JetBlue: “Happy Jetting”

Let me just start with the image below - it says quite a lot:

Not only does this quick message make you stop dead in your tracks, it actually makes you giggle a bit and feel like someone cares about you for the first time in aviation history! It’s so short and sweet, quirky, and different, that you really feel like your needs are being understood, especially while traveling. And personally, I’ve never flow on a better airline.

For example, one of their company mottos is “No first-class seats. No second-class citizens.” This statement really resonates with me, and probably most other travellers, at least within the U.S. (where the company operates), because you’re not just cattle being shoved around based on the grade of your meat. And traveling isn’t about what you can afford and what you can’t. It should be a pleasurable experience for everyone because after all, it’s a privilege.

Above is an example of just one of the many ways JetBlue differentiates itself from the competition. Not only have they established a precise and unique repertoire and language with customers, they also have a new look. Each one of their aircraft fleet members is painted differently, and individually named - each containing the word “Blue” somewhere in the name. Realistically, it becomes a game! You can keep track of the planes you’ve been on, because they really become your friend instead of a mere bus in the air. I got to name a plane once - it’s called “BLUE-t-ful” in case you’re ever visiting.

At this point you’re probably thinking something like, “Well, the company is friendly; they can sit with me. And the planes are pretty cool, I think I’ve been on this one before. But, will they truly get me wherever I need to go?” And the answer is, yes! Being a low fare carrier, they have been exceptionally precise in their market research by targeting small airports with big business and vacation potential. Take my home airport, Westchester County (HPN), for example. In the shadow of three major airports contributing to one of the biggest travel hubs in the world, NYC, there are many people who can’t exactly make it to them due to traffic, weather, expensive prices, or flat out crowding! And, not only do the ads for flights at this airport, seen below, advertise their expanding destination market, but they talk about the comfort, and closeness. All contributing factors to exactly why the JetBlue experience is such a good one.



Not only do the three ads above display the type of consideration travellers look for, they also display the type of language travellers speak in. It is so concise - It just blows my mind. I drive by on the highway, and the billboard is easy to read and doesn’t distract me from driving. They are so well placed as well, only near the airports when you’re thinking about those last minute things to prepare for your trip - like lowering your expectations about your seat location because it’s probably going to be a tight squeeze, only to arrive on a JetBlue flight and find out you’re truly not just a herd of cattle again. Let alone how JetBlue also builds or refurbishes it’s own terminals at most airports they service to give back to the community there, bring in new business, and make it a better experience over all - as well put by the final ad displayed below:

So, not only have they mastered understanding travel needs, travel safety, and human behaviour, they’ve mastered communicating that understanding right back to the people. The Australian comparison would be JetStar, who has their own marketing tactics going on with flash sales and such and multiple international destinations - but JetBlue isn’t about creating flash customers because they’re in it for the loyalty and the long run.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Christmas Marketing Tools – The Advent Calendar

An advent calendar in itself is no new concept, but for many brands it is increasingly becoming a unique marketing opportunity to connect with consumers during the festive season. Without misplacing the religious value of an advent calendar, for many people it has come to represent a countdown to Christmas, and anticipation for the impending holiday season.

Although we’re perhaps quite familiar with the chocolate versions of the advent calendar (the highlight of my childhood memories), I’ve been genuinely surprised this year to see many brands producing versions that are more relevant to the product or service that they provide. BBC Sport, for example, has put together an advent calendar featuring daily sports highlights in video form. Other brands like Topshop & Topman have put together in-store versions of an advent calendar (offering daily deals to shoppers), while online retailers have created digital calendars for the same purpose. One of my favourite examples of this is the annual digital calendar put together by British retailer Whistles, offering daily prizes and gifts for followers of the brand. Their 2012 digital advent calendar, as shown below, is especially noteworthy as it ticks all the right boxes from a design perspective, and is without a doubt a great example of how a memorable branded experience can be created through an online platform.

Whistles Advent Calendar (Source: Prodo)

Putting aside the general concept of the advent calendar, I wanted to particularly highlight the growing consumer appetite for beauty-based advent calendars. This is a market that is without doubt blowing up, and given the content of these advent calendars, it makes great sense as to why consumers are so willing to purchase them.

Selfridges Beauty Advent Calendar (Source: Cosmopolitan UK)

Given that it is often quite hard to buy beauty items as gifts for friends and family (unless they tell exactly you what scent/skin type/colour is needed), advent calendars provide the perfect opportunity for them to try different products in fuss-free sample sizes. If they later decide that they really like one of the samples, they can later go and purchase the full size in store. You can clearly see how beauty brands benefit from this product model as it doubles up as a promotional opportunity, and serves as a great way to reach new customers (who have perhaps been gifted the advent calendar, or purchased it themselves to try out the brand).

Hopefully after reading this you’ll have your eyes open to other great examples of Christmas marketing tools that are currently floating around, however the key take away from this topic is that there is a unique opportunity for brands to engage with consumers through both old and new mediums. As long as you’re providing something of genuine use (whether it’s a product or service), there is a high likelihood of consumers wanting to engage with your brand, and continue doing so well beyond the festive season.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Keep Learning How to Play: The Evolving Retail environment

Most marketing executives in the alcohol industry believe that they require two fields of expertise: one in marketing and the other in their liquor category; for me that is wine. Too often however, liquor-marketing executives forget the broader segment alcohol falls into; retail and the number of disciplines required to compete in a largely saturated retail environment. The retail landscape is evolving rapidly, more change has occurred in this segment in this decade, than has happened in the last half century. So what? The world is evolving rapidly, every industry is moving faster now than ever before, so what is the benefit of understanding the changing retail environment? Plato says that ‘Human behaviour flows from three main sources, desire, emotion, and knowledge.’ In order to change our behaviour as marketers, we must first have the knowledge to know what to change.

Norelle Goldring from GFK refers to the retail environment as a ‘game,’ in her article on ‘Major Retail and Shopper Trends and their Application for Liquor Retailing,’ and while I am sure she is not referring to it in the literal sense, I think she might be on to something. Liquor retailing is like a game of Monopoly: you as the player are the producer, your product the pawn, the top hat for the purpose of this analogy. The board game and all of its properties are the various retail outlets you may wish to do business with (purchase). The purchasing of properties, houses and hotels are your distribution points in those retail outlets, and as you move your top hat around the board, you are gaining knowledge of your retail environment. You learn which outlets you do not want to ‘land on’, which outlets give your consumers the best value (do not charge you exuberant fees) and overall, learn the game.  Unfortunately, for the retail segment, the ACCC can send you to jail and we do not collect $200 every time we pass GO.

There are over 1000 editions of the traditional Monopoly board game, themes, colours and technology changes with each but they are all made up of the same essential elements. Similarly, the retail industry is continuously evolving, but it’s not the game that is changing, it is the way we play it. In order to stay competitive and succeed in this environment, we must keep learning how to play.

What monopoly cannot symbolise, are your shoppers. Notice, I use shopper and not consumer, this is one of those rapid changes I referred to earlier, ‘shopper’ is the new ‘social’ when it comes to marketing buzzwords. We no longer refer to our customers as consumers but as shoppers because we have realised that it is just as important to appeal to the shopper, as it is to appeal to the end consumer. All trade marketing managers, like myself, thank you for this realisation.

These shoppers make up the remaining two elements of Plato’s quote; desire and emotion. Shoppers are on a mission, and this mission is not only to purchase, but also to have an ‘experience’ with your brand. Creating this experience can be achieved by understanding a number of retail insights, we have all of the usual suspects, digital and mobile strategies, these are no longer optional, gamification, crowd sourcing, big data and low intentional planning to name a few. One trend that plays very well with our experienced junkie shopper is personalisation. This trend, like digital, is no longer optional. Your shoppers expect you to know what they need and what they like, but more importantly, what they do not like. A recent IBM study showed nearly 50% of shoppers are willing to give you detailed information about themselves if it means you will personalise the offer, make it relevant, and stop spamming. One size does not fit all, not in hats and no longer in retail.

Shoppers are savvy, they understand the difference between your online and bricks and mortar stores, and they know how to combine the two, this is known as Omni-channel retailing. Google Shopper Marketing Council found that 8 in 10 smartphone shoppers shop with the assistance of mobile in store, with frequent in-store mobile users spending 25% more than occasional users. Technology that plays on this insight is iBeacon software, allowing brands to interact and engage with iOs users in the nearby area. Combining mobile technology with the in-store experience allows your shopper to interact with your brand at both an online and face-to-face level and speeds up the in-store process. It also gives the shopper confidence that they are getting the best deal, reducing post-purchase dissonance and so reducing return rates.

Unsurprisingly, shoppers are looking to reduce in-store time. Stores such as Sneakerboy, a luxury sneaker store, allows shoppers to interact with their brand in-store as well as offering time saving technology via touch-screen iPad ordering. No lines, no checkouts, no waiting means more engaged shopper. This idea is known as ‘showrooming’. ‘Teradata Applications’ found that one in five consumers are now visiting stores to trial products with the intention of later purchasing online with 96% of people polled admitting to have intention to start doing so. With the increased cost of physical store fronts, along with all other rising costs associated with running a retail outlet, ‘showrooming’ is sure to be the next ‘shopper’ marketing buzzword.

In summary, remembering that you are not just a marketer, or just a liquor-marketer, and that you are operating in a far broader retail environment, we can use retail insights such as personalisation, Omni-channel retailing and showrooming, to ensure that we keep learning how to play the game.

Jessica Ratcliff
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

A Christmas Campaign Roundup

With December already upon us, the preparation for the holiday season is without doubt in full throttle. And as what we hope is a new tradition here on the Marketing Matters blog, we’re going to round up a list of some of the best holiday campaigns that have been released so far, and give credit to brands that are celebrating the festive season in truly innovative and engaging ways.

Burberry – ‘From London with Love’ starring Romeo Beckham

Burberry is always reliable for a great holiday campaign, and this year’s offering is no less of a big deal. Featuring mini model Romeo Beckham, the four-minute clip depicts a musical sequence in which two Burberry trench-clad models are seen to be falling in love at first sight. From a purely aesthetic perspective, the video ticks all the right boxes with rich festive colouring, clear branding and an abundance of whimsical goodness. 

Kate Spade – ‘The Waiting Game’ starring Anna Kendrick

Enlisting all-round superstar, Anna Kendrick for their Christmas campaign, Kate Spade took a more comedic route with this year’s holiday video. The short film style segment sees Kendrick returning from a big shopping trip (with Kate Spade bags in tow), only to realise that she’s forgotten the keys to her apartment. Two minutes of goofing around ensues, and it’s hard not to fall slightly in love with Kendrick’s dorky charm.

Mulberry – ‘#WinChristmas’

Mulberry took a completely tongue in cheek approach to this year’s campaign video. Probably the most non-traditional pick of the bunch, the video depicts a Christmas morning gift opening session in which a young woman opens the presents given to her by various family members. I won’t say much else or I’ll end up giving away the punch line for this one, but it’s worth a watch and will definitely elicit a chuckle or two.

Sainsbury’s – ‘1914 Christmas Truce’ in partnership with The Royal British Legion

In what has probably become the talking point of this year’s Christmas campaigns, Sainsbury’s took a completely different approach to their seasonal video by re-visiting ‘the true meaning of Christmas’ in the context of the First World War. The video is actually based around a real set of events, and pays a touching tribute to the Great War and those who served in it. This was without doubt a refreshing (and slightly emotional) take on the normally quite materialistic campaigns that we see year in and out, and a welcome change from the supermarket giant.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

USA & Black Friday - Possible Implications for Australia’s Boxing Day?

So, I made it home just in time for Thursday’s Thanksgiving dinner through all the snow in the North East of the United States. This means that I also was just in time for Black Friday shopping! Traditionally, dinner on Thursday is early in the afternoon, so you can digest and bundle up for the long wait ahead of you to get the early Friday morning shopping specials. Black Friday really marks the beginning of the American holiday shopping trend. Everything is on sale, and I mean, everything! From what I’m told, this is an event very comparable to Australia’s Boxing Day, except it’s meant to kick start the retail and consumerism economy going into the New Year. Many people are aware that the sales encourage our American instincts of materialism, but choose to ignore it when that massive plasma screen TV you’ve been dying to have for your freshly renovated living room is only $99.00 USD.

All that being said, our biggest stores are at least trying to make the shopping experience more safe and less of a hassle. Take Walmart for example. They have implemented a pre-planning system through their iPhone/iPad application. By having users pre-plan their shopping route, helping them locate only the items they need or want in conjunction with their Black Friday specific shopping flyer that indicates all the specials, as well as giving them the opportunity to customise the experience to their local store, they were able to alleviate a good amount of lines and other safety hazards. It seems like marketing gold: one store, any item you can think of, tons of sales, easy to find, well marked, technologically savvy, and of course, lots of parking.

(Source: WTSP.com)

Although Walmart was very strategic in integrating their technology with a shopping design that makes shoppers think Walmart has their best interests in mind (“way$ 2 $ave” - the campaign slogan), there are still other ways to come out on top during the mass shopping event. You can also get lucky enough that your competitors didn’t treat Black Friday like the major release date it should be. Here is where Apple found success - repositioning their competitors. Because of their recent release of the iPhone 6 and 6+, in addition to their new iPad Air 2’s, they were the technology favourites for the night. According to news reports (Source: The Street), Samsung and Google just weren’t on their game with innovation releases for all the eager spenders.

(Source:NYDailyNews)

So, Australia…what will Boxing Day look like this year? Will we be seeing any maps integrated with sale information as well as specific item location? Will we see lines out the door and media coverage of all the jolly holiday people? Whatever the case is, watch out for those sneaky sales that look too good to be true, and make sure you stock up on all your holiday gifts for next year!

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School