I’ve been traveling on business to Latin America for more than two decades and visited almost every country at least once. I’ve flown a half dozen airlines, but never tried Copa Airlines, partly because I had no desire to have a layover in Panama in route to my final destination.
But then I saw this:
- Tocumen International Airport in Panama City = Hub of the Americas
- Layover = Stopover
- Regional Connectivity + Frequency
Suddenly the marketing connotation changes. In fact, Copa Airlines has been using these factors as its points of difference for years in addition to having the best on-time record in Latin America.
The Strategy/Mix: Promotion and Place identifies three criteria for POD: “Desirability”, “Deliverability” and “Differentiability” (p.8) and Copa has absolutely marketed their POD in this way.
With its Panama Stopover program that allows connecting travelers to spend an extra day to a week in Panama at no additional airfare, they’ve turned a potential negative into a positive. On top of that, the Panama Government actually pays Copa to advertise this differentiator in order to benefit tourism.
Copa also has made a concerted effort to serve cities that do not have direct flights from major cities, which has turned into an additional differentiator. If you have to make a connection, why not make it with the airline that has branded itself as the connector in Latin America.