Last week, Spirit Airlines made international l headlines when a 6 year old child traveling alone was 'incorrectly boarded' and wound up at the wrong airport, forcing his grandmother to drive 160 miles to pick him up. While Spirit apologized, their remedy was to 'communicate with the family to reconnect them'. Based upon the circumstances, there seemed to be no overt effort towards that end, other than reimbursing the grandmother for expenses incurred on her 'reconnection' drive.
Jet Blue, who is in a proposed merger with Spirit, should be more than a bit wary about this incident. While this may have been an extreme case, there is ample data to suggest that while Jet Blue may gain access to an expanded footprint with the merger, it will need to go to great lengths to protect its brand if this merger is finally approved. For without the right brand actions, we will be reading about Jet Blue's demise in the near future.
Incompatible DNA?
One only need go back to the history of each airline to uncover the potential incompatibility of these two brands.
Jet Blue began as a challenger to other low-cost brands. Its brand behavior was all about democratizing premium experiences. Jet Blue adds value by offering more legroom, free entertainment at every seat, free snacks, etc. Historically, it reinforced those behaviors in communications by scoffing at the way other low-cost airlines treat their customers.
Spirit, on the other hand, behaves like the epitome of an ultra-low-cost airline. It was the first airline to charge customers for carry-on luggage. Today, Spirit can be described as an ‘ala carte’ airline in which upgrades can quickly negate the initial low cost. As a matter of fact, according to NerdWallet, additional fees average $137 per one way flight!
As such, its communications focus not on the journey but purely on the destination, and the money allegedly saved getting there...that is, if you wind up at the right destination.
To Know Jet Blue is To Love It...Spirit, Not So Much
And because of this history, overall brand perceptions in each airline's hub cities reveal a glaring disparity in each brand's ability to engender brand love.
In Jet Blue Hub cities, Jet Blue's brand love score is higher than 80% of all brands in all categories measured. It is close to full service airlines in brand love. In those same cities, Spirit's score is almost half that of Jet Blue.
Unfortunately, in markets where Jet Blue is not present, its brand love score falls by 23 points, likely suffering negative rub off from other low cost airline brands. For Spirit, it seems that familiarity breeds the same contempt everywhere, as its score is still one of the lowest in its hub markets.
And all this together is why Jet Blue has higher than category loyalty, while Spirit trails the category average.(1)
Can Love Endure?
While Jet Blue's brand love score is still high, it has seen erosion in its hub cities in both its brand love score and its key driver, uniqueness. Brand love has fallen by 6 while uniqueness is down a whopping 12 points. Its percent of self-reported loyals is down by 5 percentage points, while rejectors have risen slightly.(1) In addition, Jet Blue's Customer Satisfaction Scores are falling in both JD Power and the American Customer Satisfaction index. The merger with Spirit could accelerate these trends.
Interestingly, Jet Blue seems to have lost the plot in communications as well. Their focus has gone from democratization to boasting about new planes and their Mint (first class) service. This all moves them closer and closer to commoditizing their brand to be just another airline who caters to the elite, and forgets the average Joe.
So how can Jet Blue protect its brand and spread the love to customers in Spirits hub cities? It will take discipline in a combination of carefully managed brand behaviors, communications, and a return to its roots:
Aligning Brand Behaviors
· All Spirit aircraft acquired by Jet Blue should not be rebranded until they are reconfigured to reflect Jet Blue experiential standards:
o Today, Spirit fits 28 more seats into an Airbus 321 than Jet Blue does, thus depriving the average customer of 4 inches of leg room
· Send every consumer facing Spirit employee to Jet Blue University (yes, it's a thing) to ensure that they are schooled in Jet Blue's version of customer care
· Eliminate the upsell, and deliver True Blue customer value
· Refocus all operations on their original reason for being--the democratization of pleasant air travel
Amplification Through On-Brand Promotions
· Once the experience is fixed, spread the word in both Jet Blue and Spirit hub cities with a brand campaign that fully embraces Jet Blue's challenger brand spirit, emphasizing what made them special in the first place
· Leverage in-market communications to target loyalists of other low cost airlines with a challenge to convert their loyalty points to Jet Blue when they fly Jet Blue
· Offer Spirit loyalists special perks beyond the already high value on board experience
While the above might cost a bit, it's a worthy investment to engender higher brand preference and corresponding loyalty and love. And it just might save Jet Blue from landing in the wrong destination!
