Brand is a Key Success Factor for SocialAir, as it is one of the primary Member loyalty bonds. Members are bound to the community through face-to-face engagements with fellow members on board jets, through social applications in the Members Portal, and through ongoing communication through various other social channels including email, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, chat, text, events and of course telephone, and each of these feedback loops exerts it’s own unique pull on Members that keep them attached to the organization. Their identification with the Brand image of the organization is the most subtle of these primary loyalty bonds, but one that has a very real effect.
SocialAir is as much a lifestyle brand as it is a travel company, and it will project a unique brand image that constantly reinforces this lifestyle.
Who is a SocialAir Member?
The Social Air Member ideal is someone who is on the go. We are the top 2-5% of earners in the U.S. which puts us in a pretty elite class–and we know it. But we aren’t plastic. We didn’t have this status handed to us. We earned it through our wits and charm and nowwe’re enjoying the fruits of our labor. We don’t identify with the 1% who stand apart from the rest of us with their inordinate wealth and their fixation on privacy.
Social Air Members haven’t arrived. We are on our way. We are making connections and making things happen. For us, SocialAir is a smart move because we gain efficiency on multiple levels. We save travel time while making the most of the time we do spend.
SocialAir Members aren’t so full of ourselves that we think the world has to revolve around us. We have a flexible attitude, and we’ve reached a position in life where we have the ability to be flexible when we want to. Ego is not the determining factor, (though we do have enough pride to appreciate the optics of traveling in private jets). Mostly, we’re just regular folks who happen to have done pretty well in life, and now we’re just seeing how far we can go.
It’s Social
Unlike every other company in the industry the focus on the big four benefits (Privacy, Prestige, Convenience, Comfort) with corresponding imagery of empty jets, SocialAir will focus on the people–the Members. All of our imagery will focus on the people in the shots,with the jet interiors and exteriors simply serving as a backdrop. The message that “The most valuable thing about a SocialAir flight is the knowledge, assets and network of your fellow passengers” and the general joys of social travelling will be consistently reinforced throughout marketing copy and all communications with Members.
We do want to remain a viable option to people who require a little more privacy, so this image will need to be calibrated so as not to allow the image to become something like a ‘Party Plane’. The overall openness/friendliness/sociability of our member base, both in marketing representations as well as real-life, is something that we will need to manage to try and push it to the optimal middle ground. We want Members to feel that the community culture is open to various levels of sociability–from incognito travelers to social butterflies–and that all types are respected. But while a need for privacy will never be discouraged or criticized, social behavior will be applauded and rewarded in various ways.
The reason for this is simple: The more people engage socially they more connected they are to the organization which directly affects member retention levels. In short, promoting a socially-oriented brand promoting a positive lifestyle is a profitable strategy.
Apple vs. the Clones
SocialAir is to the standard private jet charter companies what Apple is to all the IBM Clones. Social Air is the company with heart and ingenuity. It is the company with personality and charm. And SocialAir inspires engagement and loyalty–Loyalty that goes both ways, because everyone in Social Air is a Member.