In Perfect Harmony: Holistic Design Extends Airline Branding Beyond the Cabin
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APEX Insight: In the second installment of our series on holistic design, JPA Design’s Ben Orson explains how airlines can extend design elements beyond the cabin environment to deliver a consistent brand promise. We explore the importance of continuity of experience and the vital role people play in holistic design.
To enhance passenger satisfaction and build loyalty, brand promises should begin at the moment of first contact, during the booking process and extend through to the end of the journey – or even beyond. This requires consistent and harmonic design elements featured everywhere from the website to check-in, lounge and cabin.
“Airlines have extended design from the lounge to the cabin, even before you get to the lounge by having a limo pick up customers at their homes, and even to how customers engage with the brand in the digital realm,” explains Ben Orson, managing director of JPA Design in London. “There’s been a gradual extension of how this thinking is applied through the entire customer journey.”
This kind of overarching hospitality mindset extends beyond the material elements of structure, trim and finish; it applies to environmental elements like cabin hygiene, cabin lighting, air quality and quality of food and beverage options, and is reflected in personal interactions. IATA’s 2016 Global Passenger Survey reveals that, while passengers value the benefits of digital personalization, people still need people. Twenty-three percent of survey participants identified good customer service from cabin crew as the most important contributor to their satisfaction, the highest among all experiential factors included in the survey.
“It’s the things that don’t work that you remember. That’s why airlines and hotels have to pay attention to all the little details.” €” Ben Orson, JPA Design
“The basic foundation is the continuity of experience, and giving the airlines the means through which to control that experience so that the customer gains more from it, so that it’s an experience passengers want to come back to time and again,” explains Orson. “There’s a way of thinking that we apply to all the things that we do, across all the areas we work on: It’s the things that don’t work that you remember. That’s why airlines and hotels have to pay attention to all the little details. You may have a fantastic suite, but you remember the dripping shower.”
Having a clearly defined brand character, which is understood and adhered to by all partners and stakeholders, can have a dramatic impact on brand differentiation. To reap the greatest benefits from structural and environmental design, it is important for airlines to carefully preserve their brand ethos as it applies in design elements, digital channels, airline staff and even third-party service providers. “Making sure you are on your way to the airport so you don’t miss your flight, being confronted with queues, dealing with your baggage, that’s all a huge source of anxiety to people,” says Orson.”Anything that airlines can do to alleviate [those stressors] is going to be very rewarding to passengers.”
The aviation industry still has technical and logistical hurdles to overcome before it can claim that it has addressed all of the pain points of air travel and achieved a seamless passenger experience, but brand continuity can soften the hard edges of this reality.