SimpliFlying

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Jet Airways is relying heavily on ethnic marketing in the US to get in touch with its key target market of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), and tapping on distribution networks like grocery stores to allow access to tickets! In this part 2 of the exclusive interview with Lisa Markovic, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Jet Airways in the US, shares with us ways in which Jet Airways is trying to trump the current economic crisis.

Flying through the current economy

Jet Airways has been targeting niche events such as Diwali celebrations and India Day Parade in the US to get targeted exposure with the people who regularly fly to India. Moreover, Lisa realizes that these customers “shop around a lot and do their homework before they make a purchase”, and hence Jet Airways offers a product that offers “great value”.

Alliances and more…

One of the mitigation strategies for the current crisis has been to form an alliance with rival Kingfisher Airlines. Lisa shares that this alliance  “really is code-share agreement” such that both the companies can jointly reduce costs on routes globally by sharing resources. Moreover, Lisa reveals that joining a global airline alliance is certainly on the cards for Jet Airways and we should hear about it soon.

I’d encourage you to listen to the 10 mins Part 2 of the interview to learn more about these initiatives and other details Lisa shares about how Jet Airways is aiming to emerge a top airline brand from this crisis.

In case you missed the first part of this interview, you may want to listen to it too. Lisa spoke about the marketing and branding strategies Jet Airways employs in the US and the challenges encountered while entering new markets.

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Lisa Markovic, Jet Airways

Jet Airways has been the shining star of the Indian aviation industry, especially in the past 5 years, since liberalization. The airline established itself as the harbinger of positive changes in the region, and currently offers one of the best service in the Indian skies, their numerous industry awards a proof of that.

A couple of years ago, Jet Airways started international operations and currently offers direct flights to key destinations in India from New York, via their hub in Brussels. However, of late, the airline has struggled with the rest of the world airlines due to fluctuating fuel prices and the economic troubles. Seeking to douse my curiosity on how Jet Airways is dealing with this, I decided to get the inside scoop by speaking with the expert.

In conversation with an industry veteran, Lisa Markovic

In Part 1 of this two-part interview, Lisa Markovic, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Jet Airways in the US, talks about how work at Jet Airways is different from her 22 years at Lufthansa. She shares the unique challenges of differentiating the Jet Airways brand in the US, especially from JetBlue! She also talks about the unique marketing mix Jet Airways is aiming for in the US. When asked about the Jet Airways product and service, Lisa comments, “I’ve flown around the world on a number of airlines, but never came across anything like the product offering of Jet Airways.” I suggest you hear the rest from the lady herself.

Remember to tune in for Part 2 of this interview this Friday. Lisa will talk about how Jet Airways is tapping on “ethnic branding” in the US, planning for the future and what the Kingfisher alliance means.

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• Three lessons from Jet Airways on how not to treat employees
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Michael D'Esopo, Lippincott

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Lippincott, a leading brand strategy and design consultancy, has worked with airlines globally, including Virgin Atlantic and most recently TACA Airlines. Lippincot helped TACA deliver a “calming trip” to their customers, the moment they stepped aboard the plane. They have also extensively helped Delta Airlines deliver a 360 degree brand experience, both internally and to the external customer.

I decided to take this opportunity to meet up with Michael D’Esopo, a senior partner at Lippincott’s Boston office, to get his perspectives on airline branding, and what makes for a truly successful airline brand. With 15 years’ experience in brand building, he revealed a number of gems, and you can view the full, uncut version of the interview right below.

Here’s a quick summary of Michael’s thoughts:

1. Differentiation - Like all brands, airlines should have a strong and unique value proposition - something Barack Obama did so well, as I discussed in my previous article.
2. Clarity - They should then deliver this differentiated positioning to consumers with clarity. The important point here is to deliver
3. Mergers: During mergers in the industry, airlines should ideally strive for a hybrid brand, which can be difficult to implement. Hence, a better way is to come up with a new “joint vision” and drive forward with that by increasing its adoptability internally and externally.
4. US airlines: They should keep thinking of the next customer too, not just the current one. This way, they will continually improve, and not just stagnate as they are right now.

Here’s Michael D’Esopo, uncut!

So what do you think? Do you agree with Michael’s solutions for branding airlines? Let’s hear it in the comments section.

P.S: Special thanks to Kathleen Hatfield for tirelessly working to make this interview happen!

P.P.S: I’ve been playing around a little with the format of articles with interviews. Here, I tried to summarize the interview in point form. Previously, I’ve tried scribing the whole interview, as well as just putting my thoughts on the interviewees’ views. Which do you prefer? Please let me know by email.

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Patrick Hanlon

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“Airlines need to have more of their staff smiling in their interactions with passengers, to make them feel comfortable. All we need is a little empathy.” That’s one of the tips Patrick Hanlon shared in my chat with him yesterday, on how airlines can build stronger brands to weather this crisis better.

Patrick, the Founder and CEO of Thinktopia, has been a marketing practitioner for over 20 years. His book Primal Branding: Create Zealots For Your Brand, Your Company And Your Future was named “Best Read 2006” and recently chosen as one of the “Top 10 marketing reads” by Britain’s Drum magazine.

Brands as belief systems

In his book, Primal Branding, Patrick emphasizes the importance of brands as belief systems. In his interview, he gives the example of Apple, Nike and Harley Davidson as brands that have built a level of fervor around them that’s difficult to emulate. But it can be done.

Patrick shares ways in which airlines can get employees and customers to rally around the brand in difficult times, and practical ways in which to build a belief system. The key, he believes, is the “pick” concept.

Flyers need to “pick” the airline

Recently, Patrick had written an article in Advertising Age magazine, on how traditional “push” and “pull” strategies have lost their edge with consumers and marketers need to focus on the “pick” factor. The concept essentially revolves around creating such a compelling product and service experience that the consumer is forced to “pick” your business over the competition.

Patrick feels that airlines should embrace the concept of “pick” surprise. For example, if there is no food being offered on the flight, offer an apple. May be offer McDonalds vouchers for later use. But basically create an element of pleasant surprise to enhance the experience.

Listen to the interview below, to hear Patrick’s thoughts on everything from why smiling flight attendants can mean cash for the airlines, and how airlines should take care of their brands post-merger. Feel free to share your thoughts too. Patrick feels that the brand is more important than the product, regardless of the economic environment. Is he right?

My prediction last month that Virgin Atlantic, one of the world’s leading long-haul airlines, is not on the brink of collapse seems to have proven true. The airline recently announced its financial results - which turned out surprisingly positive, given the tatters the rest of the industry currently is in. Premium passenger numbers were up 22% and profits up a whopping five times compared to the previous year. So I decided to speak with their VP of Corp Comms, Paul Charles (a former BBC TV and Radio presenter!). Here are his responses to questions about how Virgin Atlantic is dealing with the industry crisis so well.

Beating the current crisis

How has the current Wall Street crises affected Virgin Atlantic, especially load factors on London-New York flights?

Load factors have actually not dropped, thanks to Virgin Atlantic’s advance planning - we saw this coming two years in advance. New plane orders were deferred, bank balance was bolstered over time and the latest earnings have only demonstrated the sound planning further. Moreover, the fact that Virgin Atlantic is a long haul carrier has helped too, since it’s the short haul business that tends to suffer more in times like these.

How are the corporate deals that Virgin has negotiated holding up?

Unlike a number of other major airlines in the region, we do not rely heavily on financial institutions for our corporate accounts. The diversity in our corporate customer base has allowed us to weather this crises much better than our competition.

How important is the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club as a structural anchor to keep business travelers, especially in this climate?

We find that our most loyal business travelers are those who have benefited from being part of our award winning frequent flier program. They not only love the privileges, but also appreciate subtle conveniences like “Limo to lounge”, where they are able to go straight to the business lounge after arriving only a short time before the flight, while we take care of all their check-in formalities. This is a service also available to our Upper Class passengers.

Succeeding in the future

Do you think airlines with a stronger brand equity will come out stronger from the crisis? Why?

Certainly. Customers will stand by the brand that they trust, and that gives more stability to the business for an airline like Virgin Atlantic.

What do you make of the emerging business models in aviation, where airline conglomerates like AirFrance+KLM, BA+Iberia+AA and Lufthansa+Swiss are sprouting up?

We feel that although coordination between carriers is an emerging reality, it’s the markets that they target that’s key. For example, BA+AA is something we are vehemently against, since they would effectively own over 60% of the London-New York market share. In fact, even more, if you consider other US East Coast cities like Boston. This is not good for the consumers, and not good for competition in the industry. We are hoping that the authorities would look into this matter seriously and prevent this from going ahead.

Is Virgin Atlantic likely to go down that road too (collaboration)?

We are certainly open to the idea, and would consider seriously if an opportunity for a mutually-beneficial partnership comes along in the future and something that benefits all customers.

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Note: This was meant to be a podcast, but the interview recording mysteriously vanished from my Windows PC. Hence, I’ve pledged to only use my Mac for all podcasts from now on!

Allen Adamson in his New York office

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“Successfully branding an airline is the ultimate branding test,” concluded Allen Adamson last Friday in his office during an interview with this blog. Allen is the Managing Director at the New York office of Landor Assosiates, one of the most respected branding firms and one that is heavily involved in airline branding globally. Landor has led brand strategy at heavyweights of the industry like Singapore Airlines, Jet Airways, Austrian Airlines, Delta Airlines and Japan Airlines. Allen is also the author of the recently published book, BrandDigital, which details how companies should leverage the latest in Web 2.0 to build their brands.

“The digital airline brand is all about execution”

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“The execution has to be spectacular – online and offline,” Allen explained, when asked what is the key to building successful airline brand in today’s hyper-connected world. Allen believes that the internet acts as a magnifying glass for all business operations and achieving transparency is essential. “If you don’t reveal it, someone else will”, he added. He aptly mentioned SeatGuru.com as an example of a site that has taken advantage of this phenomenon, by revealing the best seats in the plane – something airlines could have done themselves. Allen believes that the internet should be tapped to understand customers better and address their needs in an interactive way - JetBlue being a good example of an airline that does this well.

The importance of internal branding

The other part of brand execution that matters is internal branding - something SouthWest is well known for. In in his experience in working with airlines, Allen has learnt that empowering the employees directly interacting with the customers to make decisions on their own cultivates happy customers too. Training them well and keeping them happy to ensure that they live the brand, and communicate the brand to the customers in every interaction is essential. In this regards, airlines can learn from brands like Disney and Nordstrom, both of which have successfully managed to filter down a consistent brand experience to every touchpoint.

Below, you can watch the full interview with Allen, who was gracious enough to grant us time from his busy calendar for this. Special thanks to Leonie Derry from Landor, who tirelessly worked to ensure that this interview took place.

So, what do you think? Is execution the key to an airline brand’s success, as Allen believes? Is survival more important than the brand, or do they go hand in hand? Let’s hear it in the comments section…

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Emirates Airline has placed the largest order of the largest plane in the world. They will eventually have 58 A380s - one third of the total orders Airbus has received till date. Their first A380 that flew from Dubai to New York City on Aug 1, 2008 dazzled everyone with exclusive showers in the First Class and a plush bar for Business Class, along with an overloaded in-flight entertainment system across all classes. Luxury and novelty was the name of the game. But will this last?

Three questions for Emirates

1. Once Emirates has 58 of these double-decker planes flying around the world, will they still be able to maintain such high product standards across the fleet?
2. How will service consistency be ensured?
3. How will Emirates ensure that the right expectations are set among customers for A380s with different configurations?Emirates VP for the Americas, Nigel Page, doused our curiosity with his forthcoming replies on these issues.

Three A380 configs, Two types of aircraft, Single minded focus on service

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Nigel explained that “Emirates will have two versions of the aircraft the ULR (Ultra Long Range) with…489 seats [in three classes], and an Intermediate range version with two configurations - a three class version with 507 seats and a two class version with 625 seats.”

So how doest Emirates ensure service consistency on-board for planes carrying anywhere from 400 to 625 passengers? Nigel revealed that Emirates “cabin crew will be trained and licensed to operate all three versions of the aircraft.” To ensure that a consistently high standard of service is maintained, every new cabin crew will be provided with comprehensive training in Emirates’ state-of-the-art training college in Dubai. Moreover, on the ULR, Emirates will carry two cabin attendants to supervise the showers and ensure they are cleaned after each use! Now that’s some dedication.

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Gary Leopold, ISM Boston

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According to ISM Boston’s website, Gary Leopold, their CEO, “not only eats, sleeps and breathes travel, he knows it from the client side.” After having a conversation with him, one would appreciate the completeness of the sentence - and the man.

Not only has Gary led ISM Boston - a niche travel marketing firm - for almost 25 years, he has also been involved in the strategic planning for all accounts, one of them being Emirates Airline. ISM Boston recently won the Emirates account for North America after a review. He was gracious enough to speak to us about the unique challenges faced by airline brands and how they can succeed - both in the US and abroad.

In essence, Gary feels that airlines need to give autonomy to marketing agencies and push them to innovate - like Emirates does. Over the five years ISM Boston has had the Emirates account, they seem to have surpassed their own expectations on the quality of work produced for Emirates.

When asked whether US based airlines can ever regain their former glory, Gary believes that airlines here need to ensure consistency across product, service and the brands will become stronger. Moreover, they need listen to their customers, and come up with innovative ways (and probably new business models) to address their needs. When asked to recall an incident, Gary gets animated while describing how he doesn’t mind sitting on the tarmac on a JetBlue flight, since there is seat-back entertainment and he doesn’t need to miss his ball game. You can watch the full 20 mins video interview below.

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Emirates Airlines‘ A380 is currently doing a showcase tour around North America.  We were there to catch the show Live at JFK Airport in New York City on Aug 1, 2008. While there, we took the time to chat with Nigel Page, who is Emirates’ Senior Vice President of Operations for the Americas. Being with Emirates for 15 years, and 20 years with British Airways, Nigel shares his wisdom with us in the video interview. Below, you will also find key talking points in the interview. Enjoy!

1. How would you differentiate Emirates A380 from Singapore Airlines‘ and Qantas’ product?
   1. Geographic advantage - Dubai is located mid-way between Russia and Africa, US East coast and the Far East and of course, Europe and Australia. We will take full advantage of this, once our 58 A380s are in service.
   2. Cabin crew of 130 nationalities - each plane has a crew that speaks over 10 languages between them  Read the rest of this entry »

      

      Tags: Dubai, Emirates Airline, Nigel Page, Singapore Airlines, United Arab Emirates
      

August 1, 2008 is bound to go down as a special day in aviation history. It was the first time the world’s largest passenger jetliner, the Airbus A380, started regular passenger service to the US. It all happened at the JFK Airport in New York City, and we were there to catch it Live!

These are the photos and videos taken Live! at JFK Airport . More analysis coming soon.

Emirates A380 gets a water canon salute at JFK Airport - a historic moment

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