Airlines are finding innovative ways these days to engage the customer in the online world. Singapore Airlines organized an online design competition for their A380 launch flights to London. Malaysia Airlines keeps an active blog written by a number of their employees. JetBlue Airways follows its customers on Twitter! Now, the oldest big daddy of budget airlines, Southwest, has capitalized on its own popular blog to launch a blogging competition. The winner gets to blog on the official Southwest blog alongside Christi Day, its current author. What a great way to engage the customer.
You submit, you vote, you win!
Till the end of August, customers can submit a one-minute audition video on the official website and fellow customers will be able to view all video submissions and vote for their favorites. The top three ranked submitters will be invited to Las Vegas at the BlogWorld Expo in September and be given secret video assignments to complete. These will then be uploaded on the website as well, and customers will vote to choose a winner. How democratic!
Singapore Airlines has always been admired for its consistently high-quality products and innovation, especially in times of crises. From using the latest aircraft like the Airbus A380, to customer service that even other airlines talk about. Recently, Harvard Business School Professor Rohit Deshpande talked about Singapore Airlines’ strategy for success in an interview on the HBS Publishing website, conducted by Scott Berinato. His conclusion - competing on price alone never bears fruit.
Thinking beyond price competition
Professor Deshpande explains in the interview that too many airlines around the world, and especially in the US, compete on price alone and this forces them to commoditize their businesses. They remove any additional frills and the concept of in-flight service is diluted substantially. This is exactly what Singapore Airlines doesn’t do. It never compromises on the quality of service, and charges a premium for that. In a world many airlines are eliminating services on-board, Singapore Airlines pampers those who’d pay for it - and there are plenty of disgruntled traveleres today who would!
It is always good to learn from the best - and when you think of the most memorable brands in the world, Starbucks ranks right at the top. Like Ritz-Carlton, Starbucks can offer key lessons in branding to airlines, many of which often don’t cost a lot to implement and can create great leverage for the brand.
What does the brand stand for?
In his book, A New Brand World, Scott Bedbury - the former Chief Marketing Officer of Starbucks - details how he personally led the creation of the formidable Starbucks brand. This is how he explains the Starbucks core identity.
“The Starbucks brand’s core identity is less about engineering a great cup of coffee than about providing a great coffee experience….the Starbucks brand is about what Abraham Maslow might have called the coffee “gestalt” - the atmospherics.”
Similarly, airlines need to understand that they’re not in the business of just transporting people point A to point B. Even freight companies like Fedex and UPS talk about principles like on-time delivery, rather than transportation. The first thing airlines need to realize is they will only survive in the long term if they deliver a decent pleasant flying experience - after all, passengers can be on-board the plane anywhere from one hour to twenty two hours (I’ve been on one!). As it is, going through security and immigration before getting on the plane is extremely stressful. They need to feel cared for and enjoy the in-flight experience.
Airlines like JetBlue in the US do it well, with their on-board amenities and convey the message across well too, with their “Flying - That’s why we created Jetting” campaign. Just like Starbucks, it talks about delivering an experience, and not so much the basics of transportation. Singapore Airlines talks about bringing back the “romance of flying” - which is indeed becoming a novelty these days. Simply put, these airlines know what their core brand identity is, and work to deliver an experience that is consistent with it.
One of my aviation junkie buddies from Singapore recently posed an intriguing question:
For airlines, does the product come first or the brand? Essentially, if an airline is losing money (as is the case with many airlines these days), does the management concentrate on revitalizing the product so that it can turn a profit in the short term, or is it better to focus on brand building, for long term sustainability?
On the surface, the answer may appear simple enough – what’s the point in thinking about long term profits, if you’re not sure of surviving another month with the current product offerings and operations?
More importantly, concentrating on just the brand without a strong product is like putting lipstick on a pig. It just doesn’t work, regardless of the quality of the lipstick. Especially so in the highly volatile, and very competitive airline industry. This concept is visible in the latest United Airlines advertisements shown during the Olympics, which show animated figures supposedly (since there it is difficult to infer) enjoying the luxury of United’s new international first class. It’s so far removed from the reality that the nickle and dimed customers probably don’t feel any connection with it. Here’s a sample of that advertisement.
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!
How would you differentiate Emirates A380 from Singapore Airlines‘ and Qantas’ product?
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.
Cabin crew of 130 nationalities - each plane has a crew that speaks over 10 languages between them Read the rest of this entry »
Another ranking, another familiar (and not so familiar) story. This time, Travel+Leisure ranking of World’s Best international airlines ranks Singapore Airlines at the top, followed by Emirates - which climbed a notch, and Thai Airways as the third, which climbed two notches. The surprise entries in the top few airlines here are SilkAir - Singapore Airline’s regional wing - and Air Tahiti Nui. It’s surely a proud moment for those at Singapore Airlines and SilkAir to have both the airlines among the world’s best. Air Tahiti Nui is in the Top 10 for the first time, so quite an achievement for them as well.
All rankings like these tend to bring out certain unique nuances about the airline industry. Here are some interesting observations.
These rankings are attained by surveying readers of the Travel+Leisure magazine, who’re serious holiday-makers. Hence, the inclusion of “holiday-destination-heavy” airlines like SilkAir and Air Tahiti Nui should be taken with a pinch of salt. Moreover, the fact that other established holiday airlines like Thomas Cook and Condor are not included in this ranking should send some signals back to their headquarters.
The fact that there is hardly any overlap between these rankings and airlines that won the Freddies - ranking of the best frequent flier programs - reflects that most of the fliers who’ve participated in this survey are not frequent fliers. So does that mean that this ranking should carry less importance than others? Probably not. It just reflects the preferences of a different segment of travelers. Read the rest of this entry »
1. Which airline tested wi-fi for the first time last week?
2. Which airline will be testing bio-fuels next month?
3. Which airline is the first to have showers in its first class?
4. Which is the first airline that’s going to fly the Boeing 787?
5. Which airline was the first to fly the A380 aircraft?
Almost anyone who’s traveled on an airplane before would be able to answer the last one – Singapore Airlines. But hardly any would be able to answer the other questions. For the curious, American Airlines tested wireless internet last week, Japan Airlines will test bio-fuels, Emirates will have showers on its new A380 flight to New York city and ANA will be the first to fly the 787. Wondering why the huge disparity in awareness? Simply because Singapore Airlines engaged its customers and let the world know that it was doing something new.
Being the first brand to give customers a refreshing, new experience is something to beat the drum about. In turbulent times for the industry like these, airlines should take the opportunity to let the world know about every new initiative they are taking. Let alone the need for a Singapore Airlines’ style big bang, something more than a simple press-release is likely to be lapped up by thirsty customers. What if American Airlines had created a contest, where winners would be able to use the wi-fi service free? How about Japan Airlines doing a marketing stint with Al Gore, highlighting the importance of using bio-fuels? May be Emirates can give its top frequent fliers a chance to experience those showers, even before the first flight.
Not only will such activities create loyal customers, but the buzz created will be more than enough to offset some of the flak airlines have been receiving lately due to the additional charges being imposed. Being the first to provide additional value to customers is not very common in the airline industry, and when it happens, airlines should capitalize on such an opportunity.
Did you know that a number of United Airlines’ planes have added iPhone and iPod support? Again, the answer is probably a resounding “No”.
Time to wake up! And beat the drum about it.
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The conclusion reached in the previous article on this topic was that all-business airlines are indeed going extinct, and they have to innovatively collaborate with full-service carriers for long term survival. The discussion today moves on to whether all-business class travel on full-service airlines has any future.
Full Service airlines with specific all-business routes: Verdict – Here for now
Legacy airlines are becoming more enamored with all-business-class service. Four European airlines — Lufthansa, Swiss, KLM and Air France— are offering some all-business-class flights to the USA. The flights are operated by PrivatAir, based in Geneva. Lufthansa runs an all-business flight to Pune, India and Dubai, UAE as well. ANA runs one between Tokyo and Mumbai, India. Singapore Airlines began it’s much awaited Newark-Singapore all-business service last month. Lastly, British Airways subsidiary OpenSkies plans to start New York-Paris flights with a Boeing 757 jet configured with more than 60% of the seats for business-class fliers, on June 19.
Oil prices reached $135 per barrel last week and have just claimed the latest victim: SilverJet. The all-business airline stopped operations today (Friday, May 30) since it failed to secure a $5 million loan to carry on operations. This now makes it three-in-three for all-business airlines operating between New York and London. MaxJet and EOS have shut down operations in the last year as well. Interestingly, SilverJet helped carry EOS’ passengers when the latter ceased operations. I wonder who will come to rescue SilverJet’s stranded passengers. (Update @ 30 May, 11.49pm: Virgin Atlantic is offering special fares to stranded SilverJet passengers)
(Image courtesy http://www.airflights.to)
The irony is that even as full-business class carriers go out of business, legacy airlines have been starting up all-business class routes recently. Singapore Airlines’ route between the city-state and Newark seems to be off to a good start. British Airways’ OpenSkies looks all set for launching operations too, and L’Avion still flies between Paris and New York. May be the difference is the deep pockets of the parent airlines, who sustain an unprofitable route much longer than greenhorns like SilverJet and Maxjet could.
The airline industry is one in which there are a lot of externalities – situations beyond the control of individual airlines, which they have to deal with. These may include events such as 9/11, weather conditions, pilot union trouble or even the bankruptcy of a competitor. Though on the face of it, these may all seem to bring trouble, but if leveraged well, these externalities can lift the airline brand in a number of ways. This is because almost always, a number of airlines face a similar macro-situation simultaneously, but it is those who deal with it well who come out triumphant.
Here are three examples of how airlines around the world have been resilient in the face of externalities.
Olympics in Beijing? Let’s send the A380 there. To capitalize on the increased travel demand to Beijing during the Olympics, Singapore Airlines recently announced that they will be flying the A380 to Beijing during this period. What a perfect example of dexterity. Not only will SIA be able to showcase their premium product to a large number of travelers (who’re ever so happy to be on the A380), they’re charging more for those tickets too. Perfect win-win situation.
Competition died?Let’s service their routes. Alaska Air started new routes to Hawaii from Seattle after Aloha Airlines collapsed earlier this year. Not only were they able to service existing demand. Another win-win situation.
Passengers stranded by competition?Let’s help them out. SilverJet offered seats to stranded Eos passengers between London and New York once the latter ceased operations. Cathay Pacific offered seats to tons of students heading to London once Oasis Hong Kong went out of business. Both these airlines appeared as “rescuers” in the eyes of the passengers. What better way to acquire customer loyalty, that too from those who were going to the competition earlier.
Response to externalities is a crucial, but often overlooked, strategy that can be utilized by airlines to win the hearts and minds of their passengers. These three customer examples demonstrate that.
Please feel free to share your own experiences in the comments section, where you’ve encountered dexterity on airlines’ part.
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Image via Wikipedia 
