June 25, 2007
New Terminal Targets Truly Captive Audience
By Bernice Hurst, Managing Director, Fine Food Network
Shops pay rent and generate income. People (a.k.a. passengers) may spend money. But if they don’t, should they be teased, tempted and tantalized until they do?
When London’s Heathrow airport, one of the world’s biggest, opens its Terminal 5 next March, it will host one of the world’s largest airport shopping areas. What it won’t have is very many seats for non-shopping moments. The huge space contains a mere 700 seats (other than those in bars and restaurants, of course) to accommodate an anticipated 30 million passengers per year.
Heathrow already boasts a huge range of shops but, according to the Guardian,
Terminal 5 will increase the available retail space by 50 percent, offering
142 stores and 25 restaurants for a total of 250,000 square feet of retail
space. Last year, the newspaper reports, landing charges brought in nearly
£900m, while retail income was more than £600m.
Mark Riches, managing director of World Duty Free (WDF), calculates that “About 70 percent of passengers will come down those escalators (into his flagship 30,000 square foot outlet) and we will be ready.”
With an average spend of only £4.26 and one third of passengers not spending at all, Mr. Riches apparently sees huge opportunities for improvement. WDF last year recorded sales of £380m (selling one in every five bottles of perfume in the UK) and will have seven outlets dotted around the terminal.
The Guardian also reports that Mr. Riches, a former Marks & Spencer executive, is planning “to put the glamour back into airport retailing” by “moving away from just selling stuff to providing services” such as cosmetics counters and an area dedicated to treatments, including manicures. What he calls “contentainment” means music will change according to where you are in the shop and a 14-meter-long crystal curtain “bigger than a double-decker bus and thinner than a calculator” will show videos, advertising and sports events.
The
store will also include a tasting bar in the cigarettes and spirits section.
Nearby, a cocktail bar, co-financed by Diageo, is being installed inside the
store. Mr. Riches’ ambition to make the bar the best in London might raise
questions about encouraging passengers to board already worse-for-wear.
Many already frustrated by the Heathrow experience aren’t expected to be enthused by the retail expansion. Notoriously lengthy security queues, poor facilities, the proliferation of shops – and lack of seating – have already been blamed for a sharp increase in the number of business flights out of small airports around London.
Actually, unless the Guardian simply omitted to mention it, there may
still be a missed opportunity. Passengers resisting shopping temptation but
desperate for a free seat may be found hiding out in toilet areas. (Just don’t
tell World Duty Free.)
Discussion Questions: Do you think airport passengers want and/or need such a massive range of shopping options? Are there any ethical considerations in setting up shops when the customer is basically trapped in an airport? Is this group truly captive, or is there some danger of losing passengers to other airports?
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Heathrow is already one of the least passenger friendly, large airports in the world. It has become a shopping center where planes happen to park. Travelers are paying to fly, not shop.
As I frequent international traveler, I studiously avoid Heatherow due to its long check in and security lines, difficulty in changing terminals and lack of customer amenities. The opening of terminal 5 will do nothing to change my negative opinion of this airport.
From a marketing standpoint, it is lazy and inaccurate thinking to categorize any audience as “captive.” The onus is on the marketer/retailer to create a consumer experience that drives engagement and as we all know, today’s consumers have set a very high bar. This is especially true in a public space such as an airport that is not traditionally a shopping destination.
Under the umbrella of “containment” digital signage can be extremely helpful. I believe that it needs to go beyond advertisements and beauty shots of products to “point of influence” content that promotes and informs travels in a highly creative and entertaining fashion. Also using some of the space for performance events can help move travelers to desired locations, engage them and reduce the perceived wait time, (being a frequent traveler I am all for that).
Furthermore, Heathrow needs to think “out of the terminal” how can they meet travelers’ needs so they are motivated to arrive early to take advantage of the environment. Not an easy answer but many creative marketing tools and techniques are available for consideration.
Now regarding the few number of seats, I have a problem with this. With the population aging, many people are already pushed to their physical limits in ticket, security and customs lines–let alone in Heathrow you have to walk quite a distance to your gate, again with very few seats along the way. We all know that if your feet hurt you feel miserable all over–I don’t think this is the desired mindset of a happy consumer.
Just what Heathrow needs-more places in which most passengers going through the airport can’t afford to buy anything. With the pound now at around 2 times an American dollar, and more than that towards the Eurodollar, only the wealthy will welcome more shopping. And are these new shops just variations of what’s already available? Yes, people are expecting more comfort, places to eat and relax at airports. Trying to accommodate travelers in these areas is commendable, but with a little more common sense.
Lots of nice airport retail choices may be pleasant at some times, but lack of sufficient quiet, comfortable, clean seating in the waiting areas is unpleasant all of the time. Airport waiting areas are almost universally awful, and limiting seating to force weary travelers to spend their layovers on their feet wandering through retail shops or dining in bad restaurants with plastic cutlery qualifies as a mild form of torture that may be proscribed by the Geneva Convention.
I expect the new shops at Heathrow are quite nice, and the choices more varied than ever, but there is something about the described behavioral engineering that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Does this new terminal building really improve the overall customer experience for air travelers?
I propose a few criteria for consideration:
1. As new terminals are built and existing ones remodeled, re-design security screening areas to move people through much more quickly than today. Time saved in those nasty queues could translate into better moods and more time for visiting shops and restaurants.
2. For every 10 gates or so, provide a glass-walled quiet waiting areas with departure monitors where the masses can find relative calm, read, or consume a sandwich. Free WiFi would be nice too.
3. A very important, but usually overlooked environmental factor is the sonic/aural one. Air terminals are nasty, noisy spaces with many hard surfaces, constant human movement and blaring loudspeakers. This makes them stressful spaces. Design noise-reduction into the buildings.
Delays and overbooking are likely to create more time for consumers to peruse the shops. Whether or not people purchase depends upon whether the products or services appeal to passengers with time on their hands and are reasonably priced. Offering services that make passing time pleasant, e.g., manicures, sounds like a smart idea.
The air travel paradigm keeps getting more stressful. First over booking and then being trapped in cattle-car-type accommodations aren’t further enhanced by being trapped longer in an expanding marketing menagerie in airports, at least not for me. Heathrow is hardly a comfortable heaven with its current four terminals.
Bill may be right–he most always is–but I don’t perceive any social benefit in this probable ever-saturating trend.
If you travel a lot, you’ll be spending even more time in airports as airlines use over-booking to drive up capacity utilization. So, the market for this type of shopping will be growing.
I don’t see any ethical issue with it; after all, many more people are living a busy 24/7 life so being able to “opt in” to these stores should represent a net social benefit.
Multi-hour waits between flights are so common that any potential entertainment is greatly appreciated. The WDF cigarette and alcohol tasting bars are great concepts. More retailing square footage = more browsing time. If you have to wait 4 hours in an airport, after you’ve already sat in an airline seat for several hours, which is more fun: watching TV, reading, or shopping? At least shopping is a form of exercise.
My concerns are twofold:
(1) Is the shopping being developed along with other facilities or in their stead;
(2) If/when over development does occur, who has to pay for it? The traveler/user who didn’t want it in the first place?
Additional shopping spaces in airports create extra “geography” that must be traversed by harried travelers as they try to connect between terminals, gates and exits. Better shopping options and food service options compared to 30 years ago are welcome but like so much else it’s starting to be overkill in several airports.
As to gafpromise’s point about carrying extra bags, I wholeheartedly agree BUT to even further encourage shopping, Heathrow (and Gatwick, I think, the other big London international airport) “allow” you to buy on the way out and collect or have delivered when you get home. Fine for people who live here, of course, not so helpful for people not coming back anytime soon. On the other hand, knowing Heathrow as I (regrettably) do, I now leave my gift shopping until I get there so I can avoid other shopping expeditions but still have a useful way to spend my waiting time and pick up something nice for whoever I’m on my way to see. Also handy for those transatlantic electric essentials and, of course, yet another book to read on the long flight.
Personally speaking, my experience is totally in line with what Al said. Airports (and rest stops along the Jersey Turnpike) were just horrible places to have to hang out, and now they’re interesting, especially Heathrow. Keep it up! One social benefit worth noting is that an airline terminal could become enough fun that the traveler actually would want to come an hour earlier than they ordinarily would need to arrive. I’m thinking that this would ease the ridiculously long security lines providing a less dehumanizing experience.
The social benefit is in making airline terminals more pleasant places to spend time in. If you go back 20-30 years ago, virtually all U.S. terminals were miserable places. There was no shopping other than overpriced souvenir shops and the restaurant choices were limited to snack bars and poor excuses for sit-down restaurants. Terminals nowadays have a plethora of shopping and dining choices, which I believe are a significant upgrade from the past. Virtually everything has been upgraded.
But, for those who don’t want to shop or eat, there should be enough seats, which generally speaking there are. Maybe a quiet section would be a good idea, like the quiet car on Amtrak, where I’m able to scratch out this note in relative peace today.
If addressing the question to all airports, the answers will likely vary. I’m in airports every week of my life and I would love more services and outlets such as these to kill time and make the experience a little less annoying. But I’m a female that loves retail…and not all men are going to get as excited about it. Or, for that fact, moms with screaming and frustrated kids hanging off of their arms.
Airports need to look at the “experience” globally and provide a little something for all traveler needs. We ARE trapped in them so it’s up to the owners to make the best (or worst!) of it.
Al McClain’s point that “everything has been upgraded” at our increasingly crowded airports is true. But that isn’t true of the flying experience. Is that trade off worth it?
All I want is a comfortable work space and free high speed easy access Wi-Fi. With just that, I couldn’t care less how long my layovers are. Who needs shopping?
Heathrow is already offensive in their aggressive effort to impede travelers’ flow through the airport. First thing you know, they will be experiencing reduced trips just like supermarkets who impede shoppers’ trips. Impeding your guests by wasting their time in hopes of selling them something more is deservedly punished over time.
I do like the idea of selling more services–it’s a great way to make the time pass more quickly for passengers. But there are simply logistical problems in expecting people to purchase more items. The hassle of having extra bags to deal with on the plane and a lack of alternatives for transporting purchases will necessarily limit buying behaviors. In that environment, is a sample area really going to show a return on investment or are they just giving out free stuff?
Although some travelers will complain as to lack of seating areas and the potential for “shoppers burn-out,” most frequent fliers can use airline clubs as an oasis.
I began my flying experience in the late 60s on the Eastern Airlines NYC-Washington-Boston shuttle flights and had to contend with very little services or a very small stand-up snack bar filled with passengers/employees, etc.
I’ve rather have today’s terminal conveniences vs. past challenges.
Most malls and department stores are pretty stingy with their seats, too. And that is what modern airports have become–shopping emporiums of the first order.
This is all good for the most part. Passengers have a stimulating environment, can buy gifts, and spend quality time with their fellow travelers. Retailers are reaching their demographic with sparkling new displays and products. Terminals are optimizing their rent.
The trouble comes when the airport has a delay and suddenly thousands are stranded, sometimes for days. It is unreasonable for the airport terminal and the airline industry to subject their customers to long periods sprawling out on hard surfaces. Airport terminals must consider plans to provide more comfortable waiting areas during times of emergencies.
I agree with most everything that has been said so far. I think the point made by ‘Liatt’ is an important one: even the travelers/shoppers who don’t “mind” the extra shops probably do mind the long walks between gates that result from the expansion.
Everyone wants free wireless and a quiet place to work and enough seats for those who don’t want to shop, and I agree with all of those ideas. But it is going to make the terminal walks even longer!
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Heathrow is already one of the least passenger friendly, large airports in the world. It has become a shopping center where planes happen to park. Travelers are paying to fly, not shop.
As I frequent international traveler, I studiously avoid Heatherow due to its long check in and security lines, difficulty in changing terminals and lack of customer amenities. The opening of terminal 5 will do nothing to change my negative opinion of this airport.
From a marketing standpoint, it is lazy and inaccurate thinking to categorize any audience as “captive.” The onus is on the marketer/retailer to create a consumer experience that drives engagement and as we all know, today’s consumers have set a very high bar. This is especially true in a public space such as an airport that is not traditionally a shopping destination.
Under the umbrella of “containment” digital signage can be extremely helpful. I believe that it needs to go beyond advertisements and beauty shots of products to “point of influence” content that promotes and informs travels in a highly creative and entertaining fashion. Also using some of the space for performance events can help move travelers to desired locations, engage them and reduce the perceived wait time, (being a frequent traveler I am all for that).
Furthermore, Heathrow needs to think “out of the terminal” how can they meet travelers’ needs so they are motivated to arrive early to take advantage of the environment. Not an easy answer but many creative marketing tools and techniques are available for consideration.
Now regarding the few number of seats, I have a problem with this. With the population aging, many people are already pushed to their physical limits in ticket, security and customs lines–let alone in Heathrow you have to walk quite a distance to your gate, again with very few seats along the way. We all know that if your feet hurt you feel miserable all over–I don’t think this is the desired mindset of a happy consumer.
Just what Heathrow needs-more places in which most passengers going through the airport can’t afford to buy anything. With the pound now at around 2 times an American dollar, and more than that towards the Eurodollar, only the wealthy will welcome more shopping. And are these new shops just variations of what’s already available? Yes, people are expecting more comfort, places to eat and relax at airports. Trying to accommodate travelers in these areas is commendable, but with a little more common sense.
Lots of nice airport retail choices may be pleasant at some times, but lack of sufficient quiet, comfortable, clean seating in the waiting areas is unpleasant all of the time. Airport waiting areas are almost universally awful, and limiting seating to force weary travelers to spend their layovers on their feet wandering through retail shops or dining in bad restaurants with plastic cutlery qualifies as a mild form of torture that may be proscribed by the Geneva Convention.
I expect the new shops at Heathrow are quite nice, and the choices more varied than ever, but there is something about the described behavioral engineering that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Does this new terminal building really improve the overall customer experience for air travelers?
I propose a few criteria for consideration:
1. As new terminals are built and existing ones remodeled, re-design security screening areas to move people through much more quickly than today. Time saved in those nasty queues could translate into better moods and more time for visiting shops and restaurants.
2. For every 10 gates or so, provide a glass-walled quiet waiting areas with departure monitors where the masses can find relative calm, read, or consume a sandwich. Free WiFi would be nice too.
3. A very important, but usually overlooked environmental factor is the sonic/aural one. Air terminals are nasty, noisy spaces with many hard surfaces, constant human movement and blaring loudspeakers. This makes them stressful spaces. Design noise-reduction into the buildings.
Delays and overbooking are likely to create more time for consumers to peruse the shops. Whether or not people purchase depends upon whether the products or services appeal to passengers with time on their hands and are reasonably priced. Offering services that make passing time pleasant, e.g., manicures, sounds like a smart idea.
The air travel paradigm keeps getting more stressful. First over booking and then being trapped in cattle-car-type accommodations aren’t further enhanced by being trapped longer in an expanding marketing menagerie in airports, at least not for me. Heathrow is hardly a comfortable heaven with its current four terminals.
Bill may be right–he most always is–but I don’t perceive any social benefit in this probable ever-saturating trend.
If you travel a lot, you’ll be spending even more time in airports as airlines use over-booking to drive up capacity utilization. So, the market for this type of shopping will be growing.
I don’t see any ethical issue with it; after all, many more people are living a busy 24/7 life so being able to “opt in” to these stores should represent a net social benefit.
Multi-hour waits between flights are so common that any potential entertainment is greatly appreciated. The WDF cigarette and alcohol tasting bars are great concepts. More retailing square footage = more browsing time. If you have to wait 4 hours in an airport, after you’ve already sat in an airline seat for several hours, which is more fun: watching TV, reading, or shopping? At least shopping is a form of exercise.
My concerns are twofold:
(1) Is the shopping being developed along with other facilities or in their stead;
(2) If/when over development does occur, who has to pay for it? The traveler/user who didn’t want it in the first place?
Additional shopping spaces in airports create extra “geography” that must be traversed by harried travelers as they try to connect between terminals, gates and exits. Better shopping options and food service options compared to 30 years ago are welcome but like so much else it’s starting to be overkill in several airports.
As to gafpromise’s point about carrying extra bags, I wholeheartedly agree BUT to even further encourage shopping, Heathrow (and Gatwick, I think, the other big London international airport) “allow” you to buy on the way out and collect or have delivered when you get home. Fine for people who live here, of course, not so helpful for people not coming back anytime soon. On the other hand, knowing Heathrow as I (regrettably) do, I now leave my gift shopping until I get there so I can avoid other shopping expeditions but still have a useful way to spend my waiting time and pick up something nice for whoever I’m on my way to see. Also handy for those transatlantic electric essentials and, of course, yet another book to read on the long flight.
Personally speaking, my experience is totally in line with what Al said. Airports (and rest stops along the Jersey Turnpike) were just horrible places to have to hang out, and now they’re interesting, especially Heathrow. Keep it up! One social benefit worth noting is that an airline terminal could become enough fun that the traveler actually would want to come an hour earlier than they ordinarily would need to arrive. I’m thinking that this would ease the ridiculously long security lines providing a less dehumanizing experience.
The social benefit is in making airline terminals more pleasant places to spend time in. If you go back 20-30 years ago, virtually all U.S. terminals were miserable places. There was no shopping other than overpriced souvenir shops and the restaurant choices were limited to snack bars and poor excuses for sit-down restaurants. Terminals nowadays have a plethora of shopping and dining choices, which I believe are a significant upgrade from the past. Virtually everything has been upgraded.
But, for those who don’t want to shop or eat, there should be enough seats, which generally speaking there are. Maybe a quiet section would be a good idea, like the quiet car on Amtrak, where I’m able to scratch out this note in relative peace today.
If addressing the question to all airports, the answers will likely vary. I’m in airports every week of my life and I would love more services and outlets such as these to kill time and make the experience a little less annoying. But I’m a female that loves retail…and not all men are going to get as excited about it. Or, for that fact, moms with screaming and frustrated kids hanging off of their arms.
Airports need to look at the “experience” globally and provide a little something for all traveler needs. We ARE trapped in them so it’s up to the owners to make the best (or worst!) of it.
Al McClain’s point that “everything has been upgraded” at our increasingly crowded airports is true. But that isn’t true of the flying experience. Is that trade off worth it?
All I want is a comfortable work space and free high speed easy access Wi-Fi. With just that, I couldn’t care less how long my layovers are. Who needs shopping?
Heathrow is already offensive in their aggressive effort to impede travelers’ flow through the airport. First thing you know, they will be experiencing reduced trips just like supermarkets who impede shoppers’ trips. Impeding your guests by wasting their time in hopes of selling them something more is deservedly punished over time.
I do like the idea of selling more services–it’s a great way to make the time pass more quickly for passengers. But there are simply logistical problems in expecting people to purchase more items. The hassle of having extra bags to deal with on the plane and a lack of alternatives for transporting purchases will necessarily limit buying behaviors. In that environment, is a sample area really going to show a return on investment or are they just giving out free stuff?
Although some travelers will complain as to lack of seating areas and the potential for “shoppers burn-out,” most frequent fliers can use airline clubs as an oasis.
I began my flying experience in the late 60s on the Eastern Airlines NYC-Washington-Boston shuttle flights and had to contend with very little services or a very small stand-up snack bar filled with passengers/employees, etc.
I’ve rather have today’s terminal conveniences vs. past challenges.
Most malls and department stores are pretty stingy with their seats, too. And that is what modern airports have become–shopping emporiums of the first order.
This is all good for the most part. Passengers have a stimulating environment, can buy gifts, and spend quality time with their fellow travelers. Retailers are reaching their demographic with sparkling new displays and products. Terminals are optimizing their rent.
The trouble comes when the airport has a delay and suddenly thousands are stranded, sometimes for days. It is unreasonable for the airport terminal and the airline industry to subject their customers to long periods sprawling out on hard surfaces. Airport terminals must consider plans to provide more comfortable waiting areas during times of emergencies.
I agree with most everything that has been said so far. I think the point made by ‘Liatt’ is an important one: even the travelers/shoppers who don’t “mind” the extra shops probably do mind the long walks between gates that result from the expansion.
Everyone wants free wireless and a quiet place to work and enough seats for those who don’t want to shop, and I agree with all of those ideas. But it is going to make the terminal walks even longer!