Aero Mexico: How To Overcome Negative Consumers Perceptions To Drive Business Results.

While the USA is the first travel destination for Mexicans, Mexico isn’t the first travel destination for Americans. As a result, while Aero Mexico’s flights to the US were full, its flights back to Mexico were not.

Aero Mexico decided in 2018/2019 to address this problem by tackling head on the negative perceptions many Americans, especially in Texas and the South-West, had towards Mexico. The timing was perfect as it was in the middle of the border-wall controversy, a perfect cultural amplifier.

The beauty of their solution was that they didn’t try to overcome these negative perceptions by trying to show all the good sides of Mexico (all the fun things you could do in Mexico) or even by showing them all the Mexican things they already liked (especially food). These would have been expected, cliché solutions.

Instead, they decided to overcome these perception barriers by showing consumers how connected they were to Mexico by testing their DNA and showing them what percentage of their DNA was indeed Mexican. Basically, by showing them how Mexican they were. They then sweetened the deal by giving those consumers a discount on their next Aero Mexico booking corresponding to their Mexican DNA percentage. If their DNA test showed that they were 22% Mexican, they’d get a 22% discount on their airfare.

Overcoming negative consumers’ perception towards your brand or your category by tackling them ahead-on and leveraging the cultural environment to increase the impact and relevance of your positioning platform are two of the 26 proven effective positioning strategies we explore in our positioning development methodology and a highly effective way to grow a business. In the case of Aero Mexico, by 33%.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: 

GO BACK TO “POSITIONING FUNDAMENTALS” for more articles about brand strategy, brand positioning, customer insights, and creative problem-solving.

Learn everything there is to know about brand position development and become more “brand positioning fluent” than 99% of the marketing community with my online course “The Art & Craft Of Brand Positioning Development”. Learn what it is, how to set objectives for your positioning, how to segment your consumers, how to create genuinely differentiating and distinctive positioning statements, sources of brand positioning, how to assess, evaluate, and improve existing positioning statements (with examples), and learn what mistakes to avoid. 

Do you just want to learn the basics of brand positioning development? Check out the award-winning “Brand Positioning Workbook:  A simple how-to guide to more compelling brand positioning, faster”. Available on Amazon around the world. 

Working solo on a brand positioning project or preparing a positioning workshop? Check out the best-selling Brand Positioning Method Cards for guidance and inspiration. 

Interested in insights and how to generate them instead? Then the Aha! The Indispensable Insight Generation Toolkit might be for you. Available as a set of method cards in the US and as a Kindle document outside the US. 

Need an expert team to help you position or re-positon your brand and identify new growth opportunities? Then reach out

Alternatively, you may want punctual advice, feedback, and inspiration without hiring a consulting team. Then, book an hour of coaching with me.