Originally Posted by
mtofell
Maybe someone with a marketing background can comment on this - Doesn't a name like "Alaska Airlines," or "Hawaiian Airlines," make it an uphill climb to compete with other carriers with generic names like Delta, United and American? It just seems as if at least some people are not going to first think Alaska Airlines when looking into flying up/down the east coast, etc. Even if it's just a slight disadvantage, it's still a disadvantage and the airline game is often won/lost on very slight margins.
No--the key is they have to offer something unique. If AS offered the lowest price, had the best product, or offered some unique inflight service, they could call themselves anything and people would use them. They simply don't fly routes within the East and have shown no interest in doing so. You can't sell what you don't offer. AS is actually quite good at marketing. It is just that you need to have a product in a market to get people to want to buy it.