Use a 'People' Approach to Fight Tough Competition.

• Author: Macchia Jr., Bill La
• Position: The strategies of a small air carrier - Brief Article

If you think your bank faces tough competition, Look at the situation faced by a small air carrier, Sun Country Airlines, in Mendota Heights, Minn. The airline operates out of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where a single competing airline controls an 80 percent market share.

How Sun Country successfully carved out a niche for itself is a lesson that could have applications for bank marketers. "We differentiate ourselves by focusing on people," says Bill La Macchia Jr., CEO. "We strive to build relationships with our customers and by offering them an experience that they can't get with other airlines."

La Macchia is scheduled to speak in October at the ABA Marketing Conference in Chicago. His topic is "The Fifth 'P' of Marketing." The normal four P's of marketing are product, price, promotion and placement. La Macchia adds a fifth: people. The airline trains its employees to be highly customer-service oriented. "We go a little beyond what is normally expected to accommodate a customer," says Macchia. "We try to be more compassionate."

Sun Country was founded in 1983 as a charter airline. The La Macchia family purchased the carrier in 1998. In June 1999, the airline began scheduled service to a dozen daily destinations. Sun Country currently offers service to more than 30 destinations in the continental United States, Mexico and Caribbean. Founded with only one aircraft, Sun Country Airlines now has a fleet of 20 jets and 1,500 employees. The company lastyear had sales of $253 million.

Bill La Macchia Jr. served as the director of hotel sales and marketing at the deluxe Golden Nugget hotel in Las Vegas before becoming vice president in 1997 at the Mark Travel Corp., Milwaukee, a La Macchia family-owned business. He was named president and CEO of Sun Country in 1998.

Sun Country advertising has personalized the airline by using Bill La Macchia as its symboL. The ads have...