Differentiation: A Tale of Two Companies

I love having insightful weekends like this — what a comparison/contrast in brand experiences!

First, I encountered four pieces of disappointment with Hilton:

• Receiving double beds after requesting a king

• Being placed at the very farthest room (felt like walking half a mile) from the elevator

• $20 fee for parking when the dedicated lot immediately next door charges $13.95

• $14.95 internet (wi-fi or hardwire) when nearby coffee shops and restaurants provide it on a complimentary basis

My point about the latter two concerns service focus. The parking place has NO other offering. Hopefully Hilton would see that my main need for them is lodging, and they shouldn’t be charging ANY MORE than the next-door place. Between that and the internet access, my sense is that they feel they can “screw over” the captive customer.

Bad karma — anytime.
And especially in today’s competitive environment.

Then… I experienced the Virgin brand out of the UK, which I had heard of but had no particularly positive or negative expectations. I know you know what’s coming, but I have to mention it anyway… I’m no longer a virgin to Virgin American airlines).

At every point along the process, I was impressed with Richard Branson’s “human touch” — professional and anything but “me too”.

• Web site – bold red and clever “Brit-ish” sayings

• Customer service (called with a question about flight accommodations) – surprisingly friendly and welcoming to/acknowledging of “virgins”

• Boarding pass – bold red and non-standard size

• Cabin experience – entire plane has black lights emitting a purple glow instead of the traditional cold-white fluorescent lights (makes one feel “evening”, disco (first class even has news-announcer-like microphones emitting up and around the seats, what a feeling of control)

…and…
(the best for last) AC Adapters at every seat! (no more running out of laptop battery power in the air).

This has definitely ingrained positive associations in my gray matter for the brand. I’ll be intrigued to see what happens in my eval process next the next time I fly (better yet, what happens the next time I experience United, Northwest, et al).

A good place to begin is mapping all your touch points (email me if you’d like an example doc to work with) then look objectively (through the customer’s eyes) at how your actions at each either support or deflate your brand goals.

I shared with my young son Gabe how impressed I was with Virgin Air. No surprise that the son of The Columbo of Marketing would reply with, “What was so special about it?” After I described the photo in my last blog, he asked “Was there anything else?” Makes a dad proud.

Pictured is another example. Learning from the world of residential real estate: if the front door and surrounding area are shoddy, it affects the visitor’s view of the entire home. Conversely, checking in to the registration area at Virgin American emanates “pleasurable”. The hallmark red color is everywhere (without overkill) from the decor to the boarding passes. And I can’t tell you that I’ve EVER seen flowers when checking into United or Northwest!

That’s what prompted me to follow up with “more” — since this brand definitely deserves more than one post. There is a lot you can learn, regardless of what business you are in, and especially how other airlines better learn or have their lunch taken from the proverbial plate.

As I was drafting this post on Virgin Air, I sat next to Sera Cawanibuka from Tourism Fiji who said that after her first “Virgin” flight, she told all the people in her office about it. Now they all “fly Virgin” and haven’t used United, American, et al — in years!!

Paul Travis is an interim marketing executive and helps companies create a screaming value proposition and accelerate sales. He can be reached at paul.travis@oneaccordpartners.com. He also blogs at Marketing 2020.

The book, Leadership on Demand is available at http://leadership-on-demand.com/.

Photo by Binder Donedat

Communicating Differentiation to Grow Customers

Paul Travis is an Interim Management Executive with an expertise in determining and developing the right product for the target market and establishing the marketing infrastructure to profitably attract and retain customers.

Recently earning my CMC (Certified Management Consultant) prompted me as to revisit the importance of differentiation in the marketplace. In this particular case, only 1% of consultants have earned this accreditation.

While the Institute of Management Consultants has very low brand recognition in the marketplace (note they’re not the Institute of Marketing Consultants, but give me time!) it is simply following the model of the CPA, which businesspeople have come to understand is more rigorous, exam-tested, and worth more than an [otherwise uncertified] “accountant”.

This is especially helpful in the case of “consultants” (who tend to be born every time a company lays people off) where the business world really does benefit from having professional background-checking, courses taken and classes taught, and thorough indoctrination of international ethical standards and code of conduct.

One of my upcoming clients has an exciting, patented, energy-saving technology that provides 50-100% increase in electric motors. Our plans include creation of a certification that will help government, corporate, and consumer buyers know the difference between this technology and the status quo. Just like “Intel Inside” computer labeling, the Good Housekeeping Seal, and the “Underwriters Laboratories” label.

These communication devices help the customer in quickly understanding one level of quality vs. another. They (and partners) are willing to pay more for this!

The Opportunity: How can you differentiate your products or services in the customer’s mind from the rest of the pack?

Paul Travis can be contacted at Paul.Travis(at)oneaccordpartners.com or 206.910.2222. To learn more about Interim Marketing expert Paul Travis, you can view his profile at OneAccord or his blog 2020 Marketing.