Listening to execs sharing insights into key airline marketing and business issues at The Mega Event 2010, I put together an airline loyalty marketing  IQ test just for you.

The questions were raised and answered through a compilation of remarks from the following companies including, but not limited to: Aeroplan, American Express, Emirates Airways, Kobie Marketing, Millenium Aviation, Peppers & Rogers, Qantas, Sapient Nitro.

Here’s a Mega Quiz for you:

1. Name a line of business in the airline industry that is barely 2 years old and now accounts for $14Billion annually.
2. Name one aspect of air travel that is getting more attention from the Department of Transportation than helmet on helmet hits are getting from the NFL?
3. Name the second air carrier in the world to spin off its frequent flyer program (FFP) after Air Canada spun off Aeroplan?
4. Name the two most significant sources of profit for Qantas, the largest airline in Australia and the second oldest in the world?
5. According to Google Chief Economist Hal Varian, what will be the sexiest  corporate job over the next 10 years?
6. We have Twitterati, Datarati, and soon will have Loyalarati. Who are these people?
7. What percentage of Twitter conversations will be handled through automated means by corporate tweeters in the next 2 years?
8. What are 3 synonyms for loyalty program “liability”?
9. How important will Privacy issues be to business in the next 10 years?
10. What is considered to be the growth industry of the next decade?

Answers:

1. Ancillary Revenue a/k/a a conscious un-bundling of the air travel experience that generates profits but has potential to undermine customer satisfaction
2. Ancillary Revenue (The DOT is considering implementing new standards for fee disclosures as part of a broad rule-making proceeding)
3. TAM, the Brazilian carrier
4. Profit from its FFP and operation of its low-cost carrier JetStar
5. Statistician
6. Datarati are those companies who make a commitment to using their hard fought customer data to drive business results, while the emerging Loyalarati will be those enterprises which deliver their respective brand promise with a unwavering commitment to customer engagement and enterprise loyalty which honors customers, vendors, shareholders, and partners to create unshakable competitive advantage.
7. 20% minimum
8. a) Deferred discounts (they only get cashed in when points/miles are redeemed); b) Current Asset (If the company has reserved cash to account for some or all of the value of unredeemed points/miles, there should be a stockpile of cash that can be used to drive innovation and business results); c) A “darn good thing” because liability is an outcome of customer purchase behavior and an indicator of the health of customer engagement across the business.
9. What’s privacy? That dies just a little more each day as Millennials share more information and leading social networks leak personal data
10. Loyalty Marketing!

One of the blogs I enjoy reading is written by Chris Brogan. He’s got some interesting takes on social media and a huge following.

Today he stepped in the Loyalty Marketing sandbox with his post The Myth of Brand Loyalty. I won’t recount the story here and encourage you to read it as well as take in the comment stream which follows. There are a few good ones and you can read my take as well in which I reference how Airlines Take Flight Without Data.

To be fair, the airlines and Apple (Chris’ example) aren’t alone. We see it all the time….companies that have accumulated tremendous stores of data and are not using it to market efficiently and effectively. Or, as I witnessed this week in client meetings, there are banks with reams of customer satisfaction research, customer profile information, and transaction history that have studied it all, developed recommendations, but inexplicably have not put into action a measurable marketing campaign based on this information.

It’s not about capacity, it’s all about willpower. Corporate commitment to Customer Loyalty from the top down is needed for success and, where I can identify that commitment, I would personally invest in the related equity issues. These will be the winners in the market over the next 10 years.