This morning, AdAge ran a video interview with JetBlue’s CMO Andrea Spiegel. Spiegel’s background is travel and luxury marketing and, with that lense, she shared thoughts on the biggest challenges facing marketing executives today. She listed the number one being marketing that taking ownership for the customer experience:

“Marketers should try to either get more involved in or take ultimate control over the experience from when a consumer (a customer) initially hears about your brand to them actually experiencing it and then the invitation for them to come back again. I think its really important for all the touchpoints along the way to be aligned.”

While I think the above is a very smary comment and should be a rallying cry, my experience in the brand world tells me that the way most companies are organized impedes doing what Andrea is suggesting above. Could being able to do this boil down to companies being marketing-led vs. product/engineering-led? Anyone out there want to present counter examples of brands driven by engineering that just happen to provide a great experience along the way? I’m sure they’re out there, but I keep thinking the classic examples of Starbucks, Nike, eBay and Apple who proactively think about all touchpoints and have attracted throngs of kindred spirits.

On a personal note, I have only flown JetBlue once, but they turned me into an instant fan. They claimed low ticket prices, free onboard entertainment, big seats, and gourmet amenities and delivered. I was actually disappointed when we landed. Next week, I am driving 90 minutes to fly out of Charlotte just to have the pleasure of flying JetBlue on our vacation to Maine (plea to JetBlue: the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport WANTS YOU).

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