business travel

Cutting Through The Noise – Getting Marketing On the Map

David Lavenda — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:54:35 -0500

Based on my last post, I thought it might be helpful to present several ideas about how to get small/young companies to focus on investing in strategic marketing, early in the product/service development cycle.

First, let's look at the sources of the problem.

If You Hear These, RUN, DON'T WALK!

David Lavenda — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:22:23 -0400

Startup CEOs Say the Darndest Things....

Work/Life: Say It Ain't So, Shoeless Joe

Owen Wild — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:59:31 -0400

"Shoeless" Joe Jackson got that nickname for taking off his shoes once in the second game of a doubleheader in 1908.

One hundred and one years later, TSA is still making Shoeless Joes of us all with the apparently immutable requirement that we remove our shoes when entering the airport's walk-through metal detector.

Work/Life: What Are Your Chances of Getting Bumped From Your Next Flight?

Owen Wild — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:05:26 -0400

Bumping is the nemesis of the business traveler. Leisure travelers often have a certain amount of latitude as to when they need to arrive at a destination. Not so with the road warrior, who is a clockwork captive. While it is highly unlikely that any flier will be bumped from a flight for which they are holding a printed boarding pass, that pass, in reality, is no guarantee that you'll board your plane.

Small Company Mistake #7 – Hiring the Wrong Kinds of Folks – 7 Do’s and 6 Don’ts

David Lavenda — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:48:14 -0400

Your company is only as good its people. An awful cliché, but it is usually true. Hiring the wrong people is the most critical mistake a small company can make, so it makes sense to learn from others. Here are some important hiring don’t and do’s:

Don’ts

Work/Life: What Are the Chances for a Passenger Bill of Rights?

Owen Wild — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:29:02 -0400

When the founding fathers endowed us with certain inalienable rights I would have hoped they had the foresight to assume these truths would have been self-evident even when sitting on an airplane.

Unfortunately, it seems like the folks who decide how long is too long to sit cooped up inside a plane on the tarmac never read the Bill of Rights. Following the high-profile flier imprisonment incidents of the past few years, it's clear that the policy which spells out travelers' rights once they cross the threshold of the jet way need to be formalized.

Small/Young Company Mistakes - #2 and #3 – Market Validation

David Lavenda — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:07:48 -0400

“We don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon.”

“We know what our customers want, for god’s sake, we are average users ourselves”

10 Common Small Company Mistakes - #1 Drinking the Kool-Aid

David Lavenda — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:09:28 -0400

This is the first installment in a series of “mini-articles” that examine the top major mistakes startups and small companies make. This post looks at how blindly following a company vision cause a young/small company to do the wrong things. It also offers some suggestions about how to avoid this mistake.

Work/Life: The Bus Also Rises

Owen Wild — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:51:22 -0400

Anne Marie Chaker of The Wall Street Journal wrote an excellent review recently of the new bus services that have come onto the scene to cater to business travelers. Her story includes a charming video of her trip to Baltimore on Greyhound.

She calls her article "Planes, Trains ... and Buses?" I think it is beside the point to note that in the movie John Candy indeed boards a bus to get home — along with taxi, plane, train, rental car, delivery truck, semi, and subway.

Work/Life: Is the Cutback on Business Travel Cutting Into Business?

Owen Wild — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:40:14 -0400

Business travel is the oil that lubricates the wheels of business. I've always felt that companies that cut back on travel for business are cutting back on their business's prospects. Now several surveys say that while technology can help, nothing really can take the place of face-to-face meetings.

Tracking Web Leads...for Free!

David Lavenda — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 05:42:12 -0400

As the fall marketing “season” gets underway, now is a good time to propose some simple and free ideas for tracking web leads.

Work/Life: Take My Breathe Away

Owen Wild — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:20:58 -0400

I'm sure it comes as no news that spending time in a sealed, pressurized aluminum tube at high altitude is probably not the most healthful thing you can do to your body. For that reason, one would think that fliers might have something to say about the quality of the air up there.

Work/Life: Let's Make Fixing the Air Traffic Control System a Priority

Owen Wild — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:01:30 -0400

It gets pretty cloudy in Juneau, Alaska. Constant overcast, plus the fact that the airport there is surrounded by mountains, has caused many flight delays and cancellations. Fifteen years ago Alaska Airlines (AA) came up with a better idea. The airline worked with the FAA and Boeing to design flight paths into the airport that curved instead of running in a straight line.

Clarity is King

David Lavenda — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:41:40 -0400

I have spent the last few weeks reviewing a number of startup websites and I can’t help but notice the same design flaws in most of the sites. Young companies, often started by technologists, are sure that their technology or product is absolutely unique. When they open their doors, they fear that competitors are combing their site to steal their secrets, so they post a generic “in stealth mode” home page while the product is in development.

Work/Life: Carriers Need Wings. And Credibility, Too.

Owen Wild — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:46:51 -0400

Enough is enough.

On July 17, I blogged about Ryanair's announcement that it was mulling the idea of requiring passengers to pay to for potty privileges.

Ryanair has now topped itself. It now is floating the trial balloon that it can lower prices further by squishing more passengers into cabins made roomier by ripping out two of the three toilets. Frankly, I cannot imagine the condition of that single restroom. Nor can I imagine the waiting list for that restroom. They'll have to hand out deli numbers.

Work/Life: Back Up There

Owen Wild — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:22:31 -0400

Okay, I have a confession. For the past several months I have been a "virtual" road warrior. Like many of you I, too, have been affected by corporate travel restrictions. As a result, today I crossed the jetway threshold for the first time in a long time. Even with the intentional emphasis on hyperbole here — it was a very interesting experience.

Work/Life: All A-Twitter About Airborne Pay Potties

Owen Wild — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:07:21 -0400

Most travel experts think Ryanair's announcement that it is considering charging for bathroom access on the plane was purely a PR ploy. But I think it was more in the nature of a trial balloon.

Yes, Ryanair is justly regarded as a publicity hound; but it seems to me the carrier is merely carrying the ancillary revenue business model to its logical conclusion. Unfortunately, in this case their logic escapes me.

“Customer Service” or “Customers Serve Us?”

David Lavenda — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:08:29 -0400

A follow up to a previous post about customer service - below are a few more experiences that definitely go in the “don’t do” column of how to successfully market your company, product, or service…..

Work/Life: Travel Goes Bing

Owen Wild — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:46:11 -0400

When Farecast became part of Microsoft's Bing Travel, it instantly became one of my go-to Web resources for business travel. For one thing, its search function is much more logical than that of an online travel agency. For another, it fills the travel search niche much more capably than Google by providing me with information that actually helps in my travel decision-making process.

Work/Life: Carriers Continue to Cut Capacity

Owen Wild — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:54:26 -0400

With no sign of a recovery in airline travel, and with aviation gas costs ramping up, the major carriers are continuing to cut capacity, led by Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. What this indicates is that we are not out of the woods. The travel outlook is continuing to deteriorate, although several indicators say the downward trend is slowing.

Work/Life: TripAdvisor Gets Down to Business

Owen Wild — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:12:05 -0400

One genuinely good piece of news for business travelers in a generally bleak year for it is that TripAdvisor has launched a Business Travel Center to bring to business travelers the kind of customized services that leisure travelers have so long appreciated. The site may look the same, but under Quick Links you will see a heading "Browse by trip type" and under that there is a button for "business travel".

Taxes Are a Calling

Owen Wild — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:52:19 -0400

If you thought the government would tax the very air you breathe if only they could figure out how, you'll be unsurprised to learn that government wants to tax your talk too. Cell phone talk, that is.

More specifically, work-related cell phone calls.

Work/Life: Just Plane Kids

Owen Wild — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:53:42 -0400

Before you criticize someone you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. Yes, it's an old joke but I'm reminded of it when I fly with kids - whether the kids in the plane are mine or not. Unless you never see yourself being in the position of traveling with children, it is best to be careful what you say or do. You may one day be in those shoes.

Where is the “Who, What, and Why” in Marketing?

David Lavenda — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:31:18 -0400

Pick up any book in the Marketing section of your local bookstore, or a current magazine on the newsstand and you are sure to see at least one article about one of the following"how to" topics – such as:

Work/Life: Whole-Body Scanners Aren't a Peep Show

Owen Wild — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:31:24 -0400

Whole-body scanners will replace metal detectors, in a little-noticed policy shift at the TSA (Transportation Security Administration). This means that instead of walking through the familiar security portals that stand next to the conveyor belts where your carry-ons, coats, and shoes are scanned, you will now enter a 9-foot-tall glass booth.