Why ‘pull’ travel marketing is way to win customers

How do you achieve a frictionless customer experience while still boosting ancillary revenues? With simplicity, clarity and customer understanding, writes Tom Bacon

Consider the ideal car rental experience. It looks something like this. When you arrive at the airport, you walk directly to your car and drive off. That’s it!  No stop at a counter, no waiting in line, no new paperwork, no delay in getting to your destination after a long flight.

Now consider three popular ‘ancillary’ revenue sources for car rental companies:

  • Liability damage waiver (LDW)

  • Pre-paid fuel

  • Model upgrades.

Each of these add considerable time to the car rental transaction; they also generally require selling by the agent and may require a separate signature on a contract. 

According to Hertz executives at EyeforTravel’s recent ‘smart analytics’ conference in Atlanta, each of these ancillary revenue streams are more dependent on ‘push’ than ‘pull’ marketing. Each adds considerable friction relative to the ideal car rental experience.

Airlines, too, offer ancillary options that are more ‘push’ than ‘pull’ and which add friction to the travel purchase. Even though airline customers make their purchases online, many steps have been added to the old booking process. Airlines want to know whether the customer will check in a bag or carry-on a bag, want insurance, a pre-reserved seat or a meal on the plane. In fact, one airline that leads the industry in ancillary is said to require 20 clicks to book a flight on its website!

One airline that leads the industry in ancillary is said to require 20 clicks to book a flight on its website!

Ways to reduce friction

How can the travel industry - airlines and car rental companies and hotels and other travel suppliers -- gain the benefits of new ancillary revenue streams while reducing friction, actually making the travel experience better? How can the industry turn ancillary into a ‘pull’ relationship with the customer rather than ‘push?’

It’s about understanding what the customer wants and communicating this clearly. On this score there are two things we know:

1. ‘Pull’ implies product or service knowledge by the customer

A customer will ask for something only if he has some inkling that it is desirable to him. He will seek faster boarding if he knows it’s an option that will address one of his travel pain points. He will seek a larger seat – albeit somewhat reluctantly - based on dissatisfaction with the standard seat. 

Lack of full understanding of the product or service currently requires ‘push’. Travel suppliers must work hard to fully communicate both the base product (what is no longer included, what limitations/restrictions the base product entails) and the ‘ancillary’ services (both unbundled features or new, enhanced services).

Part of the challenge for the airline industry today is that different airlines mean different things by their ‘base product’.  Legacy airlines complain that they must match the fares of Ultra Low Cost Carriers’ (ULCC’s) even though the products are very different.

As airlines launch ‘bare bones’ fares to compete with ULCC’s, they will need to clearly communicate the associated restrictions. With full knowledge of the limitations, customers may aggressively seek additional services above such ‘bare bones’.  (Conceptually, that is ‘pull’ marketing – but it works only by damaging the base product.)

2. The booking process for the alternative, preferred service needs to be easy 

Customers need to be able to easily find and select the ‘right’ services – and not clutter the process with the ‘wrong’ ones. If a customer values a particular service or bundle of services (that is, the customer wants to ‘pull’) the industry must make it easy for them to purchase it – converting ‘friction’ into ‘engagement’.

For airlines, domestic full fare may be a model for ‘pull’ marketing.  Airlines do not invest heavily in promoting full fare; there are no sales or advertising for full fares. Instead, full fare is sought by customers who know about the flexibility these fares afford (purchased close in to flight departure with no change fee) and who seek out this set of services, consciously avoiding the lower fares. Full fares are purchased willingly and knowledgeably by travellers who have learned their attributes and value them.

In some cases, Southwest Airlines exemplifies ‘pull’ as their ‘free bags, free changes’ fare is well-known by many customers and specifically sought out for purchase by going to the Southwest website.  Of course, Southwest makes purchase easy as it is the base product they offer. But the airline foregoes considerable ancillary revenue to achieve this ‘pull’.

Regrettably, ancillary is likely to continue to create friction – due both to lack of customer information and to complex booking processes.  The travel supplier that is able to achieve increased ancillary without creating the associated friction, however, will ultimately have the edge with customers.

Tom Bacon is an airline veteran and industry consultant in revenue optimisation. He has been in the business for 25 years and recently attended EyeforTravel’s ‘Smart Analytics’ conference in Atlanta in February 2016. Questions? Email Tom at or visit his website

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