Porter Airlines email marketing trains customers to wait for a sale fare

Last month I travelled to Toronto to speak at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference and flew via Porter Airlines from Boston.

The Porter Airlines flight and service was excellent. I particularly loved flying into Toronto City Airport, which is located on an island right downtown. The travel time from the airport to downtown is significantly less than from the main international airport located outside Toronto.

I'd definitely fly Porter Airlines again. But, next time I would only book a fare that was on sale.

After I booked, I signed up for their email offers. I expected to be educated about Porter and the destinations they fly. I was not.

Instead, on a regular basis, all they’ve been sending me are fare sales. I must have gotten a dozen offers in the several months I've been on their email list.

It sort of annoyed me that I paid more for my flight than I should have. I couldn't switch because the fare sale emails say: "New bookings only".

I get what they are doing. They want to fill seats and it is a lazy marketers drug to run sales on a regular basis. It sort of reminds me of how some companies use Groupon, which I wrote about in this post: The dark side of Groupon.

Offering frequent fare sales trains customers to wait for a better price on Porter Airlines. It also annoys customers like me who (stupidly) paid too much.

Porter Airlines can do email marketing better

I keep waiting to see emails from Porter Airlines talking about their other destinations. Why not tell me about Moncton? Maybe I'd like to go but I don't know anything about it. Or maybe Porter could provide ideas on why I should return to Toronto with my family. Or they could introduce their people "This is Captain Smith." But they don't do anything like this. It's all about the sale.

Your email marketing should be used to build a long-term relationship with your customers. You should educate and entertain them.

There's a lot more to email marketing than pimping a sale price.

Comments

[Steve Jones]

Great insights David. What might not be known to many is that a few years ago Porter announced that they were abandoning their "promo codes" and discontinuing sales.
Within a few months, the promo codes and sales were back.
Porter is a fantastic airline. They have great service, comfortable planes, excellent staff, free beer and wine on board, and even iMacs in their lounge (which all passengers are welcome to use).
But their reliance on discounting is both sad and dangerous.

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Steve - thanks for jumping in. Yes, the service is great. I would fly them again. But I think the constant sales cheapens the experience. In addition, they only use the email channel to pimp the sales when it could be so much more effective!

[JoshLeichtung]

I suppose that we should be expecting JC Penny to be dropping their "Apple" strategy and start with the sales again. When I heard about that strategy I knew it wouldn't last.

When marketers are in very competitive markets they tend to get into a race to the bottom. They "spend" more by discounting, rather than improve their merchandise selection, their advertising, or in the case of retail their displays.

Thanks for the insight.

[Rj_c]

I never understand when companies treat customers differently depending on what channel that customers or lead found them on.

I have to agree that more companies take Porter Airlines approach when it comes to email marketing and this makes those on the Email list not interested in any communication.

[Colin Warwick]

Hi David, I hear you... but this isn't the worst sin airlines commit. It's not even the poor in flight service nor economy seats constructed from a bed of nails. No, it's the out-and-out lying. "Your flight is delayed 17 minutes." when it turns out your plane hasn't even left Laguardia yet and hasn't a hope in hell of even arriving in Pittsburgh at least two hours after its scheduled departure time. They know for a fact that two "later" flights will leave before your "earlier" flight, but they don't have the honesty to tell you and give you the opportunity to catch them. Airlines are liars. Email content is a secondary effect. Let's fix the lying first.

[David Schultz]

you know who is doing a great job with this kind of marketing (not necessarily email specific) is the people over at Nest thermostats. http://www.nest.com/blog