Airlines are coming up with innovative ways to engage the customer, like SIA’s first flight to London graphic design competition we mentioned in this post. The next step into virtual user interaction would be to tap on the cutting edge of virtual worlds, which is led by Second Life.

A number of leading corporates have found interesting ways to tap on the bustling virtual communities on Second life, including Cisco, Adidas, ABN Amro Bank , MTV and even Toyota. Insead Business School has held MBS classes there. The hit CBS show CSI: Crime Scene Investigations plans an episode later this month where a killer is pursued into Second Life. One of the few industries not yet represented on Second Life is the airline industry – and herein lies a great branding opportunity for first movers and fast followers into the realm.

The first A380 lands in London today. A perfect example of pro-active customer engagement is the latest campaign by Singapore Airlines (SIA) to involve the customer prior to its first A380 flight to London.

Some SIA customers have received an email recently inviting them to come up with creative portraits that show the A380 near a famous London landmark. Every week, the top voted submission gets featured on the frontpage of SIA’s A380 Gallery. To top it all off, customers are also being encouraged to share their A380 experiences on the same website.

This is a commendable attempt to engage the customer before the flight, hence aligning Brand Xpectations, and continuing the engagement post-flight, encouraging Brand Xpression (something not many airlines are good at). Customers who depict A380 near a London landmark are literally fantasizing that they are present at the location themselves – what better way to induce a person to get a ticket on the first A380 to land at Heathrow? Also, with a large number of customers blogging about their A380 experiences anyway, consolidating them on a single …

With airline mergers and takeovers happening around the world, and now looming in the US too, one of the biggest “obstacles” encountered by airlines is airline staff unions. I beg to differ.

Here are a couple of the latest news about crew unhappiness in the last few days:

Air France Agrees to Buy Alitalia for $1.2 Billion (but faces union troubles), March 17, 08 – Bloomberg
British Airways Pilots Protest Plan to Start New Airline, March 15, 08 – Bloomberg
Pilots have much to lose during mergers, March 9, 08 – USA Today

Internal branding as a strategic corporate communications tool
Airlines should ensure that they take good care of their employees in case of a merger, and not construe it as an obstacle. Having them in the fold and ensuring their happiness would help ensure that the passengers receive a superior brand experience. Some branding experts refer to this as internal branding, other claim this is integrated branding. Regardless of the terminology, it is an established fact that if the working conditions are good, the crew is happy, and that rubs off onto the passengers so that they too are happy.

Since the late 1990s, many airlines have discarded First Class for Business class, or a mix of the two (think Delta and Air New Zealand). Of late, full-business carriers have come and gone (like SilverJet and MaxJet respectively). Now legacy carriers like Singapore Airlines and British Airways are looking to introduce Business-only flights on their long haul routes (click here to see inside the cabins of these airlines). So, what is it that makes business class tick, and how can airlines differentiate their product, as the top tier gets crowded.

First the three functional requirements of a business traveler:

Reliability + Frequency – on time performance and lots of options for timings
Flexibility – business travelers often like to change their plans at the last minute
Comfort – if the business traveler is able to have his own private space and get a week’s worth of work done on his laptop in-flight, he’ll not be too concerned with money

Premium Carriers rule the skies

Eos Airlines seems to have got it right, with their “uncrowded, uncompromising” strategy, and four flights between New York and London everyday. The cabin setup even allows passengers to face each other during meals – simulating a meeting setup. …

Garuda Indonesia, the national airline of Indonesia, suffered a setback recently. Indra Setiawan, a former CEO of the airline was sentenced to 12 months in prison for his part in the mid-air killing of a human rights activist. From a branding perspective, this just rubs salts in the already-wounded brand image of Garuda – since it already has one of the worst airline safety track records in Asia. The airline is leaving few options for its customers to form a positive perception.
Probably the only way they can resurrect the brand is to win on price competition, while still remaining full service, and impress the customers – a tough bet, given their track record. May be the new planes they ordered at the Singapore Airshow recently will help them rescue the brand with new routes to US and Europe, at good prices (and of course, the new planes). Airlines – and other worthy brands (Apple?)- must always be vary of coupling themselves too tightly with an individual. Although this can be a huge X-Factor for the brand, which differentiates it with other airlines, it can be a risky proposition.

It would have been nice if they had kept their red and green colors, which represent the national flag, and may be re-designed the khanjar to look more appealing.