Conditions apply – Jetstar

A low cost airline Australian called Jetstar has the promotion running pictured below. 

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* Here’s some of the conditions from the fine print in bullet point form for you:

 

          The cheaper flight alternative must be available when you call Jetstar

          The cheaper flight must depart within 1 hour of the comparable Jetstar flight

          The cheaper flight must be from the same airport, not just the same city

          The offer is only valid if the cheaper flight was available & identified prior to making a booking with Jetstar

          If you can meet all the above conditions, the ‘double the difference’ payment is made in vouchers for part payment of future Jetstar flights. (So you have to spend more money?)

 

What a hoax. This is quite possibly the worst consumer promotion I’ve seen.

 

Seems Jetstar aren’t very serious about their offer. In fact, terms that come to mind are “inauthentic” and “deceptive”.

 

Sure it’s ‘legal’, but making an offer which is so contingent can only harm their brand. Especially when the target is a price sensitive audience. It says to customers – “we’re cheaper – sometimes.”

 

If you’re going to run a promotion, be authentic.

 

Marketing Purity

When I run my own company I won’t cut prices

When I run my own company I won’t make strategic changes

When I run my own company I won’t be legally conservative

When I run my own company I won’t be stingy with brand investment

When I run my own company I won’t let finance overtake creativity

When I run my own company I will do it my way

When I run my own company I’ll realize that compromise is a fact of entrepreneurship.

Events

The number 8 restaurant in the Crown Casino Melbourne has done something special.

chamapgne.jpg88 guests at $888 per ticket to sample a 1907 vintage Heidsieck & Co Monopole champagne. (Which was found at the bottom of the ocean!) Apparently the perfect temperature & storage conditions. At $13,200 a bottle, it puts new meaning into premium pricing.

Who says a start up needs to be a going concern?

 

Maybe it’s an event to remember.

Not from here

One of the best brand strategies is… not from here. It can be from anywhere. So long as it’s not here. You see, we know everything and everyone from where we are. So it must be better if it’s from elsewhere. They know what they’re doing. They’ve been doing it for years. There’s all this history, or maybe it’s their technology. Whatever, they really know what they’re doing. So we’ll pay a lot more for it.

It feels semi romantic to pay $14.50 for a bar of soap hand made in Tuscany from capsicum and Amalfi red oranges. We unlock the power of our imagination.

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Language on packaging

Localised flavours

Hand made

Old world packaging

There are plenty of niche brands overseas who’d love an international distributor. The bonus is, the strategy is already written…

Start up strategy – Not from here.

Most Expensive

There is a real dichotomy emerging in most consumer markets. Ultra cheap and ultra expensive. Although it’s fair to assume that something that is 3 times the usual price should have three times the utility, chances are things aren’t so symmetrical.

In real estate a house that is twice the price is often 4 times the size and far more than twice as good. However in consumer goods, something that is 3 times more expensive, might only be 50% better.

Maybe the fact that it is the ‘most expensive’, justifies the price. The price becomes the defining feature.

Bugaboo pram

A great example of this is the Bugaboo Pram. I am sure they are better than the average pram, but how much more effective are they in real terms? Are we really going ‘off road’ with our bundle of joy? Or do we want to advertise to the world that we have spent as much as possible on a pram for our child?

Pricing Dubiety

If we’re first to market how do we know a price the market will accept? There’s no precedent. 

In the early stages we get knock backs. People are change averse. They’ll often say it’s too expensive. It’s their default response to your sell in, even if it isn’t true. In these times we suffer Pricing Dubiety. The trick is to stay the course, knock on all the doors first. Sometimes we simply need a foundation customer to lead the others to a new paradigm. 

If the price does turn out to be too high, it’s the easiest thing in the mix to change. Besides, it gives us a reason to go back and see ‘the rejecters’ again if we do reduce it.