Ryan Daniel Moran outlines three moves he'd make as JetBlue CEO: buy travel influencers to reach younger flyers, create reality shows for brand loyalty, and launch a premium COVID-safe boarding option to capture nervous travelers willing to pay more.
My favorite airline is JetBlue. I like JetBlue because they're one of the smaller airlines, but they work in some of the niceties that some of the big airlines have. Well, the airline companies are getting crushed right now. It got me wondering, if I was the CEO of my favorite airline, how would I navigate this time to market myself for the long term, but also make sure that I was profitable in the short term? I, Ryan Daniel Moran, this is capitalism tv. Let's dive in.
So the first thing that I would do if I was the CEO of JetBlue is I would go after the young travel market and I would start buying up content sites and influencers that were in that space specifically. So a few years ago, the company red ventures bought thepointsguy.com. now, the points Guy is a huge website. It's an authority site that talks about how to use points to travel hack and get things for free. And what's really interesting about the Points Guy is he can actually influence the amount of credit card applications that people fill out for airlines or for just some of the major financial institutions. Well, there are a dozen other similar websites that are on the upswing of influencing young travelers. And that's who the airline companies need to influence right now. They need to get in front of the young crowd that is still traveling and wanting to travel on a budget. So you have this big pool of unemployed youth who either lost their jobs or in between things or just graduated college, and they got handed this raw deal. And a lot of them are reevaluating their life options and they're becoming travel bloggers or they're following travel bloggers. If I'm the CEO of JetBlue, I'm reducing my budget for TV ads or other types of advertising, and I'm going out and I'm buying the media that exists around travel influencers, specifically those who are 35 and under. JetBlue is very well liked by young people because most young people don't care if they're flying on American or Delta. It's all the same to them. They're shopping on price and they're shopping on overall experience. And JetBlue excels in both of those categories. So if you can get in front of the youth crowd, then you are getting people for a long time. Now, this is in distinct contrast to a company like Delta because Delta has their foothold in business travel. That's not JetBlue's bread and butter. So if they go after the youth crowd, they're in front of their ideal customer for the next several decades. And if they can show other influencers who are out traveling or are going to Covid friendly places and they're doing content about COVID friendly travel and they're showing how to travel on a shoestring budget and it's all sponsored by JetBlue, then you're in front of the ideal customer for years to come. This, this is a much more affordable way to advertise and it's a much more effective way to advertise than how most of the airlines spend their advertising budget. The second thing that I would do as the CEO of JetBlue is I would go really hard into digital content. There is no one in the travel or specifically the airline space that is doing content marketing well, especially today. So what type of content would a company like an airline make in order to get in front of their ideal target market? Well, it's gonna be all travel content. If they can show, sponsor and feature well known people or well known travelers to document their travel experience and show them going on JetBlue flights, then this becomes really great content that is affordable, easy to make and converts really, really well. I would actually launch my own reality show. Corporate type of comedies are very popular. Think of the office, think of Superstore. When you are making fun of the insider things that happen in big companies, that type of content performs really well. And if you can show it like a reality show and build up some of the characters of the people who work at JetBlue, you create a cult following around that company. The beauty of this is that you're getting loyalty among the customers at a very early stage in their buying behavior. So, so if you're getting the young crowd specifically on social media and doing digital content and you're getting this kind of cult following, then you establish JetBlue as the preferred airline for that group for many, many years. And if you start now, you'll be way ahead of Delta and American and all the other airlines who will probably follow suit over the next few years. So both of these things are made to establish JetBlue as an authority among their target demographic and and also to acquire new customers when the time that advertising is really cheap. Facebook ads are cheaper, influencers are cheaper, building audience is cheaper than it's been in years. Big companies would do well to take advantage of that right now. And then the third thing that I would do is we need to come up with some other high profit margin product that we can add to our existing line. And in this case, what I would do is I would launch either some sort of family boarding or Covid free or Covid friendly boarding process. And specifically what I mean is blocking off a section of the plane where you would pay a premium to be separate from everyone else. I have two kids. When I travel it's a pain in the rear and right now we're not traveling because of COVID So what would make me more comfortable going is if I could pay a premium to board separately and and be away from everybody else. That type of an experience would allow airlines to charge a premium just like they used to do for first class. Right now, not a lot of people are traveling first class. Not a lot of people are traveling at all. So if you're the first to market with a different type of experience that is high end and specifically addresses the reason why people aren't traveling, you now give people a second safer option to be able to feel comfortable traveling again with the airline that pioneered it. And that would be JetBlue in this case. The beautiful thing about recessions is they're a great equalizer. Everyone struggles the same and it's like a reset of the chessboard. Everyone is playing with the same set of challenges and the first person to innovate during this time usually wins. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran and this is Capitalism tv. If you found value out of this analysis and set of recommendations, let me know in the comments. And if you work at or for JetBlue and you want my help, shoot me a message on Instagram. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran and My email is ryanapitalism.com hey, thanks for watching Capitalism TV. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran. I'll see you on the next episode.
