Kulula's big idea backfires

It is all very well saying that if Kulula had used marketing as the thorough checklist that it is, it should have allowed for a few curve balls coming out of the environment it was creating in its captive marketplace. Kulula's marketing has been brilliant but now it is obvious that it wasn't perfect. And let's face it, this was quite some curve ball. But, it still could have been avoided.

Monty Python

For ages now, I have had Kulula customers telling me how wonderful aircrews and cabin staff were when it came to communicating with passengers. They all told me that it made them feel safer when the captain trivialised those things about aircraft that usually made passengers nervous. And the way in which cabin crews turned all those obligatory safety procedures into a sort of Monty Python Flying Circus.

For years now, absolutely everyone I know who has experienced Kulula has told me that they just love it all and it made them feel a lot more comfortable and less nervous.

But, listening to a few radio phone-in shows since the recent incident when a Kulula plane was forced to return to Cape Town and two passengers arrested for making jokes about hijacking, suddenly everyone thinks that Kulula's in-flight send-up communications strategy is a really bad idea.

No red flag

From a marketing point of view, where Kulula slipped up was clearly to forget to factor in the communications environment they were creating within their aircraft.

In an ideal world their marketing checklist should have thrown up a red flag which questions what the reaction would be of the captain and cabin crew when passengers joined the bandwagon and started making fun of those things that make aircraft captains and crews nervous - like hijacking.

If they had done so, then there would have been measures in place to at least allow for the captain and crew to determine whether those two guys were kidding about or whether they were serious. Instead they took a knee-jerk decision and in so doing cost the company a fortune, cost passengers a lengthy delay and a lot of inconvenience and, on top of it all, have pretty well ruined what was some really great marketing.

Cause and effect

Of course, one can often go round in circles when one applies a marketing checklist to any strategy. But, something that is simple to apply is a cause and effect quotient. Simply looking at the variety of possible reactions by your target market to what you are doing. My guess is Kulula did not go beyond just believing that this big idea would be great in terms of calming customers and making Kulula a fun airline to fly.

It is a pity today that fewer and fewer marketers are using the good old 12-point marketing mix as a checklist but rather electing to just come up with a big idea and go with it. One obviously cannot allow for absolutely every eventuality but it is possible to eliminate a heck of a lot of potential problems.