make this experience, the more valuable the brand. At this point
we are moving into the territory of Part III, cementing the brand
definition into the customer’s mind. The brand manager should
examine every possible interaction, mapping them out on what
we might call the customer’s activity cycle (see Figure 11.3).
The cycle starts with the realisation of a need, moves through the
assessment of options, the decision to purchase, on to use, and then
post-use satisfaction, disposal and the need to repurchase. Then
ask the questions: 1) does the brand make a positive impact at
every step? and 2) could it make more positive impacts, and where?
Brand positioning – securing a place in the customer’s mind
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85
Virgin Atlantic
The Virgin Atlantic brand is particularly skilled at making positive
impacts at points in the cycle as yet still unthought of by others.
Take two examples.
We all hate those early-morning flights that demand check-ins
at unearthly hours and so make us get up at even more unearthly
hours of the night. Virgin Atlantic now offers the facility to check
in the evening before, and then turn up for the flight at a more
civilised hour – a positive impact on a previously unattended part
of the activity cycle, and an addition to the brand’s unique
definition and positioning.
Or, imagine you are on holiday in Florida. You’ve had a great
time with the family in the parks, until the last day, which is spent
getting to the airport and hanging around with tearful and frustrated
kids who just want to see Mickey one more time. So how about letting
you check your luggage in at one of the parks, so that you can spend
your last day on holiday rather than in transit? The Virgin Atlantic
brand keeps itself ahead of the pack through such innovations,
developed as a result of its understanding of and concern for the total
customer experience. It has successfully created a brand that takes it
well beyond the mundane business of just flying aircraft.
Now, post-11 September 2001, perhaps all this changes and
these kind of interactions are either not possible or not desirable.
Perhaps new interactions that stress and ensure security will
become the mark of the leading airline brands – times change, but
brands can react positively as well as defensively to these changes.