If the following characteristics describe your typical customer then this press release from Sport Pilot Television should be received with great interest:
- Male
- College Educated
- High Disposable Household Income
- Travel and Adventure Enthusiast
- Outdoor and Sports Minded
- Homeowner with vacation home and/or large plot of land
Right now it looks like Cirrus is the primary aircraft manufacturer sponsoring the show. With the reach of Sport Pilot TV expanding to 40 million homes it sure seems like a good time for others in the aviation industry to leverage the opportunity.
I haven’t had a chance to see the show but my hope, as a Time Warner customer, is that my house will be included in the expanded coverage.
[tags]Aviation Marketing, Cirrus, General Aviation, Light Sport Aircraft, Marketing Promotions, Sport Pilot[/tags]
March 18th, 2006
Last week I had the opportunity to discuss the state of the light sport aircraft market with Aero-News.Net Editor-in-Chief Jim Campbell. He recorded our conversation and published it as a Featured Aero-Cast (Podcast). As Jim summarized,
“Today, Coffey suggests to ANN’s Jim Campbell that Sport Aviation may be a little too introspective, catering to too narrow a field of potential buyers. Maybe, even a little… ingrown. Again, however, Coffey offers several suggestions on what can be done differently.”
Listen to the full Aero-Cast.
Thanks to Jim for giving me the opportunity to express a few opinions to such a large audience. I hope we can do it again sometime!
[tags]Aviation Marketing, Light Sport Aircraft, Marketing Promotions, Online Marketing, SLSA, Sport Pilot[/tags]
March 17th, 2006
Columbia Aircraft is running some interesting promotions these days. The first, FlipTheBird123, targets existing aircraft owners by helping them sell their current plane to upgrade to a Columbia. The second, iPO (Initial Purchase Option), targets newbies by discounting the purchase price by $7,500 for those who received their training in a qualified airplane.
I’m impressed by both programs but not for their financial viability for a potential customer. The financial benefits are insignificant when considering the cost of even the most basic Columbia aircraft. Instead, I think these promotions are effective in two ways:
First, they are a great framework for beginning a conversation with a potential customer. A prospect either owns an aircraft, or does not own an aircraft. Either is a pilot, or is not a pilot. In any case, Columbia has a story to tell. This is a great door-opener which is evidenced by the wide-spread coverage both programs have received in the aviation press.
Second, the promotions do a great job of defining Columbia’s competition as far less superior. The FlipTheBird123 sitelet has a 14 question quiz to determine whether or not you need to sell your plane. I scored 0 out of 14 for my plane to which the site responded, “Do you actually fly this plane? You should consider a Columbia - today.” Funny…effective…and true…
Additionally, The iPO promotion lists all of the other general aviation industry leaders as trainers, including the Cirrus. The text states, “Once you’ve completed your primary flight training…a step up to Columbia is a natural and logical progression.” I don’t think any of us would have considered a Cirrus SR22 a trainer until this promotion came along. Again, very effective.
Are the promotions all good? No. As with the Cirrus sitelet reviewed here and here, the execution of the promotions falls short of the quality one would expect for an airplane priced at $380,000 on the low-end. The flycolumbia.com website, overall, is decent. However, the promotion pages, especially for FlipTheBird123 look more like a children’s game site. As with Cirrus, this baffles me. The idea is the hard part, and Columbia did a great job in that respect. The execution of those ideas should be easy, why skimp?
Either way, Columbia has raised the bar a bit in terms of promotions. It’ll be fun to see if/how the competition responds.
[tags]General Aviation, Aviation Marketing, Aviation Website, Cessna, Cirrus, Columbia Aircraft, Sitelet, Online Marketing, Online PR, Marketing Promotions[/tags]
March 4th, 2006
