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Continental Pushes Past Southwest In Customer Loyalty
- by Tanya Gazdik , February 9, 2012
This week, Marketing Daily brings you exclusive coverage of the Brand Keys 2012 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. Each day, you received
a full report on key product/services categories from among the 83 surveyed for this year's study, including automotive, electronics, retail and technology. This fifth and final installment focuses
on highlights from the airlines and hospitality categories.
Continental edged out last year’s top-ranking Southwest in the 16th annual Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI). Dropping to number three is Delta, which last year was tied with Southwest for first place.
United finished fourth, while JetBlue took the biggest nosedive, dropping to fifth (tied with US Airways) compared to third place last year and first place the year before. Midwest and Northwest tied for sixth and American finished seventh.
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In the airlines category, most of the brand strength Continental is showing is in inflight-related services and rates and extra charges (or lack thereof). “They seem to be doing it better than others in those critical drivers,” said Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys, Inc.
JetBlue has lost a lot of brand value by having planes sit on the runways for hours, he said. “Doing that takes away from the brand big-time, no matter how many salty snacks you pass around,” Passikoff tells Marketing Daily. “Sugar jags wear off and you're still on the ground. Not a delightful feature.”
The other airlines missed the boat by cutting back when times were rough. “Flyers don't forget if you've tried to gouge them for luggage. Or blankets and pillows,” he adds.
The CLEI, which quantifies consumers' current engagement/loyalty levels across 598 brands in 83 categories tracked by Brand Keys, once again ranked Avis as the top rental car company for a third consecutive year. Hertz finished second, followed by Enterprise, Budget, National, Dollar and Alamo.
The top hotels, according to Brand Keys, were InterContinental Hotels Group (luxury), Hilton (upscale), Best Western (midscale) and Days Inn (economy). All of the brands took top honors last year with the exception of Marriott, which beat Hilton in the upscale category.
Hilton moved up due to a large increase in scoring in “efficient services” and “amenities,” Passikoff says. “Given the general ubiquity in this level of hotel offering, it turns out to be the little things that can push a traveler one way or the other,” he says. “Like offering double AAadvantage miles.”
As a travel analyst and airline veteran. I have to question some of the points made in this article.
Continental has the same business model as other network airlines. It stopped offering complimentary meals in the domestic economy class cabin in 2010. It charges extras for bags, extra legroom seats, etc. Perhaps the higher scores for CO can be attributed to the airline's flight attendants and amenities like satellite TV. The challenge for United-Continental, which will complete their merger later this year, is to retain the high scores enjoyed by Continental and rise those attributed to legacy United.
With the exception of the unusual October 2011 weekend snowstorm, where JetBlue had some highly publicized diversions and delays, the airline did not have any other unusual operational problems in the past year. Like all airlines, JetBlue must comply with the "three hour rule," meaning that flights can sit on a taxiway/tarmac for no more than three hours after leaving a gate to take off. Attributing JetBlue's problems to one incident seems to be a stretch.