I don’t think I have seen a better barometer of service declines than Aeroplan. Or of how something can start as one thing and, with logical decisions along the way, completely lose its vision to become the opposite.

I was a Director of the advertising agency that launched the Aeroplan program and so was one of the earliest to enroll back in the 1980s. It was a ground breaking idea and all the airlines were looking to reward their frequent flyers and create loyalty with free flights after considerable use.

But the Aeroplan program has moved from being a promotional incentive for Air Canada to being a free standing enterprise.

When it was a promotional incentive, the organization was oriented to serving and motivating customers. Getting you to earn and redeem your points as quickly as possible was its vision. Its purpose was to drive business for Air Canada. It did its job well.

But people did not use up their points quickly and created a huge liability of points that would have to be redeemed. After a time the airline industry, including Air Canada, hit the skids. For Air Canada, that eventually meant heading into bankruptcy.

Aeroplan prospered. Because at the end of the day, Aeroplan points (like other collector points) became a limited access and use currency = call it “near-cash.” Other retailers, including banks, saw Aeroplan as a way to stimulate their sales.

Imagine a credit card that gives its user “near cash” rebates for use. Visa could. And did with a highly successful credit card.

At first it was travel oriented products and services that aligned with Aeroplan. They could provide added value to their customers in a highly motivating manner. Frequent travellers could earn Aeroplan points from car rentals, hotels, airport parking. The ‘near-cash” market burgeoned.

And it wasn’t just Aeroplan. Other airlines and retailers played in this game with their own near-cash points.

Now redemption expanded to include all manner of catalogue items and cash cards for participating retailers. For the business traveller, it was payback time. Your company sends you all around the globe on business and you get after tax TV sets, vacation trips, whatever you want. It was incremental bonus compensation.

As Air Canada faltered, Aeroplan was spun off to be a separate promotional enterprise.  It fed funds into the failing airline.  It still had Air Canada as a major client, but there was so much more to it.

It was now a stand alone near-cash currency. But its operating vision seems to have changed, despite assurances to collectors of the points.

Now it is a guardian at the vault of earned points, fending off use and leeching away as much of the accrued liability as possible. Why, because it now has to pay for the goods and service that get redeemed. And the more points and cash it can get from its captive market, the more profitable its operations are.

So instead of wanting and facilitating redemption, the more slippage it can create the better. No more free flights. No more ready availability of flights for heavy users.

In fact, I just booked a free flight. It only cost me $120 in various fees and levies. So the program moved from free to discounted.

And booking a flight is restricted as well. You might get a flight for a certain number of points, but it will cost a whole lot more points if there are a few layovers along the way. I once tried to book a direct flight from Toronto to Vancouver and there was nothing less than two stop overs (adding four to five hours to my trip) for points. A travel agent I know once told me that people who have overseas vacation plans try to book a year in advance to be able to get seats.

Another way Aeroplan has reduced its liability is to confiscate points. A co-worker had her Aeroplan points confiscated due to one year of inactivity. The points were not taken away, she was offered an opportunity to buy them back. Let’s just say her response started with an “F.”

Aeroplan also charges fees for transfer of points. If you inherit points from someone passing away, or your spouse wants to give you their points. Expect to pay a few hundred dollars.

And Aeroplan bookings are much more inflexible than other travel arrangements. When booking a recent flight, I was prompted to also rent a car. I inadvertently made a mistake by agreeing to a date that was a default setting and not the date I wanted.

Despite immediately calling Aeroplan’s 1-800 number (my call was important to them, please hold), I was told I could request cancellation, but there were no guarantees, and the process would take at least ten days. Tough luck because I was flying within a couple days. Another snagging of points.

To make matters worse, they told me to call the car rental agency. Who immediately told me to…. you guessed it, call Aeroplan since it was their booking.

At the end of this, Air Canada was able to sell off Aeroplan for needed cash. And the new operators have to pay back their purchase. Fair enough.

But they are doing it at the expense of Air Canada’s already beleaguered customers. Crappy service at the Aeroplan side reflects on Air Canada as loudly as crappy service on the airline. And did I mention that my flight arrived on time, but it did take Air Canada an hour more to off load the luggage.

My colleague vows to avoid Air Canada at all cost since her points were “ripped off” from her. Now this volume growing technique has evolved into one that reduces volume.

Aeroplan has turned from promoting Air Canada to pissing off people making them avoid Air Canada. Quite a turnaround.

Anyone in the car business or the advertising business who knows me has probably heard me say that retail car advertising sucks.

Let’s face it, for the past thirty years or so not much has changed in how dealers advertise cars. What puzzles me however, is that dealers continue to follow the status quo despite a never-ending glut of sob stories about declining sales.

If you had millions of dollars invested in a car dealership and your sales just kept falling short each year wouldn’t you try and make changes to correct the slide? Not that responsible dealers don’t make changes, I know they do. But, the one thing they never seem to change significantly is their marketing. To get change you have to make change and it’s usually uncomfortable.

I’ve always said I’d be rich if I could come up with a totally new, dramatically changed and effective way to advertise cars. I’ve been searching for this answer my entire thirty-year career in the car marketing industry. From ad agency to ad agency where I’ve worked on car accounts, the retail car ads never change. It’s always a “Clearance Sale” or a “Red Tag” sale or “the best time to buy.” That’s not to say my colleagues and I haven’t come up with some brilliant ideas. We have. It’s our clients, the car dealers and industry executives who have been afraid to make a change. In some cases, overly cautious ad agency execs scuttle the great ideas just because they’re “not what the industry is used to.”

Nobody seems to listen to the consumer. Hey, I’m not a research expert but I’ve read my share of interesting research data and the one thing it tells us is that consumers are not saps. Clearance sales, Red Tag Days and March Madness events don’t fool them. Let’s be honest, there is no lowest price or best time to buy a car. You don’t get a discount even when the ad says you get a discount.

What I’ve learned over the years is that there isn’t going to be a Eureka moment for retail car ads – at least not within the realm of current marketing knowledge, although understanding and using social media has potential. But, there can be a glorious awakening to the techniques and tools that, when used knowledgeably, can influence people to go to your dealership.

All it takes is an understanding of the way consumers’ minds perceive advertising messages. That amazingly sophisticated organ we all have, our brain, is the key. Once you board the mystery train to understanding how the brain works the rest is as incredibly simple as selecting the right tool for the job.

But, caution first. There aren’t many car industry people out there who want badly enough to make it happen. No dealer I’ve ever met, save a couple, has ever demonstrated that they are willing to come up with the investment and the time commitment to see a difference. Time is essential to building the branding that will bring customers through your doors for their lifetime.

There is a massive sub-industry made up of companies and people whose very existence depends on the retail car industry and its resistance to change.   Jingle houses sell “out-of-the-box” jingles to car dealers throughout North America. Jingles that curiously come “oout of the box.”

Newspapers employ scores of people who do nothing but assemble clip art car ads that look like bingo cards.

There are freelance advertising consultants, web masters, nephews and brothers of dealers, radio reps, the wife, and even some customers, all telling the retail car industry how to promote and advertise. Dealers listen to all of them except the most important one – the Consumer.

Take it from me – I might be a marketing communications guy, but I am a customer too.  And I am in touch with my customer side.

Take a look at Google.com , then Facebook, then flavour of the month Twitter.com. Are these sites attractive? Why are they so successful? – they’re useful.

Sure, it helps if people can actually read your information and navigate your site. But if you’re a small local business do yourself a favour next time you start working on your website – don’t do any work on the design unless it’s got a serious problem. If you’ve got to mess with the design don’t waste time, try black on white text with little tasteful graphics . Then use the rest of your budget to do changes to get customers in contact with you

How do most new visitors see your site? Do they see the fantastic new facade you blew half your budget on? No, they see you like this:

How most websites are seen

That’s right, the first place they see you is as a short snippet in a search results page or a link a friend sent them. Nothing about your attractive design gets them there.

They don’t even see the site when they make their decision to go to it. You can’t edit what the friend says with the link, but you can change what the snippet in the search results show.

Search engines try to give local results to searchers. No two users are going to get the same search results. If the search engine has definitive address data and local sites referring to your site, it will boost your rank locally. If you’re B2C this is critical. The search results pages replaced the yellow pages some time ago for most people.

With phones used for GPS and geo-targetting being used to serve up search results, it’s critical you show up in local searches.

It is also critical that what people see of you in those tiny search summaries grabs them more than the sites above and below you.

Here are some great ways to improve your sites “look” and local appeal:

• Make sure you own your Google Maps entry – it’s EASY do it here: Google Local
• Make your store locator / map on your site easy to get to.
• Even better – add the address and phone to the bottom of every single page and link it to your newfound Google Maps entry
• Check your snippets for search results and fix them either by editing your site or sitemap or webmaster tools
• Make a Facebook fan group even if your product isn’t that fun or sexy. Make it just to make sure someone else doesn’t do it for you later.
• If you have the time, search for yourself or your products and see what you find. A few posts to the right places may drive tons of interested customers your way.
• If you’re going to go for a full-on redesign make sure you don’t lose the pagerank you already have, use 301 redirects on the old pages

Along Bayview Avenue, just north of where I live in Toronto, there are a string of establishments, one next to another, next to another.  It goes along for a kilometer or so on one side of the street.

It starts with the Zoroastrian Temple on a little hill.  There is a Buddhist Temple, various flavours of Christian churches, a Mosque, a Synagogue.  They are all pretty much next door to each other, one after another.  My son and I call it the God Mall.

True, it is like a strip mall along the street where one can shop one’s soul.

They are neighbours in many ways.

I have this hopeful fantasy in my mind – “Hi Moishe, Arshad here.  Say we are having a very big Ramadan celebration coming along, can we use your parking lot for the overflow?”

“Oh, sure, no problem, boobala.   If you wouldn’t mind letting us use your lot for the Yom Kippur extra parking.”

While the institutionalizing of religion has caused a lot of conflict and death over the centuries, I would like to believe that we have matured as a species and can now peacefully respect our neighbours and their beliefs as they respect ours.

We can wish our neighbours a Jolly Diwali, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, or Eid Mubarak or Gung Hay Fat Choi.  And mean it.

If you give a little to the other guy, you win big.  Cooperation brings respect.

But to me the true lesson is one of hope.  If all these people can cooperate as neighbours on one street in Toronto, why not in the rest of the world.

And that’s our message for the end of the year.  I wish you all the best for 2010.

If we are not up to speed on Tiger Woods’ latest adventures in full contact driving, you haven’t watched CNN for five minutes in the past week.

We have covered golf for years on some of our other sites like cangolf.com.  Tiger has been the best thing to happen to golf since Jack Nicklaus.  When he is playing, ratings sky rocket, kids get interested, fans focus in. He is no doubt the most exciting player in the game’s history, punctuated with an exclamation based on his one legged US Open win.

Now the guy appears to have screwed up and the story cannot be ripped off the front page of every newspaper, lead TV story, and web site (I guess us included).

Why the righteous indignation?

Is it because someone so extraordinarily skilled has shown his vulnerability and we gain a satisfaction watching the idol show his feet of clay.  Is it because the public feels betrayed?  Do we assume our sports stars, actors, and politicians become our public property?

As a person in advertising I was asked if this means his value as a spokesperson is now gone.  I said “Not at all.”  He is just as valuable as ever and this is a personal issue not a legal one.  We have come a long way since Fatty Arbuckle.

How many public figures have not shown some foibles?  Do we hate Angelina Jolie for her dalliances with married man Brad Pitt?  Not either.  They are both big news wherever they go.

What is amazing from the media is that there have been none of the usual racial overtones, I mean Tiger’s wife being a foreigner, Swedish and all.  Did she marry him for riches, fame and a Green Card?  What does she owe to him?  And what does he owe her?  And do they owe the public anything at all?

So who owns Tiger’s reputation?  Is it Tiger?  Is it his advertising partners?  Is it the public?  His agents and advisors who counseled him along the way?

Tiger built the reputation, with the help of everyone.  But the reputation belongs to him.  Everyone else can walk away.  He can never do that.  So he is hurt the most by this scandal.

If he squandered some of his good will with foolish activities, he loses. If his wife went ballistic (as it seems), maybe she also bears some responsibility for his image equity stumble.  If she had handled the problem less physically, there would not have been such a headline grabbing story.

Public figures are continually counseled to avoid the enticements of the seeming thousands of willing sexual partners and illicit drugs freely offered to them.  Yet, they continue to fall prey.  The transactions are all one-sided to the benefit of the willing partners.  I guess it just proves that Freud was right and the super ego can only hope to control that rascal id.

While the media works its way past the personal issues they know nothing about and can only endlessly speculate about, we are condemned to see continuing speculation in place of news.  Everybody doesn’t screw up like Tiger did.  But I don’t recall him ever applying for the job of moral compass.

Amongst other things folks complain about is that he curses loudly at his shots on the golf course – mind you other golfers walk around smoking.  So where are the villains?

Most folks have flaws.  Are we surprised at that?  It is a false sense of ingenuousness if we are.

Now, about Meredith Baxter.  What’s up with that CNN?

As to why people care so much about celebrities?  That is an interesting question.  They are, as Daniel Boorstin wrote in The Image, “famous for being well known.”  Now, that’s a future blog.

Everyone who has ever managed people should aim to be a “Gepetto Manager.”

For those who do not remember Gepetto, he was the old carver who made a wooden marionette named Pinocchio in the famous story and Walt Disney film.

Pinocchio, the puppet, dreams of becoming a real boy.  The famous story is about how he learns to have a conscience and become a real boy after several adventures.

But Pinocchio, the puppet, could only move when someone else pulled the strings.

A lot of employees are like that.  They are not empowered to move on their own by the constraints their bosses put on them.  Sometimes it is on purpose; sometimes due to lack of confidence; sometimes they just don’t understand what they can do and what they cannot do.

They become their bosses puppets.  Good to undertaking tasks but never equipped with responsibility.  Afraid to take initiative.

Pinocchio, the puppet, had problems.  Lying, for example.  When he lied, Pinocchio’s nose grew and gave away his lies.  This might be a handy adaptation if Pinocchio were your employee.

Our goal as Gepetto managers is to turn our puppets into fully functioning boys.  Empowering people so they can make decisions.

But unlike Gepetto, managers don’t have any magic wand they can wave.  But managers do have a lot of techniques that help our employees evolve and develop.  They can be our way of cutting the strings and getting our puppets to stand on their own.

One of my favourite things to do with people learning their role is, after six months or so, to observe something they are doing.  Then I ask them what they have just done.  They usually tell me like – it was nothing.

That’s when I point out they were operating without strings.  I ask if they would have been capable of doing the same thing six months before.  And might point out a similar situation that they were not capable of managing by themselves back then.  That’s when they realize that they are learning something.

My goal as a Gepetto manager is to create a learning and responsibility trajectory for each person, depending on their talents.  Then train them to acquire the skills needed to enhance their talents and bring them to an effective level in their job.

I love it when it dawns on them that they have progressed and are doing things they couldn’t before.  I also believe that this realization is important to development.  It gives them confidence that they are in fact growing in their profession.  It also reinforces that work brings personal development.  There is no greater reward.

When working with people you are trying to develop, you have to always ask the questions – “Am I setting them up to stand on their own?  Am I turning a puppet into a boy?”