There are 175 seats on Southwest Airlines’ new Boeing 737 planes. And every seat tells a story.
Southwest’s leaders recognize the power of emotional storytelling to connect with employees and customers on a deeper level than the average company. Over the last few months, Southwest’s marketing campaign has focused on sharing those stories, starting with the brand’s interactive microsite 175 Stories.
Southwest Airlines’ microsite is an example of masterful brand storytelling.
Scroll your cursor over any seat and a photo of a real passenger appears, along with a story and a video. For example, in seat 4D, meet Wrenn, a little girl who had a lung transplant as a baby and has to fly frequently to the St. Louis Children’s Hospital for treatment. When she grows up, Wrenn wants to be a pilot.
The stories serve to position the brand around a customer’s emotional moments—and works especially well in a category where competitors are often seen as lacking compassion. The new campaign is accompanied by television ads, social media posts, and shareable bite-sized content.
Ryan Green, Southwest Airlines’ vice president and chief marketing officer, told me that storytelling is an extension of a campaign that started in 2015 called Transfarency. “We’re focused on telling customer-centric stories. In addition to talking about our unique differentiators, we want to show customers why we do business the way we do,” Green says.
I often meet leaders at different brands who say it’s hard to find emotional customer stories. My response—every customer has a story. Now I’ll steal a page from the Southwest playbook and say, “Every seat has a story.”
At Southwest Airlines, every seat has a story
Last week a Nor’easter hit New York and Boston, forcing the cancelation of thousands of flights, including mine. I was scheduled to teach an executive education class at Harvard and it was important that I make it. Southwest re-booked me as soon as the airports opened, but since many flights were sold out, it required three legs for me to get to Boston. It was a long day, but I had plenty of time to hear people’s stories.
On the flight to San Diego, I met a college student in seat 3A. Tom was on his way to visit his family. For Tom, Southwest was affordable. On the flight to Houston, I met a business person in seat 2B. Priya was attending a meeting and wanted to make it back for dinner with her kids. For Priya, Southwest was reliable. On the flight to Boston, I met a graduate student in seat 5D. Susan was on her way to interview at the nation’s oldest optometry school. She was nervous, but an enthusiastic flight attendant said she’d be fine. For Susan, Southwest was friendly. “Friendly, Reliable, and Low-cost” are part of Southwest’s mission statement. On every flight, there’s a story that applies to specific aspects of the company’s mission.
Build your brand one story at a time. According to Ryan Green, the Southwest Airlines campaign offers valuable lessons for any brand. Stories, he says, are powerful, but should create authentic emotional connections between the brand’s products, promise and its customers. “Every brand has a different voice and a different purpose,” says Green. “Brands should use their uniqueness to connect with customers in only the way they can. Southwest wants to create experiences for customers and help them live life to the fullest, one adventure, one story, at a time. 175 Stories captures what Southwest strives to do every day.”
The proliferation of social media has made airlines especially vulnerable to negative stories. Are some deserved? They sure are. But in the United States alone, 42,000 flights carry 2.5 million passengers each and every day. Some people will be upset. Some employees will make mistakes. Social media will magnify those mistakes.
If positive stories are the norm in your company, it’s up to your brand to share them. Yes, it’s nice when customers do so, but you can’t count on it. Most people won’t post a selfie on Instagram with the caption: “My flight arrived on time.” But if they have an issue, they’ll vent online. It’s human nature. As bestselling author and cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker recently told me, “Bad is stronger than good.”
Southwest likes to say it’s a brand with heart. It makes sense that it strives to share those heartfelt moments with its employees and customers. Find your brand’s heart and share those positive stories.