by Paula Thornton
October 31, 2007 at 12:32 am
· Filed under Business Model, Economics, Enterprise 2.0
The relevancy of this topic to our conversations? Understanding the economics of 2.0.
In the Friday afternoon discussion on Media at FASTforward07, I was impressed by Disney’s shift in understanding of the value of intellectual property (a HUGE battle that is most often the fiercest with internal legal counsel). American Airlines has apparently not brought their economic advisors together with their legal counsel (or they have money to burn — perhaps the same legal counsel has advised them that the pilot union’s efforts to gain back past wage concessions won’t amount to much).
American Airlines has brought suit against Google for trademark infringement. The basis of the suit is that Google’s practice of including competitive paid links in page results when someone searches on “American Airlines” (and related trademarked terms) is an infringement on their trademark rights.
But then this is the same company where one of their key staff responsible for AA.com (now long gone, and sigh, a ‘twenty-something’) said to me with deep incredulousness: “Why would someone come to our web site to find a phone number?”
Apparently they haven’t learned the same principle that Bill Gates finally learned. In year after year, Gartner analysts could goad Bill into a near feeding frenzy when onstage with his competitors. One year the shift was phenomenal. Calm, collected, unmiffed, I swear I could feel from the back of a LARGE conference room a near-group-hug about to break out. Bill shared his newfound awareness, “I discovered that this isn’t a zero sum game. When my competitors earn a dollar, the pie is suddenly bigger and we all earn more.” [or something to that effect…it was over a decade ago — so sue me!]
Fortunately, 2.0 opens the voice of reason so we can point out to American Airlines publicly what is likely being discussed in their halls privately. Where’s that darned company spokeswoman when you need her to point out that pursuing a case against Google (which has already won similar cases of this nature) ”would dramatically increase…costs and make American Airlines less competitive with other carriers.”?
Someone should point out to them…even if they win…they lose.
[Can I mention, they have BEA portal technology? Nuf said.]
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That is perhaps the worst written blog I’ve ever read. You ramble around and never really make a point. Your style and content could really use some work.
Let’s see…
1. AA is suing Google.
2. What do they hope to gain from it?
3. Other’s have tried but failed (although I did hear that the pursuit of suing gets concessions from Google)
4. If they win the court case, the public saw how they pursued something that had nothing to do with improving the service they receive — which is what they should be spending their money on…
Now what was it about this you missed?
http://www.1to1media.com/printview.aspx?ItemID=30515#first
They stay focused on getting people from Point A to Point B, ignoring the everyday needs of the customer. In the process, they’ve created their own dynamic of encouraging people to shop by price because otherwise there’s no difference between airlines.”
Forrester’s research finds that only one third of business travelers describe themselves as brand loyal to any travel company, “which means that a high degree of travelers are neutral or even disloyal,” he says.
The big unknown is whether the U.S. will open domestic route rights to foreign-flag airlines. “Right now, that’s not on the table,” Harteveldt says. “But with the U.S. gaining rights to fly within the EU under the Open Skies agreement — for example, American Airlines in theory could compete in the local London-to-Paris market under Open Skies — I suspect the EU will want the U.S. to open its domestic market to foreign-flag airlines. And if that happens, there’s going to be a giant sucking sound of high value/high margin customers looking for a better, more pleasant experience who will be flying those foreign airlines.”
But what it ultimately comes down to is the customer experience, Harteveldt says. “If they don’t execute well, no one will fly them again.”
Paula: I fear for what will happen when lawyers REALLY start to mess with our Web marketplace. (Fortunately, many don’t understand it yet…) But I’m frankly surprised the legal departments haven’t started to clamp down on corporate blogging and wikis — or maybe they have. It’s a great way to communicate with and offer insights to constituents and customers, but somewhere all along the line it’s going to be considered legal fodder — just as emails now are. Openness and collaboration will be replaced by a PYA mentality.
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