Episode #59 – The Airline boss that’s lost his mind, my scratch ‘n’ dent sale, a question about pricing products, and a BIG marketing lesson from a FatCow!
June 9, 2009Episode #59 – “It’s not that I forget…it’s just that I don’t care! 
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Websites and resources mentioned in the show:
Scratch n Dent Sale (Grab yourself a bargain until everything gets sold out)
MemberGate.com (The online membership site platform – check out the free videos)
FatCow.com (FatCow WebHosting)
Wufoo.com (Create forms easily online for your website)
NiftyClicks (Discover the very latest web tools and resources)
Get a Private Telephone Consultation with me (to Help YOUR Business)
Buy This Week’s T-Shirt(from National Media Services)
My initial reaction on hearing about RyanAir’s plans to charge for using the toilets on their planes was shock, but in this economy it figures. RyanAir have a track record of doing things like that. Nothing is free on their flights, not even a measly drink. Rather than try and skimp and save at every turn, wouldn’t they be better off focusing on PLEASING the customer?! Apparently the only airline that gets what customers want (and gives it to them), is Virgin.
If you’re interested in one of my training products but money is tight, it’s a perfect time to invest. I’m having a scratch n dent sale this week until all the items dissapear. Visit Scratch n Dent Sale.
If you’ve ever wondered about creating a ‘lite’ version of an existing product and selling it cheaper or even give it away for free to attract business of the standard version, pay attention. That’s exactly the topic I’m discussing this week in ‘Ask Andrew’.
A lot of people ask me how to put an opt-in email form on their website so that they can capture the names and email addresses of visitors. I use Infusion but that’s only really suitable for an established business in my opinion. Enter Wufoo.com, a resource that makes it easy to create and include any kind of webform on your website. I think you’ll like it.
This week’s BIG marketing lesson is from FatCow hosting. This is a company that does an amazing job at creating a distinctive brand with personality. You can learn a lot from looking at their site.
Enjoy the show!
Regards,
June 10th, 2009 at 5:31 am
My wife recently flew on Alliegant Air. Great experience. From Sanford not Orlando. Small airport = great and quick experience. Non-stop flights only to smaller airports around the country. Interesting thing is they had a 50-50 drawing on the flight. Sold tickets and one passenger won $137. More than paid for his ticket.?!
June 10th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Andrew, I was reading just this morning that some United flights charge you an extra $39 for the rows with more legroom. The kicker is that once in the air, if those better seats are empty, they still won’t let passengers move to them because they didn’t pay the extra fee. Talk about ill will towards customers.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:18 am
great show as always, thanks and I am looking forward to see the big NEWS next week, hope it is gotbiz and more
bernd
June 10th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Yes, Andrew! I would pay more for a great, more consistent experience. It’s too much to charge for everything “a la carte”. That would turn me off immediately and I’m looking forward to flying Virgin!
June 10th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Andrew, a word about the blog here. I hate that the page reloads every time I want to leave a comment or submit a comment. Would you consider putting some of your content into frames so the page doesn’t reset after every action.
June 10th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Andrew – While I don’t suggest that charging to use the latrine or requiring customers to load their own bags (what a mess that could be!), I do think that, over a certain body weight, that they should charge by the pound! I flew from PDX to SFO several years ago in coach on United and selected an aisle seat. The only unused seat on the plane was the middle one next to me. As they were in the process of closing the door, 300+ pounds of fat woman barged down the aisle and plopped down next to me, overflowing the armrests on both sides of her seat. After securing a seat belt extension, we finally got into the air with me leaning over into the aisle to avoid intimacy. As if that wasn’t enough, once we arrived at altitude, fatso drug out her laptop computer, sat it on her belly (she couldn’t lower the tray table) and proceeded to operate it! I paid the same as she, but got a significantly lower experience. She should have been required to buy two seats and pay for both.
Also, another good company name = “Go Daddy” my web hoster.
June 10th, 2009 at 10:31 am
The airlines aren’t the only ones going “crazy”. My wife just returned from nationals bowling tournament in Reno. She had booked her hotel and flight thru Expedia, but when she arrived at the hotel they informed her that the rate she was quoted did not include a $25 per night surcharge!! Then the hotel informed her that there were fees for riding the “courtesy” shuttles…and that the last one left the hotel at 6:30 pm! My sister-in-law made the same trip and also used Expedia. There was a problem with one leg of her journey, so Expedia cancelled her entire ticket, failed to notify her and didn’t rebook an alternate flight for her! Sounds to me like the travel industy needs a swift kick in the pants. No wonder they’re on “hard times”!
June 11th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Andrew, we say great for Virgin air. Hope that they keep it up. To the rest of them. booooo ! They are all going nuts and in the wrong direction.
To the person with the question-should he sell it or give it away. This might be the perfect in for people to see what the software can do. Maybe a free trial use of the no bells and whistles one with an option to upgrade to the bells and whistles version would be a good way for him to go. The free trail can be for a limited amount of time. The customer can use the product to see if it is what they need before they buy.
Thank you for a great show as always. We really like the Fat cow hosting very different in the thinking. Like that one a lot.
Dan and Deanna “Marketing Unscrambled”
June 11th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Yes, I would pay more for an airline that I’ve had good experiences with and trusted. I would definitely pay more for that Virgin flight. Looks good
I think its just wrong that that man wants people to pay to use the restroom. It a natural human function that people need to do and if they are on the plane what else are they suppose to do. I feels that’s taking advantage of their situation.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:57 am
We’re planning a trip between two cities in Europe and checked prices on Ryan Air, among other airlines. Ryan Air’s price, as always, is competitive. We’ve had both good and not-so- good experiences with Ryan Air before, and we dislike the airline’s attitude, so we decided to avoid flying with them if at all possible. Only one other airline, a national carrier, offered a price reasonably close to that of Ryan Air. Although it was slightly higher, we would have chosen it except for a six-hour layover in the capital city of the carrier’s country. So the “winner” was Ryan Air, but by default not choice. Just a little “nudge” from another carrier would have caused us to switch.
June 12th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Good sh1t – http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2009/06/via-roma.html
June 12th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
@ Jay AJAX would be better then frames – it ain’t 2000 any more! A JQuery implementation would be the easiest.
I would suggest to make the HTML forms larger – a bit more padding. But that’s just nit picking.
Oh and great work Andrew, really!
June 12th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Right you are Andrew, I will never get on a plane that will ask me $5 dollars so I could take a “pee”, that is preposterous… I would rather pay more and get on a plane that will make me feel am so pampered above the skies.
Great Post!!!
June 13th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Great comments everyone, it’s interesting to hear about all your experiences with different airlines.
Chris and Jay,
I’ll pass that info on to my techy person, I have no idea about programming
Glen,
I sympathize with your experience because I had a similar one. It was very unpleasant to have sweaty flesh roll over the arm rest onto MY lap from the lady sitting next to me. I realize that some people have challenges with their weight, but it seems unfair for me to suffer as a result of that kind of ’spillage’.
Regards
Andrew
June 18th, 2009 at 10:54 am
[...] a recent episode of Help! My business sucks! I heard about RyanAir’s plans to charge for using the toilets on their planes. My initial [...]