In my previous post I had mentioned that good ad campaigns need to be backed up by positive changes within the organisation. In this post I will narrate an example of a company which exactly did that. It’s about my personal experience with Deccan soon after it started its re-branding exercise. I had experienced flying Deccan before the re-branding. So this time as I entered the airport, I was closely looking for changes with great curiosity.
Deccan already had few good features like ease of booking, quick response helpline, great on-time performance and large number of destinations. On top of this was the ‘delighter’ weapon of Deccan - PRICE. After take over by Kingfisher, all the above remained unchanged. But Deccan corrected a few basic stuffs, although trivial, that truly made the difference, as I was about to find out shortly.
I checked in and got the boarding pass. To my pleasant surprise there was seat number printed on it. I never understood why Deccan was not giving seat no.s earlier. It does not even cost anything to give seat no. Happily I said to myself – Great-Change 1. As I was waiting in the queue for security check in, I noticed upbeat Deccan staff (The staff was now in the same attire as that of Kingfisher) helping out customers and rendering their service (Only later I came to know that all outsourced staff were replaced by airline employees). Nice, I thought – Change 2. Lastly we were served free water on board. Again, a small change that made lot of difference. Change 3.
The re-branding exercise was targeted to reposition Deccan from ‘Simplifly’ to ‘The choice is Simple’. The campaign promised ‘On-time performance’, ‘Wider Network’ both already strong points of Deccan. But more importantly Deccan made a new promise “Little Delights all the way”. From my above experience I could say that the campaign truly lived upto its promises.
Definitely now the choice is simple.
Deccan already had few good features like ease of booking, quick response helpline, great on-time performance and large number of destinations. On top of this was the ‘delighter’ weapon of Deccan - PRICE. After take over by Kingfisher, all the above remained unchanged. But Deccan corrected a few basic stuffs, although trivial, that truly made the difference, as I was about to find out shortly.
I checked in and got the boarding pass. To my pleasant surprise there was seat number printed on it. I never understood why Deccan was not giving seat no.s earlier. It does not even cost anything to give seat no. Happily I said to myself – Great-Change 1. As I was waiting in the queue for security check in, I noticed upbeat Deccan staff (The staff was now in the same attire as that of Kingfisher) helping out customers and rendering their service (Only later I came to know that all outsourced staff were replaced by airline employees). Nice, I thought – Change 2. Lastly we were served free water on board. Again, a small change that made lot of difference. Change 3.
The re-branding exercise was targeted to reposition Deccan from ‘Simplifly’ to ‘The choice is Simple’. The campaign promised ‘On-time performance’, ‘Wider Network’ both already strong points of Deccan. But more importantly Deccan made a new promise “Little Delights all the way”. From my above experience I could say that the campaign truly lived upto its promises.
Definitely now the choice is simple.
3 comments:
Printing seatnumbers = cost.
There is a non trivial amount of cost in allocating seat numbers based on how you reserved. And then ensuring that its printed. This may also result in people asking for a system to change/select seat allotment. It's about creating work.
@ Partha,
Thanks for the info.
I believe that the cost saved in not giving seat no. is small as compared to the dissatisfaction it was causing with customers.
allow me to provide some insights..
there happened to be a case in one of the deccan flights originating from Patna. Deccan mistakenly issued more boarding passes than the number of seats. subsequently some passengers were requested to take their children on their laps in order to accommodate the passengers. DGCA (director General Civil Aviation) did not take it too kindly as it was a violation of air safety norms. and Deccan wriggled out of that controversy and started printing the seat numbers on the boarding passes.
Deccan's contention was that by not allotting the seat numbers, they can increase the turnaround time of the aircraft.
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