Dubai 1960 - 2021

Ultra-long-haul flights of the world

My longest flight was about 13 hours, from Istanbul to Sao Paolo on a Turkish Airlines A340. It was not an easy one. You have roughly 10 hours of free time when you exclude meal services. If you are not lucky enough to fly in a premium cabin,  flying in the economy can be a painful experience. After the first meal service, a movie, and a book, I slept for a while, and when I woke up, I realized that I have another 7 hours to arrive. Since that journey, I promised myself to save my miles for long-haul upgrades.

Ultra Long Haul Era

This week, Qantas, the Australian carrier, launched a 14.500km direct route from Perth to London. This is the first direct air link between Australia and Europe, and it took 17 hours.

The Economist has recently published a 'daily chart' covering this hot topic. Here is the list of 10 ULR flights of the world and their approximate routes. All these flights are 15+ hours. There are already some studies going on about these flights' healthiness and possible effects on the human body. Imagine yourself in an economy cabin for a looong time... will you able to make it?

Click here to read the original 'daily chart' of The Economist based on OAG data.

Start saving either your miles or money to have a pleasant ULR flight!

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Lufthansa - A step back in rebranding

Lufthansa to revise “new” livery after only three weeks according to the news on aviation websites. 

This is quite unusual for a German company, and it looks like the debate is going on inside the airline HDQ in Frankfurt.

I think that this rebranding is not a successful one. I read and watched everything on LH's dedicated site for this rebrand; Explore the New. Have a look >>>

Still not convinced!

Removing the famous LH Yellow from the logo (and tail), and decrease its use to as low as %10 (just a small yellow area next to the front door) was not the best decision. Dark blue color and its shape on livery was another problem, which LH is tackling now.

I support rebrandings in principal as someone who has rebranded an airline 10 years ago. However, I know that this has to be done very carefully, especially if you are a global brand. Sometimes a brand refresh is better than a complete rebranding.

There are good examples, though. Etihad did a fantastic job several years ago. This one was more complicated as two languages were involved, and local cultural sensitivities were higher.

Let's give LH some time and space. I believe that they will consider all feedback and may tweak it again for a better solution.

“Emerging High Value Customers” or eHVCs

At Delta Air Lines, marketing executives have a phrase to describe customers and potential customers younger than 35 — and it’s not “millennial traveler.” They prefer to call them “Emerging High-Value Customers” or eHVCs. Click here to read the article on Skift.com.

I believe that defining a new segment among millennials is important as different parts of the travel and hospitality industries have more or less the same approach to millennials. However, this group of people may trigger changes and development of new products and services based on better segmentation and understanding of their needs.

Not all millennials want to fly low-cost, rent a room through Airbnb, and discover a city or country like the others.

Xennials (of Turkey)

As someone born in the mid-70s, I have never identified myself as a Generation X. The main reason behind this was the situation in Turkey during the 70s and 80s. Turkey was an isolated country from the rest of the world in terms of art, music, and popular culture in general, like so many other areas thanks to two coup d'etat we had.

All those definitions about 'generations' in the US and Europe were not matching with the reality of us. For the first time in the late 80s in a hotel room, I have watched MTV, where foreign channels were available. Then we had only two channels in the country run by the state broadcasting company. We were simply detached from the world.

Along with that, I had my first email account in 1993 through a dial-up connection due to liberalization led by Turgut Özal, then president of Turkey. The huge gap between Turkey and the rest of the world had narrowed during the 90s, and we became more integrated.

However, it was too late for us to become a Gen-Xer. Whether we were born in the 70s and fall under Gen-X by definition, there was something wrong. So we simply skipped that and focused on our new life and world of the internet.

A few weeks ago, when I read the definition of Xennial, I thought that it defines me more than Gen-X. I think that that shift in the timeline made most of us a Xennial, but we could not name it.

Who is Xennial (of Turkey)?

It can be a micro-generation for the world, but it represents a wider group of people in Turkey. I am not the expert who can define it precisely, but I think that we can easily stretch the years as 1970 - 1985, reduce the millennial optimism and add being apolitical. Suggestions and comments are welcomed.

Bonus for marketers:

Always bear in mind that every country has different and unique generation definitions.

Are you Xennial?

Take the quiz of The Guardian;  https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jun/27/are-you-a-xennial-take-the-quiz

Consumer 2020

PSFK is a New York-based business intelligence platform that inspires creative professionals. It is in my bookmarks for a long time, and I regularly, not frequently, check their website for useful picks and ideas. Here is an interesting one; Consumer 2020.

According to PSFK, this report, developed in partnership with Cisco, explores questions and discusses how brands can adapt to a new collective of empowered consumers. The democratization of technology has allowed these individuals to access creation tools typically limited to retailers and brands.

Click here to have a look at Summary Presentation and download the free report.
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Google 'can't guarantee' ads won't appear by offensive content!

Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google's parent company, Alphabet, and the most prominent public face of the search giant; "We can't guarantee it, but we can get pretty close"

Schmidt conceded the point during an interview on Fox Business Network Thursday in response to a growing advertiser boycott against the company. More than 250 brands have pulled ads after reports that they appeared near YouTube videos from terrorists, Nazis, and other hate-mongers.

I believe that this boycott and response of Google, along with other platforms, will define the future of online advertisement. Have a look at Mashable to read the full article by Patrick Kulp.