[Today's post authored by Massey MBA Candidate James Preston] Southwest Airlines marketers have always developed clever advertising campaigns. Who can forget the “Click Ding” advertisements that depict an average office setting with businessmen and women normally going about their business until the “ding” is heard throughout the office. Suddenly these same staid office workers are franticly sprinting to their desks to “click ding” to see the “exclusive” and “deeply discounted” airfares available only through the “clink ding” program. The airline used the campaign to tout its “point-of-difference” that it is the low price provider.
The airline may have outdone itself with its new “Be More Productive” advertising campaign. In this series of advertisements, Southwest attempts to highlight its consistent on-time record by introducing us to Nick Pudder.
Nick is an unassuming looking fellow whose meteoric rise to Senior Vice President by the age of thirty-two has been met with a mixture of awe and disbelief from his colleagues. In the campaign, jealous co-workers are found whispering about his sudden increase in productivity and the fact that the company has given Nick his own parking place. He is referred to as a “machine” and thought to be “extremely productive”. Another co-worker standing in front of the “employee of the month” photographs (all of whom are Nick) calls Nick “amazing” because he closed four sales presentations in four different cities all in the same day.
Ultimately, several co-workers and media speculate that Nick is taking some sort of “productivity enhancers”. Nick finally denies using “productivity enhancers” but admits that he has been flying Southwest Airlines “a lot”. This is a clever tie-in to the current steroid scandal that has rocked Major League Baseball in which the recently released Mitchell report has named many high profile players as steroid users.
The campaign is a witty marketing technique to imply that by using Southwest Airlines for your business travel you can rely on the fact that Southwest will provide on-time departures and arrivals. Southwest’s strategy is also to show that it has more frequent flights and, in particular, more non-stop long-distance flights to more of the cities in which "Nicks" like you and me conduct business. Of course, the company is using “Nick” as a metaphor and implying anyone who uses Southwest will find more frequent and on-time departures and arrivals to many of the cities we normally travel to either on business or for pleasure. The emphasis on non-stop, long-distance flights also makes one think that they would get to their destination quicker than on an airline which required multiple stops along the way, thereby saving time and perhaps leading to less travel time overall.
To find out more about the “Be More Productive” campaign, check out the following:http://www.bemoreproductive.com/
Authored by James Preston, Massey MBA Candidate