Marketing in the Wild: Part Two, jetBlue
I recently flew to Boston to see family and explore the southern coast of Massachusetts. We flew jetBlue for the first time in recent memory, and I enjoyed the in-flight mahketing (easy to pick up on that Boston accent) so much that I wanted to share it with the Pod.
Full disclosure: I booked the flight on a discount site, and didn’t actively choose jetBlue. But I was pleasantly surprised after boarding to find that they had a personality. And extra leg room. It was refreshing.
Here are a couple of pieces of their personality that made the flight a little more fun.
In addition to the quirky, fun style of how they talk to their customers, the experience itself matched what they were saying. The seats were nice. The plane to Boston was newer, so it had the color-coordinated seats and overhead blue lighting (sadly I didn’t get a picture of that). The staff was friendly (although I think Southwest still has them beat on that). They give you free snacks and drinks on board (which is becoming rare these days).
At one point, we found someone’s gum in a wrapper in our ice cup, so the flight attendant ditched all the ice in the container, and apologized to us with a few nips of Titos. I wasn’t complaining! They gave us new ice and our juices turned into cocktails. Bonus! And the roominess was really nice. Things were updated and new-ish, each person had a screen so we could watch or listen to whatever we please…and most importantly, the pilots did their job getting us from point A to point B ahead of schedule.
The flight home I’d give a B- in comparison. The flight was delayed due to an issue with the crew getting to Boston. A new crew had to be called in to get us off the ground, but they made it happen and off we went. It was clear the plane was older, the screens were small and looked old.
Turns out the screens didn’t work, which prompted the crew to give everyone on the flight vouchers (as of the following Monday, we still haven’t received them), in hopes that no riots would break out because someone couldn’t watch a show during the flight. But again the crew was friendly and matched what I expected from the last experience. The roomy seats actually make up for a lot of other deficiencies, in my opinion.
I also took a look at their updated marketing materials in each seat pocket.
They are printed on a really nice silk paper stock, and in the newer plane, that felt on point. In the older plane, it was a mismatch. But what I’m guessing is happening is that they’ve rebranded or refreshed their brand identity. Trouble is, how do you update your brand on a multi-million dollar airplane? That’s a crazy investment. So I understand they do what they can to still provide the same experience, to the best of their ability, and that’s just good enough.*
One last fun piece of their marketing was in their snacks. You can tell they’re choosy about what brands they select. This was one of them. And of course, we did as the packaging instructed. But it matches their brand personality to find fun snacks that have a purpose or go beyond just being a snack provider.
So - the big question: would I recommend jetBlue to a friend? I believe I would. I think I might even check out booking direct through them next time. I like what they’re doing, I like the message they have. And I would love for more airlines to make flying more fun for travelers. I think we could all use a little more human-ness in the companies that provide us services. Nice to see jetBlue doing some of that.
UPDATE: After getting off the plane in Minneapolis, after having written this article, we found that the ground crew placed our luggage in a locked, secure area by mistake, and we were told we would have to wait until an international flight came in and their luggage went through customs before we could get our luggage. Wait, what?!? That could be hours! After an hour and a half of waiting and passengers complaining, airport security finally opened up the secure area so we could get our luggage and go home. Thank goodness we weren’t on a schedule, or had kids with us. But this really put a sour note on the end of our flight, and I’ll be contacting them to find out how they’ll make good with passengers after all that.
This just goes to show that every piece of the experience matters, from the online experience booking a flight, to the in-flight comfort, to the ground crew’s competence.
It. All. Matters.
* According to JetBlue President Joanna Geraghty, JetBlue has retrofitted 10 aircraft so far, and will have others updated by 2020.
What are you seeing out in the wild?
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