I'm writing this at 39,000 feet, somewhere over northern Iraq.
I can't publish it now, because, despite the plane ticket costing hundreds of pounds, it doesn't get me Wifi, for which I have to pay an extra £5.99. And I'm too stubborn to do that, but that's another story.
This story is about one of the great rivalries of all time. And it's a story about how to design an experience that's meaningfully distinct from your competitors.
Think Arsenal vs Sp*rs. David vs Goliath. Mike Tyson vs Paul Hogan. (No, wait, that's Crocodile Dundee, isn't it?) This is bigger than them all: British Airways vs Virgin Atlantic, one of the most watchable business battles from the past few decades.
Recently I was lucky enough to get to fly on both for a work trip to India - BA out, Virgin back - and thought it would be fun to do a comparison. Because what I find really interesting about the two isn't how much is different, but how much is the same.
To put it another way, when you get on a plane to somewhere far, far away, the vast majority of the experience is identical, regardless of who you're flying with. You get to the airport, the bag gets weighed, (somehow always 22.7kg), then disappears down the magic conveyor belt. You go through security, panicking about who gets to push their tray on first, spend an hour looking up at the timing screen every three minutes, before running to the boarding gate to be the first to sit on the plane for a bit longer than you have to. Someone gets angry about having to put their bag halfway down the cabin, the plane takes off, a kid repeatedly kicks your chair, and you land a few hours later, usually precisely when the pilot said you would (something that I really don't think we marvel enough about).
Despite that, there are moments throughout this whole experience where, if it chooses to, an airline can be distinct enough from the competitors and alternatives to earn customers’ decisions in their favour.
When you step on a BA long-haul flight, it's comfortingly straight-laced. The music is an ongoing loop of wordless Enya, taking you back to adverts from the 1990s. The safety video is full of well-spoken, respectable British stars: Emma Radacanu, Steven Bartlett, Tom Kerridge. Your little goody bag is full of The White Company stuff: vanilla, non-offensive, a Barbour-jacket accompaniment. If you're lucky enough to be in Business Class, the seat sections are designed for maximum privacy: a door to shut you in and high walls that make it hard to talk to anyone else. In fact, there's no social space at all. The team are friendly and officious, keen to let you know when to sleep and when to wake.
When you step onto a Virgin plane, it's like walking into a nightclub from 2003. Return of the Mack blares out, making it impossible not to strut to your seat. The lighting is dark purple, the decor from Vegas. The safety video is an animated Spaghetti Western film, with a gravel-voiced cartoon John Wayne reminding you not to smoke in the toilets. Your little good bag is filled with Ren stuff, a sharper, more stylish, more modern brand. In the Business Class bit, the seats face each other, with low sides to see the humans you're trapped in the tube with. More than that, there's an actual bar to sit at (and a bar where the cabin crew stood necking drinks just before take off, I presume without vodka in the orange). The salt and pepper shakers say 'Pinched from Virgin Atlantic' on the bottom. They give a child a tiny Virgin Atlantic jacket and get them to walk along handing out Love Hearts. And they give you a pen. I'm not sure why that feels like it matters, but it does.
In the grand scheme of the job to be done - getting me safely around the world in a machine that's heavier than air whilst arriving at precisely the time you told me I would 10 hours ago - these things should pale into insignificance.
And neither of these experiences is necessarily 'better' than the other. But these small moments allow an organisation to be distinct in the eyes of the customers it wants to attract. Not being unique - that's nearly impossible to do. And not by being different at every step - that's hard to do, and unnecessary. But on having a laser focus on where you can excel most, that matters to your desired customers now and in the future, that brings to life your brand strategy, and that is different to what everyone else is doing.
Of course, over time, these things change. What was once meaningfully different becomes a staple, easily copied by others. But doing this first can get you noticed, get you a reputation, and make you the first consideration for years to come.
Like offering free Wifi on a flight.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it, please do share. And if you need any help with improving your organisation’s customer experience or creating a more customer-led organisation, come and find me and the team at The Foundation.