I was sent this video at 1am last night, by Stuart Barwood. Even though I was in bed, I began watching it in bed on my iTouch. Not only did I watch it completely, I couldn’t sleep for quite some time afterwards. I couldn’t help but share it with my friends, clients and well-wishers who work with airlines. Because if there is something can help someone catalyze the social media branding efforts in his airline, it’s this video.

At one point in the video, the screen flashes, “In the near future, we will not find products or services, they will find us”. A simple sentence that can have significant implications on how airlines do marketing. Add on to this the fact pointed out by Morris Sim, CEO of Circos Brand Karma, at the recent WebInTravel event in Singapore, that statistics from Alexa that showed that about 1 in 20 visitors to travel websites in APAC were at Facebook right before. Social networks like Facebook could be so helpful to our business if we know how to make use of them. The time has come to act. Enjoy the video….

This is a cross-over article from Rohit Bhargava’s Influential Marketing Blog. When I read it, I couldn’t help but request for it to be posted here. His views resonate completely with mine and this is a perfect example of how authenticity is key in branding. Especially so in airline branding – because it’s so easy for the customer to switch if the brand expectations are not met. And in this case, United seems to be getting it wrong.  I’ve also commented on these previously, in my article entitled “Airlines, stop putting lipstick on a pig!” Meanwhile, enjoy Rohit’s ideas.

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Over the course of two days, I saw two stark examples of what could easily be considered the best and worst of airline advertising messages encompassed in two ads done for domestic US-based airlines. Let’s start with the worst from United:

What makes this ad so ineffective? First of all, the call to action to experience their first and business class has almost nothing to do with …

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In a startling revelation today, United Airlines announced that it’s closed down it’s sole customer service call center in India. This means that customers will no longer be able to call in to send feedback (positive or negative), as all comments have now got to go through the post (whoever writes those today!?) or in an email.

“Along with the decision to end its association with a third-party contractor in India, United will shut down its current customer relations telephone line and advise customers to write or e-mail feedback about their travel experience.” – BusinessWeek

The only positive I see coming out of this is some consulting offers for Oliver Beale, of the Virgin Atlantic fame, to help write some letters that have an impact. Cutting 165 jobs in India might save some money for United, but the long term damage of not giving customers a way to interact Live with a person from the airline …

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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Rohit Bhargava is the author of a recently released book called Personality Not Included and also the blogger of the very popular Influential Marketing Blog. Recently, when he was asked “what is one brand desperately in need of personality?”, his answer (unsurprisingly) was United Airlines. Here is what he had to say:
The one that stands out for me simply because I travel a lot and live in a major hub is United Airlines. The amount of money they waste on brand campaigns is just staggering. Who in America hasn’t heard of United Airlines? No one. So why spend all this money to tell them who you are? They have so much potential to reinvent the way that they train their employees and that they use social media to allow people to have a more direct relationship with them. Sometimes I dream about getting them as a client because there are so many solutions that could make such a big impact on their brand. It’s uncommon to have a brand with that much untapped potential.
I couldn’t agree …