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17 Responses to “Smart marketing at the Akron-Canton Airport”

1. Nick D Says:
   May 11th, 2009 at 1:55 pm

   Yawn. Wake me up when CAK gets non-stop flights to SFO, LAX, SEA, SAN, and LHR like Continental does from CLE. Airline hubs matter big time when it comes to economic development, so shame on you for not supporting Continental at CLE. I, for one, will be moving out of Cleveland if Continental closes the hub at Hopkins.

2. John Polk Says:
   May 11th, 2009 at 6:20 pm

   I detect no disrespect for Continental…The message was that CAK has done a very effective job of marketing itself as an alternative to “that big airport.” It’s true, just as it’s true that some portion of CAK’s growth must come at Hopkins’ expense. And there are broad perceptions that Hopkins is in denial about the competition.

   But it IS accurate to say that Continental’s lease is slated to expire in 2015. And that it is very expensive for Continental to maintain its hub in Cleveland. AND that most plans for improving and expanding Hopkins assume a large component of financial support from the airline.

   It USED to be that the care and feeding of Hopkins was high on the priority list for the Cleveland Chamber…perhaps because its CEO held the concessions contract. Don’t know who’s “handling” Hopkins now. But it would be good to know if there’s a plan. I suspect any sort of “new deal” with Continental will cost Cleveland dearly.

   It’s true that a good airport system is important to a region’s economy. It will be interesting to see if future planning takes place on a more regional scale, or whether Cleveland will continue to pretend that Hopkins and Burke are the only game in town.

3. Carla Says:
   May 11th, 2009 at 7:23 pm

   Gee, Ed, I think you’re giving CLE very good notice on this…

   I love taking RTA to CLE and HATE driving to CAK, so I hope you’re wrong.

   But I fear you’re right. Somebody at CLE, read Ed’s post and tell us what you’re doing to make it not so.

   Like, O.K., you had free Wi-Fi yesterday, right? Plus…plus…

4. Nick D Says:
   May 11th, 2009 at 8:28 pm

   @John Polk, the concessions contract at Hopkins has now been awarded to the US arm of the British Airports Authority, BAA. The press release is available here.

   Since CLE is a hub, it doesn’t need to have free WiFi. Spoke airports like CAK, CMH, and PIT do because essentially one is as good as another. All spoke airports do is have service to hub airports like CLE, ATL, ORD, etc.

5. John Polk Says:
   May 11th, 2009 at 9:13 pm

   Nick D, sir…Of course you are correct about the current concessions contract. But that doesn’t change the fact that for over 15 years the contract was held on a no-bid basis by a company which
   was initially fronted by Carole Hoover, one-time CEO of the Growth Association and one of Mike White’s many enablers.

   (Perhaps GCGA’s Board at the time considered her full-time job as an airport contractor not as a gross conflict of interest, but instead as a source of valuable experience in matters involving contracting at the airport.)

   With respect to your second observation…I THINK I understand it. Is it your contention that Hopkins doesn’t need to offer passenger amenities such as functional wi-fi because, due to its hub status, passengers have no choice but to use Hopkins, no matter how they’re treated, because it’s the only way to get from here to there?

   If so…ummm…wow…

   I recall many, many years ago when Saturday Night Live did a series of “commercials” aimed at the then-monopoly AT&T. Their tagline was, “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re Your Only Phone Company.”

   Perhaps someone will create a snappy 2-minute Positively Cleveland video touting the great customer service at Hopkins which embodies the same spirit…

6. Nick D Says:
   May 12th, 2009 at 12:41 am

   Is it your contention that Hopkins doesn’t need to offer passenger amenities such as functional wi-fi because, due to its hub status, passengers have no choice but to use Hopkins, no matter how they’re treated, because it’s the only way to get from here to there?

   It is my contention that other hub airports typically have pay Wi-Fi service. And that compared to the waste of time and money that results from having to change planes at a distant hub airport versus departing from a hub airport, things like Wi-Fi service or free parking are trivial indeed.

7. John Polk Says:
   May 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

   I find myself in North Canton a little bit early for a meeting, so I thought I’d duck quickly into CAK, park for free, connect to their free wi-fi (which took about 2 seconds), and check out the comments under this post. Perverse, I know, but it was just so damned convenient.

   It strikes me that, like many other large Cleveland-centric institutions, Hopkins relies on the mindset above…We’re very big, you need our services, so it doesn’t matter that we soak the passenger AND treat you badly (checked out the restrooms lately?), because you’ll keep on coming back.

   Given that this little string was about smart marketing, and an essential tenet of marketing is understanding customer needs and exceeding them, the above comment is illustrative of what is wrong with so many of our local institutions.

   One wonders if any dinosaurs ever noticed the big ball of light in the sky, then just went back to grazing…till the asteroid hit ‘em…

8. Nick D Says:
   May 13th, 2009 at 8:40 am

   @John Polk, I guess it depends on what is most important to you. Do you value marketing gimmicks like free Wi-Fi? Or are you a hard core business traveler like myself that above all values lots of non-stop flights to lots of different destinations?

   As I said, the waste of time and money that occurs when you have to make a connection at a distant hub airport is so significant that amenities such as free Wi-Fi seem trivial to me. Once you end up camping in the terminal in Atlanta because of a missed connection caused by weather, once your bags are lost at a connecting airport, once it takes you 8 hours to get somewhere it used to take you 5 hours to go, you’ll probably feel the same way too.

9. John Polk Says:
   May 13th, 2009 at 9:47 am

   Once again, this is about marketing. It’s not necessary, or even smart, to suggest that one must choose between passenger amenities and comfort OR efficient service. In the long run, it tends to cost less to do a good job taking care of customers/passengers than to do a crappy job.

   One of the original points of this string is that CLE ignores customer service at its own peril. The old saying that if you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will applies just as much to airports as to any other business.

   CLE does represent an efficient way to get from here to there. I’m a big fan. I live 15 minutes from the airport, and I like it that I can leave my home, get on a plane to DC and be in my hotel before my friends in NYC can get from their offices to their airport.

   But between struggles to find parking, the long hike to the terminal, uncomfortable terminal seating, and other minor indignities, for the casual traveler, the 1-hour drive to CAK can be an attractive alternative(and from places like Medina County, CAK is a real convenience). And it’s the casual traveler that CAK targets, primarily.

   Hard-core business travelers tend to put blinders on when they fly; it’s an increasingly unpleasant experience. But to assume it HAS to be that way is incorrect.

10. Ed Morrison Says:
    May 13th, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    Nick:

    I find your comments a bit off, as I sit in Denver’s airport with their free WiFi.

    But free or not, as my latest post on the CLE WiFi points out, the AT&T WiFi at CLE is simply unreliable.

    There are other storm clouds on the CLE horizon.

    My son, who lives in Solon, is using CAK to fly to Asheville, NC in June. The reason: he saves over $100 from a comparable fare through CLE.

    I’m sensing a gain in momentum from CAK and a drift from CLE. My favorite goofy marketing idea for CLE are the information kiosks.

    I fly in an out of CLE just about every week. I have never seen anyone use the information kiosks in the concourses or near the baggage claim.

    Don’t get me started on CLE taxi service.

11. Ed Morrison Says:
    May 13th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    Nick:

    Other larger airports with free WiFi: Portland, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Orlando. But, again, my point is not about cost. It’s about reliability.

12. Nick D Says:
    May 14th, 2009 at 11:35 am

    Ed, I’m not sensing any momentum gain.

    Can you name me a single non-stop destination that CAK has added that would make a difference to a business traveler like myself? I can’t. CLE has added London Heathrow, the world’s single most important airport for business travelers.

    Sure, I agree that the terminal could use updating but BAA just took over management last year. Construction is already underway on improvements to the concessions, and once the economy improves and passenger numbers climb again the money will be there for terminal improvements.

13. Ed Morrison Says:
    May 14th, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    Well, Nick, it depends on where you are going.

    CAK is a much smaller airport (1.5 M passengers, versus about 11.1 M for CLE).

    Some flights interest me. I travel a fair bit to Atlanta, so Airtran to ATL makes sense. There’s are also nonstops from CAK to Boston and New York.

    At my law school reunion earlier this month, I talked with a classmate — a former partner at Goldman — who is on the board of the College of Wooster. I suggested we get together when he flies to Cleveland for his board meetings. He told me that he uses CAK from NY, instead of flying into CLE.

    As for the CLE service to and from London, I made a post about that experience on BFD a year or so ago. The arrival experience for international passengers at CLE was a joke, complete with hand-lettered signs.(Hopefully, steps have been taken to improve that experience.)

    As a CLE traveler about every week, I find the experience barely satisfactory. Hopefully, improvements to the concourses will make a difference.

    Right now, though, the food options are poor; there’s no place to get a decent cup of coffee; there’s no bookstore. To get a cab to the East Side, you pay about $50. Returning a rental car used to be a treasure hunt, but I think the signage may have improved a bit.

    CLE and the confusing Cleveland+ marketing strategy — including those silly kiosks and weak wireless connectivity (compare the large wireless banners hanging in Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare) — is goofy.

    (BTW you can add Kansas City to the airports that offer free wireless. That’s five airports larger than CLE that offer free wireless. Every airport I have used in the past year has more reliable service than I find in CLE.)

    Continential’s lease, I think, is up in 2015. 57% of the the flights out of CLE are on Continental. If Continental pulls up stakes, CLE is in real trouble. My point is simple: CLE should not be so obviously complacent about the experience it offers travelers.

14. Nick D Says:
    May 16th, 2009 at 12:36 am

    Read this article Ed. If too many folks go down to CAK, this could be us.

    Here’s the disconnect that I don’t think you’re getting. Because Continental is the dominant carrier at CLE, the airport has to get Continental’s permission to make improvements to the terminal. We don’t want to go build a fancy new terminal but at such a high cost that it drives the hub out– that’s what happened in Pittsburgh. Let’s not repeat their mistakes, shall we?

15. Ed Morrison Says:
    May 16th, 2009 at 10:47 am

    Nick:

    Thanks for the link to the article. It was helpful. The article underscores the dynamic nature of air passenger markets and what can happen when airport loses a hub status with a major carrier. Cleveland faces the same risk with 57% of its air passenger traffic going to Continental.

    I especially appreciated the comment from the Allegheny Conference board member:

    “Much of what happens is beyond our control. Some is within our control. We have to target that and make it happen,” said Mr. Kalis, an Allegheny Conference board member.

    And this gets me back to my original post. Improving wireless service in an airport is a relatively simple step under control of the airport management.

    It has a big pay off to frequent travelers like myself who take business trips every week, have plenty of idle time at airports, and need to stay connected.

    My point about free WiFi simply underscored that in some airports provide free service as an important marketing amenity that improves the airport experience for frequent travelers.

    I don’t much care whether it’s free or not. A number of airports the charge for the service offer multiple vendors. Or, they offer reliable national networks like Boingo.

    Cleveland offers a paid service that is not reliable.

    The poor wireless experience at Cleveland airport, to my mind, is part of a broader pattern of decisions that largely ignore the passenger experience. Perhaps, as you point out, improvements to the terminal will change my perceptions.

    Right now, however, I see little evidence over the last number of years that the management of this airport has spent much time thinking about the factors that they do control and how they can improve the passenger experience.

    Some of their decisions are just goofy (putting useless kiosks in the concourses); some are confusing (the hide and go seek experience of returning a rental car); some are comic (the experience of landing in CLE from London); some are annoying (the new CLE “radio station”); and some are even worse (the taxi mess).

16. Nick D Says:
    May 16th, 2009 at 11:56 am

    Ed, I’m glad you found the article helpful. And I do hope that some of the deficiencies you point out will be corrected now that BAA is in charge.

    Surely the airport management could be improved. And, just for the record, I completely agree that the rental car return is inconvenient, the international arrivals area needs to be improved, and the radio station is, well, wacky.

    I do hope that BAA can rectify some of these areas, although I do think fixing the rental car situation would take the construction of new off ramps from I-480 and I’m not sure that’s within BAA’s control.

    My best suggestion for CLE is that the City should take the bed tax that is now supporting the convention center and use those funds to build a whole new terminal. You can call that a “modest proposal” to Frank Jackson.

17. Ed Morrison Says:
    May 17th, 2009 at 9:45 am

    My best suggestion for CLE is that the City should take the bed tax that is now supporting the convention center and use those funds to build a whole new terminal. You can call that a “modest proposal” to Frank Jackson.

    Now that, Nick, is a really good idea. It shows the type of commitment that is likely to keep Continental here.

    The challenge, of course, is to run the airport in a professional manner that eliminates — or at least minimizes — the political payoffs that have hobbled the performance of the airport in the past decade.

    Can the business and political elite of Cleveland keep their mitts off CLE and stop treating CLE as a honey jar?

    That factor — more than any other, I suspect — will determine whether CLE will survive as a regional hub.