Free Rise

A few weeks ago, I noted Lufthansa’s inexplicable decision to promote its very expensive business class service by handing out gummy, shrink-wrapped “croissants” with intimidating wholesale-style labels.

This a morning, a street team was standing outside the Montgomery BART station handing out foil packets of something called Propel, as well as stacks of coupons to buy some.

What is Propel? Damned if I know. The street team didn’t provide anything to explain what the product is supposed to be. Here’s all I could tell from the package:

• “Propel Powder Packet”: Okay, it’s a packet of powdered… something.
• “Vitamin Enhanced Water Beverage Mix”: I’m supposed to add it to 16.9 ounces (!) of water and “SHAKE GENTLY”
• It’s made by Gatorade, and contains “natural berry flavors.”

OK, I think I get it. I’m supposed to go buy a bottle of water and then dump this in it. It’s going to make the water taste like berries and deliver vitamins. So this is like Vitamin Water mix? Is it a sports drink? Is it sugary, low-cal? Is it meant to get me through my office work day, or replenish me after a workout?

All of this would be nice to know.

There’s also this issue: San Francisco is a green town. Only one product comes in 16.9-ounce servicings, and that product is now as politically incorrect as baby seal bacon. The $0.99-off coupons may be applied to a purchase of the bottled version of Propel, which looks exactly like bottled water.

Here’s probably what happened: The Propel brand manager budgeted for a street team to get samples and coupons out to active, urban populations. They didn’t really think a lot about the details, besides maybe how and where to maximize the distribution.

Here’s how they should have managed it:

• Educate: They handed me something non-obvious, without explaining what it is, why I would want to use it, or when I would want to use it. Instead of a coupon, they should have introduced the brand and especially the product.
• Entice: What’s motivating me to go through the trouble of mixing this with 16.9 ounces of water? Especially since I don’t know what it is, and if I don’t like it, it essentially ruins the $1.50 bottle of water I ostensibly bought.
• Position: Like most San Franciscans, I’m disgusted by our stupid everyday reliance on bottled water. Cleaner water comes through our taps than what’s contained in plastic (an oil product) and trucked in from municipal sources. Instead of positioning itself as an accessory to my bottled water lifestyle, Propel could position itself as a green alternative to products like Glaceau VitaminWater. After all, you can mix Propel with your filtered tap water, instead of buying “enhanced” water that’s trucked in from elsewhere. This would speak to eco-conscious urban dwellers.

Street teams have value. But so do planning and executing the promotions in ways that appeal to your potential customers. That takes forethought.

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.