It's time we had another editorial about air travel. In this story, the plane didn't get off on time - but only 10 or 15 minutes late, no problem. And the airline people at the gate did make an announcement, apologizing and explaining that a crew member took ill and they had to find a replacement. Hey, who would want to fly with a diseased aircrew member anyway? No problem, nice of 'em to keep us informed, hope the poor guy is feeling up to snuff soon. Moments later, the aircrew showed up and off we went.
Once aloft, the pilot came on and offered his own apology for the delay and explained that it was due to the fact that the hotel courtesy van blew a water pump and so the crew was late.
Hmmm. So now we had two stories to choose from. There was some guffawing - you'd have to expect that, of course. "Liar!" somebody behind me yelled, giving rise to some giggles from about Row 12 to Row 16, and then we all settled down to read the in-flight magazines and whatnot, lost in our own thoughts once again.
I recalled sitting at the gate one time, years ago, in an airplane operated by an airline that has long since vanished, looking out the window and watching fuel pour out of the wing tank as some bewildered groundcrew people scrambled around, yelling silently and pointing wildly. On that occasion, they evacuated the plane and had us wait in the terminal - but what they told us was that there was "some sort of problem with our meals," and this necessitated evacuating the airplane until the caterers could straighten it all out. Hmmm.
Well, back to the current story. I looked at the route map in the back of the airline magazine and noticed that Madison, Wis., was on the Illinois border; Moline, Ill., was about 40 miles from the Mississippi River and Tel Aviv was on the Gaza Strip. A printer's error, of course. But if you're taking people places in machines that fly six or seven miles up and no one can just get out if things get dicey - if that is the business you're in, taking people to places that appear on maps - shouldn't you make a point of proofreading the maps? Well, they probably have better maps up in the cockpit.
Now, the Philistines of the rental industry might greet all this with gladness: "Heck, if they'll fly on an airline that doesn't know where places are, they'll rent things that I don't have to maintain, repair, paint, clean or even know how to operate! Not only that, you can tell 'em anything! Is this a great country or what?!" But I say to those Philistines (and thank goodness, they're few): You will make light work for your competitors, because all the savvy rental people will recognize that you are handing them a competitive advantage - all they have to do is figure out what might lurk in their operations that could contradict the messages they're trying to convey to customers and go fix those things before you fix yours. All they have to do is tell the truth and shoot a straight ball, and people will come.
If your business is flying airplanes, nobody expects you to know how to make a good oyster bisque, but they do expect you to know where places are down there. In any business, it's best to make sure there are no obvious flies in your soup. A tiller handle that falls off at a touch or a smeary goblet would be flies in the soup for a rental store. You can't leave flies in your soup and make much hooplah about how you care for the customer. Truth first, then talk.
But even if you have nothing but good things to talk about, it won't do much good unless you tell your story broadly and tell it well. That's where advertising comes in - good advertising, now, not some bargain stuff.
The idea of good advertising is to present true messages compellingly, so people will know what you have to offer and will want it, and will come back because they found that what you said was all true. There's bad advertising, too, of course - that's where you tell them anything and hope they'll swallow it, at least long enough for you to make the kill and scram with the cash.
Now, which kind of advertising do you suppose A.R.A. would go for? This month the A.R.A.'s advertising agency, Kragie/Newell, begins a series of articles to help rental people put the power of advertising on their side (page 39). Kragie/Newell is going to explain how to present your truths - your customer service and problem-solving capability and breadth of inventory, all those things that ought to bring people to you instead of buying a tool or borrowing it from their neighbor - so your message works. A good ad program is one of the pillars of successful rental management. That's why you're reading about it here.

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