Happiness

In light of our final class on happiness, I thought I would post this interesting interview I heard on NPR the other day.

http://www.npr#mce_temp_url#.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104791125&ft=1&f=5

What Makes Us Happy?

Listen Now [30 min 18 sec] add to playlist | download

Talk of the Nation, June 1, 2009 · Journalist Joshua Wolf Shenk gained access to one of the most comprehensive studies conducted to find the formula for happiness. “What Makes Us Happy?” is his essay in the June issue of The Atlantic. Shenk, along with Todd Kashdan, professor of psychology and author of Curious: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life, explore what makes us happy.

• E-mail|
• Share|
• Comments (13)|
• Recommend (28)

How Singapore Airlines converts the biggest critics into its strongest brand advocates

While this blog post doesn’t specifically reference the algorithm mentioned in class today, it is still a strong example of how Singapore Airlines uses customer service to maintain brand credibility…
 

Posted on May 6, 2009, 8:52 pm, by Shashank Nigam 9 comments

//

.

You can win an autographed copy of a book on Singapore Airlines or a 4GB iPod by Tweeting any quote from this article or writing a comment here. Find out more here.

Remember the story about food on Virgin Atlantic?

Earlier this year, I had published an article on how Virgin Atlantic had dealt with a passenger whose grievances about bad food had made it to The Telegraph, as the “world’s best complaint letter”. Sir Richard Branson had personally called him up and requested him to help choose the menu for future flights. Virgin Atlantic had successfully turned a critic into a fan.

Generally, this is an exception in the airline industry, as complaints often fall on deaf ears. But as I discovered, at Singapore Airlines, it is a practice to take special care of a disgruntled passenger, ensuring that he is a convert by the end of the brand engagement. The first time I heard this, I was wondering how this was possible. That’s when I was enlightened by an experienced SIA crew member.

The downside of an unhappy passenger

On every flight there are bound to be passengers who feel that they have been shortchanged, mishandled or even mistreated in some way or the other – often resulting in anger or frustration. But instead of trying to understand the situation and try to appease the passenger, most airlines tend to ignore such passengers, to not cause further trouble. But in such bad economic times can airlines still afford to maintain the same attitude when dealing with unhappy passengers? Probably not. And here’s why.

• With social media, an unhappy passenger can spread the word far and wide. Did you read almost a hundred comments on the United Airlines saga?
• An unhappy passenger not only doesn’t fly the same airline again, he also takes away other potential business
• We all know it’s much harder to get a new customer, than to please the current customer and get him to fly again

Therefore it makes perfect sense to treat an unhappy passenger like a VIP and this becomes even more so relevant in an enclosed and constrained environment like an aircraft.

How Singapore Airlines cultivates VIPs?

Singapore Airlines has a very systematic approach to service recovery whenever a problem is encountered within the flight. And here’s how they turn unhappy passengers into their biggest fans:

1. If the problem is directly or indirectly caused by the airline, the airline acknowledges the problem and assumes full responsibility. EG, if the in-flight entertainment system doesn’t work on a flight, the customer if offered a seat-change and if he doesn’t take that up, he’s given a $50 voucher. Who wouldn’t be pleased with that?
2. Other than generous compensation, having an ever-smiling and courteous cabin crew helps calm nerves in a tense situation as well. SIA Girls seldom lose their cool.
3. If for some reason the crew isn’t able to resolve the situation, he or she doesn’t hesitate to ask for help from the in-flight supervisor.
4. And even the in-flight supervisor is not reluctant to apologize. He knows that if he can make this customer happy, he will be back.

Here are the simple rules SIA crew follows in making a decision in situations like these: If it’s simple, give it to the customer. If the thing that was miscommunicated is easy to do or follow through with, just do it. If it’s complicated, try to compromise.

And it’s these simple practices that make Singapore Airlines the only airline in the Forbes Top 50 brands in the world.

What do you think? How has SIA managed do it consistently while others are struggling with this? Let’s discuss…

Special thanks to veteran airline crew, Z. Ahmad, for his inputs for this article.

There are still 4 more autographed copies of the book to be given away, and a 4GB Apple iPod. You too can be a winner, just by re-tweeting a comment from SimpliFlying or leaving a comment on this site. Learn more here.

Storytelling Inspiration

As we prepare our final presentations, I thought I would share an interesting resource for inspiration.  The Center for Digital Storytelling is a Berkeley-based  non-profit that assists people in telling meaningful stories.  A couple interesting stories can be found at the link below, and the site is full of tips and resources that can help novice storytellers like us craft our own personal stories…

http://www.storycenter.org/stories/

Titles

On May 4, Justine Jacob led off our discussion on storytelling by discussing the power of a one-word title.  She gave an example of a simple story,” Large Person. Pain. Happiness.”  After telling this story, she demonstrated how the story can be framed in a variety of ways through the use of a title.  “Cancer,” for instance, frames the story very differently than “Birth.”

5/1 Measuring Brand Value

5/1 Measuring Brand Value

• Measure both sides of the Brand Pyramid
  • Consumer Questions
  • Ideal Outcomes
  • Don’t break the bank
    • Measuring brand value can be done cost-effectively, with small sample sizes
      • Surveys (n=25+)
      • Focus Groups (n=6)
      • One on one in depth interviews (2-3)
      • Choose Respondents Wisely
        • Best feedback comes from a balance of love/hate respondents
        • Use Quantitative and Qualitative Research
          • Qualitative Tools – Interviews, Focus Groups
            • Ask questions about: Open-ended, “Think back,” Make a list, Creating associations, Sorting pictures, complete a sentence, personification, drawings
• Quantitative Tools – Surveys
  • Ask questions about: Awareness, Recall, Recognition, Associations, Brand Attributes, Brand Personality, Attitudes, Judgments, Feelings, Attachment (relationship)
  • Reputable Brand Valuation Sources:
    • Interbrand, Brand X, Landor
    • 2009 Brand Valuations (Interbrand)

Google – $100B, Microsoft – $76B, Coke – $67B, IBM – $67B, McDonald’s $67B, Apple – $66B, China Mobile – $61B, GE – $60B, Vodafone – $54B

• Interbrand Valuation Method:
  • Assess income due to brand (e.g., $100B)
  • Back out value of tangibles (e.g., 6%)
  • Adjust for last two years (operating income)
  • Subtract income tax (e.g., 40%)
  • Determine multiplier (price/earnings ratio – e.g., 15) *
  • Brand value (e.g., $750B)
    • *Each firm has its own way of determining multiplier
    • Brand is an intangible asset
      • Many companies are shifting accounting practices away from categorizing money spent on brand as an expense (e.g. software engineering)
      • Brand Extensions
        • Many brands transition over time
          • E.g. LEVI’S dockers…Dockers by Levi’s…DOCKERS
• When to extend brand
  • Minimum Rule – “Do no harm”
  • Make sure the extension fits with the parent
  • Test purchase intent and quality perception on extension alone, e.g. Dockers, then on parent + extension, e.g. Levi’s Dockers
  • BMW Case Study
    • BMW Z3
      • BMW getting boring
      • Introduce Z3
      • Loses money, but builds brand (based on survey of big 5 dimensions of brand personality – sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness)
      • Made exciting through: BMW Films, James Bond
      • Mediation Analysis used to determine effect on sales

To Tide You Over Until Hammer

I came across the article below on Kanye West, and it reminded me of some of our discussion on personal brands and how important they are to celebrities right now.  Call it PR, branding, promoting, but whatever you call it, Kanye West does the best job of any hip hop artist I’ve ever seen.  Below is an excerpt, plus the link if you want to read the whole article…

What does the brand Kanye West mean?

Kanye West: Pop but Luxury. Edgy but Comfortable. I’m about clashing worlds that you think don’t belong together. This is our world and everything belongs together. That’s the ill thing about our president. Our president is black, but our president is white, too. And the original struggle of America is racism, and to have someone in office that represents both of those sides is what I think this world is about. Segregation and snobbery and elitism should be the wack words. That should be what people use to dis people.

http://www.complex.com/CELEBRITIES/Cover-Story/Kanye-West-2009