So far, we’ve established that there are a number of opportunities associated with flight merchandising -- new revenue streams, revitalized supplier-customer relationships, and a way for airlines to finally move beyond commoditization and truly differentiate their product. We left off our last installment, however, with an important question: “How will this rapid adoption of airline merchandising be possible, given the complexities that characterize airline and agency operational and technical supporting processes?”

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No more pithy intros or recaps of the last article; it's time to get right into it. Here we go: The search for truths and myths about airline merchandising. For some, the reality of developing, implementing, and distributing an effective airline merchandising product is way too complex to even imagine. This is a myth.
At a macro level, there are really only two major challenges that need to be overcome in order for merchandising to flourish. There needs to be a solid value proposition to motivate buying behavior, and there needs to be operational and technical process to allow the transaction to take place. This is a truth.

	Posted by: jdavidsonFLX More by jdavidsonFLX a la carte airline ancillary revenue merchandising merchandizing unbundling

Last week, I introduced a blog series on merchandising. The first installment focused on the fact that there is a wide range of opinions and emotions across the travel industry regarding this new phenomenon called merchandising. I also pointed out that there is a fair amount of misinformation and misunderstanding on the topic, and this often inhibits effective discussion and debate. So, in the hopes of leading to more fruitful and informed discussions for all of us, this second installment is a short primer on merchandising lingo. The intent here is to give us all a baseline understanding about this powerful movement that is unfolding in our industry.

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There, we said it! The question everyone always has but seldom asks in public--what's in it for me?--is now out in the open, so we can talk about it more freely. We can finally begin to have some much-needed, intelligent conversation and debate about airline merchandising, without hiding behind fear, apprehension, or lack of understanding. We can begin to address questions such as these: What is it, really? In what shape and form will this new industry beast show itself? What are the technological, commercial, and adoption implications? Why is it so scary? And yes, we can even address the big question: What's in it for me?

	Posted by: jdavidsonFLX More by jdavidsonFLX a la carte airline ancillary revenue merchandising merchandizing

So I've been asking some more nosy questions about how well companies are managing travel. This time we are looking at airline fees that have been unbundled from base fares. The corporate travel industry is struggling to deal with them in a way that is a) standardized for data collection and tracking but b) individualized for airlines that may want to merchandise their services in unique ways. Travel managers and their companies are struggling to deal with these fees, period.

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