The audience: the Virgin American
It’s axiomatic that marketers must know their audience to apply their craft effectively. Virgin knows this better than most brands: while its brand is associated with luxury and sophistication, Virgin does not attempt to be all things to all travelers. The Virgin brand’s success is largely due to its strong knowledge of and connection with its target customer.
Questus’ "Never Forget Your First Time" campaign pays homage to Virgin branding by engaging an affinity audience that seeks out premium travel services. We turned to the Questus research unit -- using online surveys, qualitative research and ethnographic research -- to develop Virgin America’s existing ideal customer profile, their "Virgin American."
Who are the Virgin Americans? They’re young professionals, urban in mindset and sophisticated in taste. They’re managers and junior executives, with higher than average wealth for their age. They’re the trendsetters and fashion forward crowd: mavens of what’s cool and hip right now. Virgin Americans are also consumers of the newest time-saving technologies, latest forms of media and entertainment and the hottest restaurants, night spots and entertainment venues.
They’re definitely not the Jet Blue crowd -- a more touristy and "general public" audience type -- and though they wouldn’t be interested in joining another online community, they’d love an experience that syncs their existing communities (MySpace, Linked In, LastFM, FaceBook, et cetera) in new ways.
