Energy is definitely lower for the SDC, but we’ve only seen a handful of conferences that’s figured out how to keep momentum going into the second day. Today, Henry Harteveldt gave a keynote speech, and while he was mostly a Debbie Downer in his message, he does have a great message.
One sentence summary: "We are going through a second coming of the Great Depression and airlines must fundamentally change how they look at distribution and embrace Merchandising" .
- Henry (having heard him speak a ton - we think are close enough to be on a first-name basis now) believes that its time to stop looking at “Distribution”, but look at airline industry as an opportunity for “Merchandising” and capitalize on consumer emotion during the selling process.
- Money Quote: “Distribution is passive while Merchandising is active”. It’s the difference between shopping at Wal-Mart (cram the store with products at a low price) vs. shopping at the Apple Store (every detail from spacing to lighting to the shelve color is carefully considered for the shopping experience). The key is to somehow bring emotion into the shopping equation. This is a huge, fundamental shift to selling.
- Example: Many people feel that the check-in / security process is painful, but if you can offer products like United’s Premiere Line (you get to go thru security with the elite fliers) – they will gladly pay.
- "Times are tuff all over" and it’s really the rich people’s fault the airlines are hurting. Families making over $100,000 a year make up about 30% of the population – but they make up 45% of all travelers. However, they are nervous and just not using their money to travel on grand vacations.
Overall, you can tell that CASMA really scaled it down this year. They usually have some pretty fancy off-site event, but this year they simply had a band and dinner in the ballroom. That’s not a bad thing at all given the economic times. However, the best news of the entire conference was the announcement of their next conference location:
Overall, you can tell that CASMA really scaled it down this year. They usually have some pretty fancy off-site event, but this year they simply had a band and dinner in the ballroom. That’s not a bad thing at all given the economic times. However, the best news of the entire conference was the announcement of their next conference location:
VEGA$ BABY!!!!
Can’t wait.
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