The Tribune

MARKETING REVOLUTION

By D'ARCY RAHMING

AFTER an incredible five days in Rome, Italy, my wife and I arrived at New York's JFK airport at 4pm. My connecting flight had a 7.50pm boarding time, so technically I had plenty of time. Or so I thought. Several flights arrived at the same time, so the line for US Immigration seemed to stretch into infinity. We knew we would be there a long time.

Actually, that line moved pretty fast. So we made it out of US Immigration in about 30 minutes, having felt certain it would be an hour's wait. As my wife and I made our way to pick up our baggage and get past Customs, we faced the first bottleneck. Customs had organised it so that three lines merged into one. So it took another 30 minutes to get out of that area.

US Customs then directed us to the Delta line to drop-off checked baggage for those with connecting flights. The line stretched back to almost outside the terminal. There were two Delta representatives walking up and down the line saying 'Diamond Platinum service' or something like that. Meanwhile, people were fuming. I was glad I had the presence of mind to use the bathroom after I got off of the plane. It took us another 30 minutes just to drop our bags off. It's now about 5.30pm, so still plenty of time, right? Wrong!

We now had to join another very long line to go through security. And, after another 15 minutes on that line, what does Delta do? They ask who has a 6.30pm flight, and put all of those people ahead of us. We did not make it into the terminal for our connecting flight until 7pm.

Now here's where Delta missed a grand opportunity. I am sure those ladies who were asking for the 'Diamond Platinum Service' were leading people off the long lines and ushering them through to their next flights. What if the young ladies had instead been stationed where we initially picked up the baggage, and were telling customers: "Want to avoid these long lines? Sign up for your Diamond Platinum Service now and avoid this hassle." I assure you they would have had 1,000 premium sign-ups that day regardless of cost.

This is called Emotional Immediate Response Advertising. It speaks to the emotions of the customer, giving them what they want while immediately solving a problem for them. It is very different from image or brand advertising, which assumes that with enough exposure you will recognise the brand as a solution to your problem. Brand Advertising almost always takes a lot of money, whereas emotional immediate response advertising is sometimes as simple as adding a few words while holding up a sign.

NB: D'Arcy Rahming holds a Masters of Management from the prestigious J. L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://DArcyRahming.com or contact him directly at darcyrahmingsr@gmail.com