With all due respect to Mr.Cowles, who started the Marketing Basics thread a while a go, I would like to examine the "structure" of any common sense marketing effort. The REAL BASICS, if you will.
In a few lines below, I will get in to some specifics, but regarding the C&TS RR, there is one basic assumption that must be grasped, and is at the core of this whole "marketing" discussion on the RR.
This is: "NO ONE CAN COME TO RIDE THIS TRAIN, OR BUY A PRODUCT OR SERVICE....UNLESS THEY KNOW IT EXISTS"!
Thus enters the often misused word...MARKETING!
I respectfully submit MARKETING is often misunderstood. It is not a specific, but an UMBRELLA covering the major components. ADVERTISING, MEDIA RELATIONS, and PUBLIC RELATIONS. For the most part, these three major components of marketing can be used separately, however many are combined in one single theme or campaign.
Advertising....is pretty easy. You assemble your ad, and pay a publication to run it...same way with a TV commercial.
Public Relations....is also pretty easy. You train your telephone operators to speak with a "smile in their voices", and for all who interact with paying customers (i.e. GUESTS) to treat them with courtesy, respect, and act like you really care about their experience with you. You also speak at civic group luncheons, etc.
Media Relations....is one of the least understood,...yet holds the potential for REAL, true rewards....because it is almost FREE, and often does more than paid advertising.
An example: When I headed the 65 person marketing,media relations and TV department first for Stapleton, and then the new, huge DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, I invented the toll free WATTS LINE..."1-800-AIR-2-DEN" telephone service. If you missed your flight at Miami, you could go to any telephone and call that number in Denver, to have your family or friends know that you would be arring on the next available flight to Denver, and they could be paged to inform them of your schedule change, and make accomodations for your arrival. And...your call was FREE.
The news media went "beserk" and I had TV reporters and print reporters standing outide my office for two days waiting for an interviews. The story went all over the world for months, and the public loved it. For us in the airport business it conveyed the idea that we really carred for our "Guests"...but it let everyone know that the new DENVER AIRPORT existed and was warm and friendly towards the flying public and put the DIA "Brand" front and center in the eyes of the traveling public.
Best dollars we ever spent, and it didn't really cost all that much.
Many good and creative ideas have been posted here...and some not so much....but everybody seems to be thinking, and that's half the battle.
I think most of the ideas presented here are interesting, but I would encourage everyone to think about the "Structure of Marketing" and with your new idea...put them in a catageory like advertising or advertising/public relations...or media strategy.etc.
It is amazing that I have never heard anyone mention the existance of a media press kit for the RR...containing "Basic Identity Guidelines", pictures to reproduce for free, prepackaged copy for stories, etc.
A media press kid it one of the fundamental elements of any marketing program...and should be professionally designed and produced by pro's and not bush league amateurs. It's too important.
With marketing you want the "hit probability of a shotgun, with the acccuracy of a rifle"!
Think about it.
Respectfully,
Richard Boulware
Dep. Dir. of Aviation - Marketing, Media and Public Relations
Denver International Airport.
(Happily retired.)
