News & Resources
Press Releases
LRA Worldwide President Speaks at 2002 Limousine Industry Leadership Conference on Brand-Building
Presents Views on Brand Integrity and Brand Identity to Industry Leaders at Annual Leadership Conference
BOCA RATON, Florida/HORSHAM, Pennsylvania; DATE - LRA Worldwide today announced that Robert Rush, the company's President & CEO, was a featured speaker at this weeks 2002 Limousine and Chauffeured Transportation Industry Leadership Conference sponsored by LCT Magazine. The conference was attended by many of the limousine industry's leading brands and suppliers, including Carey International, Ford Motor Co., GM, BostonCoach, Dav-El, Empire International and many others. Mr. Rush spoke to the conference about the many challenges facing their businesses and shared his views on surviving the downturn and building a better brand. A synopsis of Mr. Rush's remarks follows:
"Luxury transportation is a tough-sell in the current marketplace. For corporations, it might be the easiest item to eliminate from the travel budget. Like other sectors that have been significantly impacted by the travel slowdown, the limousine industry faces a variety of challenges, including a weak economy, low consumer confidence, corporate travel cutbacks, reduced flight schedules and the threat of terrorism. Following 9/11, business volumes crashed. Many operators reacted by chopping prices, reducing service and quality levels and cutting back on advertising and sales activities. If a company has a long-term view, that's the wrong way to go. First, you won't win by dropping prices in the face of a systemic decline in demand. The lodging industry has learned that lesson the hard way. It can take a long time for pricing to return to the level necessary to generate an acceptable margin. Second, reducing service and quality levels in a buyers' market is a bad combination. The fastest way to turn off customers and erode brand loyalty is to deliver an experience that does not meet a customer's expectation. When things get tough, consumers seek out brands and companies they can count on to deliver consistent, distinctive and memorable experiences.
"A limousine, the chauffeured transportation industry's product, just like in most services businesses, is essentially a commodity. It delivers functional benefits. Are they important? Of course they are. The car has to function and deliver the customer to the destination on time. But it's not enough. That's simply an expectation, the minimal cost of entry by most customers. The only real differentiating factor in most service businesses are the people and the culture. People deliver the emotional benefits of the brand: those elements that especially lead to memorable, pleasantly unexpected experiences. These exceptional experiences form long-lasting bonds with customers. A downturn is a good time to reinforce service excellence at your company, a sure-fire way to distinguish one commodity from another. Lastly, cutting back on advertising and selling activities in a tough market is a dicey proposition for a brand. We know that brand equity, the true measure of the power of a brand, is based upon two factors: perceived quality and salience. We've already discussed the importance of product quality and service levels to an organization. Salience is "top of mind" awareness. Basically, do consumers know about your company or your brand? It doesn't matter how strong your quality level is if the consumer doesn't know you. Therefore, aggressive marketing and selling activities are critical in a tough economy. Quality perceptions and awareness levels must both be high to enjoy strong brand equity."
About LRA Worldwide, Inc.
LRA Worldwide, Inc. is a leading consulting, organizational development and research company that specializes in Customer Experience Management (CEM). LRA helps companies and brands design and deliver the optimal customer experience across all key touch points using an integrated suite of services that measure and improve service quality, customer satisfaction, employee performance, loyalty, customer advocacy and profitability. LRA specializes in "operationalizing the brand" - turning brand promise and customer strategy into operational reality. LRA's CEM practice areas include CEM Strategy Design, Standards Development & Content Management, Organizational Development & Training, Research and Quality Assurance & Mystery Shopping; these are either deployed together in a strategic manner to continually monitor and improve the customer experience or deployed individually to address a specific tactical client need.
LRA's clients include some of the world's leading companies and brands, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos, the PGA TOUR, Albertsons Supermarkets, the NBA and First Niagara Financial Group. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.LRAworldwide.com
# # #
