Technology is a disrupter. It destroys business models and rewards those that find the gem in the rubble of destruction.
“Airlines Entertain Tablet Ideas,” published by The Wall Street Journal reports on air carriers ditching the old hard-wired seat back video systems, and moving toward wireless delivery of inflight entertainment and information via tablets. This is a growing trend and a great opportunity for innovative aviation marketers to provide a customized branded entertainment experience to an influential audience.
As new technologies continue to change customer behavior, aviation marketers will have to develop digital delivery strategies that build a digital ecosystem around the brand.
Involvement, Interaction, Intimacy, and Influence
These four actions form the foundation for customer engagement. Astute aviation marketers will continue to develop new tactics to extend the engagement cycle, thereby encouraging and creating a preference for their brand.
Involvement
Involvement is more than renting a seat in an aluminum tube and passing out a tablet. While some could see the tablet trend as innovation — it is really a cost reduction activity that saves fuel by reducing the weight of the aircraft.
Thinking beyond cost reduction, aviation marketers should be looking at creating a brand preference. Brand preference is an emotional connection based on the value of the service provided, and the experience that comes with it.
Interaction
Digital interaction with a brand is often based on content offering. Providing customers a choice between Apple TV, Google TV, Netflix, or Xbox would be perceived as a point of differentiation reinforcing brand preference.
This is not limited to delivering consumer products and services, but really goes to the heart of people-to-people marketing. Consider for a moment if the aircraft manufacturer provided a branded information channel. The jet engine supplier could provide a segment about the technology and reliability of their engines or the avionics supplier could stream an update of the planes location and flight data through a branded GPS enabled application.
Intimacy
Intimacy is gained through personalization. With the amount of data collected by the air carriers, it would be relatively easy to identify passengers by name and seat number, and provide a customized menu of content based on their behavioral browsing patterns and online purchasing history.
Influence
In addition to creating a brand preference for the air carrier and providing an entertainment experience, aviation marketers could influence customers’ actions when they reached the ground. Utilizing mobile couponing, hospitality and rental car companies could send offers directly to the passenger for discounts on hotel and car upgrades based on real time inventory data.
This is not a proposition for the future. It is available now, just waiting for an innovative aviation marketer to extend the brand experience and achieve first mover competitive advantage.
To view the Wall Street Journal article click on the following article title: “Airlines Entertain Tablet Ideas”
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