Living up to your brand promise

Delta Airlines is making more revenue per seat mile than other US airlines right now.

How did it do it?

Delta CEO ED Bastian decided to use the pandemic as an opportunity to live up to the airline’s brand promise. He quickly instigated a blocked middle seat policy designed to make customers feel comfortable and invited passengers to pay more for the peace of mind.

Now that confidence in flying is returning and the message is getting through, Delta have been able to remove this policy. However, they gained huge brand respect and their other measures on cleanliness and air purification landed more strongly.

C.E. Woolman, Delta’s original founder, had a customer-centric mantra back in the 1920’s …'Put yourself on the other side of the counter’ i.e. put yourself in the shoes of customers and recognise what it is they need and want, and what’s motivating or concerning them. It seems the current leadership is still living up to it.