Virgin America’s online community – bull’s eye, or a flop?

Posted on December 1, 2008, 7:36 pm, by Shashank Nigam View Comments View Comments

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Virgin America is the latest airline to foray into Web 2.0. It follows hot on the heels of similar initiatives by AirFrance-KLM, Lufthansa and sister-airline Virgin Atlantic. The big question is whether the effort is worth it, or is it yet another futile attempt? Will it help the brand? What else can be done to improve the website’s effectiveness?

What’s good about the “community” website?

…
Well… firstly, I think it’s a move in the right direction, and Virgin America has got a number of things right in their online community. Let me quickly review what’s good about the site, which will help the brand:

Reviews and stories: Site visitors are able to submit their stories of flying with Virgin America. There is also a section called “The Scoop”, which not only displays these stories, but also offers integration with leading online tools like Facebook and  Twitter. This is certainly good to get the customer warmed up to the Virgin America brand.

Engaging: The site has interactive features like the “toy box” where they can play games like “Voyage Simulator”. There is also a contest they can take part in, to be the “President of the Community”. These and other features are good for engaging the customers with the brand.

Tickets everywhere: The website has a panel on the left of the screen, which is essentially a flight booking form. Moreover, special offers sprout all over the website. This is a good strategy of inducing sales from visitors who have already “bit the bait”.

Now that Virgin America has already done a neat job with the website, how about some interesting ideas about increasing site adoption?

How abut engaging the passenger, in-flight?

Now that Virgin America has wi-fi on-board its planes, the airline should capitalize on this capability to engage the customer in-flight too. What better way to do this than by setting the community website as the homepage on the in-flight entertainment (IFE) system?

Those accessing the site from on-board the plane can have their personal details automatically added from the booking they would have made earlier (this can then be used to provide a custom homepage too!). They should be able to create an account online, and automatically be prompted to write a review for the flight they are on. After all, stories are best shared when fresh! Passengers should be able to store contact details of people they meet on-board while “chatting” through the plane’s entertainment system.  This would offer complete integration with their offline and online experience.

What do you think about these ideas? Do you think Virgin America has hit jackpot or is this another dud? What are some risks pursuing such an active online strategy? Let’s hear it in the comments section.

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Filed under: Brand X-Factor, Brand Xpression Tagged: , ,
  • Shashank, it has to work just like an FFP, but virtual. Any online community offering value to the consumer will work. The traveller has to see benefits in joining the community.
  • @ Matthew, I'd agree with you that it's never too late. Moreover, it may indeed make sense to integrate with leading community portals like Facebook. In fact, sister airline, Virgin Atlantic does a pretty good job at this too.

    @Laura: As you mentioned in your interview with me, Richard Branson's bravado can pull off great things. And Virgin America being one of his babies as well... you never know what might be in store =)
  • Matthew Healey
    It's never too late, Laura! Web 2.0 is about engaging, rather than simply communicating. I agree with you that this effort may be too little, but they have to start somewhere. My hunch is VA will soon realize that they're getting too few visitors to achieve any kind of significant return, and perhaps the next step will be to integrate their "community" into a larger environment such as the new Facebook Connect project.
  • A Virgin Atlantic online community launched 4 years ago with Richard Branson's bravado would be one thing, but this looks like a dud. Too little, too late for a brand barely off the ground.
  • @ Dhrubo: You're "dead-on" in your assessment. Cultivating community influencers can indeed be the secret mojo for airlines looking to increase customer loyalty. In fact, Virgin America is doing exactly this by having the competition to elect the first passenger "president" of the community. What better way to have an "accidental spokesperson"?

    Tough, I'd like to hear your thoughts on how likely are surfers likely to join yet another online community. If other airlines come up with similar strategies (which they are), how should they capture the mind of the potential customer without turning him or her off?
  • Advocacy is the strongest form of advertising. Similarly, uderstanding and improving the satisfaction of customers is one of the most effective ways to build and sustain a successful business. Some of the effective ways to execute this is a community website and or a social networking website. This provides a secure identity to the customer, makes the customer a elite member of a select group and such a group eventually grows to become an influencer in the buying process for targetted prospects. It is a fact, that today, a large section of prospective buyers actually seek for such for such influencer groups on-line. For the organization, such initiatives provides for analytics to use in customer loyalty plans and most importantly direct, actionable feedback. Most important, all of these at hardly any cost. If seriously pursued, Virgin has hit a jackpot!
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