Southwest Airlines just opened at LaGuardia airport, with brand built on low fares. Sandra Howard, director of advertising for the airline opened her presentation at Wednesday's ANA Brand Innovation
Conference with a message about rational and emotional plays into the "Bags Fly Free" program. The company is extending the message starting this week by branding all its airplanes with a "Bags Fly
Free" decal placed above the baggage hatch in huge letters on the planes' fuselages. Luggage carts will also be branded with the message.
The program was announced at Wednesday's shareholder
meeting, per Howard, who said the airline's celebrity "rampers" -- baggage handlers who star in TV ads -- showed up for the shareholder meeting in Dallas on Wednesday to show their bellies painted
with the message per TV spots.
Howard said the campaign comes from a brand exploration started twelve months ago.
"We embarked on this journey for the brand and needed to freshen up
the face of the airline," says Howard, who explained the "Bags Fly Free" replaced and vastly improved the "Low Fares, No Hidden Fees," which she said was too complex, to complex messaging. She says
the campaign came from a look by marketers at the airline's need to grow the business in the face of flat business, the need to talk about the breadth of the product portfolio (eg early bidr, pets on
board, and business select) and turn the negative perceptions of air travel and airlines.
At the national level, the airline has not promoted a sale for the first time in years. "That speaks
to the power of highly emotional and transactional messages." The "Freedom to Fly" theme has also gone to "Freedom from Hassle" at the national level. "Freedom from Hassle" is the sweet spot she said
because consumer sentiment is that airlines think of them as "beaten, dejected, worn down, crushed compalcemtn, faceless, nameplss, miserable beaten down and ours." She showed an image of what the
airline sees what they look like. rooted in anger. "'Bags Fly Free' reflects fact that cnosumers feel hassled, taps into the core emotion and how to create talk value in the marketplace. "Grab your
bag, it's on," has been the airline's tag for a year.
With the June, 2009 launch, the company started putting employees -- initially the airline's CEO -- in TV spots.
"We begin to
see that our ads were picked up on competitor's flights, such as JetBlue." She concedes that the decision to use employees in the campaign instead of actors was a risk, but it worked out, she said.
"As our message evolved we began to transition to 100% employees in ads. And the idea then became two powerful forces about to meet: low expectations of travel and our employees." She said the
charisma would be generated by employees feeding off eachother's energy in ads.
Which is how the brand found the rampers, the employees in ads who load bags onto planes and evince the "Bags
Fly Free" message. "The competition allows us to keep this message fresh because they keep adding fees," she says, pointing out that the baggage-price differential between Southwest and others, who
now charge upwards of $120 per bag keeps getting greater. The airline also has real-estate at airports, featuring employees in ads. "We also have high presence with digital media."