Consumer Escapes - Dealing with Air Travel Pricing Add-ons

As a traveler out of Detroit (DTW for the frequent traveler) all the buzz is that Spirit Airlines will charge for carry-on baggage. While Spirit and their bag fees plus $3 water will nickel and dime you, our main hub carrier Delta is quietly hosing local passengers. I have a few upcoming meetings in the New York City area. Both allow for advance planning. In every case an advance purchase round-trip flight on Delta to any of the major airports in New York is priced at over $900! Who cares about $24 bucks to bring a duffle bag on the plane. Delta is charging four times as much as Spirit to fly between Detroit and New York. And Delta is charging passengers twice as much to fly to New York as to fly to Los Angeles. Does that make any sense?

In Delta's 10K they state that expanding their presence in New York City is a key component of their network strategy. Delta also proudly says on their home page, "check out our fare deals and plan your escape." Not deals. Not fair/fare.

I now have no choice but to choose Spirit. By the end of 2010 I'll probably lose elite status on Delta which I've maintained for 11 straight years going back to when they were Northwest. As a result, in 2011 I will have even less reason to opt for Delta. I'm not happy about that so if the powers-that-be at Delta have a solution, I'm all ears. Otherwise, when it comes to pricing, I think Delta's the one that has lots of "baggage."

Consumer Escapes - TV Then and Now

We just completed a proprietary research study, E-scape, conducted with consumers around the subject of escape. One finding was that 61% of respondents to our survey said that they’re likely to watch TV when they have an hour or two free. (63% of female respondents turn to TV as an escape from daily pressures of work and family; 43% of male respondents will tune into a sporting event when they get the time.)

At first blush that's pretty obvious. Yet television as a preferred escape was ranked ahead of much of what a thousand other blogs talk about as complete and absolute replacements for TV. Personally, when I have a free hour or two I don't turn to TV. Except for live sports which I consume with abandon.

Archie taught us a few new words

I was reading a book the other night (you figured out my preferred escape) and it referenced the CBS television Saturday night line-up from when I was a kid. Back then, "remote control-less" my sisters and I watched television when my parents went out. We weren't escaping from anything, just sneakily watching with the babysitter what was grown-up programming. During the early 1970s, CBS on Saturday night had an impressive line-up: "All in the Family," "M-A-S-H," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Bob Newhart Show" and "The Carol Burnett Show." All shows that live in perpetuity in reruns. What I remember most is somewhere around 11pm seeing the headlights of my father's car in the driveway and racing up to bed and immediately pretending to be asleep. I don't think we fooled anybody.

One more timeless escape from our survey and from my preference list, music, to tie this all together. Appropriately - to bookend this trip down memory lane - from the Simon and Garfunkel song "Bookends."

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you

Consumer Escapes - A new face for smz.com

A self-serving post. Last night we launched a new website for the agency at www.smz.com. It's not a site about showing off in flash. It represents more detail on a statement in my bio. "We are SMZ. We help make brands part of the consumer's Escape Plan™."

Then, work organized by type. Now, work organized in mini cases. Then, no links to social media tools. Now, links to each of the tools we use and embrace. Then, something for everybody. Now, a strong stand on serving brands that provide a consumer escape. Then, infrequent updates. Now, frequent fresh and surprising content.

Check it out. Hit the escape button and pop some bubble wrap. And of course share open and honest feedback. That's what got us to this positioning and updated website in the first place.

Consumer Escapes - Breakfast On-the-Go

I like a $5 Subway tuna footlong as much as the next guy. And just by writing that the song will be stuck in my head until this afternoon. What I'm questioning is why there's so much buzz for the fact that Subway will be offering up breakfast? Let's see: they have fresh bread, cheese and bacon. Hmmm, let's put those things together in a series of sandwiches for breakfast. That's not exactly a fresh idea.

But what does appear game-changing is being able to stop off at a ubiquitous Subway location, grab breakfast and a Seattle's Best coffee AND takeaway lunch, too. McDonald's, who's been serving breakfast sandwiches since the number billion actually meant something never got people to take lunch on the same visit. With segregated menus they required you to come back later. (How many times have you been on the wrong five minutes of the breakfast switchover at McD's?)

My friends at Mintel report restaurants created 460 new breakfast products in 2009. So Subway who sells every shape and size sandwich except a double-decker wins not just with new products but by getting what I'll call a double-header. That is a fresh idea.

I'll be watching closely. All while trying to get to the bottom of my 168 oz Subway soda.

Consumer Escapes - iPad or iFad?

Yesterday I read an online review of Apple's new iPad. Half way into the review the reviewer revealed he hasn't actually seen or touched the product yet. Amazing. What a window that opens. Online reviews of movies you haven't seen, online reviews of restaurants that you haven't eaten at, and the online review for a new book that isn't even written.

Fortunately David Pogue of the New York Times actually got his mitts on an iPad before tomorrow morning's official debut. His review follows.
April 1 iPad review article

I don't plan to be in the queue at the Apple Store early tomorrow morning. I'm going to be in my iBed.

Consumer Escapes - Self-serve Checkout

In so many areas I'm a confirmed do-it-yourselfer. (Travel planning, investing, taxes, snowblowing, ...) Except at the supermarket. A recent visit to the market reminded me how much I dislike the self-serve checkout system. I actually enjoy talking to a human cashier, rather than having a computerized voice say, "place the item in the bag." (So actually I'm the cashier and the bagger in the self-serve line.) When I shop I'm responsible for buying a lot of fresh produce. I can book a plane flight online at Q-fare but hell if I know the code for sweet potatoes. And because I placed the bottle of Tide on the edge of the scanner the machine thinks I'm making sweet potatoes for an entire aircraft carrier.

So next time you're at the supermarket, look for me in the manned aisles. While the pros do their job I'll be thumbing through the Enquirer and taking stock of what's in your cart.

According to my seven foot long receipt, you just saved $4.22 reading this message.

Consumer Escapes - The shallow end of the March Madness office pool

While I'm productively "working" by writing in a blog, every other working American it seems has his/her nose to the grindstone - the NCAA Men's Basketball grindstone that is. Why has this become such a gigantic mass escape? We don't fill out draw sheets for the NFL playoffs. It's certainly not the money. (I won a pool in 1989, lost every other year and am down hundreds of dollars.) I believe it's the need to "be right all the time" manifest in millions of office pools.

I can hear it now, "hey, how many did you get right in the first round? "Lose any of your Final Four teams yet?" Or, my favorite, "who's your bracket buster?" Note that they're your teams, regardless of where you actually went to college. Somehow by being correct in prognosticating, or a little more correct than your work mate, you're entitled to months of bragging rights.

So go Cornell, 'cause I've got a chance to get the edge on the whole finance department. Maybe later I'll post about those folks who complete multiple draw sheets. Shame on them ...