A recent comment from a good friend of mine made me go through a bit of my own data. He said that in 2015 he flew over 94 times. That is a lot.
Since I moved to Australia I travel a lot too. But how much? All the data I could still get from my airline of choice is from March 2015 to March 2016. The total number is a bit shocking: I flew 115 times.
But there is a lot more detail in my own data: I made 2.315 status points in that timeframe, allotted a total of 238.914 points. I also flew all over the place, but there is a clear pattern you could pick up, but more about that later.
This is a classic situation for a marketer: a lot of data – some of it lost – some of it not relevant, but enough to segment and categorise me.
As a marketer it is very interesting to see how the airline targeted me. The result of my research is concerning: I received a total of 679 emails containing the brand name of my airline, but that is including tickets and so on. Pure newsletters make up 118 of those emails. Add 3 upgrade offer emails, 7 customer service emails and 12 from a seperate hotels newsletter, although I never booked any hotel with my airline. Maybe I should?
I got my obligatory birthday email – with offers I have never consumed as they do not match my preferences, nor my historic behaviour.
The airline also used the usual airplane symbol in a couple of their subject lines. A nice gesture, but the issue with all of the 140 newsletters I got is: not a single one of these newsletters targets me as an individual.
My travel profile is quite easy: most of my flights are domestic. I never book business, but I do point upgrades. I travel to the US for business, some AP countries – obviously for vacation as the duration of my stays is longer and I collect points with my credit card.
I am indeed a loyal customer.
Personalising my customer experience could be easy. The hardship in today’s marketing I see is getting the offers right. Offers that make me feel valued as an individual and target me in person. Target me with marketing messages that feel as a service. It is not that hard. It does not – yet – have to be in real time, but if I can do this much research into my own data – so can do companies – so can my airline.
It is still a long way to go, but I am sure that we are closing in on our way to cognitive systems that will eventually make the marketing system of my airline as powerful as the memory of the stewardess that recently recognised me and welcomed me back with my name – without having to read it off my ticket – and bringing me a bottle of water on her way back in the cabin – that is indeed personalising the message – as it should be.
