Grab your bag

Anybody that has studied 'operation management' is probably very familiar with Southwest Airlines - the airline that Ryanair is modelled on. Their founder and ex-ceo Herb Kelleher is considered a bit of a legend. I might write a proper post on him later.

I like the ad. Found it here.

Zappos - a shining example to us all.

Zappos - eBay DevCon - 06-17-08 - Building a Brand that Matters

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: zappos ebay)

I wrote a while ago about how we could learn from Southwest Airlines, and their dedication to customer service. I was most struck by their use of twitter as a customer service tool.

Another company that is active in this area is Zappos - "a service company that happens to sell" stuff like clothes, shoes etc.

Zappos is really interesting. And is a shining example to us all. They really do look after their customers, as they know this makes good business sense.

I found this presentation on Dave Knox's blog. Dave is a brand manager at Procter & Gamble. His blog is worth a regular visit.

If ads were truthful...

In 1923, Claude Hopkins wrote the bestseller 'Scientific Advertising'.

Mr Hopkins was a pioneer of direct response advertising. He believed that when writing ads, you should be as honest as possible. Honesty brings credibility.

I think much of his writing still holds true. Although not everybody agrees with me. And that is fine. But if you are just starting out in marketing, I'd view this as essential reading.

Southwest ad image found via Wall Street Fighter

Southwest Airlines is following me

Image courtesy of duesentrieb

Southwest Airlines is now following me on twitter.

I'll explain...

While I don't really use twitter much, I set up an account out of curiosity and picked a few random people or brands to follow. Southwest was one of them.

Several colleagues have asked me recently about twitter - what's it all about? The idea of following the musings of a celebrity, an industry expert or journalist makes sense to me.

But a brand following me? Now this is interesting.

So what is going on here? Southwest have 1,212 followers (like me) on twitter. While I've never actually flown with them, I suspect most of these people are Southwest customers. The interesting bit is they follow anybody that follows them. Yes, they follow the daily thoughts, ramblings and rants of these individuals - most of which have nothing to do with Southwest.

This sounds like a lot of effort, so why do it? Well, firstly it is a commitment to their customers. They are essentially saying "You are interested enough to follow us, then we are interested in you". But this is also an excellent way to get under the skin of their customers and of course have a dialogue with them.

Does it work? I'd say so. I read a post (tweet) today from one of their followers which simply said "I hate Southwest". They responded within a day on their page with the following "I'm sorry to hear that! What did we do, and how can we make it better?"

This is a extremely customer-centric brand that is using technology to get closer to customers and helping them serve them better.

Can you imagine an Irish bank, retailer or airline doing something like this?

I can.