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Top of Mind Thursday – March 13, 2025: End of an Era
For as long as I can remember, there were two things you could count on at Southwest Airlines: no assigned seating, and bags flew free.
Several months ago, the airline announced it would be moving to assigned seating. This week, it announced the era of free checked bags is over as of May.
In the short term, I’m sure the fees they expect to collect for checked bags will add to the airline’s bottom line. However, we have to ask if that’s worth destroying what’s left of the airline’s long standing positioning.
Southwest was always the airline that was a little less mainstream, a little off-the beaten-track (remember when they flew mainly into airports like Midway in Chicago and Hobby in Houston?), and a little more fun. The flight attendants were known to spice up preflight safety instructions and to be just a little more casual and upbeat than most of their competitors.
And Southwest had a reputation for being the low-cost alternative—you could put up with the need to check in exactly on time and queue up in numerical order because it was a safe but less-expensive way to fly. Because bags were checked at no cost, fewer people were trying to stuff oversized luggage into overhead bins.
Now, Southwest’s prices match most of their competitors—and that’s before accounting for checked baggage fees. More people will be likely to carryon baggage, which will slow down boarding. All this makes it appear that management is trying its best to mold SWA into just another nondescript American airline. What’s next? Reading the safety announcements word-for-word from a canned presentation?
Too often, companies with unique brand differentiators shoot themselves in the foot by stripping out what makes them so unique. Changing what customers have come to expect from Southwest may increase revenue for awhile, but long term, if fewer people choose them, the airline may find the extra baggage around marketing and positioning wasn’t worth the fee.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – March 6, 2025: Taxing Times
This week, President Donald Trump again threatened to slap tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico—America’s two biggest trade partners.
For some reason, the president feels these tariffs will hurt the originating countries. But, in reality, it is consumers who shoulder the burden. In most cases, middlemen pass on the additional costs, rather than absorbing them. Furthermore, it seems that every time the US imposes a tariff on a foreign country, that country reciprocates by taxing US import—helping no one.
Then there’s the issue of car manufacturing. Under free trade agreements originally set up in the late 1980s, North American countries could send products back and forth without being subject to tariffs. As a result, auto manufacturing hubs developed on both sides of the Canadian and Mexican borders. It’s almost impossible today to know what parts of a car came from the US and what came from Mexico or Canada.
Today, it appears Trump has offered to delay implementing tariffs for another month. Perhaps this was meant as nothing more than a negotiating tactic to get a better “deal” for the United States. However, the turmoil this has stirred in the markets, as well as the ill will generated on both sides of the border, will not easily be forgotten.
People do change their behavior when a proverbial gun is put to their head, but they do it with resentment and frustration. Already, many Canadian stores are starting to stock alternatives to American brands. If the tariffs don’t hit this month, maybe they’ll come back in the near future. Better to address the situation now than to wait to be blackmailed again soon.
There are times that do warrant carrying a big stick and using it as necessary. But these are usually against your enemies—not your friends.
It takes a long time to build trust, which can be quickly eroded under stressful situations. In this case, it’s not just the avocados or maple syrup that are taxed: it’s the relationships as well.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – February 27, 2025: Three Long Years
This week was the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At the time, the expectation was this conflict would be over quickly—maybe in a few days, or at least a week or two.
But the Ukrainians rallied around President Vlodymyr Zelensky, fought back, and surprisingly held off the Russians—even making advances into Russian territory. They were only able to do this with the financial and materiel support of Western nations, including the US and several other NATO countries.
Both sides have endured significant losses, with estimates of 50,000 Ukrainian deaths and up to 200,000 Russians. While Russia has lost more soldiers in this war than in any previous conflict, they also have many more resources available, and they’ve even recruited North Koreans to fight for them.
Meanwhile, the US appetite for supporting this effort has dissipated with the current administration. Trump has previously built a strong relationship with Putin, and he seems very willing to sacrifice Ukraine to end the war by giving the Russian dictator what he wants. Now, he’s proposed taking half of Ukraine’s considerable mineral resources in return for some sort of unspecified American support. What a deal!
It’s not clear what happens next. However, many European nations are quite concerned about their US ally climbing in bed with the Russian dictator whose shadow looms over their eastern borders. They see Ukraine as the only thing stopping Putin from advancing into their territory.
Will Ukraine roll over and give up? Maybe. But perhaps not. It’s easy to sit back and come up with “deals” when it’s not your homeland’s right to exist as an independent entity that’s on the line.
The Ukrainian people have shown remarkable dedication and perseverance in this fight. Let’s hope they’re able to hold on long enough to come out of this with some semblance of their independence intact.
Slava Ukraini!
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – February 20, 2025: Forever Young
You may have noticed that your Jewish friends and colleagues are not quite right today.
If they seem out of sorts and distracted, it may be because this morning, in a bizarre spectacle, Hamas returned the bodies of 4 murdered hostages to Israel.
This included one of the oldest hostages, Ofed Lifshitz, and the two youngest hostages, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, along with their mother Shiri.
For more than 500 days, Israelis and Jews around the world have been watching and waiting, hoping by some miraculous chance these babies—4 years old and 9 months old, respectively, when kidnapped—would be returned alive.
We knew the chances of two little red-haired boys being alive more than 16 months after their abduction was slim, yet we held on to hope.
Today, not only was their fate revealed, but the charade Hamas created to facilitate their return reinforced the horrific nature of their captors. The bodies were desecrated with Hamas propaganda in the coffins. The coffins were locked and turned over without keys to open them. There was even concern that the coffins might be boobytrapped with bombs, as these kind of tricks had already been used against the IDF in Gaza.
Even worse, Gazan families with children were brought to the transfer site to cheer as this spectacle unfolded—reinforcing again that there appear to be no innocent civilians in Gaza.
As horrible as today’s events were, these were not the only children murdered on October 7th. And they won’t be the only ones targeted for murder if Hamas is allowed to continue to thrive.
To quote former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir,
When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill theirs. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.
Until then, unfortunately, too many children will die, forever young.
May the memories of those returned today, and all those who were killed since Oct 7th, be for a blessing.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com