Making the News Work for You

Building Relationships, Making Sales

September 2006 By Denny Hatch

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That a passenger went ballistic after waiting an hour-and-a-half for his luggage and wound up in police custody was unfortunate, but not surprising.

Much is happening in the world to give us all angst—tight security and long lines at airports, the high price of oil and natural disasters. All can interrupt the normal patterns of our lives.

Marketers have two choices: (1) Business as usual or (2) use news to enhance your business by scoring Brownie points with your customers and prospects (and perhaps making extra sales).

This is old-fashioned PR, salesmanship and customer retention management.

Savvy Hotel and Rental-car Marketers
Last month when arrests were make in the United Kingdom of alleged terrorist plots to destroy U.S.-bound airliners with liquid explosives, passengers who showed up at airports worldwide were told they could not carry on any liquids—no gels, no shampoo, no medicines, not even bottled water. All of these items—many of them very expensive—were confiscated by screeners and trashed.

Quick-thinking executives at luxury hotels realized that this ban on liquids was a marketing opportunity. They sent employees out to cosmetics and department stores to buy up not only basics, but also top-of-the-line moisturizers, hair gels and shampoos.

When disgruntled guests checked in, many found big baskets at the registration desk filled with upscale toiletries free for the taking—Kiehl’s, L’Oréal, Clinique and Lancôme.

A spokeswoman for Starwood Hotels told Judann Pollack of AdAge.com, “Our hotels have stocked up on amenities we don’t typically offer guests, like hair gel, hair spray, deodorant, etc., anticipating that guests may have had to abandon toiletries at the airport. At the moment, we are not charging guests for amenities.”

Omni Hotels President Mike Deitemeyer ordered his chain to make a full range of liquid toiletries available to guests, saying, “We want to do whatever it takes to make their travel experiences less stressful.”

Avis immediately cut a deal with Procter & Gamble to give away a kit filled with Crest products to travelers who showed up for rental cars at any of the 25 largest airports.

Within 48 hours it became clear that all liquids could only be transported in checked baggage and passengers adapted. But many thousands of unhappy and disoriented travelers will long remember the folks who took care of them on those nightmare days.

An Opportunity for FedEx and UPS
Forcing airline passengers to check their bags rather than carrying them on is a mixed blessing. Marilyn Adams pointed out in USA Today that fewer bags stowed in the cabin means that travelers are getting on and off planes more quickly, and flights are leaving on time. For example, my wife, Peggy, arrived from Chicago this past Sunday night a half-hour earlier because the plane loaded more quickly and got off on time with a hefty tail wind.

However, as was seen in the Philadelphia Airport, the checked luggage from a US Airways flight from Las Vegas hadn’t reached the carrousel in more than one-and-a-half hours, causing acute stress on arriving passengers who wanted to get home, get to their hotels or make connections overseas.

“After years of staffing cutbacks, the airlines appear ill-prepared to handle the influx of bags,” wrote Michelle Higgins in The New York Times. “The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents bag handlers, ground workers and other airline employees, said it had lost about 43,000 members because of airline cutbacks since Sept. 11, 2001.”

One solution is to ship your luggage ahead and have it waiting for you at your destination. For example, last month in The Wall Street Journal, Naureen Malik described how a legion of kids would be returning home with no luggage. “Much of the baggage will be delivered back to their homes by small firms that have made a business of transporting campers’ bags to and from the camps,” she wrote.

A big new business opportunity awaits those companies that will ship baggage in advance—if they can change behavior and get people used to the idea. LuggageForward.com advertises door-to-door service to any of 200 countries with a 40 lb. bag shipped in five days from New York to Los Angeles for $103. Overnight, the cost is $201. VirtualBellhop.com charges $93 for a 40 lb. duffel bag one way in three to five days. SportsExpress.com will send a 40 lb. suitcase from New York to San Francisco for $128.93.

Yes, it’s expensive. But consider the alternatives. Lugging a bag to the airport is a hassle and will most probably cause a long wait at the baggage carousel at the other end after an exhausting flight.

A worst-case scenario would be to arrive in, say, Sheridan, Wyo., for a for a vacation, only to discover your luggage has gone on to Aspen, Colo., leaving you to arrive at the ranch with the clothes on your back and no stores nearby. (This happened to me!)

Shipping bags via Federal Express and UPS is also an option within that price range. Having never heard of LuggageForward, SportsExpress or VirtualBellhop until I started researching this piece—and since I’ve had a FedEx account for 25 years with superb service the whole time—my inclination would be to go with what I know. For one thing, I know my bag won’t get lost by the airlines or stolen by a baggage handler because FedEx uses its own planes and I can track the shipment daily.

So why haven’t I heard from FedEx—either by mail or e-mail—offering to make my life as a traveler easier? Last week I received two invoices from Federal Express with no billing insert suggesting that I ship bags in advance of my next trip.

The billing insert—or package insert—is a cheap, effective way to reach customers with news of a new service or product. The only cost is printing and inserting. Postage—the highest cost of any direct mail effort—is already paid.

Help in Natural Disasters
On Oct. 17, 1989, an earthquake rocked San Francisco. Seven days later a correspondent of mine in San Francisco received a one-page letter from T.B. Fisher, manager of travel card services for Chevron USA, sent First Class Presort and dated Oct. 18. It read:

We’ve heard about the problems that have hit your area because of the earthquake, and we sincerely hope you have not been personally affected. However, if circumstances have disrupted your routine, we want you to know we are ready to help. If we can assist by extending more time to pay your account, just let us know. You may call us toll-free at 800-CHEVRON or drop a note in the enclosed postage-paid envelope. This is one small way to say thank you for your business and confidence in our company.

It sounds like a sacrifice on Chevron’s part. But presumably if payments were delayed, interest accrued, more than paying for the cost of the mailing. Meanwhile, the goodwill generated by Chevron was priceless.

Using a News Story to Raise Money
One of the smartest fundraisers in the world is Roger Craver of Craver, Mathews, Smith & Co. in Arlington, Va. For his client, Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, Craver came up with a textbook marketing exercise that made use of the news—a mailing effort to Fuller’s Habitat donors in response to Hurricane Andrew.

On Aug. 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew slammed into southern Florida and Louisiana with gusts above 160 mph. The storm caused 23 deaths and $26.5 billion in damage in the United States. It was the worst storm in history up to that time.

When Andrew was being tracked in the Caribbean, Craver and his team spent days glued to the weather reports. As the devastation became evident, Fuller, who was at Habitat’s headquarters in Americus, Ga., began writing copy. Up in Virginia, Craver and his associate, Jack Juhasz, closeted themselves in an office to create their own version of a fundraising letter. The various drafts were faxed back and forth between Arlington and Americus (this was pre-Internet and e-mail). A half-hour later Craver emerged with a letter that combined the best work of all three writers. Craver tossed the letter on the desk of account executive Cynthia Hampton and said, “Run with it!”

Hampton ordered the presses cranked up and the Hurricane Andrew emergency request was slammed into the mail the following day.

Two versions were mailed: Version #1: A “HURRICANE ANDREW ALERT” consisting of two pages printed in all caps was sent to donors of $250 or more via UPS. It asked for “an immediate contribution to Our Hurricane Andrew Fund in the amount of $1,500 or even $2,000 if at all possible.”

Everything about this effort screamed urgency—from the 9” x 12” UPS 2nd Day Air packet to the reply envelope (not a BRE) on which was scrawled in red:

Process Immediately!
Hurricane Andrew Emergency Fund

How could Habitat afford UPS? Because Hampton made a cold call to UPS and asked if it would deliver these efforts for free. The answer was yes.

Version #2 was the same letter, printed front-and-back on a plain white 8-1/2” x 11” sheet and mailed First Class in a two-window No. 10 “AIR GRAM” envelope to donors of less than $250. These donors were asked for an “amount of $75 or even $100 if at all possible.” This version converted some who had only given $50 before into $1,000 donors.

These powerful appeals arrived at the same time people were seeing the devastation of Andrew on the front pages of their newspapers and on television.

In all, 330,000 pieces went out, bringing $5 million.

Incidentally, if you want to create a sense of even greater urgency, use a pre-printed UPS or Federal Express form and envelope as a reply device. The prospect will perceive it as a very expensive addition to the effort and very flattering. But Federal Express and UPS envelopes and forms are free, so you only pay for those that are returned. Hopefully the order or contribution will more than offset the cost of the reply shipment.

P.S. Do you have any stories of how the news was used to generate sales or enhance customer loyalty? If so, won’t you share them with readers by posting them below? Thank you.