Reinvention of jetBlue

By Will Waugh

Flying out to Seattle yesterday reminded me of the true joys of air travel. I won't say which airline it was, but the comfort level was suspect. I will say, it wasn't jetBlue. Last week, at our Brand Innovation Forum, Andrea Spiegel, VP Sales & Marketing for jetBlue took us through their brand story. A story that, until recently, had evolved magnificently. We all know what happened in February with their first major "operational challenge." (Andrea mentioned several nicknames - The Valentine's Day massacre popping to the forefront) I direct you to a few posts from our marketing blog family about the debacle: Peter Kim, CK, Max, and Global Neighborhoods.

I personally love jetBlue. When I moved to New York seven years ago, I bought a one way ticket from Ft. Lauderdale to JFK on the, at that point, brand new airline. I still have the ticket stub. jetBlue is the one airline that could have suffered this setback and recovered so brilliantly. There are a couple reasons for this. One, which this audience will love, is they listen to the blogosphere regularly and actively track word of mouth. jetBlue's response to this crisis was heartfelt, sincere and personal:

• The Customer Bill of Rights - so far it's working and is another industry first
• The famous YouTube announcement from CEO David Neeleman - the first time a CEO of a major company had addressed customers via YouTube.
• Improved self service tools and call center resources
• The creation of a customer advisory council
• A promise to keep customers posted on progress in 30 days (a second YouTube video went up 30 days later and there was little discussion about it in the blog world)

In a world where brands keep taking away (I am at the W Seattle and I just found out a new W policy has taken coffeemakers out of hotel rooms. Well, I'm on East Coast time and a Starbucks doesn't open for 2 hours - not good!), it is encouraging to see companies do still care about their lifeblood. "Bringing humanity to flying" is JetBlue's brand promise and their hearfelt response - a direct expression of their brand - reminded people why they loved jetBlue in the first place.

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