If you are a travel brand into social media, identifying, connecting and building a relationship with your online brand loyalists and advocates must be an important element of your social media strategy.

Embracing your influencer customers and having a special relationship with them has manifold benefits. They move up from the brand loyalty to brand advocacy scale, give you repeat business, stick with you during good times and bad times, provide you valuable feedback on your products and services but also give you more word of mouth PR via earned media and help you in acquiring more customers through their social reach. It is also more cost effective to retain them than acquire new prospects. Their actions are also more measurable and accountable to the bottom line, from an ROI point of view.

However, many brands focus more on customer service, push marketing and community management on social media, and rarely give online influencer marketing and outreach the importance it deserves.

My experience with India’s Kingfisher Airlines is a case in point that can be an inspiration to brands that work with influencer outreach.

The joy of flying an airline that “knows” you

I first flew Kingfisher Airlines in January 2011. Before my flight, I tweeted to them and they replied to me saying they were looking forward to welcoming me. Little did I know then that one tweet would lead to a consistently rewarding customer relationship. The social media team had done their homework before I boarded my plane. You can read about the surprise that awaited me here.

In a year, I have enjoyed 5-star treatment from Kingfisher that is usually unheard of from other airlines. Once, they held back a flight and ferried me in a car to the waiting plane when I was running late. I was given a special tour of an A321 flight deck by the crew once. I am often given complimentary lounge access when I fly with them even while flying Economy. They have a smart CRM system in place that knows my favorite seat across different aircraft types. No matter which airport I’m flying out of, my favorite seat is always blocked for me, without having to going through online check-in. On flights that are not sold out, I get the whole row to myself. The crew knows me by name when they are serving me on the flight. Very often, I am personally dropped off or fetched from a plane by their guest relations agents. Sometimes I don’t have to wait in long security lines to board the aircraft. Any customer queries via Twitter are promptly addressed and followed up via email and telephone. All while flying Economy. These soft touches go a long way when it comes to customer loyalty.

The ROI

Since January 2011, I have flown Kingfisher 15 times. I often pay a premium to fly them even when I have cheaper or non-stop flights available. I even recommend it to those who are looking for flights to India. The only time I flew another airline to India instead of Kingfisher I felt like I was cheating on a partner. In fact, when they pulled out of Dubai, I flew them for one last time, just for the sake of experiencing their brand again. They did not disappoint me from a customer service perspective. In fact, they had a gift waiting for me to thank me for all the times I had flown with them.

From a PR standpoint, they have benefited immensely by taking good care of me as I have only positive experiences to share about them on my own social networks. They can be assured of my repeat business when they start flying out of Dubai again. Imagine if you were a travel brand and you had dozens of happy customers/influencers like me. The opportunities and possibilities are immense.  How would you delight us? How would you benefit in return?

Are you a travel brand? What do you think about the opportunities of reaching out to social influencers? If you’re an influencer, have you had similar great experiences on a different airline? Share your experiences below or tweet us @simpliflying.

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Jet Airways recently hinted that the worst is over for them and they expect to break even again in the middle of this year. And this is mostly because of the drop in fuel prices (obviously!) as well as the prudence shown by the management in cutting unprofitable routes, including that the San Francisco. And I don’t see this as an isolated case.

After my recent interactions with key airline executives in India, including the CEO at SpiceJet, it is my belief that airlines in India will not only be one of the first few to emerge from the recession, but also come out the strongest. Here are three key reasons for this conviction.

1. Airlines that stand by their customers in bad times win hearts – brand matters

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Just look at what’s happening in the western airlines in this recession. US Airways recently started charging for blankets, and they already charge for water (which can even be a health hazard!). Ryanair is famous for being the most hated airline in Europe, since it hardly takes care of its customers. Interestingly, bad times have not resulted in a disregard for customer service in Indian aviation.

Recently when I flew from Bangalore to Jaipur on Indigo Airlines, I was greeted by my name before being served soem beverages. Now, that’s a first. I’ve never been greeted by my name in an Economy Class on any airline before, let alone on a low-cost carrier! Jet Airways recently won the Best First Class award, and Kingfisher does everything it can to uphold its 5-Star Airline status.

Did someone forget to tell these airlines that “we’re in a recession”? Probably not. But their focus on keeping the customer happy will pay off in the long run. Those who’re still flying will never ditch them. And when good times return, these same happy customers will generate enough brand awareness through word-of-mouth to bring in new passengers.

2. Being nimble and resilient pays off

Unlike other airlines that’re expected to do well in the recession, especially Middle Eastern ones, most airlines in India do not have any special privileges like reduced oil prices or backing from a government with deep pockets. This has forced them to act on their own to cut costs to remain aflot in these difficult times. And they’ve done so smartly too. Instead of bothering the customer with frivolous charges like in US airlines, Indian carrier have cut costs where it matters.

Kingfisher Airlines has swiftly postponed plans for more overseas route launches (Singapore, Hong Kong) – since they tend to be resource heavy at the beginning. Jet Airways too has not shyed away from cutting glamorous but bleeding routes like that to San Francisco. Moreover, they’ve both either delayed the delivery of new aircraft, or leased them to airlines like Turkish and GulfAir. Most airlines in India have switched to focused marketing efforts, rather than blanket campaigns to get more bang for the buck. And Kingfisher and Jet Airways have set aside their competitive aspirations to forge a code-share alliance to save costs – as Lisa Markovic explained in a recent interview with SimpliFlying. It is this resilience and fast action that will pay off well in the end.

3. It’s the economy, stupid!

In the last 50 days, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in New York, Singapore and Delhi/Bangalore. And the word “recesssion” has disappeared from the local vocabulary in that order too. India’s GDP will grow 7.1% this year, according to data released today. In what way is this a recession? At best it’s a slowdown from previous years’ growth of close to 10%, but c’mon guys…this is not a recession. And if anyone has any doubts, just head over to Marthelli in Bangalore or Gurgaon, just outside of Delhi, to dispell all the myths. And this economic growth translates to the aviation industry too.

Talking about the Indian operations, Kenji Sugino, Director – Sales, Administration and Marketing, ANA recently said “Despite the global slowdown, India is one of the growing markets for ANA. We are positive about this year and are expecting good load factors and sales margins. We are going to play strategically in the Indian market this year.”

More than anyone else, it’s the Indian carriers that will reap the best rewards of a still-active Indian economy, if they play their cards right. And till now, they haven’t let most people down when it comes to crises handling.

What do you think? Are Indian carriers indeed doing it well, or is this a mirage? How soon do you think airlines in India will recover, and which international airlines would give them competition? Let’s discuss…

Feel free to share this article with your friends if you thinks they’ll find it enriching. At the same time, I’d like to invite you to subscribe SimpliFlying by email or RSS as well.

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Image via Wikipedia

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

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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Image via Wikipedia

India’s leading private airline, Jet Airways has just decided to sack 1900 employees following their wide ranging alliance with Kingfisher Airlines. The move is intended towards cutting costs for the carrier struggling with high costs in an unfavorable economic environment. But that’s stuff everyone already knows about.

Here’s something interesting I encountered this morning. A leading Indian news website, Hindustantimes.com carried the story of this sacking, along with pictures of protesting employees. Ironically, there was a Jet Airways banner advertisement placed right next to that news, introducing their new flights between Bangalore and New York (which also may just follow the San Francisco flight into oblivion). Be sure to check out this interesting post on another blog, with a similar issue about the A380.

Isn’t it so interesting? How do you think airlines can save their brands from such incidents like above? We all know that with the advent of online media and Web 2.0, it’s difficult to control consumers’ comments. But advertising on a news site like this – that can certainly be controlled, isn’t it? But how? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments section…

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