Blogging Phoenix-based pilot -- Southwest airline's new brand voice.

Who wouda thunk! Your captain, as he prepares for takeoff, is also making mental notes for his blog.

Not sure how many airlines are doing this, but it's hardly a surprise from a company such as Southwest Airlines, that consistently allow their employees to impact their brand voice. Ray Stark, a phoenix-based captain is doing just that.

A great example for those who are in trepidation about alllowing those without the title of communictaion or marketing in their titles to actually have their say.

Would, say, a pizza company let it's truck drivers comment on the freshness of its toppings? I've heard many a marketing director think only certain employees ought to be allowed to be spokespersons for the organization. So back to Southwest. Would you allow a pilot to comment about tornadoes he may be flying into? Ray Stark says things like this:

The moving weather depiction shows the weather just west of MCI and heading toward the airport. Hopefully, we can arrive (and depart) before the worst of it arrives.

But it lends a perspective that no communicator in a corporate office would have a clue about, which is why employee blogs are so valuable. We communicators may know a few things (or not) about split infinitives or RSS feeds, but we could never come up with stuff like this:

Due to the curvature of the earth, the cloud tops were hiding out of sight over the horizon as we left PHX. We can now start to see the mass of moisture in our path.

Which is another way of saying, kudos to Southwest Airlines! They did break Stark's long post into three, but they allowed him to be himself! I used to like their cool ads.

But these are way more valuable. What do you think?

(Cross-posting this from ValleyPrBlog)

Comments

[Brian Lusk]

Thanks for the link about Ray Stark's post.
Brian