When a brand breaks its promise: The challenge for JetBlue
In my book, BrandSimple, I talk about JetBlue. Over the past few days everyone has been talking about JetBlue, but not for any of the reasons I chose to talk about it. I used it as an example of a brand that succeeded as a result of identifying something meaningfully different to offer people who want or need to fly. Unlike the big, ambiguous airlines, JetBlue found a way to put the “humanity back into flying.” This phrase became the driving force behind everything the little brand did to make flying fun, from its airfares to its personnel, to its in-flight entertainment. Last week, as thousands of people were stranded at JFK and cancellation reports multiplied as quickly as news reports, flying JetBlue was anything but fun. It proved to be no different than any other airline – any other big airline that is.
CEO, David Neeleman, took on the immediate challenge by doing exactly what he should have done. He apologized and took the hit as the company’s most senior officer without any excuses. His business model was off course and he would do whatever necessary to fix it, no easy task now that the company has grown from a small team of mavericks to a sprawling organization. While this is all well and a very good start, it’s nowhere near the size of the challenge the airline has ahead of it as a brand. It wasn’t the fact that passengers were left on the tarmac that made it a newsworthy story. It was that JetBlue had broken its brand promise. To repair its promise, JetBlue has to figure out how to “put the humanity back into flying,” but this time as a larger company – something that will be very hard to do at its value price point. The proof of its newly repaired promise will require more than Mr. Neeleman spontaneously showing up to greet passengers. And while a noble gesture, it will take more than a passengers’ Bill of Rights which only serves to placate flyers if the experience gets too bad. While immediate crisis control will help JetBlue survive in the short term, it’s the longer term the airline must consider. It must find a meaningfully different way to make its original brand promise fly again, this time on a higher level. Don’t underestimate the JetBlue team. It’s in their company culture to make this happen. And I, for one, have full confidence they will.
February 26th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
It is true that JetBlue is expanding and they need to create a business plan that works for the growing size of their company. Although in order to do so, I believe JetBlue needs to reflect on their past business model and see what went wrong. JetBlue’s focus was on their brand and the image they portrayed. You said that JetBlue followed its brand’s image and made “flying fun, from its airfares to personnel.” If JetBlue had already established great personnel then why was there so much tension between the personnel and the passengers? Granted emotions were high and people get fired up, but the personnel should have been trained to handle the situation. I am sure JetBlue will establish a new way to represent their brand, but they need to ensure that they will live up to what they create. In order to do this and gain the public’s trust again, Jetbluelue must explain why their original brand image failed in the first place.
February 27th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Fair point. Think their rapid growth, left them with new employees that did not understand promise of brand and how to deliver it.
Do not think it is a question of doing more explaining -he has sorry enough. They need to figure out how to deliver on Jet Blue promise.
This weeks action of cancelling flights in advance like other airlines while better than the 2/14 mess, puts them in the same undifferentiated bucket as everyone else .