What Brands Can Learn From Pan Am-The Airline And The Show

Bond, James Bond, would only fly on Pan Am. That’s what a cool airline it was. Once the world’s leading airline, with scores of innovations to its credit, it’s been interesting to watch the new ABC drama, “Pan Am” and ponder the recipe that made this airline’s experience so magical. Or more specifically, from my marketer’s point of view, what made Pan Am such an incredibly strong brand.

For those too young to remember, flying used to be fun and, at times, downright glamorous. In the movie “Catch Me If You Can,” Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank Abagnale, a fast-talking teen who cons his way into a number of professional situations – doctor, lawyer, and a pilot for Pan Am. The kid is after excitement and, at the time, the airline industry was exciting. And, Pan Am, with its stellar fleet of “Clipper” ships, its international routes, it’s stewardesses in black high heels and tailored uniforms, and it’s dashing pilots, was the most exciting of all. It was, in fact, the very symbol of the romance of flight. The people who worked for the airline loved what they did. They had a passion for flying, and their passion was infectious. Service was a high priority. Passengers were well cared for. And, yes, these passengers actually got dressed up to fly. It was that special.

Then, it became not so special. The airline business began to get big and complicated and messy for a lot of reasons, not the least of which were deregulation and the high price of oil. Dollars were squeezed out of the system. Pennies were squeezed out of the system, and passengers started to get squeezed. Management lost sight of the fact that keeping customers happy was critical to success and the people who worked for the airlines, in return, began to lose their passion for flying and the industry in general. And therein is the answer, to the branding question, anyway.

To put it bluntly, a brand is as a brand does. And the most critical aspect of what a service brand does is, well, duh, provide service. To a large part, the success of airlines, hotels and restaurants, retailers, and other service-oriented categories is dependent on the people on the front lines. People are the branding applications, so to speak, that create the relevantly differentiated experience. They’re the points of touch most critical to bringing the brand’s purpose to life. In the case Pan Am, it wasn’t the seats in the planes, the advertising, or even the iconic blue logo that made it what it was. These were relative commodities. It was the people and their love of what they did for a living. More than this, as is true of every super service brand, management empowered those on the front lines to do the right thing to preserve customer satisfaction. While I know it was part of the drama, on the first episode of “Pan Am,” a middle manager arranges to have a helicopter meet a flight crew’s purser on the top of the (where else?) Pan Am building in New York City when it becomes apparent this was the only way she’d be able to get to her flight on time. No red tape. No questions asked. Her job was to ensure the well being of those on board the aircraft and whatever it took to solve the problem was the modus operandi.

Pan Am understood – until it didn’t – that its employees were the magic ingredient that made it as good as it was. The people who worked for Pan Am delivered best in class because they understood what the brand stood for in the minds of consumers and they had a genuine passion for bringing best in class to life. When they joined the company they knew what they were signing up for. It was when Pan Am lost sight of the fact that its employees were what differentiated its brand from every other in the field that it lost its way. For companies in search of a lesson learned, it’s tough to make a brand fly when you’re reduced to competing on commodities. While, “Pan Am,” the new television show is, of course, all about conjuring up only the glamour that was air travel in the nineteen sixties, it does hit on something real: A brand is as a brand does. And, the real Pan Am did it up swell.