We live in the iPod world and technology has changed us. Whether it’s shopping or banking online, or scheduling our TV watching on TiVo, we’ve become accustomed to being in control.
It didn’t use to be this way, of course. We were once always dependent on our providers setting the time, place and format under which we experienced their brand. Remember the days of television when you only had three or four channels and actually had to get off the couch to change the channel? Those days are long gone.
However, there is one industry in which, from the consumer’s point of view, it hasn’t changed as much as the rest: the airline industry. True, there are elements of control for consumers. We don’t go through travel agents much any more, preferring to do it ourselves. We can check in at touch-screen kiosks and we can print boarding passes online.
But we’re still the victims of their control and often feel powerless to do anything about it. We can still feel like clones in the airline industry.
Flights are delayed more now than ever, while we sit for hours waiting on them. We’re cramped in seats like overstuffed suitcases, wait on the tarmacs for hours and are given a tiny bag of pretzels to eat, if that. It can be a miserable experience, especially as the major airlines continue to cut costs at the detriment of the consumer in order to meet rising fuel prices and a downward turn in traffic since 9/11.
What’s more, even if we were to have a brand preference of one airline over another, we often can’t make that choice. For many passengers, the choice ends up being based on who has the most convenient hub. To reduce costs, airlines have gone to a model in which the reduced number of flights are routed through hubs.
So, for example, if you live in Atlanta, the major hub for Delta, you often don’t have any choice but to choose Delta, especially if you are looking for a direct flight. Your choices are often reduced.
In addition, we are often slaves to the affinity or mileage programs offered by the airlines. It’s not that one program is better than the other (although you may have picked one over another because of the alliances with other airlines) or that you’re demonstrating your preference. Instead, you are often trapped by one affinity program because it’s where most of your mileage exists for one reason or another. It may be that you live close to a hub, such as Delta in Atlanta, or that you took an especially long trip with an airline and suddenly you have miles you can build on.
Those programs don’t demonstrate preference. They demonstrate who caught you like a fly in a spider’s web. And you can’t get out - and take control.
From a brand perspective, few of the airlines we looked at it in this study - American Airlines, United, Delta, Northwest, Continental and Southwest - have done themselves many favors in giving passengers what they truly want.
More importantly, few of them have built a meaningful brand if the models allowed passengers more freedom in making a choice. Most airlines talk about all the places they go or having the ability to print boarding passes online and other “table stakes” (what you need to have to even play in the game) that do nothing to differentiate the players.
Considering the situation, below is an examination of the market from a brand perspective and how the major players are competing in it - and why some are successful and others aren’t. And we also list why at least one airline is in the best position to do something about it, even despite the recent economic turmoil of the industry.
