More than a name
Is there any point in naming a business class product?
Delta One, Qatar QSuite, United Polaris, ANA’s The Room, the soon-to-be launched Lufthansa Allegris and SWISS Senses. One of the world’s leading airlines Cathay Pacific will add their name to the list of wonderful and exotic business class names as it recently unveiled a new business class named the Aria Suite, to be launched in 2024. Back in the day, most airlines classified their classes as economy, business and first, with only a handful giving their classes particular names (Singapore Airlines’ Raffles Class anyone?). So why did this trend start, or rather, restart?
The difference between first class and business class travel has become increasingly smaller and smaller and the gap to economy class continues to increase as airlines try their best to cram as many as they can into “cattle class”. According to John Walton, the industry does not show any signs of business class innovation slowing down any time soon. Some airlines have gone as far as discontinuing first class altogether as the demand for business class travel increases. Qatar Airways’ CEO Akbar Al Baker famously told Bloomberg that it is not worth investing in first class anymore, and with good reason. Qatar’s QSuite is definitely one of the most popular Business Class products in the sky today, providing all the amenities that first class would normally provide. According to Alex Millar from Upgraded Points, business class yields the highest revenue per square meter whilst providing similar services to first class for a much lower price. As a result airlines invest much more into business class than before.
Naming a business class product definitely shows that an airline is serious about their business class product, a flagship product, special enough that it warrants its own name. Naming a product is one of the easiest and cost effective forms of product differentiation. It is not just another business class they are traveling in, they traveled in Polaris. On the surface its named something else. But in essence, its still the same thing. Yet, it gives the passenger a sense that there is something extra there. Recently I was comparing China Airlines and EVA Air’s Taipei to Los Angeles business class tickets. They were similarly priced, with EVA’s Royal Laurel being slightly more expensive than China Airline’s generic business class marketing. Before looking at cabin photos, I was already drawn to the idea of being in Royal Laurel than in just business class. If you remove the names and let me look at photos of the cabin only I would choose China Airlines. This just shows the effect of naming your product.
With a sea of airlines having business class as their flagship product, it has become increasing important for airlines to set their products apart from their competitors. Having a product that is related and personal to an airline is an invaluable form of brand equity that opens many opportunities for marketing departments. United for example has the full Polaris experience: Polaris lounge, Polaris meals, Polaris bedding and of course the Polaris seat. Such marketing further strengthens the fact that United is really invested in their business class product.
When airlines really want to flex their product is when they use a combination of both generic and unique naming conventions. It is easy to dump everything in your service under one name, but if you look at ANA and Qatar for example, their websites still has a traditional business class page. Within that page however, is a subset of the entire business class experience: the seat. The seat is what gets the unique name in the experience: highlighting the fact that you get another service within the service of business class that you will not get anywhere else. You experience business class, but you get The Room addition to all the other amenities. Such marketing elevates a particular product in the airlines’ business class arsenal to be used as a tool of product differentiation. It is no wonder that Qatar’s QSuite is regarded as one of the best in the world. The downside of such a strategy is that it creates inconsistencies between products across the fleet if the particular product or seat is not offered across the board. Qatar Airways have infamously had aircraft swaps at the last minute to much dismay of its passengers. Nevertheless, such marketing has drawn many passengers to these premium seats when flying business class.
Naming a product does come with its own set of challenges. While product names such as The Room or QSuite are rather self-explanatory, others employ a bit more marketing creativity such as JetBlue’s Mint seat or British Airways Club World. However, one does wonder where the inspiration for recent names just as Allegris or Aria come from. Without the “business class” suffix or accompanying pictures, I doubt the average joe would know what you are talking about when you say “I flew in Allegris this weekend.” The fact that airlines are willing to take such a risk must mean that they have taken a gamble that an unrelated name would soon find its way into mainstream industry lingo. United’s Polaris is a successful example of such being a much hunted and talked about product in the skies today.
A possible explanation of why airlines need to be increasingly more creative these days is that you can only have so many product name Suites before it loses its differentiating factor. Currently there is Club Suite (British Airways), Delta One Suite, Sky Suite (Japan Airlines), Flagship Suite (American Airlines), mint Suite (JetBlue), and QSuite (Qatar) just to name a few. One does wonder if airlines did this on purpose to give passengers a false sense of premium luxury and piggy back on the fact that Singapore Airlines’ Suites is one of the most exclusive commercial airline tickets around, far beyond a normal first class let alone business class ticket.
Regardless of whatever marketing departments reasoning is behind naming a business class seat or experience, it is clear that it is more than just a name. Whether it is just to highlight the continued importance of business class in the industry or signal to its passengers that their business class offers something that others do not, it has become an important product differentiation tool. As the industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace, we can expect more marketing departments employ such a technique to make their product truly theirs. While airlines may have a slight hurdle in naming their business without using the word “Suite”, it is just a slight speed bump for airlines to set themselves apart as they vie for more passengers in an increasing segment of the market.