A couple of weeks ago I was having coffee with a friend who asked, “do you have the Porsche ROADS app?” Full disclosure: I don’t have a Porsche, but my Chrysler minivan enjoys a spirited drive as much as the next car.
If, like me, you are not familiar with ROADS it is a navigation app developed by Porsche, that uses artificial intelligence to direct drivers to nearby routes that are fun roads to drive. You don’t need a Porsche to create an account, and when you sign up you tell it how you like to drive from a choice of Speedy, Curvy, or Balanced, and it will create routes it thinks you will enjoy.
Are the routes it creates any good? To be honest I don’t know because I haven’t driven any of them yet. But that’s not the point, because I already know three things the app does well:
- It gets people excited about driving and finding local roads;
- It gets people talking about the app (as I have done in this email);
- And it gets people thinking about Porsche in three important positive ways.
- Porsche must clearly understand its audience because they empathize with “people like me who like to drive;”
- Porsche are being generous by giving away a free app “for people like us;”
- Which makes its audience think: “If I’m enjoying this road now, what must it be like in a Porsche?”
Clearly this is not only good marketing for Porsche, but it also shows how deeply the company understands its target market and how willing the company is to invest in building an amazing customer experience.
So is there a way we can get a similar response from people about flying and general aviation? I believe we can (and unlike creating an app it will only take a couple of hours to put together)!
- Ask your regular clients to suggest and recommend their favorite fly-in destinations. Getting customers involved creates community buy-in and will get them talking about it.
- Put together a list of Top Ten Destinations for your school. Have your customers submit photographs and write ups too. You can print it or create a PDF file. (Make sure you include your school’s name, website, and phone number on the cover.)
- Give it or email it to new prospects who are interested in learning to fly and ask them to choose where they will fly once they get their license. (Even better, ask their significant other to choose the destination they want to fly to so you can get support from family members.)
Here’s the thing …
You’ve now created what Jay Baer calls a talk trigger, something aspirational that people will mention to their friends while getting excited and talking positively about flying.
If you have any questions about how to put something like together let me know. I’d be happy to help if I can.