Where Are These Airlines We See In The Advertising?

Smiling Faces? Roomy Seats? Great Food? New Planes? Friendly Service?

By David Miranda

Last week, I was watching CNBC first thing in the morning and the big news was the upcoming merger between Delta and Northwest, forming the largest airline in the United States. There, on the screen, were the two CEO's of the two airlines co-touting how good this would be for everyone - shareholders, employees, consumers, and the airline industry. Any downside? Nope, according to these two men whose personal bank accounts will greatly benefit from the transaction. Surprising marriage? Seems like the current CEO was formerly the CEO of Northwest.

But let's get to the bigger issue.

The major airlines in the U.S. suck. Customer service staff are surly. The majority of planes in the fleet are dirty and old - the latter issue requiring hundreds of planes to be grounded leaving tens of thousands travelers stranded. Travel delays are systemic as is the problem with lost bags. Interior seating, save business and first class, is less comfortable than a Greyhound bus. If that is not enough, consumers get nickeled and dimed for everything and anything including pillows, headphones, extra luggage charges, change fees, etc. etc. New ticketing kiosks have reduced the number of warm bodies to take care of problems when things don't go according to schedule - which, by the way, is all the time.

Now we hear that two airlines who rank in the bottom tier of all categories will be better when they merge. It's like saying "I have these two stones that don't float, but if we glue them together - Voila! they float."

Allow me to address the title of this article. Who are these airlines in the advertising? Where are these well-groomed, friendly helpful employees? Where are the new, clean, roomy planes? Where is that great food I see those actors in the ads being served? Do the airline executives who sign off on these ads ever say "We can't run these ads. It's false advertising. We need to show frustrated travelers in cramped seats waiting for the 8AM flight to depart at 9AM. Those arrival and departure screens in the ads should not say "On Time" listed for every flight. They should say "Delayed" or "Cancelled"."?

My advice to the CEO and other airline executives - fly coach!

Recognition Marketing - Good Search Engines Can Do Bad Things

Sponsored Links - Bait And Switch?

I love Google (and Yahoo!, Ask, MSN, Lycos, etc). Each provides a quick and friendly tool to find what I am looking for. Google even shows me that my search for whatever produced several hundred thousand results in .02 seconds. Simply amazing!

Ever notice (or click), however, on what these search engines call "sponsored links"? These are the ones that magically (and always) appear at the top or right hand column of search results. These are the ones "sponsored" or paid for by third parties. These third parties successful bid (and pay for) keywords and phrases that guarantee their links appear next to the free (organic) listings. By the way, the search engines make a considerable sum of money from these "sponsored links" known by their better name "paid search".

I, for one, am not against anyone making an honest buck and the search engines have surely done that in recent years.

But there is something amiss here that needs to be corrected (or disclaimered). In other media, mis-direction or misleading ads of this kind all called "bait and switch" , i.e. "I thought I was getting this, but I got this instead." Translation: "I've been bamboozled".

Let's say you did a search for say a specific brand (Delta Air Lines, AT&T Wireless, Citibank, etc.) and in the sponsored links you noted "Delta Air Lines" etc and clicked on it only to find it was not Delta Air Lines, but another firm's web site who had paid the search engine for the keyword phrase "Delta Air Lines" say a travel agency or another competitive airline. Sounds like bait and switch to me. Wouldn't you also wonder why a respected search engine would be a party to re-directing or misleading you?

I am sad to report that this is indeed the case with many sponsored searches. There is not even a clear disclaimer that informs the consumer that "the following links may not be sponsored by the mentioned brand."

I, for one, thinks its high time that search engines respect the integrity of brands on their respective sites. If the link implies it is sponsored by the brand I recognize and I am searching for, I should be linked to that brand and not some company that has hijacked it or a search engine who is aiding and abetting this behavior.

To all the good search engines, I say, stop this bad behavior. Put consumers and brands first.

Think In The Third Person, Communicate In The Second Person, Lead In The First Person

Getting Thinking, Communicating, And Leading In The Right Order

By David Miranda

Business is not about you or me, it's about them - those people who buy stuff, also known as consumers. More often than not, marketers get this wrong. There tends to be too much first person opinion in the boardroom as in "I like or don't like this or that".

When this happens the wrong master is served.

Frankly, it doesn't matter one iota whether a marketing executive likes or dislikes something. The true master to be served is the consumer; unless, however, the marketing executive is going to going to buy all the stuff the company wants to sell.

When a marketing executive uses his or her titled authority to impart their own first person opinions on decisions, it is ego-centric, assuming that this person speaks for consumers. This is dangerous and fatalistic, yet it happens over and over again with the same dire results.

Marketing executives should keep their personal bias in check and think in the third person, i.e "what would consumers want?" and this thinking should be supported with empirical evidence - good research with compelling and unique insights.

Although they should think in the third person, marketers should communicate calls to action in the second person, as in MacDonalds' "You Deserve A Break Today", Allstate's " You're In Good Hands With Allstate", or Nike's "Just Do It". Here the company or brand is speaking directly to the consumer in a personal one-to-one dialogue. This is preferable to marketing messages where brands speak to consumers in the first person, as in Delta Airlines old tag line "We Love To Fly And It Shows" touting themselves versus what they can offer the consumer. The Delta tag line could have been tweaked "We Love To Fly. Let Us Show You."

Thinking in the third person and communicating in the second person requires leading in the first person as in "I want our marketing to help sell more stuff to more people more often to make more money".

So next time you are in a marketing meeting - think in the third person, communicate in the second person and lead in the first person.

"They" would appreciate it. "You" would benefit from it. "I" believe it will help.