Hawaii Anyone?

Now that it is the summer and we're finally out of school for about 3 months, why not travel? And by travel, I don't mean hop in the car to visit the Baltimore Zoo, or go to Times Square for the 3rd time in a row, how about Hawaii?

I know... heading to Hawaii can be quite difficult.
One, it's far. And two, it can be quite inconvenient.

Well, Hawaiian Airlines has launched a new campaign to negate the possible stereotypes people may have about travel to Hawaii. The campaign is targeting people on the East Coast specifically, an area where only 2.4% of tourists came from. Less than three percent? I think I'd do the same thing the airline was doing. You have highly influential people spending money to travel to anywhere as long as the country is in Europe or Asia, yet only 2.4% of your sales come from this side of the country.

One of the things Hawaiian Airlines has decided to do is open a new route from New York City to Honolulu. This could be big. New York City is a whole different entity on its own. It attracts people from not only New York, but the states surrounding it such as New Jersey, upper Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts. New Yorkers lives are so fast paced that Hawaii could be the perfect get away. Not to mention that JFK Airport is the 6th largest airport in the United States according to Listosaur #justsayin.

In this New York promotional campaign, they brought Hawaii to New York. The distributed leis, played traditional Hawaiian music, had hula dancers... the works.

The digital version of the campaign contains "witty and effective copy", nothing like Burger King's Crispy Chicken Commercial.

Because the airline is small compared to American giants such as Southwest, United, Airtran and Delta, Hawaiian Airlines has to be strategic as to which routes they use, and New York may be the best fit. Although, they are on the rise, their marketing campaigns in the last few years being effective to the point that they took out one of their competitors, Aloha Airlines.

For those of you interested in visiting, Hawaiian Airlines offers trips from a few places such as Boston and Raleigh, NC, along with many other choices.
If I could give suggestions of places to add routes, I would definitely add our local IAD (Dulles) and Atlanta's Airport. The airport in Atlanta has the most traffic of all airports in the US, and Dulles is.. Dulles.

Hawaiian Airlines also offers benefits to their flyers such as the FFP (Frequent Flyer Program), online and in store products as well as ways to easily rack up points.

I definitely have wanted to get up and go somewhere, Hawaii being on my list. Knowing that the airline is doing more to give people from all areas of the states the opportunity to visit them will pay off in the long run.

Taco Bell's Sales Go LOCOS

Some of you may recall the bad rep Taco Bell received after a  lawsuit arose, accusing the Fast Food company of not having enough meat in their meat sauce to call it meat sauce (gross). This negative publicity had adverse effects on their sales numbers. As competitive as the fast food industry is, a company cannot afford losses if they hope to sit on the throne- or atop the golden arches.

After spending a year losing sales, Taco Bell knew it had to make some changes. Many of you have surely noticed Taco Bell's newest item, the Doritos Locos Taco. As for their marketing of the product, they started by selling it at limited locations for the first year. This spawned the creation of their current advertisement: Taco Bell Roadtrip. The taco has even gone viral, with a 12 tacos in under 15 minute challenge taking over the web. My personal opinion- worth a try (but probably late at night when you're under the influence of anything). The new product release was coupled with the release of their new tagline: "Live Mas" (Tanslation: Live More).

So how'd they do? They're Back in Black! According to reports, Yum, the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut (and receives 60% of their revenue from Taco Bell) achieved 7% growth in sales for the first time in a year. Yum's CFO Rick Carucci even predicts growth in the high single to low double digit for upcoming sales figures.

What does this mean?

In the fast food industry, new products and aggressive marketing is a good way to increase sales. This is no secret, which is why Burger King- after selling 29% stake in its company to an investment entity- is completely revamping their look and menu. As for their marketing strategy, it's out with the King, in with the..... beautiful.

So no more of this:

 

And expect more of this: