BA – Striking the right note for consumers

Having recently revamped their first class cabin with much hoopla and with an always-scintillating Rachel Weisz, British Airways might have felt quite chuffed with themselves. A lot of people, however, were left quite upset in the run up to Easter as they were left holiday-less due to the strikes by BA staff. Part of Zeitgeist was abroad, though “luckily” they were travelling with EasyJet. BA stood to lose some even more ground to it’s low-cost rivals, and when the strike was announced earlier in the year, carrier BMI did not miss a beat in its print ads. National Express also sought to capitalise on the affair. To add salt to the wound, a software developer at BA recently tried to organise a series of suicide bombings to take place during the strike.

It became clear early on though that public sympathy was, for the most part, with British Airways. This could be because the airline have had to endure strikes before, or because the flagbearer is seen as one of the last vestiges of a bygone era of empire and erudite financial control; something to be proud of. BA seized on this and decided to engage in a bit of ex-ante damage control. It should be noted that the company are somewhat digital-savvy, as evidenced by their Metrotwin which began with things to do and see in London and NYC in 2008, and which at the end of last year added Mumbai too. However they have in the past failed to correctly judge the mood of the masses, such as when they replaced the Union Jack on their fleet’s tailfins with ‘world art’.

Brand Republic reported on March 2nd that BA had asked Agency.com “to create a social-media strategy aimed at providing customers with the latest information on services should the industrial action go ahead”. They also launched a paid search campaign on Google and Yahoo! to keep travellers updated. On March 15th they launched a viral campaign featuring a YouTube video of BA’s CEO Willie Walsh, criticising the strike and “reassuring customers that flights will continue”. Separately, Lord Adonis, the transport minister “waded into the row… telling the BBC he ‘absolutely’ deplored the strike”.

On March 19th, BA launched a print campaign “to emphasise its efforts to minimise disruption to customers during the forthcoming strike”. In it, Walsh states the airline will “keep [its] flag flying”. Walsh continued to appear in a series of videos as the strike got underway, reassuring travellers that the atmosphere at Terminal 5 was “very positive” and that “very good numbers” of cabin crew were coming to work, as well as answering media criticism. A survey of 1000 people revealed on March 23rd, “the majority of those who had seen BA’s campaign have either retained or improved their perception of the brand.” On March 31st, the day after the strike ended, BA ran a print ad campaign in most of the nationals thanking “thousands of customers” for their support.

Though not flawless, the exercise was unquestionably a successful one, and stands as an example for future brands in times of crisis: don’t ignore the issue, address the consumer quickly and directly, do everything you can to get through it. Stiff upper lip and all that.

Luxury is Dead, Long Live Luxury

A sad day for Zeitgeist today as car manufacturer Daimler announced the beginning of the end for the luxury brand Maybach (courtesy of the excellent Luxuo blog). The Maybach is an incredibly expensive, incredibly indulgent, ridiculously large and ridiculously powerful car. It’s exclusivity is second to none, to the extent that actually too few of them are being sold. Despite risqué attempts at brand activation with cutting edge artists like David LaChapelle and despite manufacturing only a hundred cars for some lines, the dream is over. How does luxury struggle onwards as the world crawls out of the recession?

The pleasure of Zeitgeist’s company was requested for ‘Artisan’ afternoon tea at Christian Dior on London’s Sloane Street this week. Luxury was front and centre. More than playing on the bling nature of the brand name, the idea was to present the fantastic workmanship that went on behind closed doors.

At the event, with the help of an Italian translator, Zeitgeist was able to speak to one of the aforementioned artisans, who was responsible for making handbags. The Florentine, wearing an immaculate white labcoat with the Dior logo above the breast pocket, said he had no quota for how many bags to produce per day or week, that Dior demanded absolute perfection instead in every bag, no matter the time taken. Though each person will have his or her own speciality, they will work across both the Dior and the Dior Homme brand. Elsewhere in the store, people worked meticulously on Dior jewellery and watches with incredible patience. The work pace of those in the jewellery and timepiece department was similarly dedicated to quality over quantity. From a branding perspective, not only does this ensure a higher rate of product satisfaction, at the same time it also helps to enforce scarcity.

While all this was occurring, waiters roamed the boutique with tripled tiered treats, ranging from caramel pastries and petites tartes aux framboises to mini cupcakes with swirls of icing. The whole affair felt very similar to that of the recent Miss Dior Cherie campaign, directed by Sofia Coppola, who coincidentally directed a very similar scene in Marie Antoinette. Dior definitely had its thinking cap when it came to integrating retail environment and through-the-line campaigns. The event next goes to Tokyo.

Elsewhere in the fashion sector, Louis Vuitton streamed its Paris Fashion Week collection over Facebook (again), and Burberry’s collection in London was broadcast in 3D. And what of luxury in general, how will it manage in a world of frozen credit? Zeitgeist recently listened in on a Datamonitor webinar called “Recovery from Recession”, (definite articles clearly not being a trend for this year according to Datamonitor). Consumption has slowed holistically because people no longer have the money, or access to borrowed money, that would allow them to make those purchases they otherwise would have done. This economic realignment – some might call it sanity – will hopefully be a relatively short-term affair. There is a worry for luxury brands however that these more frugal tendencies will become deeply ingrained in the buying habits of their potential or erstwhile consumers.

As such, there has been a trend by some brands to open up further to the masses. This has its advantages in that it can persuade people to trade up, especially concerning “everyday luxury items and treats” which are “a treat, rather than a representation of lifestyle”. “It is important that the long term image of the product is not hindered through aggressive discounting policies.” For Datamonitor, Grey Goose is a fine example of this, as it sells below retail price in the duty-free sector to great success. The fact that it is not discounted at a supermarket – where a shopper might see it every week rather than on infrequent trips to the airport – means the brand retains its premium image despite price cutting in some choice locations. Value added services, in this case a cocktail guide, also help. For those that are able to keep up their pre-recession spending uninterrupted, the trend is toward more arcane brands, such as Loro Piana. Shops like Escada, cognisant of consumer fears over reckless spending, have provided unbranded paper bags of late.

With the rather large hiccup of the recession seemingly over, luxury brands can certainly breathe a very small sigh of relief. Just how much people will want to spend on arguably frivolous products in the years to come, and, importantly, how discreet they will wish to be about it, will be a very important factor.