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March 23, 2004
Textbook customer evangelism
An article in the New York Times about airline Jet Blue and its passionate customers is textbook evangelism, right down to the language used by customers and observers.
When a company manages to appeal to such disparate market segments [as Jet Blue does], according to Youngme Moon, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, it ends up inspiring "fanatic loyalty.""It's the lack of pretentiousness combined with delightful features that drive people nuts," she said. "Those customers become enchanted, and once they become enchanted, they become brand missionaries."
Of course, JetBlue's devotees are pretty much limited to the routes it dominates, like those from Kennedy airport to Fort Lauderdale; to Long Beach airport, outside Los Angeles; and to Oakland, near San Francisco. But dedicated they are. Grant Kikkert of New York, a regional sales manager for the publisher O'Reilly & Associates, who often travels to company headquarters near San Francisco, says he would choose JetBlue over any other airline, even though "every flight takes me out of my way."
"Flying JetBlue is like being part of a secret club," Mr. Kikkert said. "It's universally understood that you'll have a good flight with no stress."
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