader’s ideas truly resonated with what I’ve been writing about technology branding for airlines lately.

I’m referring to my conversation with Joe Crump, the VP of Strategy & Planning at Razorfish – the leading digital branding agency. At one point in the interview, he predicts that “any airline that doesn’t go digital pretty damn quick is going to find itself obsoleteâ€. And he has 25 years of experience in branding and technology to back up his foresight.
Airline branding – “genuinely complicatedâ€
In his interview, Joe shared that the fundamental problem of the airline industry is that “of over-promising and then inconsistently deliveringâ€. And this is mainly because of the number of externalities airlines need to deal with – from fluctuating …

At Sea-Tac airport in Seattle yesterday, many slept on the floor or in chairs, while other bleary-eyed passengers again stood in lines that snaked around the terminal, some counting their delays by days rather than hours. All this, caused by some of the worst snow-storms during the peak travel period in the Northwestern US.

To rub salt to the wounds, “Horizon and Alaska Air left customers fuming because they were unable to get through to Alaska or Horizon reservations agents on the phone or on the Web site to rebook travel”, the Seattle Times reported. Under normal circumstances, these services would have worked fine. Unfortunately, Alaska wasn’t the only airline badly affected by the mess, but also others like United Airlines. Though I haven’t heard too many good things about United, Alaska Air has certainly impressed in the past when it came to caring for their passengers. But things like these still happened. So, what can the airlines do to capitalize on externalities like these to actually build their brand further?
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For about 21 hours from Oct 21 to Oct 22, JetBlue Airways did a fantastic job of what Rohit Bhargava calls “short term blogging“. They set up a Live blog, to coincide with the opening of their new Terminal 5, at New York’s JFK Airport. There were a couple of posts every hour, keeping track of the latest happenings at the new terminal, updating not just customers but also employees. The blog was quite a hit!

Today, the blog still exists as a reminder of how well JetBlue has embraced technology in order to engage its customers – both internal and external. But the airline has a history of tapping on the Web to interact with customers on their own terms.
David Neelman’s flight log
JetBlue was one of the pioneers in the airline industry to add a “personality†to the company – when David Neelman started his personal blog on JetBlue’s website in September 2006 (way before Web 2.0 became the craze it is today). In his first post, David wrote:
I try to fly JetBlue at least …