Amy Craven, the Director of Brand & Global Advertising recently spoke about the airline’s brand purpose. She gives a nice pitch for it, but I think she misses the mark (because the airline does). “Caring for people on life’s journey” doesn’t do for American what it needs to do.
“Our brand purpose is to care for people in life’s journey,” says Craven, who was recently named to Brand Innovators Women to Watch in Brand Marketing Class of 2021 list. “In the business we are in, we get the privilege to be part of some pretty significant moments in our customers lives from trips where they are going to close every business deal to family reunions, to spring break trips to weddings to funerals – big moments in people’s lives that we get to play a role in. Our tagline “You are Why We Fly” is really at the center of all of that. Our job is to care for people wherever they are on that journey while they are traveling with us.”
‘Caring for people on life’s journey’ is not useful because it does not define the company and who it is, it doesn’t help to make decisions (“does this policy make sense? does it make it easier or hard to care for people on life’s journey?” ). It’s not operationalizable. It’s not actionable.
The slogan is too milquetoast and broad. I’m pretty sure the Human Fund (“Money For People“) considered it, too. It describes every airline. And hotel chains (we have weddings, bar mitvahs, retirement parties and holiday parties there… vacation there..) too.
Not every brand purpose has to be an actionable mission statement (in that case the company needs one of those), but it at least needs to guide every public interaction.
Steve Jobs did a great job at explaining brand purpose and being relevant to your customers. It’s important to define who you are, and tell that to your customers. It’s also important to tell that to your employees, so they know how to make decisions inside the company.
Apple can focus on creative types, empowering them to pursue their missions and dreams. Nike can celebrate great athletes. None of that requires saving the world, all of it defines who the business is and what they’re trying to do.
Jobs explains clearly that Nike celebrates great athletes and great athletics. You choose Nike over other shoe brands to associate yourself with great sports achievement. They sell a commodity. It’s a shoe. But spend massively to bask in great accomplishment.
American’s “We Know Why You Fly” campaign more 15 years ago was a little bit creepy but I always felt missed the mark. It said ‘we understand that every traveler is a person with a very human goal for their trip’ and so therefore the airline was going to be a little bit human and treat a passenger as a person.
The problem with that campaign is they showed every sort of traveler in different spots. They were trying to be everything to every passenger. The best spot was a business traveler slinking into his seat after a crazy trip closing a deal. He was being taken care of and being taken home. It was almost two decades ago so it was a middle aged white guy, but it didn’t need to be.
Think about that person, and focus on aligning product and policies to deliver value to that customer – to make their lives easier – and focus on doing that better than any other travel provider. (Don’t just ‘me too’ on product, policies and service – think of the frictions and problems that customer faces and solve them.)
I actually think American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja’s letter outlining a vision for the airline was good. If the marketing and brand team could help encapsulate it, and then top management would use that consistently to tell employees that should be how they’re making decisions (and empower them to do so, and reward them for doing so), they’d be onto something. But they aren’t going to get there with ‘caring for people on life’s journey.’ The Human Fund does that.
Hilarious slogan when they are squeezing “customers” into too small seats, too small lavatories and feeding them slop.
This is how you “care” for people
on lifes journey?
And why does life’s have an apostrophe? Life is journey doesn’t sound right…..
AA:
“Often delaying or cancelling life’s journey”?????
“Making it damn near impossible to enjoy life’s journey in comfort?”
“Providing a consistent challenge which will permit life’s journey to continue if every damned thing falls into place”??
Merry Christmas.
So you think these execs actually believe this bs? It would be a great slogan if AA actually tried to help customers when shit goes wrong. They should really fire 80% of the execs and put that $$$ into making an app that is capable of rebooking you after cancelations and schedule changes. That would benefit people more than ra ra nonsense from someone who flies positive space
Ah the Human Fund. Happy Festivus everyone!
I can”t take credit as one of your other readers has the slogan “Friends don’ t let friends fly American”.
Clueless as usual.
AA execs have not graduated from the university of life.
Wish they took a course or two in human interests.
The issue isn’t that it’s vague or non-actionable, it’s that their actions are the opposite.
American’s new slogan sounds better suited for a retirement home, funeral home, or cemetery.
The slogan is inconsistent with senior management’s premise that the network schedule is the product.
About time for even us free market supporters to rethink airline deregulation. I’d start with EU 261 type fines and payments for failing to deliver promised services. That may not work, at least at first, but at least it would shift funds from airline execs and shareholders to the flying public who are getting screwed by the current mess.
We often delay flights for “15 minutes” for around 6 hours so customers enjoy the journey through the gate.
The difference between Spirit and AA is that Spirit has more flights on time and that AA has oneworld.
How disingenuous!
I have been an American Airlines loyalist since 1991 and can testify that this mantra does not even come close to the truth. It just cannot! They like most other airlines have only one goal: « Make more money! Damn the customer ». After millions of miles of travel I could compile a list a mile long with actual examples that would prove my point.
Don’t have to be everything for everyone. Just be honest!
The apostrophe in “life’s” is possessive not contractive.
What can one expect when phrase’s like “brand purpose” are used. Brands, definitionally don’t have a purpose, companies may and people definitely do. American seems to have removed people from its equation and, based on the reactions above, it shows.
“Our brand purpose is to care for people in life’s journey,
OMFG. Deepak Chopra had a child with Poug Darker and this popped out.
WTF, America West? You really think this is going to sugarcoat the turd you keep serving on your customers’ “life journey”?
Clueless and classless.
Thank you pauleeepaul but I’m old and slow. What does possessive mean? I get the contraction means “life is” but the other thing? I’m clueless. That “life’s” possesses journey in some way? I’m very sorry, I should have paid attention in high school English class…..
American: “We realize that what matters to us, means so much to you”. We are American. Proud to be your airline.
Coming in 2022…
???
American Airlines… We didn’t crash today. Last time I flew American, we made a giant loop over Lake Michigan and were told that we would *crash* at O’Hare by a flight attendant who was crying. We landed safely surrounded by emergency vehicles. It was probably a bad landing gear indicator. When we exited, they were eager to board the next leg to Boston on the same plane. AA? Never again. I’ll pay a lot more and take bad routings to never fly with them again. (I also avoid United for different reasons.)
I don’t care what their catch phrase is. It doesn’t matter if it’s grammatically correct or not. It’s not important. They could give a bunch of chimpanzees typewriters and hope for the best. I honestly don’t care. I fly AA all the time. I have no choice.I get there safely and sort of on time, kinda sorta. Their catch phrase could be “We Fly Good Because It’s What We Does Most Days ”
I just don’t care.
SUNNY: I never said or implied that the AA tag line was grammatically incorrect. I just wondered why “Live’s journey” had an apostrophe in the word Live’s since it’s not a contraction of Live is journey. A kind gentleman informed me that it is the possessive rule. I should have paid attention in high school English that day but see there was this beautiful girl seated in next to me and (EDIT WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE)……
(brain exits way back machine),
Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays
Everybody!
Nowadays, a company would hire a consulting firm that would come with a mission statement and/or brand “purpose”. As always it looks like the contract went to the cheapest bidder…
I almost see someone from AA leadership walking around a room and asking: “folks, how can we save on the marketing campaign, any ideas?”
To be honest high execs and departments lack leaders. There are only “bosses” there is no communication between headquarters and smaller offices around the world. And i bet you non of this high execs have ever sat next to a customer service rep and listen to the calls. They are hiring non stop however new hires do not last long. Trainings do not cover a lot, if they were suppose to be of two weeks they are condense into a week or three days,reason why is hard to keep uo eith quality on phone reps. Some offices are overworked and underpaid. Workers have become numbers at offices and airports. They decided two agents at the gates are enough even with cancellations, bad informed gate agents tell passengers to call customer reps for things can only be done at the airport. People should fill up their twitter, instagram and customer relations inbox to make them listen.
Brand management and advertising have NEVER been about reflecting reality. It has ALWAYS been about defining a desired narrative and a wishful image of how a company/product would like to be seen. Reality actually tends to interfere with achieving these 2 goals.
I work in this for this field. AA is such a let down. Horrible customer service, ridiculous amounts of delay and canceled flights.
Currently these exec not only in AA but all the ideas and decision are so full of …
The USAir crew running American has never gotten “it'”. Slogans, themes and mottos are a dime a dozen. They are the classic solution to every operational problem that denegrates service. Those highly paid, so called executves sitting in thier glass place always come up with this type of solution. They are meaningless to the empoyees who will no doubt be subjected to wasted hours of endless so called “training” sessions when they should be assistaing customers. They need manning, workable policies and procedures and top to bottom management support and to delvier the product. For the customers their main concern is they receeive and these idiotic solutions do nothing to enhance it. .
I agree with the person that said the slogan sounds better for a funeral home company. The slogan is such a sick joke. If AA cared about taking care of people, they would make flying enjoyable again, with more room between seats and real, consistent service from flight attendants and other personnel. Show me how much you care AA, before you try to tell me you are caring.
To tell the truth, I think that it is a really controversial issue because, from my point of view, the most important factor in defining the company is actions. I think that primarily you need to match your ‘brand purpose’ and act in accordance with it without throwing around loud words. I think that primarily the company needs to get a decent reputation and show in practice what they really are, being trustworthy. Of course, I agree with you that the slogan is too milquetoast and broad, but it doesn’t make any difference if this slogan is just an empty sound. Of course, it will be better for the company to think more carefully about their ‘brand purpose’ and think in a different way, choosing something more specific, giving a clear view of the company, but they also need to follow their purpose.