Ian Johnson
September 18, 2007
We reported on the weekend at Gay Market News that Air New Zealand is launching a new gay marketing initiative - their first 'Pink Flight from San Francisco to Sydney, timed to coincide with the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
This could be a stroke of marketing genius, or it might be a marketing problem if the hoped for gay travel market sales do not follow the airline's enthusiasm.
We like the idea of taking a very different gay marketing approach to positioning an airline brand that Air New Zealand has demonstrated.
Other airlines like Southwest have followed different marketing approaches in their gay and lesbian tourism marketing efforts.
What does worry me a little is the airline's market positioning of the offer here.
The brand positioning just seems quite slanted towards a view of gay and lesbian consumer marketing that might be described as being a little dated.
Don't get me wrong - we absolutely applaud innovative gay marketing, however it flies. But some of the language and imagery here risks appealing to a very limited sub-segment of the total GLBT market potential that Air New Zealand should be targeting in their overall gay marketing strategy.
There is also a risk that the airline might typecast their brand with a broader GLBT tourism market as one campy brand that is perceived as related to dated stereotypes of showtunes and drag queens. Most gay marketing target consumers do not identify with those stereotypes. Some do. But most don't.
As a one-off gay marketing effort to a party event like Mardi Gras in Sydney this may work, but there is a danger here that some consumers might feel that the airline--which remember is not a gay brand itself--may seem a little try-hard with the camp approach this particular marketing initiative adopts.
The answer will, as always, be led by the marketing response of lesbian and gay consumers themselves who will obviously choose whether to vote for the concept with their wallets.
No matter what happens here, the airline has certainly created a significant media stir with this, from Australia to gay marketing comment in the US; the 'Pink Flight' has been reported on widely these past few days by mainstream industry and gay marketing media, and that definitely counts for something in at least registering the Air New Zealand brand on the gay marketing travel consumer's radar.
Most importantly, we applaud the airline for taking a bold new marketing initiative, and we wish Air New Zealand the best of lesbian and gay marketing success.
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