It’s very easy to be cynical when a major organization announces a rebranding exercise. It appears in one case, that KLM who announced their rebranding in2008 are true believers in the power of their brand and are continue to invest to cement their brand positioning across the business.
When I received a gift from KLM over Christmas I was intrigued. As a loyal customer of KLM (I should point out my interest in that I am currently a Platinum member of their loyalty program, Flying Blue) I was sent a set of coffee stirrers specially designed by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders. The gift announced that from the end of March 2011 a Wenders designed range of crockery and cutlery will replace the current World Business Class food service. This mailing went only to customers at the top tier of the loyalty program.
I thought it was an original, if unusual gift – made moreso because I am an expat living in the Netherlands, and I have never felt the need for a set of roerstaafjes (coffee stirrers) – so wanted to learn more and understand how this marketing tactic aligns with KLM’s brand positioning strategy.
I’ve been concerned for some time that in this age of social media marketers are so desperate to engage their customers in a conversation or interaction with their customers that they have sacrificed their brand positioning strategy in the search for content: any content, just as long as it gets me in front of the customer. With the increasing importance of social media in the marketing mix, marketers are becoming increasingly tactic focused. It often appears that in this environment, they forget that for a brand to mean something, it has to mean something.
KLM is hard at work trying to make their brand mean something and I believe based on a number of activities we have witnessed in the last months (my roerstaafjes included), that there is a committed and focused group of marketers who are trying to bring their brand to life on a daily basis.
We cannot underestimate what I tough job it is to create a credible one brand approach in a company like KLM. The air travel business is complex with many companies looking for a meaningful point of differentiation in a world of sameness.
Firstly, let’s try to deconstruct the logic behind KLM’s generosity:
- It was time to change the crockery: Every part of the airline’s equipment reaches the end of its useful life at some time or other. KLM have used this occasion when the current service has reached the end of its life cycle, imaginatively, to communicate with their most valuable customers
- The marketing objective here was to reinforce customer loyalty: Communicating in an exclusive mailing to your most valuable customers was an unexpected way for KLM to show their appreciation to them for their business.
- There was no expectation of a specific commercial payoff from the activity: Being realistic, KLM did not think that customers would immediately book more flights because the crockery has been changed. Cynics might argue against this, but I disagree.
- It was another good opportunity to support the brand positioning: If we are to understand the refreshingly genuine positioning, a great part of it is about the “Dutchness” of KLM, aligned to the concept that each traveler is also a person. Perhaps KLM just wanted to do something ‘nice’ for a group of customers it values because that’s what the brand now stands for.
- There is no grand operational marketing master plan, but marketers are becoming Marchitects: This was an opportunistic initiative driven by empowered marketers who understand their brand and feel empowered to take steps to support their brand values, brand positioning and strategy so that their brand becomes a leading brand.
So a job well done? On interviewing KLM they tell me that there has been a lot of positive feedback received from their customer base on the gift. Customers have responded positively both in terms of appreciation of the gift in itself and the proposed design by Marcel Wanders. [Wanders has done a good job of integrating essential elements of the KLM logo into the design].
My view? Well, it’s put KLM World Business Class back on the table (literally) and I think that KLM cares about me just a little bit more than maybe I did before the gift arrived.
There is a wider context to consider, concerning the repositioning of KLM, of which this initiative forms part. There was quite a lot of noise made about the Landor Associates led repositioning of KLM which promised updated cabin interiors, seats, meals and inflight entertainment. An improved passenger experience was promised offering customers a “Journeys of Inspiration”.
It is a grand promise, but it looks like KLM continues to invest in the customer experience to deliver on it. I have noticed that the business class lounges have been upgraded, check in is easier and I can pre book my seat; and I like what has happened to the Holland Herald inflight magazine over the last few years with themed issues replacing the rather tired monthly issues that preceded.
Another interesting executional development has been the decision to reinforce the Dutch heritage of KLM, which brings us back to the Wanders designed crockery and World Business Class service set. KLM clearly think that their Dutchness is a competitive differentiator for its target customer base. It’s worked for the country, why not leverage all that good work for the flag carrying airline (even if it is now owned by the French!)
Is seems to work. What do we think of and associate with the Netherlands? Windmills, Cheese, colorful fields of tulips, clogs and Delft Blue pottery. Associating the airline with the perceived national identity offers multiple touchpoints that support the brand and the shared equity association means that KLM gains points any time the Netherlands gets a mention – and let’s face it, on the world stage there is a lot more positive press for the Netherlands than negative.
The end result, KLM is looking to differentiate itself by placing the customer at the centre of all that it does and using traditional Dutch values to deliver on the promise. Vice President of Marketing for KLM Netherlands, Roy Scheerder says that a better understanding of core customer needs as a result of extensive research is driving many of these changes. The research identified a hierarchy of needs for customers with time, comfort and attention the most important. It’s these need states that will drive future service and product developments.
When combined with the three recognizable Dutch traits of friendliness, openness and genuineness it looks like there could be quite a compelling package to achieve relevant differentiation in this sector.
What I like about what’s happening at KLM is that they have defined what they see as being uniquely KLM and as this matures, the MArchitects of this brand are finding novel ways to demonstrate that they really mean business when it comes to focusing on the customers’ needs. Being engaging and caring on a one to one basis is very difficult to achieve in such a large operation – it’s also notoriously difficult to scale up – but KLM demonstrated in October with its Surprise activities you don’t have to touch every customer to get the message across.
No, I was not one of the travelers who was surprised (even though I am a Foursquare, LinkedIn Twitterer), but that did not matter. The message was clear. KLM cares, what we are doing is genuine and while not all your journeys will inspire you, we will do our best to help you along the way.
Back to my roerstaffjes. I will admit that I did not really get the point of the gift when it arrived. The propeller design is clever, the integration of the logo elements works well within a clear example of Wanders design and the covering letter explained that KLM was continuing to invest in my travelling comfort. I think I tried to read too much into the gift, and failed to see it at its face value. I was, perhaps too cynical of the motivation of the marketers at KLM and even questioned the tactical integrity of the initiative.
I am pleased that I did look further into this, and am also grateful to the KLM MArchitechts who gave their time in interviews as I found out more about the initiative (thank you Fiona Gildemeister, Fiona Vanderbroek and Roy Scheerder). What I have found out is that there is a true commitment within KLM as a business to own, build and develop a strong and competitive brand, based on the foundation of a strong and well perceived brand positioning strategy.
Could the execution of my gift have been better? Well, yes. Constructively, and I think KLM would agree with this but over all this was a job well done:
- it’s challenging to write about sustainability as a key driver of the business and in the covering letter for the gift and then send me a large cardboard giftbox with a small gift set out in non biodegradable plastic
- while I live in the Netherlands, my Flying Blue profile clearly states a preference for communications in English (the covering letter was in Dutch)
- try to find a way of executing on this gentle approach to customer engagement in a less formal way
My next step? I think I will be preparing an inferred brand positioning strategy statement for KLM. Maybe this group of MArchitechts will be prepared to discuss it with me when I’m done!
The Marchitect 