The great floating in nowhere
Column: Cheap trends are devastating. Marketers face the challenge of creating effective countertrends.
Column: Cheap trends are devastating. Marketing faces the challenge of establishing effective countertrends. «Established travel providers are »helpless in the face of challengers,«» reads the headline in the Financial Times Deutschland. «Many managers feel unable to rise to the challenges,» the paper summarizes, citing a relevant study. These managers have “admitted that they cannot come up with satisfactory strategies to stand up to aggressive online and budget providers.” So it’s the same old story: “Cheap is cool.” And we can’t think of anything adequate to stand up to this devastating trend. Why is this trend—illustrated by the example of travel—so devastating? Because it devalues what is valuable. Wasn’t the journey itself once the destination, and valued accordingly? But this trend leaves no room for the pursuit of quality. And why else are otherwise privileged businesspeople, when traveling, increasingly accepting the role of crammed-in livestock being led to the slaughterhouse? Because this trend relegates the pursuit of sustainability to a naive dead end. Anyone who still wants to offer real coffee on an airplane today seems not to have grasped the profit-boosting power of the Styrofoam cup. And ultimately, this devastating trend instills fear of the future.
Of course, the trend toward low-cost travel means, first and foremost, that more and more people can be anywhere at any time. In this way, we are likely moving closer to what may be humanity’s deeply rooted dream of boundless mobility.
Does the end, then, justify the means? Mobility that knows no spatial, temporal, or social boundaries comes at a price: no real enjoyment, no genuine quality, no sustainable consideration for people or nature. This does not lead to total freedom, but rather to a state of lawlessness, devoid of protection and prospects.
The travel industry executives quoted at the beginning deserve our sympathy for their helplessness. We would deserve and expect the same in our line of work.
A glimmer of light at the end of the dark tunnel could come from two sources: From a technical and methodological standpoint, the first consideration should be part of the marketing toolkit. Where there’s a trend, there must also be room for a countertrend. With the «Stinginess Is Cool» trend, we’re hearing this more and more often. To counter cheap, you have to be able to position the trend as expensive. While this isn’t a bad insight, it’s not exactly groundbreaking, and it certainly doesn’t yet serve as a guiding principle for action.
The second line of inquiry is more substantive in nature. Isn't there a great deal of ambivalence in the vision of boundless mobility?
For many, boundless mobility has long since come to mean a loss of grounding, a sense of floating in limbo. Philosophers speak of «non-spaces» and are referring, for example, to airport lounges. Always on the move and never having arrived. Addressing the human need for the opposite of this experience of suffering holds the potential for a valuable brand concept. A sense of security as the core idea behind a «travel brand.» A sense of security as a service offered before and during the trip, at the destination, and also during the return journey and after arriving home. It should be obvious that this doesn’t come cheap.
What also strikes any modern-day traveler is that boundless mobility, combined with thousands and millions of like-minded people, almost inevitably leads to a sense of isolation. Anonymity in the crowd, as a phenomenon of modern mobile societies, has been well documented. So why not offer a sense of belonging as an antidote? Community as a brand concept in the travel industry. This shouldn’t be as cheap as possible, but as heartwarming as possible—and thus valuable to many.
And finally, those affected often perceive unlimited mobility as a threat to their mental and physical health. What globetrotter or frequent traveler isn’t occasionally troubled by the quiet fear of a heart attack during a flight or of contracting a life-threatening illness at the (wrong) destination? Of course, this might sound cynical, but still: health is likely to be the most valuable, quality-driven, and sustainable brand concept in the mobility industry of the future. And this concept ranges from the now-well-known wellness paradise as a travel destination to the still largely overlooked need to connect the site of an accident anywhere on the globe with treatment facilities at the world’s centers of excellence. With local ambulances, we used to think in terms of just a few kilometers and minutes. With the air ambulance, we’re already thinking on a larger scale. Now we’re facing the global leap: No matter where in the world a life-threatening illness strikes me, within a few hours I’ll be at one of the world’s recognized healthcare centers. Who would even think about money when faced with this prospect? Who would still want it to be as cheap as possible?
Jürgen Häusler is CEO of the Interbrand, Zintzmeier and Lux Group in Zurich and an honorary professor at the University of Leipzig.
Of course, the trend toward low-cost travel means, first and foremost, that more and more people can be anywhere at any time. In this way, we are likely moving closer to what may be humanity’s deeply rooted dream of boundless mobility.
Does the end, then, justify the means? Mobility that knows no spatial, temporal, or social boundaries comes at a price: no real enjoyment, no genuine quality, no sustainable consideration for people or nature. This does not lead to total freedom, but rather to a state of lawlessness, devoid of protection and prospects.
The travel industry executives quoted at the beginning deserve our sympathy for their helplessness. We would deserve and expect the same in our line of work.
A glimmer of light at the end of the dark tunnel could come from two sources: From a technical and methodological standpoint, the first consideration should be part of the marketing toolkit. Where there’s a trend, there must also be room for a countertrend. With the «Stinginess Is Cool» trend, we’re hearing this more and more often. To counter cheap, you have to be able to position the trend as expensive. While this isn’t a bad insight, it’s not exactly groundbreaking, and it certainly doesn’t yet serve as a guiding principle for action.
The second line of inquiry is more substantive in nature. Isn't there a great deal of ambivalence in the vision of boundless mobility?
For many, boundless mobility has long since come to mean a loss of grounding, a sense of floating in limbo. Philosophers speak of «non-spaces» and are referring, for example, to airport lounges. Always on the move and never having arrived. Addressing the human need for the opposite of this experience of suffering holds the potential for a valuable brand concept. A sense of security as the core idea behind a «travel brand.» A sense of security as a service offered before and during the trip, at the destination, and also during the return journey and after arriving home. It should be obvious that this doesn’t come cheap.
What also strikes any modern-day traveler is that boundless mobility, combined with thousands and millions of like-minded people, almost inevitably leads to a sense of isolation. Anonymity in the crowd, as a phenomenon of modern mobile societies, has been well documented. So why not offer a sense of belonging as an antidote? Community as a brand concept in the travel industry. This shouldn’t be as cheap as possible, but as heartwarming as possible—and thus valuable to many.
And finally, those affected often perceive unlimited mobility as a threat to their mental and physical health. What globetrotter or frequent traveler isn’t occasionally troubled by the quiet fear of a heart attack during a flight or of contracting a life-threatening illness at the (wrong) destination? Of course, this might sound cynical, but still: health is likely to be the most valuable, quality-driven, and sustainable brand concept in the mobility industry of the future. And this concept ranges from the now-well-known wellness paradise as a travel destination to the still largely overlooked need to connect the site of an accident anywhere on the globe with treatment facilities at the world’s centers of excellence. With local ambulances, we used to think in terms of just a few kilometers and minutes. With the air ambulance, we’re already thinking on a larger scale. Now we’re facing the global leap: No matter where in the world a life-threatening illness strikes me, within a few hours I’ll be at one of the world’s recognized healthcare centers. Who would even think about money when faced with this prospect? Who would still want it to be as cheap as possible?
Jürgen Häusler is CEO of the Interbrand, Zintzmeier and Lux Group in Zurich and an honorary professor at the University of Leipzig.
