4 ms·

Giving up several hundreds in ticket revenue to make 1-2 people 30% more likely to buy a drink...

• Declanomous 10y ago
  You could give people a free drink card before the flight. Problem solved.
  • deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  • Pxtl 10y ago
    Yes, but then the peer isn't doing the same action the airline wants us to do. Unless the neighbors see the peer buying the drink, I don't think it will work. If I see my neighbor paying for a drink with a voucher, it might make me want a drink, but it might not encourage me to pay for one as much as it would if I saw my neighbor paying for a drink. In fact, the resentment of not having it for free like that other person might produce the opposite effect.
    • Declanomous 10y ago
      I generally see the voucher presented after the drink is presented, which in my experience is after everyone in the row has ordered. I suggested a card rather than a paper voucher in an attempt to control for this outcome, since I suspect swiping a gift card is interpreted as a substantially similar action to purchasing something outright. That being said, I doubt the effect is caused by a single factor. For instance, there is a social stigma against drinking alone, at least in the United States. I'll feel more comfortable drinking if someone else is drinking as well, even if I'm travelling alone.
  • prokes 10y ago
    I can't understand why this is being downvoted. Declanomous is offering a hypothesis that improves on the original comment of giving away seats. While the impact of buying a drink vs. receiving a drink may differ, and the study only studied "buys", peer pressure works in other ways, too. One could argue that people drinking in the vicinity "pressures" or influences others to drink, so the solution Declanomous provided could 1) increase beverage revenue at low cost and 2) increase customer good will (the free drink recipient) at low cost. In fact, Southwest may know this as they send out free drink coupons to frequent flyers.
    • Declanomous 10y ago
      Thanks for backing me up. My experience Southwest is actually what made me think of that. I used my free drink coupon on a flight recently. The person sitting across from me ended up changing their order to a alcoholic beverage as well. It works just as well as purchasing a drink in any case, because you order before you present the coupon. I suggested a card, such as a gift card, because I suspect watching someone swipe a card has a larger effect than watching someone hand over a printed coupon. It would also work for those back-of-seat infotainment systems that allow you to swipe a card to buy something. I work in marketing for a non-profit, and I spend a lot of time figuring out how to get people to tell other people they gave to us. I'm sure this is marketing 101. The funny thing is that I probably overthink marketing experiments. I love pouring over data like Gardete did, but most of the other marketing people I know would just use A|B testing. Even though their experimental design makes me shudder, it gets the job done. From the perspective of a middle manager, it doesn't really matter if you understand the solution as long as it works. I think understanding why allows you to build on your successes and failures, but that's a self-serving bias.
• Namrog84 10y ago
  I don't understand why or how you'd lose ticket revenue? If you identified 20 passengers who've often bought tickets who are known drink buyers. Place them not together with random seat assignments. So they are by people unknown buyers and/or less frequent buyers No ticket sales should be effected. Only the placement of individuals. This obviously doesn't effect those who choose there seat. Buy late. Or buy for groups adjacent seats.