Earlier in this study, we explained that if you market category benefits, you are benefiting the market leader most. There’s no better example than Northwest, which did post $2.32 billion of net income in 2007 but that was after filing for bankruptcy protection in 2006, and continued the industry trend of posting losses in first quarter 2008.
Northwest promotes checking bags at the curb. Printing out your boarding passes, etc. Unfortuntely for Northwest, so does its competition.
Northwest "Anthem"
What’s even more damaging is that many of its spots look exactly like the market leader, American. See if you can spot the difference between these ads.
American Airlines "Business Class"
Northwest Airlines "Transforming Chair"
If having those business class benefits is important to you, you will more often choose the market leader, American, than you’ll choose Northwest if you have a choice (depending on availability, connections, etc.).
Northwest’s position is “Now you’re flying smart.” This feels like rote advertising. A common brand positioning is to reward customers for being “smart,” and many brand firms consider it a “boilerplate” position. Who wouldn’t want to be recognized for being smart? It only works if you show that the rest of the industry is dumb and target audiences believe those who use the competition are dumb. (Think of how Continental suggests the competition in its marketing.)
But what does being smart mean? Printing boarding passes? Just flying out of town? The advertising has a cleverness to it but little strategic element.
The branding is reflected in its 2008 first quarter RPK numbers as it only posted an increase of .77 percent over the previous year and its passenger revenue rose just 6.2%, a rate smaller than most of its competition. Northwest has held firm, but it has not built a brand to steal market share.
Stealing Share is a brand development firm that arms its clients with the tools they need to drive competitive advantages. We conduct research and provide corporate strategy, positioning, training and brand design with one goal in mind: To steal market share for our clients.
Our experts are all about the science of persuasion, and have proven it with brands and companies all across the world. We uncover the fears and belief systems of your target audiences so your brand can align itself with them and create preference. It’s how we steal market share.
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