Free Rise

Unless you have a private jet and you can avoid the scrutiny of Congress, you probably hate airline travel.

Brand gurus claimed years ago that airlines were in the “happiness business,” because vacations make people happy. But airlines, of course, make their money from business travelers. And business travel always sucks.

So let’s say you’re the agency managing the campaign for Lufthansa Business Class.  In an environment that’s disastrous for travel budgets, it’s hard for a potential business traveler to get an employer to spring for a ticket to Cedar Rapids, much less one to Europe in business class.

To sell business class in this environment, you need to sell the bottom-line benefits:

• Face-to-face contact is important in this economic environment, and will even give you a business advantage over your competitors who have become more “virtual” to lower costs.
• Lufthansa Business Class knows Europe better than anyone, and it will get you to your ultimate destination very quickly and conveniently.
• Lufthansa Business Class will keep you productive while you’re in the air, if that’s what you want
• Lufthansa Business Class will also make your business trip successful by bringing you to your destination relaxed, rested, and prepared

Here’s what you don’t want to do: Remind people why they hate to fly.

And yet that’s what Lufthansa did yesterday morning. As I blearily climbed the BART stairs en route to work, a young street-teamer handed me a paper bag with “Breakfast to go,” courtesy Lufthansa Business Class brand on the bottom. In the bag was a mock boarding pass and this monstrosity:

Yes, a gummy-looking, shrink-wrapped mini-croissant with wholesale packaging labeled “2413 A | Butter Croissant Mini 1.25oz IW.” In other words, exactly the kind of crappy “breakfast” that sours you on flying coach. If you were served this starch-puck on a Lufthansa Business Class flight from SFO to Berlin – which runs in the neighborhood of $3,000/seat on weekends or $10,000/seat on weekdays – you’d probably be rather annoyed. Even furious.

Even for free, I wouldn’t eat this.

Marketing a luxury product in hard times can be tricky. Maybe the street team isn’t always the way to go.